Matthew 25:14-30
Introduction
Do you have any experience in investing? I can almost guarantee that you do. It may be what we traditionally think of as investing, such as putting money into the stock market. Doing that is not just to energize the economy but because you hope to make some prophet for the risk that you are taking. But even if you have never invested in the stock market, you probably have invested. Purchasing or building a house is an investment. Even if your primary goal is to have a home for yourself and possibly to raise a family, at some level you are probably also hoping that the value of the house will rise over time. This might be for your benefit for that of your children. Even something like going to college or university is an investment. While there are people who get an education for personal enrichment, often people choose a major with the hope that it will lead to a job that will make up for the high cost of tuition.
An investment is taking something of value and putting that toward an opportunity that will hopefully bring a profit. Investing and gambling are not the same thing, although there are times when the border is rather fuzzy. In gambling, if all goes bad, the gambler is left with nothing. In investing, if all goes bad, the investor is still left with something. It may be stock for an unsuccessful company or a degree for a career that has no jobs, but you have something.
You may think that all of this sounds too uncertain and that you just want to keep away from it. I would like to suggest two things. One is that we are investing all of the time whether we know it or not. The second is that the Bible actually expects us to be investors. This does not mean that you have to hire a stock broker, but we should consider carefully what we do with that which is valuable.
Parable of the Talents
Jesus was a master story teller. He took complex concepts and then explained them through stories that used every day images. This is one example of this. Jesus told a number of parables with a similar plot. A master was going away and leaving his servants behind. The parable would then revolve around the actions of those servants.
In this case, the master left the servants with very specific instructions. They were each given a certain amount of money and they were expected to invest that money and to make a profit for the master. This can get a bit confusing for us because what is given to them is described as talents. This is not what we today consider talents, in the sense of skills or abilities, but was actually a weight by which gold or silver was measured out. What was given to them was not an insignificant sum. We notice that each servant is given a different amount. One is given five, one is given two and the last is given one. Was this based on the master’s confidence in their ability? We are not told. The first two servants put their money to work and were able to double their money. That is a 100% return, which is very impressive. Any of us would love to find that investment opportunity. But the last servant did something else. He did not spend it on himself but he did not invest it either. He buried the money so that it would be safe and could be returned to the master as it was given.
Eventually the master returned and he went to check on how the servants did. They were given one job: to use what the master gave as an investment. The servant who was given five talents returned that with an additional five talents. The master was very pleased. The servant who was given two talents returned that with an additional two talents. Once again, the master was very pleased. In fact, if you look closely, the master responds with the same praise for the servant who made five and the servant who made two. The measure was not the total monetary amount that was earned but how faithful they were with the amount that was given to them. But then we get to the final servant. This servant handed back the amount that was given, one talent, with nothing else. The master was not happy. At the very least, the servant could have earned some small amount of interest. It would not be the 100% profit that the others had made, but it would have demonstrated that there was some effort on the part of the servant. The lack of effort results in condemnation by the master.
What was the point of this parable by Jesus? It is unlikely that he was giving financial advice, although there is indeed a financial aspect to it. The best way to explain it is to look at how this works out in our context.
Investing in the Kingdom
The principles of this parable are fairly simple. The master leaves his servant things of value and the servants are expected to make the most of them according to the master’s wishes. The Master is God and we are the servants. But what are the talents? The fact that the word that was originally understood to mean a certain amount of money has received a wider meaning tells us that this is about much more than just money.
We can look at this from two perspectives. First, let us consider what this means for us as individual Christians. What are the things of value that we are given by God? I tend to describe this in terms of time, treasure, and talent. What is important is that we do not compare ourselves with another person in different circumstances. A successful business person can probably give more money away than a single parent. A retired person can offer more time than a young family with a house full of children. And when it comes to talents, we all have different skills and none of them is more important than another. I have known people who have been very generous in one area but felt guilty that they could not be as generous in another area where they lacked the means. This parable tells us that God is not looking for a net amount but for faithfulness with what God has given us. Comparing ourselves to others is an unhelpful distraction.
The same principles apply to our experience as a local church. There are churches that have as many people on staff as we have people attending on a Sunday morning. There are churches with multi-million dollar budgets and huge church buildings. There are churches that might have a couple of dozen different programs running for every segment of the population that you can imagine. What does that say about us as a church? Well, we do not have and should not measure ourselves against a megachurch in another community. What has God given us as a church? We have been placed in this community with this building. We have an amazing group of people with a variety of talents. We have relationships to people around us and experiences that help us to connect. What are we expected to do? We are simply expected to be faithful with what God has given us. That is it. There will be no heavenly comparisons about the size of churches or the scope of ministry. We do what we can with what we have, where we are. That is it.
Conclusion
We started this message with a reflection about investments. You may never invest in the stock market but you will invest. At this moment, we are thinking about what it means to invest into the kingdom of God. That may mean money and there are people who have large financial resources that can be used for God’s glory and to help people in need. But there are other ways to invest. There are those with different skills, things from baking to small repairs to public speaking to music and so much else. Those talents can be invested into the kingdom just as much as money. There are those who have time to give. They can take time to pray, take time to have coffee with someone, take time to help out at the church. Those are all valuable investments and they pay incredible dividends, even if we do not see it right away.
In the parable Jesus told, there were two servants who handed over different amounts but received the same praise from the master. The third servant was rejected, not because they were not successful but because they were not faithful. They had what was needed to invest but chose not to. It is natural for us to want to compare to other Christians or to other churches but all the Master wants from us is faithfulness with what God has given to us.
