Talent Show
Scripture Reading: Matt. 25:14-30
“With great power comes great responsibility.” The words may sound biblical but they were not spoken by Jesus or Paul or any other figure from the Bible. They’re not from Ben Franklin or Mark Twain or any other quotable American. They were spoken by Uncle Ben, not the famous rice icon but the mentor and father figure of one Peter Parker, the famous comic-book hero, also known as Spider-Man. The Peter Parker Principle, as it’s become known, has leapt from the pages of the comic book and the movie screen to become part of the broader culture, even once appearing in a Supreme Court decision.
While the exact phrase “With great power comes great responsibility” does not appear in the Bible, the principle certainly does. In today’s reading, a wealthy landowner entrusts a portion of his estate to three servants while he goes off on a journey of undetermined length. To them he grants the power and the responsibility of managing vast sums of his money. He gives them no instructions. Each has the full power and the sole responsibility to do with the money whatever he pleases.
Today we read from the Gospel of Matthew for the second-to-last time in this lectionary cycle. We’ll finish with the Gospel next week and then move into the season of Advent where the focus will turn to the once and future coming of Jesus. Here toward the end of Matthew’s Gospel, the tone is already becoming apocalyptic. Last week in my absence you heard the Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids who were awaiting the coming of the groom so that they could welcome him. Some were prepared for his arrival, which came in the middle of the night, while others were not.
We don’t need to stretch our imaginations very far to realize that the landowner at the heart of this parable represents Jesus who embarks on a journey to a far country known as death.
In a similar fashion Matthew presents us today with another parable in which a key element concerns what the characters do while they await the coming of the central figure in the parable, in this case not the groom but the landowner. We don’t need to stretch our imaginations very far to realize that the landowner at the heart of this parable represents Jesus who embarks on a journey to a far country known as death. In preparation for his journey he will entrust his disciples with his message of forgiveness for sins and life breaking through death. That’s right. Just like MacArthur in the Philippines, Jesus declares, “I shall return.”
The parable begins with the landowner summoning three of his slaves and entrusting his property to them. The property he gives them consists of talents. The Greek word that Matthew uses is τάλαντα, from which we get the English word “talent.” But this “talent” doesn’t refer to playing the piano or having a knack for woodworking or photography or any such talent in that sense. In ancient Greece and Rome a talent was a unit of weight that was used as currency.
We’re not talking nickels and dimes here, more like gold bars. One talent weighed approximately 79 lb., so no one was walking around with spare talents in their toga to put into the parking meter for their chariot. And as for value, one talent of silver was worth 15 years’ wages for the average laborer. So these are vast sums of money that the landowner is entrusting to his slaves.
Let’s note that the landowner doesn’t divide the money evenly among his slaves but rather apportions it to each slave according to his ability. To one he gives five talents—a lifetime’s amount of wages! To another he gives two talents. And to the third he gives one, which was still an enormous amount of money, more than an average person ever would have handled at one time.
Interestingly, the master gives his slaves no instructions, yet each man seems to know instinctively what to do with his portion. Of the slave who received five talents, we’re told that he “went off at once and traded with them.” The second slave takes similarly bold action. Neither man shows any hesitation. They leave at once and trade their talents. We’re not told what they trade them for because it’s unimportant. What is important is that they try to make something of their talents. They are willing to take a risk.
One of the first rules of investing is that there’s a direct relationship between risk and reward. The greater the risk, the greater the potential reward, and vice versa; the lesser the risk, the lesser the reward. For example, if you invest in stocks, there’s a chance that you’ll lose money, but there’s also a chance that you’ll make money, much more than you’d make than if you keep your money in cash, like in a savings account, or shove it under your mattress.
In trading the talents they were given, both the first slave and the second slave take a risk. They could very well lose money, but they don’t. In fact, they double their principal. This is a fantastic return on investment! Maybe they invested in crypto and got out before it collapsed (or Bethlehem Steel).
The third slave, however, takes a different tack. Rather than trade the one talent he was given to try to earn more money for his master, he goes off and digs a hole and buries the money. And with one talent weighing 79 lb., that would’ve been a pretty deep hole! The third slave is not willing to take on any risk. He was entrusted with one talent, and one talent is what he will give back to his master.
As parables go, this one is on the long side. That’s because there’s a lot of repetition. When the master returns from his journey, the first two slaves have virtually identical reports to present to him. Each has doubled what they were given. The only difference is the amount. The one who was given five talents has earned five more, while the one who was given two talents has earned two more. Even the master’s response to them matches word for word: “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.”
The first two slaves are virtually indistinguishable from each other. The third slave, however, has a much different story to tell, and it’s for this reason that he is the focus of the parable. “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.”
Have you ever read a novel with an unreliable narrator? Usually when we read a novel we can trust that what the narrator is telling us is true. But sometimes you’ll encounter a book in which the narrator is not to be trusted. They withhold information, they deceive, they intentionally tell the story from a slanted perspective.
What evidence do we have that the master is a “harsh man,” as the slave says of him?
That’s similar to what’s happening here with the third slave. What evidence do we have that the master is a “harsh man,” as the slave says of him. If anything, the master seems remarkably understanding. First of all, he distributes the talents to each slave “according to his ability.” He doesn’t place unreasonable expectations on any of them. Instead he shows a sensitivity to each man’s capabilities, distributing a single talent to the one who is most likely to do the least with it.
Second, he entrusts all of his slaves with vast sums of his own money, allowing them to do with it whatever they wish. He then praises two of them for their initiative, inviting them to celebrate with him, not so much as master and slave, but almost as equals! These are not the actions of a harsh man.
The third slave seems to have a view of his master that doesn’t correspond with reality, and he has allowed this misperception to color his actions…or inaction, really. Instead of trading the talent he was given, as his fellow slaves did, he buries it in the ground. Why? Because he was afraid. Afraid of what exactly? Judgment? Failure? Not measuring up to some perceived standard?
A similar fear can paralyze us when our perception of God is that of a harsh taskmaster…a taskmaster whom we must please 24/7 and 365…a taskmaster who is just waiting for us to mess things up, which we will of course do from time to time. It comes with the territory of being human.
God is not keeping score. God is not awarding points for good behavior or deducting points for being less than perfect.
Let me reassure you right now that God is not keeping score. God is not awarding points for good behavior or deducting points for being less than perfect. Now, you may be thinking, “But isn’t this parable all about God keeping score?” After all, the slaves who do well are rewarded by the master, while the one who displeases him is judged harshly.
That’s one way of looking at the parable. It is, I think, the wrong way because it makes God out to be the exact opposite of what I believe Jesus is telling us. The master doesn’t praise the first two slaves because they doubled his money. He praises them for being trustworthy. “Well done, good and trustworthy slave,” he tells them. This is not a man who is keeping score. This is not a man who expects only winning. For what does he tell the slave who buried his money in the ground? “Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers.” At least then he would’ve earned some interest.
Notice also what the master does not say. He doesn’t give the slave a pat on the back for at least not losing any money. You might think, given his understanding of the third slave’s limitations, that he’d be thinking, “Well, at least he didn’t screw up and lose my money.” But no! He’s furious! He’s in effect saying, “At least make an effort! Take a risk! Do something! Do you know me so little to think that I’d be upset by losing just one measly talent when I can give this man here two talents and this man over here five talents? What is one talent to me?”
Friends, we have been entrusted with the greatest treasure there is…the good news of God’s love for all the world in Jesus Christ. God’s love is the greatest power in the world. It is stronger even than death. And to think that God has entrusted this power to us! To you and to me! And with this great power comes a great responsibility…not a responsibility to achieve some particular result or meet some specific expectation, but rather a joyful responsibility, born of our trust in God’s goodness, to take a risk, to make a leap of faith, to invest ourselves fully in this mission of proclaiming God’s life-giving, life-affirming, life-transforming love.