This week, we’re continuing the series, “Got Certainty?” We’re talking about dealing with uncertainty, by digging into Jesus’ teaching on it in the 25th chapter of Matthew’s gospel. The story we’re hearing on Sunday is one of the most familiar and one of the most comically misinterpreted; the parable of the talents. Check it out in Matthew 25:14-30.

The talents Jesus is talking about here have nothing to do with singing, dancing or batting averages. Talents were these enormous “coins.” I saw one once at a museum. It was a massive chunk of silver in the shape of a large horseshoe. It was worth about 6,000 denarii. A denarius was the common wage for a day’s labor, so a talent was worth about 15 years of wages. Today, with U.S. median annual income at around $50,000, this would be comparable to $750,000. That’s nothing to sneeze at. Keep that in mind as you read the story.

Let me give you a very brief summary of the story—the boss goes away for an extended trip and gives some of his servants charge over part of his wealth according to their abilities. The two that got the most, five talents and two talents, invested the money and doubled it. The one that got the least, 1 talent, didn’t do anything with it but bury it in the backyard. He gives it back in full at the end. On his return, the boss congratulates and parties with the two who invested. The one who didn’t invest gets fired, to put it mildly (this is a very unsatisfying summary—you really should look it up in the Bible).

Now, there’s something kind of weird about this story. Usually, Jesus comes off as an advocate for the poor and the disenfranchised. So what’s up with the the master taking what the least gifted one has, giving it to the most successful, and then booting the poor guy out?

I think the answer is in these words of explanation from the guy with the one talent:
‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’
Where did this guy get the idea that the master was “hard?” There’s no indication in the story that he is. In fact, he’s really generous and seems to want his staff to advance and gain more experience and responsibility. Delegating the management of his funds was a way of including them in his prosperity. So, was the servant with only ¾ of a million bitter because he got the least to work with and the others got so much more?

There are two things in here that really scream out at me. First, is this last servant’s understanding of the master. He’s got it in his head that this master is unfair and too demanding. He acts accordingly. Do I look at God that way? What do my actions say about how I view God? Do they show that I believe that God is loving, gracious and sufficient for my needs, and thus, worthy of my trust? Do I see my callings and responsibilities as unfair burdens or opportunities to partner with God?

Secondly, no matter how much smarts, good looks, talent, wealth or responsibility you or I might have, there is always someone who has more. Always. These things don’t appear to have been distributed fairly. How are we going to deal with that? Throw up our hands and proclaim the unfairness, or receive what we’ve been given, use it the best we can and maybe even multiply it in the process. Look at the amounts that were given to the servants: 3.7 million, 1.5 million and .75 million. All of these are significant chunks of change. The guy in the middle got less than half of what the guy on top did, and he puts it to work anyway. The point seems to be to take stock of what we’ve been given, and then, in faith, put it to work (see Romans 12:3).

So, what does this have to do with investing? I think most Christians don’t ever take stock of what they’ve been given, and so they end up not using what God’s given them to use. In doing so, they miss the opportunity to develop a partnership with God—to become stewards of his resources. Because of it, a whole lot of people who could come to know Christ, people whose lives could be transformed, never do. A whole lot of justice doesn’t roll down, and a lot of peace doesn’t break forth. It’s tragic. It’s also maddening. We’re so busy gazing at what we can’t do that we miss what we can. All along, God is longing to work with us, and for us to experience his joy and pass it on to others. There are some of us who are holding back from leading because we could never do it like ___________ (fill in the blank). We say “no” to ministry opportunities because we think God is “hard…reaping where he did not sow.” (we excuse it by saying, “I just don’t have time” or a plethora of other well-reasoned excuses). There are some of us who are not opening our hearts to others because we feel like we have nothing to offer. We ignore the opportunities and resources in front of us while we’re looking at the opportunities and resources of others. According to Jesus, this is not a good plan. Lean or uncertain times can push us in the direction of the last servant—just trying to hold on to the “little” we still have. Or, it can push us to take a fresh look and consider the value of what we have been given—and put it to work.

Yours for the Journey,

Pastor Tom