I’m supposed to be speaking this morning in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11—and I’m not going to neglect that passage—but the Gospel passage for today offers an important opportunity, and I’m going to take it.
Just as last week’s Gospel wasn’t really wasn’t about staying awake—all the virgins fell asleep, after all, and five were still let into the feast—so this week’s Gospel isn’t really about how we should invest our money (or ourselves) while waiting for God’s return.
The parable of the talents is one of our beloved texts; it’s been one of the big ones in Sunday Schools and central to many sermons. The problem is, we have a habit of putting Jesus or God into the parables as one of the characters even when ‘the shoe doesn’t fit,’ and (because we’re human and often think of ourselves first) we tend to put ourselves into them, too. In the parable of the talents, we tend to put Jesus in the role of the master and ourselves as the slaves. How many of us hope to enter the Kingdom hearing, “Well done, good and faithful servant! ... Enter thou into the joy of thy lord?”
Let’s take a look at the qualities of the individuals in this parable:
Matthew 25:14-30 (NRSV)
14-18 “For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
19-21 “After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’
22-23 “And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’
24-25 “Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.
26-27 “But his master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest.’
28-30 ‘So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”
In the context of the parable, a talent is a unit of money, not an ability; this parable is not about us being the best we can be.
The master is an absentee landlord who doesn’t do any work himself, but lives off the labor of his slaves. The profit he wants his slaves to gain him could, in Jesus’ culture, only come at the expense of more honest people. And he condemns the slave with one talent for refusing to bank it for interest (a practice called “usury,” consistently condemned both in the Hebrew bible and the New Testament).
Does that sound like Jesus to you?
Seen in this light, our customary understanding is a bit more “us” and a bit less “Jesus.” What was Jesus trying to tell his disciples, then, if not “Be like the slave given five talents, or Jesus will cast you into the outer darkness?”
Look at verse 28: “For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.”
The master of the story (who I think we can agree is not Jesus) says, “The rich will get richer, and the poor will lose everything.” With this parable, Jesus suggests to his disciples (and to us) that we shouldn’t be like the master in the parable because the world in which people like that come out on top is passing away. Jesus will bring his work in the world to completion; God’s kingdom will come and God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and in that kingdom it won’t matter how wealthy you got to be in this world; all that will matter is, “... just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”
Put this parable together with the one before and the one after, and the message is clear: Don’t do what the master in the parable did—don’t live off the labor of others, don’t enrich yourself at others’ expense—and don’t be like any of the slaves, either. This parable isn’t about who we think it’s about—think about how unscrupulous (or lucky) a person would have to be to double an investment in a short time—it’s about the master to whom the wrong things matter. It’s about the passing of the age where what you have matters and the coming of the age where who you are matters. It’s about the coming of the kingdom.
On Facebook the last couple of weeks, I’ve seen various signs that articulate something very like this. To paraphrase: “Things are to be used and people are to be loved. When we get it backwards—when things are loved and people are used—is when we get into trouble.”
If today’s parable is about changing our priorities because the kingdom is coming, then why is our theme today, “Encourage One Another?”
Maybe because it’s difficult to set aside the values and virtues of secular culture and act on the values and virtues of the kingdom to come when the current kingdom—where what matters most are the things what we have and how we look and who we’re friends with—is so pervasive. Maybe because it’s difficult to wait for something when you don’t know how long you’ll have to wait. Even in the first century A.D., people had a hard time maintaining their preparation. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians about just that.
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 (The Message)
1-4 I don’t think, friends, that I need to deal with the question of when all this is going to happen. You know as well as I that the day of the Master’s coming can’t be posted on our calendars. He won’t call ahead and make an appointment any more than a burglar would. About the time everybody’s walking around complacently, congratulating each other—“We’ve got it made! Now we can take it easy!”—suddenly everything will fall apart. It’s going to come as suddenly and inescapably as birth pangs to a pregnant woman.
5-8 But friends, you’re not in the dark, so how could you be taken off guard by any of this? You’re sons of Light, daughters of Day. We live under the wide open skies and know where we stand. So let’s not sleepwalk through life like those others. Let’s keep our eyes open and be smart. People sleep at night and get drunk at night. But not us! Since we’re creatures of Day, let’s act like it. Walk out into the daylight sober, dressed up on faith, love, and the hope of salvation.
9-11 God didn’t set us up for an angry rejection but for salvation by our Master, Jesus Christ. He died for us, a death that triggered life. Whether we’re awake with the living or asleep with the dead, we’re alive with him! So speak encouraging words to one another. Build up hope so you’ll all be together in this, no one left out, no one left behind. I know you’re already doing this; just keep on doing it.
Like us, the Thessalonians were surrounded by a secular culture focused on what we might call “temporalities”—the tangible ‘stuff’ that help determine things like social status, respectability, and political clout. Like us, they were under constant pressure to conform to that secular culture; to love things and use people, maybe. And like us, they didn’t know how long they had to wait. Many believed that the establishment of the new age—the age of the Kingdom of God—was imminent.
Paul reminded them that whether it was imminent or not, no one could know with certainty when the Kingdom would be established. Clearly, he knew that it was difficult to resist the pressure they were under to conform to what might be called “community standards.” And I think he knew that no one could go it alone. So he made them responsible for one another: “... speak encouraging words to one another. Build up hope so you’ll all be together in this, no one left out, no one left behind.”
No one left behind...
We are God’s children. That makes us ohana. “Ohana means ‘family.’ ‘Family’ means no one gets left behind.”
Encourage one another.
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