All too often this parable gets preached along the lines of ‘doing’ and ‘being’ but it is about much more than that. Too many people have found themselves feeling challenged (and perhaps condemned?) because they weren’t ‘doing enough!’! But this parable is about three things:
i. Being trusted with someone else’s valuable and important possessions,
ii. Treating that which you have been given in trust in the right way, and
iii. Being ready for the return of the master.
When the master returns, two of them are praised for their endeavours whilst the third is labelled as ‘wicked’ and booted out into the darkness and the one with nothing loses it whilst the one with the most gets more. Always a tough concept to explain as biblical in my experience!
Two of the servants acted out of understanding and were engaged and proved themselves to be trustworthy whilst the remaining slave acted out of fear and through this was inactive and therefore unproductive. Looking at this passage in the light of the wise and foolish virgins last week, if we exchange the bridegroom of last week and the master of this for Jesus as the returning person, there is much insight to be gained here. If the absence is the time from Ascension to second coming then the return is the second coming and the Judgement that accompanies the ‘day of the Lord’.
Just as the unprepared virgins miss out, so too does the servant who buried what he’d been given. Switching the bags of gold for the kingdom of God and think about what this passage might mean for us today. The key here is the preparedness of the three. Two had acted rightly and were prepared for their master’s return whilst the last man had done nothing to make himself ready for the eventual return. The last man had lived in fear and this had made the weak and ineffective – for of the three he did the least with what he had been entrusted.
We have a parable about Church and stewardship and readiness. So many people are made impotent because they are full of fear such which causes them to live within the limits they create in the heads. A parable about being ready to give an account of ourselves to Jesus, the Christ, when He returns. Those who live in fear also live outside of faith (for perfect love casts out fear and that which is not done in faith is done in unbelief) and they fail , and for them there is the ‘weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth’ image of separation from the presence of God.
It’s a warning about the end times and judgement – and that what the Thessalonians passage brings to the party too for ‘the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.’ This is affirming the fact that no one knows when the Lord (Jesus) will return, just as the three servants had no idea about when their master might return either! These two passages speak of the same thing: Jesus’ return. These two passages speak about a judgement that is to come when the Lord returns and the contrasts between right and wrong living; darkness or light, awake or asleep, drunk or sober. Think how the two good servants contrast with the wicked servant.
And knowing that Jesus will return we need to make sure that we are ready for it. There’s no warning notice – we need to be ready for it all the time! The labour pains mean that we will have a clue that the time is getting nearer, and yet the exact time is unknown (you can’t book it in like a caesarean!). We are people of the light, which means we do our deeds in the light where everyone can see what we do and we are called to protect our heart (our passions) and our heads (our thought life) to ensure that head and heart are kept as pure as possible so that our lives might also be that too: Something made real in the faith, hope and love that is the hallmark of people of faith.
And the day will come when the Lord returns and we will be ‘caught up’ with Him and the judgement will occur and the words we long to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” will, we pray, be ours.
Our final reading (Zephaniah) and the ‘day of the Lord’ - the return of the Messiah (Jesus) - and the ‘good and faithful servants’ will be ‘Consecrated’ (That is made pure and spotless just as Jesus is pure and spotless). Jesus, our paschal lamb, a sacrifice made for our sins will have made us pure and spotless. But the complacent, they get the same as the man in the Matthew story who though fear was also that for isn’t this all about judgment, end times and the weak, apathetic, complacent servant of God?
All too often I meet Christians (Lay and ordained) who appear to be pathetic and ineffective. They bury the gift of God and await the return of the King ready to give back what has been entrusted to them, and so the Church fails to grow. God would rather we were passionate and courageous, bringing forth growth and life, rather than confusing weak for meek and hiding out of the public eye. For don’t be fooled, the ‘day of the Lord’ is coming – and it’s nearer today that it was yesterday. Love brings forth passion and passion brings forth action – Perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4.18) – but fear denies the love of God made real for us in Christ and buries the riches given to us through Christ in the ground.
We are called to ‘go into all the world to make disciples’ – could this be the treasure we are entrusted with, the kingdom of God, to present to the Lord when He returns.
Have a think about the scribbles here and ask yourself the question, “How am I doing and am I ready to meet the Lord should He arrived unexpectedly in the next few minutes?" And if the answer is 'NO", then I guess this gives you the opportunity to save yourself from the darkness and the weeping and gnashing of teeth bit!
The Collect
Heavenly Lord, you long for the world’s salvation: stir us from apathy, restrain us from excess and revive in us new hope that all creation will one day be healed in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Matthew 25:14-30
“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.’
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
Zephaniah 1:7, 12 - 18
Be silent before the Sovereign Lord, for the day of the Lord is near. The Lord has prepared a sacrifice; he has consecrated those he has invited.
At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish those who are complacent, who are like wine left on its dregs, who think, ‘The Lord will do nothing, either good or bad.’ Their wealth will be plundered, their houses demolished. Though they build houses, they will not live in them; though they plant vineyards, they will not drink the wine.”
The great day of the Lord is near - near and coming quickly.
The cry on the day of the Lord is bitter; the Mighty Warrior shouts his battle cry. That day will be a day of wrath - a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness - a day of trumpet and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the corner towers.
“I will bring such distress on all people that they will grope about like those who are blind, because they have sinned against the Lord. Their blood will be poured out like dust and their entrails like dung. Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of the Lord’s wrath.”
In the fire of his jealousy the whole earth will be consumed, for he will make a sudden end of all who live on the earth.
Post Communion Prayer
Gracious Lord, in this holy sacrament you give substance to our hope: bring us at the last to that fullness of life for which we long; through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.
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