Sunday May 3, 2020 | Greg Boyd
“Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
“After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’
“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
“The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’
“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
“Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’
“His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
“‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’’
From the parable of the talents, we can see that God trusts us to participate and partner with him in his work, as we have been entrusted with an offering that can advance the Kingdom. Though we don’t often see this reality, we must embrace what God says about us and what we have been given.
We are called to live in a way that makes God proud. In this sermon, Greg interacts with the parable of the talents. Before diving into it, a couple of preliminary comments about the nature of parables may be helpful.
There are two common mistakes that can cause people to misunderstand this particular parable. First, most assume that the authority figure in a parable is meant to represent God. But if we make this mistake, then what do we do with many of the authority figures who are actually evil, as in the case of the land owner in this parable? Parables are not meant to show us what God is like. Instead, the characters in the parables are used as they are because Jesus is drawing on the common experience of the audience. The second mistake is that people conclude that the implications of the parables are about the afterlife, having do to with questions about whether or not one goes to heaven. Therefore, phrases like “weeping and gnashing of teeth” are assumed to refer to eternal rewards and punishments. However, the focus is not on the afterlife, but on life in the here and now.
In the parable of the talents, we read how the land owner shared three sums of money with three servants. A talent would be equivalent to what a peasant would have earned in fifteen years. To one servant, he gave five talents, to another he gave two, and to the third he gave one. The first two doubled what had been entrusted to them, while the third acted in fear and buried it.
The basic takeaway is that God has entrusted us with the spiritual equivalent of bags of gold. We have say-so. We have power to make a difference, both collectively and individually. In fact, what has been entrusted to us is more than most of us realize. Each of us has potential to influence the world in a Kingdom direction. If God has called you to do something, it is because you are capable of doing it with the power of God’s presence. God believes in us to make an impact, to partner with God to love and to change the world.
It is crucial to see this as a privilege, not a burdensome task. This is not a set of rules that we must follow so that we don’t go to hell when we die. If we are motivated by fear rather than love, like the third servant, we won’t take risks because the task is a burden. We just don’t want to make God angry. This religious spirit dominates many today.
Paul talks about this in 2 Corinthians 5 as he wrote about being compelled by love. He did not operate out of fear of not pleasing God because he might do something wrong. He had a desire to put a smile on God’s face because he knew that God believed in him.
We are made to be more than recipients of God’s love; we are made to participate in God’s love. The same faith that God has for us we are called to have in ourselves. This is found throughout scripture, as God is calling people to do things that they don’t think that they can do. Moses is one example of this, as he gave all kinds of excuses about why he could not do what God called him to (Exodus 3). Gideon is another, found in Judges 6. God called Gideon a mighty warrior of God even though Gideon did not see himself this way.
We all struggle with this to some degree. We have voices in our heads that resist God’s call on our lives. We tell ourselves that we cannot multiply what has been entrusted to us as we do not see ourselves the way that God sees us. So, we must ask ourselves: who are we going to believe? If we believe the lies we have been told, we will just sit on our spiritual bags of gold, like the third servant. As a result, instead of living in victory we’ll live in misery and frustration, another way of saying “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” If you are sitting on God’s love without participating in it, you are living against the call on your life and will be stuck in frustration.
God sees us as we often can’t see ourselves – as people who can be trusted with God’s talents. Greg shared something a coach once said to him: “A winner is not the one who never loses. A winner is the one who never quits.” God does not give up on you. Get up and get in the game.