God Trusts You With His Gifts - Matthew 25: 14-30

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

“For it [that is, the kingdom of heaven] will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property…”

The parable is easy enough to understand. A master entrusts His possessions to his servants, according to their ability: one five talents, one two talents, one is entrusted with only one talent. Now, remember:  a talent was a unit of money, a lot of money. Don’t confuse what we call talents, that is one’s abilities, with these talents of money. I understand how that can happen, especially when Jesus says the servants were given talents according to their ability – in other words, they are given money based on their experience, knowledge, and wisdom of managing. The more experienced servants are trusted with more to manage. One talent was approximately 20 years’ worth of salary for an average worker. So, even the servant entrusted with only one talent was still entrusted with a great responsibility, albeit at a fraction of his fellow servants. 

After taking his leave, the master finally returns for an accounting. Although there are three servants, we can divide them into two groups: the two who invest and multiply the master’s estate and the one who buries it.

So far, this is pretty easy to understand. But now, things start to become complicated as we identify the characters in the parable. Jesus, obviously, is the master. The servants, all three of them, represent the church. The first two servants who multiplied their entrustment are those who live in faith. The third servant is one who functions in fear. But what really makes us uncomfortable are the comments of the third servant, that he knew the master to be a hard man, reaping where he didn’t sow, gathering what he didn’t plant. Those words leave us a uneasy because he’s talking about Jesus. It leaves us wondering, what does this third servant know that we don’t know? Why does he see Jesus this way when the other two obviously see Him differently?

These are spiritual questions that demand a spiritual diagnosis. A pastor is in many ways like a medical doctor. Our job is to make spiritual diagnoses of people under our care. And, like a doctor, we ask questions to try to get at the heart of the issue at hand, to look past the symptoms and get to what is really at heart. German has a wonderful word to describe this art of pastoral care: Seelsorger. It literally means “curator or physician of souls.”

What are these two souls saying? I often use two questions when listening to people. The first is, “When you think of God, how do you think of Him, how do you see God?”  The second is reciprocal; it turns the question: “How do you think God sees you?” Those two questions very quickly help discern the health or brokenness of a person’s conscience. When you see God through Christ Jesus, as a loving, kind and merciful God, who gives freely out of Fatherly divine goodness and mercy, you generally see yourself, then, as one to whom mercy is given; ergo, you see yourself as one whom God loves. On the other hand, when you see God as one who takes, who is demanding, bitter, angry, frustrated, disappointed, then, generally, you see yourself as one who is in danger of failing to live up to those expectations; ergo, you see yourself one in whom God is displeased and disappointed.

These ideas impacts how you live your life. When one lives life seeing God as generous and giving, rich with mercy and grace, and forgiving, as a God who trusts you, His beloved, this is a life of freedom and joy in God’s grace. Don’t misunderstand me: this isn’t “anything goes,” but rather, within the limits and boundaries that God gives to His baptized children (a good summary is the Ten Commandments), you are free in how to show, express and multiply His blessings entrusted to you with others. It is a beautiful example of the doctrine of vocation. Vocation is God at work through you to those around you. You use the gifts God entrusts to you for His glory. Think First Article, Daily Bread gifts here – body and soul, reason and brain, food and drink, clothes and shoes, house, job, and everything else for the support and needs of the body. If you want to really go big, it’s the entire Christian life because everything is from Him. He entrusts these things to you. It’s as if He says, “I’m going on a journey; here are good gifts. Use them, multiply them by sharing them with others.” You, then, use them for your family and friends, the church and the body of Christ, the people whom you interact with on a daily basis. When you joyfully and graciously use these gifts that are entrusted to you, you multiply the blessing of joy, mercy, grace, and compassion – it was first given to you and you pass it on to someone else who then can also pass it along.  

Here’s the beauty of it: He trusts you; you trust Him. In fact, you are so comfortable in your relationship with God and living in His mercy that you don’t even have to think about it. You just do it, not because you have to but because it’s who you are: beloved, mercied, compassioned, and loved through Christ Jesus. You are willing and able to risk using that which you have been entrusted with because you know it was entrusted in love and you will risk it in love. This is the story of the first two servants. They see the Master as gracious and compassionate, so they see themselves as loved and cared for. Unburdened by fear and filled with his love, they are free to take what they are entrusted with and use it.

But when you see God as always on edge, ready to pounce in frustration, anger, disappointment, and take away what little it seems that you have, that is a life filled with fear. Fear constrains, fear constricts, fear disables one to live in joy, compassion and happiness. Not wanting to displease God, not wanting to lose the little you seem to have, you are restrictive, limiting use of the things that have been entrusted lest it not go well. This was the third servant. He was afraid, having a false idea that the master was hard, harsh and uncaring. Afraid of the master, he was afraid to risk that which he was entrusted with. His fear came to fruition: the master took what was entrusted to him and gave it to someone else, instead. 

You’ll notice, this isn’t a question of more or fairness. It wasn’t that the third servant was jealous and wanted to have more given to him, like the first two servants. It’s also not a comparison of productivity, that he do enough. It’s that he failed to see God for who He really is and trusting His grace and mercy. Instead, stymied by fear, he did nothing. The third servant lost sight of who the Master really was and, by extension, his own identity as a servant of the kind, gentle master, and as such failed to serve at all.

This is all spoken on Maundy Thursday, in the upper room, Jesus to His disciples. His crucifixion is mere hours away and He is instructing His disciples on what it will be like to be a disciple post-crucifixion and post-resurrection. How will they live and disciple as followers of their Master? Will they live in joy, filled with His mercy and compassion as they serve the Master, or will they be drenched with fear, unable and unwilling to go out and risk for the sake of the Kingdom?

Here's the beautiful thing of Jesus’ crucifixion. We know that Jesus’ death pays for our sins. He died the sinner’s death to quench the Father’s wrath against mankind’s sinful rebellion. Jesus’ blood is shed, the death-price is paid, Christ redeems us from satan’s grasp and the pit of hell.  We are redeemed, that is, we are bought with the price of His life and, redeemed, we are His with the promise of eternal life. Sins forgiven, we live as His dearly, beloved children.

That means all of our lives are forgiven, wrapped in God’s grace and mercy for the same of Jesus. Don’t forget that Jesus also redeems our works, that which we do – albeit imperfectly, this side of heaven – for the kingdom and, by extension, for each other. In your vocation, when you serve one another with the gifts He entrusts to you, your imperfect service is made perfect by God’s grace through faith in Jesus. When you change a baby’s dirty diaper, even if you grumble because it’s the third one this hour, God sees that as a perfect work. When you dig a ditch to help water flow, God sees it as a perfect work. When you herd cattle and get frustrated because they aren’t doing what they are supposed to do, God still sees it as a perfect work in Christ. When you burn dinner or oversalt the potatoes, God sees it as a perfect work. When you bring your child to church, who squirms and is antsy and rarely sits still so that you miss most of the sermon and get frustrated, wondering why you didn’t sleep in instead, you have done a good work that God sees as holy.

This is an important thing to remember, as we speak of the Last Days. When we talk about Jesus’ return to judge the living and the dead, the image is one of a courtroom where judgements are metered out over the defendants – you and me and all who have died, both in faith and without of faith. For some, even faithful Christians, this image is very disconcerting. I mentioned this last week. What happens when Jesus comes again – will I be judged according to what I have done and haven’t done?

The answer is yes, but what you have done and what you haven’t done is all covered by the blood of Christ. Everything you do is redeemed.

So, bringing this back to the Parable, seeing yourselves as the first two slaves, on the Last Day, there may be a conversation something like this, by you or another of the Baptized. The slave, the child of God, will approach the Master and say, “You know, Lord, you entrusted all of these things to me and they were multiplied this many times, but there was much more I could have done with what you gave me.” And the Master will say, “Yes, of course, I am aware that you could have done more. Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into my joy!” You see – it’s covered in the Master’s mercy. Another of you, or perhaps me, will come to the Master and say, “Lord, you entrusted this to me and I gained an additional amount, but I was so timid and so afraid. I failed to take advantage of all of the opportunities you gave me…” And the Master will say, “I remember those moments when you were a coward. Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into my joy.”

Do you get it? The same verdict is rendered through the joy of the Master for every Christian – not just those who served productively enough or faithfully enough, or whatever other unit of measure we want to try to use to mark our work. In the End (the Big E End), it matters only in this: Christ is the Master who has purchased me and made Me part of the Kingdom. He has entrusted to me things to use and work for His glory.

Sound too good to be true? Then perhaps these well-known words of Jesus will help soothe your soul:

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God. (John 3:16-20)