11182020 – Matthew 25. 14-30
In the first century, a TALENT was the LARGEST unit of currency AVAILABLE at the time.
For us, it is the 100 dollar bill.
Yep, a “talent was money.” A whole lot of money. Cool, hard cash!
Some scholars guess or try to speculate that a talent would have been worth (between 15 and 20 years’ worth of a salary) for a common day laborer.
The exact figure isn’t as important for OUR understanding … as much as it is… that we UNDERSTAND this was NO small amount of pocket change.
We are talking BIG BUCKS no matter how you cut it.
Imagine a TRUNKLOAD of money in front of you, a stunning amount of money that DOES NOT belong to you, but is NOW, in your TOTAL care.
OF COURSE, the servant dug a hole and buried it to keep it safe. Why wouldn’t he? It was not his. It DID NOT belong to him. It was just in his TEMPORARY care.
His ACTIONS would prompt anyone to ask:
What’s so wrong with BEING cautious?
Caution is good…right?
Caution is being scrupulous. You DO NOT throw CAUTION to the wind.
What’s wrong with being CAREFUL with someone else’s money?
Discretion and deliberateness are virtues, NOT vices.
But the problem is with this third servant – “virtues become HIS vices.”
He knew WHAT was expected of him all along.
Prudence and wariness easily become self-protectiveness and restraint.
Inhibition turns to fear, and the servant ends up “REFUSING THE RISK of trading in the marketplace.”
HIDING IT is a safer idea. It is good to err on the side of caution!
The third servant simply WAITS (with baited breath) for the master to come back, so he can GIVE IT BACK, perhaps like a hot potato, saying “Here you go – it’s all YOURS.
Now, you get to WORRY about it!
See here: every penny ACCOUNTED FOR, just like you left it.”
Nothing NEW to see here. I did good, RIGHT?
And yet, when the master returns, the “prudent decision” of the servant is NOT rewarded.
It seems there were “some-better-other- options” for HOW TO PASS THE TIME while the master is away.
The first two servants had INVESTED their sums, 5 and 2 talents respectively, and each DOUBLED THE MONEY IN THEIR CARE.
They are REWARDED-APPLAUDED and given additional responsibilities as a result.
THEN, the master turns to the third servant, who immediately begins offering EXPLANATIONS and notes that he was AFRAID to do ANYTHING but HIDE what he had been given in the ground. IT WAS THE SAFEST PLACE.
The result is NOT pretty.
The master is HARSH, calling the servant LAZY, saying he at least could have put it in a “basic interest bearing account”…over at Chase or Harris Bank.
And then he is PUNISHED, BANISHED to the DARKNESS where there is weeping and grinding of teeth; one of the most HARSH treatments of anyone we read about in Scripture. It’s a hard story to hear.
Especially when the guy thinks, he did a GOOD JOB. He did NO HARM.
He pleads INNOCENCE. He did NOTHING WRONG…really…
It’s not like the third servant SQUANDERED these funds away on “gourmet dinners OUT ON THE TOWN and on fine wines.”
He didn’t go out and buy a NEW iPhone 12 or go on an all-night shopping spree on Black Friday.
He didn’t put a downpayment on a Hummer FOR HIMSELF OR FOR A FRIEND.
He just MAINTAINED what was there; a REASONABLE and SAFE venture.
And that seems to be the heart of one issue Jesus is trying to teach in this parable.
The point here is not really about doubling your money and accumulating wealth. It is about LIVING. NOT MERELY EXISTING. It is about investing. It is about taking risks. . . yourself IN SOMETHING.
The greatest risk of all, it turns out, is NOT TO RISK ANYTHING, not to care DEEPLY AND PROFOUNDLY enough about ANYTHING to INVEST DEEPLY, to GIVE your heart away and in the process risk EVERYTHING.
The greatest risk of all, it turns out, is to PLAY IT SAFE, to live CAUTIOUSLY and PRUDENTLY. And, not really live at all.
Take a walk on the wild side.
Amen.