25th Sunday After Pentecost
Text: Matthew 25:14-30
+INJ+
Well, our Gospel reading didn’t end very Gospel-like.
Jesus said, “And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
One might wander in off the street and say, “That’s pretty dark.” It is; Jesus is nearing the cross and preparing His disciples for His death and when He will return in glory on the last day.
Today, Jesus is teaching the disciples and us about the stewardship of faith. He wants to impress upon them the importance of an active faith that does not sit idly with our heads buried in the sand.
When we think or hear “stewardship,” our minds often go directly to money. It’s hard not to, especially as Jesus teaches this parable using the image of a talent.
A talent was worth a lot. One talent alone was worth nearly 6,000 days of wages or twenty years of slavery. So, receiving two talents as the second servant would be 12,000 days of wages or 40 years of slavery. Or five talents as the first servant would be 30,000 days of wages and 100 years of slavery. This is even unimaginable to most of us.
The only way many of us would ever see an income of this magnitude would be if we were the starting quarterback of an NFL team. But then, again, to keep it, we’d still need to be good stewards.
But what is stewardship anyway? One of the most basic ways to define stewardship is to see it as carefully managing what has been entrusted to you. So, this implies that stewardship is done when someone else places something or someone into your possession and for your care.
The parable says that the Master is the source of the talents entrusted to the servants. The duties of the servants are to now use these gifts faithfully and well.
As we know from the Gospel, those servants entrusted with five or two talents used them and saw them increase twofold. However, the one who dug a hole and planted his talent into the earth as some time capsule to be opened years later needed to have used his gift correctly. Instead, the parable says,
He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed?
What caused the servant to dig and bury the gift entrusted to him by his master? The servant said it was fear.
But who owns this fear? The servant does.
It’s his fear that caused him to dig and bury what was entrusted to him by the master. He fears losing his earthly life more than anything else.
It’s important to note that the master entrusted all his servants to use the goods he provided them, no matter the amount. This is why the first two receive the accolades and blessing of the master as he said, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.”
The good and faithful servants use the gifts entrusted to their care not for themselves but ultimately for their neighbor, and by doing so, they not only please their master but also serve him and see His kingdom grow.
So, what are we to make of all of this today?
How many of us come and receive the blessing and gift of God’s forgiveness each week, only to return home and bury the gift we’ve received in the Divine Service out of fear?
At its core, what fear am I speaking of? The fear of reconciliation, the fear of confessing our sins among one another as we have confessed before God. The fear of absolving one another as God has absolved and forgiven us. Or, to put it more simply – the fear of saying, “I am sorry” and “I forgive you.”
When the servants of Jesus Christ do not use the Gospel gifts of grace and forgiveness granted and entrusted to them in their lives and among neighbors, they are, in fact, rejecting their Master. They are not only failing to exercise proper stewardship of the great gift of faith among others, but they are also excluding themselves from communion with Jesus through the idleness of their faith.
This is why Jesus said, “And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
It’s frightening.
Too often, we see the things of this world as ours: homes, cars, clothes, knickknacks, people. But truthfully, we’d have nothing if God the Father did not give it to us first.
When we realize we own and possess nothing and are just using and caring for the gifts our heavenly Father entrusts to us as a gardener tending their garden, it changes how we value not only the people in our lives, such as husband or wife, mother or father, children, friends but how we use the gifts of this world to serve one another.
The stewardship of our lives is important. In fact, our whole lfe should be one long exercise of preparing for our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, to return and take account of our stewardship.
Have we dug and buried His Word in the ground in order to hide our faith from Christ Jesus and our neighbor alike? Have we used His grace to extend His forgiveness among one another, permitting His Church and kingdom to grow? Or has fear turned our hearts from our Savior and silenced the confession of our lips?
If so, turn back to your Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. Return to His cross and learn again how,
[Jesus] purchased and won [you] from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver (or talents), but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, that [you] may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity.
An eternity He desires to call you into.
As we continue journeying to the Last Sunday of the Church Year and the day when our Lord and Master returns to settle our accounts, may His Word not only abide but actively increase faith, love, and charity within you for God and neighbor alike. +INJ+
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Rev. Noah J. Rogness
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Tomah, WI