Matthew 25:14-30 The Message (MSG)
The Story About Investment
14-18 “It’s also like a man going off on an extended trip. He called his servants together and delegated responsibilities. To one he gave five thousand dollars, to another two thousand, to a third one thousand, depending on their abilities. Then he left. Right off, the first servant went to work and doubled his master’s investment. The second did the same. But the man with the single thousand dug a hole and carefully buried his master’s money.
19-21 “After a long absence, the master of those three servants came back and settled up with them. The one given five thousand dollars showed him how he had doubled his investment. His master commended him: ‘Good work! You did your job well. From now on be my partner.’
22-23 “The servant with the two thousand showed how he also had doubled his master’s investment. His master commended him: ‘Good work! You did your job well. From now on be my partner.’
24-25 “The servant given one thousand said, ‘Master, I know you have high standards and hate careless ways, that you demand the best and make no allowances for error. I was afraid I might disappoint you, so I found a good hiding place and secured your money. Here it is, safe and sound down to the last cent.’
26-27 “The master was furious. ‘That’s a terrible way to live! It’s criminal to live cautiously like that! If you knew I was after the best, why did you do less than the least? The least you could have done would have been to invest the sum with the bankers, where at least I would have gotten a little interest.
28-30 “‘Take the thousand and give it to the one who risked the most. And get rid of this “play-it-safe” who won’t go out on a limb. Throw him out into utter darkness.’
Jesus crams a lot of information for the disciples to ingest, and digest during his last week – Holy Week – including words about the end of time. One thing He spoke of apocalypse – the end is near.
And he spoke of eschatology: the part of theology concerned with death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind. The end of time, time as we know it.
This type of sign may be associated with men or women who stand on a crowded street corner, shouting out an evangelistic call for the world to turn away from sin … and REPENT. They would call out that the world is ending. They thought they were revealing the truth. They called for people to believe and be saved. They wanted something good to come.
The word “apocalypse” comes from the Greek word apocalupsis which means “revealing, disclosure, to take off the cover.”
It would seem that Jesus gave some instructions to those closest to him during Holy Week, the week he was in Jerusalem … knowing that his suffering death and resurrection would be in hours …
The end of physical life on earth was near for Jesus, but the end time was also discussed. The end of time as known on earth … Jesus wanted his followers, including you and me … to understand that the world, as we know it will end. The time would be soon
Be ready …
The disciples continued to think about this world, and they were limited to their life experience.
We want to understand the end times, so that we can be prepared, so that we can be ready. But perhaps that’s the point: our invitation is to be ready all the time. We are not called simply to live our lives with no thought of God or neighbor but keenly looking for the sign of God’s imminent coming so that we can clean up our act. The end is here …. Be prepared. How to be prepared, that is the big question.
Rather, we are called to live always anticipating the activity of God.
Are we supposed to be spending our time “looking?” for the end … or are we simply expected to “be prepared?”
“To be prepared:”
We are called to live in joy and confidence.
Joy in the knowledge that God has revealed God’s grace, mercy and goodness to us and all the world in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Knowing God’s love in Christ, that is, we are called joyfully to share that love with others.
And confidence from trusting the promise that the God who raised Jesus from the dead will also raise us, restoring the world to its intended glory.
The end is near … In time. In God’s time.
We would like to know when that is. Consider that NOW, today, this moment is the end. To live the end times is to live now. We need to be putting the “talents” to work, whether we have 5, ten, or only one. We are called to live now, allowing the promises of God about the future to infuse our every present moment. Because
when you live looking for the activity of God here and now, you begin to see it.
- In an act of kindness of a friend,
- in an opportunity to help another,
- in the outreach ministry of a congregation,
- in the chance to listen deeply to the hurt of another.
God shows up (the owner of the slaves returns) in all kinds of places, even when you don’t expect it, working with us, for us, through us, and in us. You just have to look.
When will this happen? It is happening Now. What will be the sign? When you see people acting as Jesus did. Even here. Even now.
The end is near … when is the end? … NOW, because we are in the hands of God.
- What do you see?
- What do you believe?
- This is a fragile world … the world, you and me … I hope you see that we are in the hands of God. Do all things in love and for His glory…
“In God we trust; all others pay cash”
What prompts the terror of the third servant? I mean, he’s not just nervous, or even afraid, but rather terrified. He doesn’t go out and trade to increase the considerable amount with which he has been entrusted – approximately a million dollars – but he doesn’t even put it in the bank for interest (as the property owner observes), but buries it in the ground (lest the banks fail?).
Let us consider the servant’s assessment of his boss. When he says, “I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed,” I have often taken that at face value, perhaps because of the very strong, even harsh, reaction of the master. But I wonder if that assessment is justified.
Consider these points:
1) Neither of the other two servants felt such fear
2) The landowner gives them considerable sums to invest and then only comes back “after a long time” – that’s trust!
3) The landowner rejoices in the success of the first two servants – “Well done! Enter into the joy of your master!”
But the third servant’s fearful actions are different, and his tragic fate is a result of a distorted image of the landowner.
I wonder whether instead this might be a warning about how we picture God. About how we imagine God wants to interact with us. About how we assess God’s character and disposition toward us.
What God is actually like? Do our impressions of God affect us and shape our actions on a day to day basis. Matthew is indeed offering a warning, a warning that, all too often, what you see is what you get.
That is, if we imagine God primarily as stern, even angry, and given to dispensing a terrifying and harsh justice, we will likely come to believe that everything bad in our lives is punishment from God. Similarly, if we see God as arbitrary and capricious, that’s what we experience, a fickle and unsympathetic God who meets our expectations.
But if we view God primarily in terms of grace, one who empowers and entrusts and frees, then we will regularly be surprised and uplifted by the numerous gifts and moments of grace we experience all around us. For when we imagine God to be a God of love, we find it far easier to experience God’s love in our own lives and to share it with others
Are you hamstrung or hurting by a deficient, if not distorted picture of God?
I suggest a different picture of God: one shaped by the sacrificial love we see in Jesus. In this regard, it’s helpful to keep in mind that these “eschatological” parables are spoken by Jesus just before he is to be handed over to the religious authorities to be tried and crucified. Which means that any future importance we may give them should be simultaneously tempered by the immediate, or realized, eschatological reality of Christ’s death on the cross…
- a death that does not make it possible for God to love and forgive us
- but, rather, demonstrates that God loves us and forgives us already.
- The God we see in Jesus is not, it turns out, “a harsh God, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed,” but rather always giving more than we expected or deserved and gathering what we offer back in joy.
Our picture of God can be difficult, and it may take some time.
We are on the verge of seeing God’s power and glory put aside that God might come to us as one of us, in the vulnerable and tender form of a child wrapped in swaddling clothes and resting in a manger. One of Matthew’s chief metaphors and names for Christ is Emmanuel, “God with us,” the one who came in the flesh to promise to be always both with us and for us.
I encourage you to spend this Advent and Christmas season checking our assumptions of Jesus against the image and promise of the Christ child.
No matter how long it takes or difficult it may seem to reshape images of God that may have been formed by difficult life experiences, remember God is a God of love, one who entrusts us with profound gifts and riches, eager for us to make the most of them, and inviting us always to enter the joy of our Lord.
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