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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is big news breaking in the oil field! No doubt at least some of you have heard that Halliburton is trying to take over its smaller rival Baker Hughes. As a result, this past week Baker Hughes stock apparently went up nearly 20 percent. Twenty percent may seem to be a decent return on investment, but there is a much better return on investment in today’s appointed Gospel Reading. In the so‑called “Parable of the Talents”, two faithful servants, having traded with their master’s money, bring their profits of 100 percent. This morning we consider today’s Gospel Reading under the theme “Faithful Servants and Their Profits” (and that is not “prophets” spelled p-r-o-p-h-e-t-s but “profits” spelled p-r-o-f-i-t-s).
In Matthew chapter 25, today’s Gospel Reading comes immediately after last week’s Gospel Reading, and the two are closely connected. Last week we heard how, at the Lord’s final coming, the Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten virgins who, ready or not, took their lamps and went to meet a bridegroom. Jesus concluded last week’s parable by telling His disciples and us to “watch” or “be ready” for they and we know neither the day nor the hour of His final coming (Matthew 25:1-13). Our “watching” or “being ready” includes not only repenting of our sin and believing in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sin, as we heard last week, but, as we hear today, our “watching” or “being ready” also includes doing good works, for, in this week’s parable, the faithful servants produced profits.
Already earlier in this same Fifth Discourse of St. Matthew’s divinely‑inspired Gospel account, Jesus had asked who the faithful and wise servant was, and Jesus said that the servant’s master would come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and Jesus said that the master would put a wicked servant where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 24:45-51). In “The Parable of the Talents” we hear today, a man going on a journey called his servants and entrusted to them his property (his money or capital). At once, the two faithful servants traded with their master’s money and made their profits of 100 percent, but the third servant hid his master’s money, as if to secure it against theft and free himself from any liability for it. After a long time, their master came and settled accounts with them, praising the “faithful businessmen” (so Apology to the Augsburg Confession XXI:4, Tappert, 229) and condemning the wicked one. We do not want to get so caught up in finding correspondence for all the details of the parable that we miss its one main point: the judgment that is coming, on a day and at an hour we do not know, will be on the basis of faith as evident in our works.
In the parable, the man going on a journey entrusted his property in the form of “talents” to each of his servants according to the servant’s ability. The Greek word for “talent” literally refers to a specific weight or value of money, and the Greek word and its use in this parable give us both our English word “talent” and its more‑figurative reference to God‑given abilities. Yet, in the parable, the talents of money and the servants’ abilities are distinct, so the talents of money would seem to correspond to something else, if they correspond to anything in particular at all. The talents and how the servants made more by trading with them are not what seem to be important. What seems to be important is that the faithful servants made profits, while the wicked and slothful (or lazy) servant was worthless (or unprofitable). In telling the parable, our Lord Jesus surely both intended for His disciples to ask what kind of servants they were and intends for us to ask what kind of servants we are. Are we faithful and profitable? Or, are we wicked, lazy, and unprofitable?
At the time the Lord spoke the words of today’s Old Testament Reading through the prophet Zephaniah (1:7-16), there clearly were some people who thought that the Lord would not “do good” nor “do ill”, in other words, that the Lord would not come in judgment. Some think likewise in our time. So, the Lord spoke and continues to speak through Zephaniah of the great day of His coming as bitter, a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, and a day of trumpet blast and battle cry against those thought to be inaccessible and unconquerable. And so the day of the coming judgment of the Lord will be all those things for those who are wicked, lazy, and unprofitable—as we all are by nature, and so are deserving of death. When the Lord comes—or when we individually die, whichever comes first—then He will settle accounts with us. If He does not find us profitable by grace through repentance and faith in Him, then He will cast us into the outer darkness, where there will be eternal weeping and gnashing of teeth.
The profits of the servants in the parable proved their faithfulness. They did not enter into the joy of their master because they were profitable, but they entered into the joy of their master because they were faithful. Faithfulness that produced five talents and faithfulness that produced two talents met, as faithfulness that produced whatever interest the bankers might have given would have met, the same lavish reward of grace. So in the parable, and so in the Kingdom of Heaven. God the Father, out of His love for us and mercy on us, sent His only Son into human flesh in order to bear our sins to and to die on the cross. Now, out of grace on account of Jesus’s sacrifice for us, God freely forgives the sins of all who repent and believe. As St. Paul writes by divine inspiration to the Thessalonians in today’s Epistle Reading, “God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us so that … we might live with Him” (1 Thessalonians 5:1-11).
Some think Jesus spoke “The Parable of the Talents” specifically against Jewish leaders such as the scribes and Pharisees, as wicked servants, to whom much had been entrusted, and that may be. Some think Jesus spoke “The Parable of the Talents” specifically to His twelve disciples, as apostles, to whom much was being entrusted and through whom He would reap where He did not personally sow and gather where He did not personally scatter seed, and that also may be. For, through the apostles and their successors, pastors even today, our Triune God truly creates faith when and where He pleases in those who hear the Gospel—whether in preaching, with water in Holy Baptism, after private confession in individual Absolution, or with bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper. And, the stewards of those mysteries of God, the servants of Christ, are required to be found faithful (1 Corinthians 4:1). Yet, whether pastor or layperson, we all will face judgment on the basis of faith evident in the good works that we have done according to our respective vocations. (But, hearing the last part of Matthew chapter 25 next Sunday, we might ask how aware we are of those good works.)
The wicked, lazy, and unprofitable servant in the parable certainly understood how his master worked but seems to have misperceived him primarily as “a hard man” and feared him as a result. Some people today similarly misperceive God primarily as wrathful, which He certainly can be to those who do not repent of their sin and trust Him to forgive their sin for Jesus’s sake. Yet, we who are baptized, who repent and believe, who are faithful and profitable servants, have no reason to fear. God is not wrathful to us but merciful and gracious. If we do not have an abundant life here, we will certainly have it in the life to come. Already now, in the Lord’s Supper of Christ’s body and blood, we have a foretaste of the joy of our master to come. Time will tell what will become of Halliburton’s attempt to take over Baker Hughes and of their respective profits, and time will tell by our profits who all are faithful servants. Yet, we, who at this rail are strengthened and preserved in body and soul, know that in time our faith will not be found lacking. Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +