This sermon was preached on Sunday 19th November 2023 at All Saints Church, Oakham. Watch the sermon here at 28:40.

Readings: Zephaniah 1:7, 12-18; 1 Thessalonians 5.1-11; Matthew 25.14-30

‘I will bring such distress upon people that they shall walk like the blind; because they have sinned against the LORD, their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung.’^[1]

‘In the fire of his passion the whole earth shall be consumed;’^[2]

‘But from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.’^[3]

‘As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’^[4]

Good morning and welcome to church. It’s stressful on days like this when all the readings seem a bit depressing and doom and gloom and I’m standing here trying to bring the good news out of it. You read stories like this in the Bible, and you come away going, ‘God, really? You say that in the kingdom of God, the slave, who in fear hides the money with which he is entrusted, is to have everything taken from him before being thrown out into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth? If the kingdom of God is like that, God, I’m not sure if I want anything to do with it.’

If you are confused when you hear stories like this, know that you are not alone. In fact, Jesus told stories like this, these parables, to invite people to think deeply about his message. You are doing it right now. The confusion of the story has got you asking deeper questions about Jesus’ message and how it relates to our lives. Thankfully, when we begin to break the parable down, we come to see what Jesus might have been trying to get across to his crowds.

Let’s break down the characters we have in this parable. First, we have this man who goes on a journey. He is clearly a rich man as he has several talents to give to his slaves. A talent was thought to be equivalent to fifteen years’ wages for a worker in Jesus’ day.^[5] For reference, the average UK salary in 2023 is £35,000. So a talent today would be approximately £525,000. Luke’s version of this parable describes the man as a nobleman. It becomes clear that the rich man symbolises God, the Lord and Master, and that the slaves, the people under him, represent humanity under God. 

Well, who are these people? We have three slaves in this story. The Greek word here used for ‘slaves’ can also be translated as ‘servants.’ The first is entrusted with five talents, the second two talents, and the third one talent. The first and second servants set their talents to work, and because of their work, they each doubled their amount. The third, however, takes the talent, digs a hole in the ground and buries the talent safely away. As you look at this third servant, you might be thinking, ‘What’s wrong with that? I would have done the same thing.’ At least the money is safe. But when the master comes back, he is furious that this third servant did nothing with the money. He didn’t even put it in the bank to gain interest. The money remains dormant as it sits in the servant’s makeshift safe. It’s nothing gained, but it is also nothing lost. Surely that has got to count for something? 

One of the challenges we have when we look at this parable is that we think of this parable purely in financial terms. We might apply it to our own modern concepts of savings and investments. I myself am a child of the 2008 financial crisis, and so my concept of investment and banks was that it is a risky business. In that sense, I see a degree of wisdom in what the third servant did. However, what happens if we look at this parable, not in financial terms, but more broadly in terms of gifts? Each service is given a gift, but what if the gift wasn’t money, but instead it was the good news? What if the third servant was given the good news of God but then didn’t share it and instead kept it hidden? We would all now feel differently about the servant, questioning why he didn’t share the good news with others. 

The late New Testament scholar, William Barclay believed that the third servant in the story was meant to represent the Pharisees. He says:

‘There can be no doubt that originally in this parable the whole attention is riveted on the useless servant. There can be little doubt that he stands for the scribes and the Pharisees, and for their attitude to the law and the truth of God. The useless servant buried his talent in the ground, in order that he might hand it back to his master exactly as it was. The whole aim of the scribes and the Pharisees was to keep the law exactly as it was. In their own phrase, they sought “to build a fence around the law.” Any change, any development, any alteration, anything new was to them anathema. Their method involved the paralysis of religious truth.’^[6]

If we look at this parable as Jesus rebuking and challenging the Pharisees, then the parable begins to make more sense to us. We see that the fault of the Pharisees wasn’t in their ability to keep the rich word of God that they were given, but rather they became so obsessed with keeping it that they failed to recognise what they knew God would want to be done with their gift, that is to share it with others. 

This reminds me of the modern parable of Good Will Hunting, told by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Will Hunting is this gifted genius who works as a janitor at MIT. Soon his genius is discovered, and he is pushed by others to enter a high-level career which uses his incredible brain. At one point in the story, whilst working on a building site with his best friend Chuckie, played by Ben Affleck, he says that he will still be doing this job and living in their same neighbourhood in Boston. To which, Chuckie says, ‘If you are still here in 20 years, I will kill you.’ ‘If you are still here in 20 years, I will kill you.’ He says to Will Hunting, ‘You are sitting on a winning lottery ticket and are too afraid to use it.’ ‘It’s an insult to us guys who will still be here when we are fifty.’ ‘I’d do anything to have what you’ve got.’

I’d do anything to have what you’ve got. Do you feel that way about God? Would you do anything to know God and to be in loving relationship with him? It is literally the greatest thing in the whole of existence, it was the whole reason we were made, to be loved by God and love him in return. Could you imagine if no one had told you about Jesus, and you die and get to the pearly gate and realise that your name is not on the list? But then you look over to the queue on the other side and see Mike from work who was a Christian, and you think, how could you not tell me? The full love, life and joy of God were on offer, and you didn’t tell me? You’d be outraged and deeply upset. You would do anything to have what Mike has. 

So it makes sense then that our Lord God is frustrated that his servants, the Pharisees, have been given the knowledge of God in the scriptures and the Jewish faith, yet they fail to grasp the purpose of their knowledge and understanding. They hold it as it was because of some ill-conceived notion that this will please their Lord. When in reality, all they are doing is preventing the spread of God’s kingdom. God’s love for us is bursting at the seams to break out among our towns and villages so that we may all know the love of God, and the Pharisees are trying to contain it. This is why the master is unhappy with his servant. He celebrates the servants who take what they have been given and do what they can with it. To these servants, he says, you have been faithful with what I have given you so far, so I can trust you with more as I know you can be faithful with it. 

When we are given the good news of Jesus and faithfully share it with others, God can give us more work and responsibility in sharing his message. So, my question for us today is: what do we do with the good news that Jesus gives us? What will we do with the good news that Jesus gives us? Will we share the good news, the rich love that God has given us? Or are we going to be like the Pharisees, who keep safe our knowledge of God in our tidy, neat Sunday morning box? God invites us to go out and share this gift with the world, and watch its impact grow, doubling the presence of the kingdom of God. You might think, but I can’t get up on a platform and talk to people, or you might think, I don’t actually see many people in the week. That doesn’t matter. Look at the parable and see how the servants are given ‘each according to his ability.’^[7] God knows us better than we know ourselves, and he won’t give us more than we can handle. He didn’t expect the servant with two talents to make five more. Rather he celebrated the two talents he gained like the first servant’s gain because they both represented faithful stewardship with what they were given. (Also, an 100% return on both sums is a great day for anyone). 

This week, look at what God has given you and who you might meet this week. What are the ways in which you can share the love of Jesus? It doesn’t have to be big; it’s about being faithful to God. Maybe you could show the love of God by staying late after work to help a colleague who is really struggling to get everything done so they can go home. That is sharing the rich love of God. Maybe you could chat to someone who is lonely, either in person or give them a call. That is sharing the rich love of God. Maybe it is doing your job as a teacher well so that kids learn and grow in a happy and encouraging environment. That is sharing the rich love of God.  

Whatever talent you have – and the wordplay is not wasted in the English language – whatever talent, skill, resource, time, or ability you have, share it faithfully and watch how the kingdom of God is spread so that this world may not be kept in darkness, but we may all be children of light. 

Amen. 

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^[1] Zephaniah 1:17 [NRSV].

^[2] Zephaniah 1:18 [NRSV].

^[3] Matthew 25:29 [NRSV].

^[4] Matthew 25:30 [NRSV].

^[5] William Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, 3rd ed, vol. 2 (Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press, 2001), 377.

^[6] Barclay, 2:377.

^[7] Matthew 25:15 [NRSV].