The Parable of the Talents

As is often the case while preparing for a message I am tempted to be drawn away from the target passage to another that relates in some way. This is often where I find inspiration for a post, although finding the time to write is a whole other situation. But I digress…

While I was preparing to preach on James 3:1-5b I was drawn toward the Parable of the Talents in Matthew chapter 25. This really grabbed my attention as James is talking about the teacher’s temptation to sin with their mouth and Jesus, in the parable, is talking about being faithful to use what our Master has given us to bring an increase back to Him.

But, as James is talking about pastors and teachers Jesus’ parable is more general, describing rather what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. In this case, “it” is like “a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property.” (Matt. 25:14, ESV) The parable goes on to describe three servants all given something of the master’s own abundance to manage and increase. The firsts is given the most, the second not as much as the first but more than the third, and finally the third is given the least. After the master returns he calls his servants to give an account of what they have done with the portions entrusted them. The first two are successful in doubling their portions, but the third buried his and although protecting it from being lost did not increase what he had been entrusted with.

There are a couple things that I was struck by when reading this parable. First, in his letter to the early church James very much emphasizes that the things that we do as Christians are the result of and fully connected to the reality of our faith. If our faith is not true, then we will not work in obedience to God and be fruitful. This is the parable of the talents. Those who truly believe, who truly have faith in the sovereign Master, are fruitful and bring an increase, but this too needs explanation or we may find ourselves naming and claiming or declaring financial increase as a birthright.

Am I Ready?

The parable of the talents is an explanation of what the kingdom of God is like. In Matthew 25 the preceding parable warned the listeners to be ready, it seems reasonable that this parable illustrates how to be ready or what “ready” looks like. This brings me to the second thing I see in this parable, and this is where I am convicted. Is the church in America ready? Am I ready? Well, what is ready?

The talents in the parable may not be so much the things we are able to do by way of our gifting and abilities. What if the talents are faith and salvation, the real gift that will continue on even after spiritual gifts pass away? (1 Cor. 13:8-10) What if what we have been given demands growth as a result of truly being present within us? In America we tell those who are gifted in business that they are to increase monetarily and give to the ministry as their part in the ministry, but is that in Scripture as a ministry function? Of course the ministry needs and operates off the generosity of those who support it, but is that all they should do? Throw some money across the pond to Africa and you’re all good; you've fulfilled your duty to the mission. I say no.

Upon This Rock

Many churches these days are like the third servant. Burying what they have and just trying to survive in the face of aggressive atheism and all the intolerance of Christianity’s absolutes in the name of tolerance.  This

is not acceptable. The church has a promise… “On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matt. 16:18, ESV) This confession (That Jesus is the Savior and King) requires our faith, and our faith requires our action. The only reasonable action in response to faith in a loving Father who sent His Son to die in our place is to proclaim that truth regardless the reaction of the world around us, because whether they want to hear it or not, they need to. They absolutely need to hear it, and it is our responsibility to tell them of this gift.

If we bury our talent, we cease to be fruitful and thereby cease to be an accurate representation of the Kingdom. In effect, we cease to be the church. No matter what happens in the society we are in and not of we are called to proclaim the Truth and live according to His ways. When the family structure degrades and morality declines in society this especially is the time the church needs to speak truth in love. When the church moves forward working toward the increase we can be assured that we will see it. We can have this assurance because nothing can stop the Kingdom from progressing forward.

So, if “being ready” means working toward an increase, are you ready? He may return at any moment, as no man knows the time or the hour. Will you be found able to present an increase to your master, or will you be found as lazy, missing the point of the gift, and in self-preservation mode? What say you, are you ready?

Mary and Easter

During the Christmas season I spoke on Mary and why we should not venerate (or worship) her but that we should hold her memory in great honor, as that is what the Scripture teaches. (Luke 1:42) One of the reasons that I tried to highlight as grounds for her deserving honor is her example of faith in the word of God. This is evident in how she received the message delivered her by the angel Gabriel. Her response was one of great faith as she submitted to God’s plan, “May it be done unto me as you have said.”(Luke 1:38)

As I began to study in preparation for Easter Sunday I was again reminded of Mary and the honor due her as the faithful mother of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I was struck by the events involving Mary that played out leading up to the crucifixion, and how these events, and Mary’s experience, provides us with the heart wrenching reality of the price our sin demands.

The first scene we are given to imagine is in Luke 2:22-35 where the priest Simeon blesses the baby

Jesus and prophesies over both the child’s mission and the mother’s experience in relation to it. The child, as we know, is destined for greatness beyond compare, and the mother’s heart will be pierced as a result. But the piercing is not without purpose. There will be those who will stan
d against Jesus’ purpose in providing salvation, and this opposition that reveals the division between those who are looking for God’s saving work and those who do not see the need for it will break Mary’s motherly heart. This effect on Mary I think illustrates God’s own heart in the division. Jesus said in Luke 13:34, in reference to Jerusalem and her resistance to those whom God sends her, “How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” I believe that Mary experiences this heart break as she stands weeping beside the Apostle John as Jesus breaths His last breath on Good Friday.

But Mary’s experience of her Son’s purpose in saving the world is not all heartache. About 21 years prior to His crucifixion they were in Jerusalem for Passover as a family. You can imagine Joseph and Mary with Jesus and all the brothers and sisters in tow heading up the hill to worship, as they did every year, for this most important of holidays. The service is reverent, the fellowship is uplifting, and the reminder of God’s faithfulness to save His people is inspiring, and as they are heading back home to Galilee, they realize they have forgotten something. Jesus is nowhere to be found. He’s not out playing football with His cousins or wrestling with His brothers, so it’s back to Jerusalem they go to find Jesus. Finally they locate Him in the Temple, and He is amazing. No one can believe the depth of understanding in the twelve year old boy. Luke 2:46 says that He was with the priests asking questions and listening. Often the most impressive intellect is that of one who asks the right questions, and Jesus thinks and digs deep into the Scriptures in this way. Aside from the frustration of losing your Son in the crowds of people while heading back to their lives after the holiday feast Mary must have been filled with pride and wonder. I know when my little girl comes home to show me an award she has earned I am filled with pride over this beautiful, intelligent little angel. At the same time I wonder how I am so blessed, because it isn’t because of me that she is so amazing.

Luke reports, after this story that “Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.” (Luke 2:52, ESV) And Mary, as His mother, was the recipient of the blessing of the increase in Jesus. This was some of the joy that filled her heart, as Jesus came into His purpose, and nothing can match the joy of His return from the grave and the realization of the extent of salvation He came to provide. He, as it turns out, is the very mediator of peace between God and all men. How do other mothers top that when they are all boasting of their child’s accomplishments around the water cooler!?

And we could go on to talk about Mary pressing Jesus to turn water to wine at

the wedding in Cana (John 2), or how Jesus, even while suffering on the cross for every crime ever committed (that He had no part in), was thinking of His mother and set John up to take His place and responsibilities as the eldest son (John 19:26-27). The point is Mary’s experience illustrates the normal Christian experience in some manner. We all must come to grips, as Mary did, that Jesus had to suffer for our sake, because we cannot save ourselves. We all, as Christians, experience the joy of Jesus increasing in stature and wisdom through us as we mature in the faith. We all, as Mary did, need to come to know the joys of the progression from glory to glory even while holding ever so close to the reality that Christ died for us who were His enemies. We all as Christians must come to the place where we behold the beauty of the cross of Christ even while having an acute awareness to the horror of it. And then, we can truly give our lives as worship, because He bore the burden so that we don’t have to. We are spared from experiencing the hell of the cross ourselves, even though it would be justice for us to do so. We celebrate Easter as we witness the mercy of God in one another as a changed people of God. And we can declare the unsurpassed mercy and love of God in Christ Jesus to a lost world as we move out from our pews this Sunday morning.

Easter morning, and every Sunday morning, is an opportunity to come together to witness the sorrow and the joys of the cross, and to recognize that while Mary’s sorrow in the experience turned to rejoicing so too can ours. It is our sorrow that it is our sin that put Jesus on the cross, but it is our joy too. We rejoice because our Father in Heaven put Him there instead of us. Mary’s heart was pierced by the opposition Jesus faced, and our hearts should be pierced at the realization that we were the ones who opposed Him. And Mary rejoiced at the news of His resurrection, and so too must we as we partake in the benefits of His victory this Easter.