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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.
At one time or another, we all may joke about the final reckoning. For example, just this past week, I jokingly said to a pastor whom I had asked to give me a reference to the District, if it was needed for my nomination to serve on a District board, that some day he might have to give me a reference at the Pearly Gate. All joking aside, the final reckoning is no laughing matter, as Jesus makes clear in the Gospel Reading appointed for today, with its so-called “Parable of the Talents”, in which two faithful servants enter into the joys of their master (or, “lord”) and one unfaithful servant is cast into the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. This morning we consider the Gospel Reading, directing our thoughts to the theme “The Coming Lord and His Faithful Servants”.
In the Gospel Reading, Jesus is continuing to teach about the last things, things like His coming again in glory to judge the living and the dead. Earlier Jesus had pronounced blessed the faithful and wise servant who is doing what he is supposed to be doing when his master (or, “lord”) comes (Matthew 24:45-46). Then Jesus told the “Parable of the Ten Virgins” that we heard last week, ending with His call for His disciples essentially always to watch and so be ready, because they do not know the day nor the hour of the Lord’s coming. Jesus seems to be elaborating that call to watch with the “Parable of the Talents” that we heard today, as if to say that watching involves not only being ready for His coming but also faithfully doing what we are supposed to be doing when He comes.
In the parable, a man going on a journey called his servants and entrusted to them, according to their abilities, different but still considerable amounts of money. We are not told what the man said to them, but the good and faithful servants understood the situation and, having immediately journeyed, worked with and essentially doubled the money, perhaps with the expectation of getting to keep some or all of the money. However, the wicked and slothful, worthless unfaithful servant, having gone out, dug in the ground and hid his master’s (or, “lord’s”) money, perhaps out of an abundance of caution, to try to keep the money from being stolen, and to not be responsible if the money was stolen (Jeremias, Parables, 61). Apparently he did not understand the situation or consider the money entrusted to him, and ultimately he wrongly blamed and mischaracterized his master (or, “lord”).
Are we good and faithful servants with all that our Lord entrusts to us, according to our abilities, to work with before He comes the final time? Or, are we wicked and slothful, worthless unfaithful servants? Do we understand the situation and consider what God has given as entrusted to us? Or, do we wrongly blame and mischaracterize Him? Surely we all sin in regards to faithfully doing what we should be doing with all that our Lord entrusts to us, as we all sin in countless other ways, for we are sinful by nature. As today’s Psalm put it (Psalm 90:1-12; antiphon v.17), the Lord sets our iniquities before Him, even our secret sins in the light of His presence. On account of our sinful nature and all of our sin, we deserve to be returned to dust, as the Psalm says the Lord orders us to return (confer Genesis 3:19). When the Lord comes to settle accounts with us, we, like the wicked and slothful, worthless unfaithful servant in the parable, deserve to be cast into the hell of outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Like those in today’s Old Testament Reading (Zephaniah 1:7-16), we deserve condemnation, but, as the Lord inspired Zephaniah to also report, the Lord has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated (or, “made holy”) His guests. The Lord calls and enables us to repent of our sin and be forgiven by grace through faith, regardless of the quantity of works that our faith produces.
Such is the true character of our Lord! He is not hard, reaping where He did not sow and gathering where He scattered no seed, but He is merciful and gracious, abounding in steadfast love! He sows and scatters His seed and so reaps and gathers everywhere (Matthew 13:1-9)! He graciously entrusts to His servants great resources, and those who are faithful He welcomes into His joys. But, it all starts with God! As we heard in today’s Epistle Reading (1 Thessalonians 5:1‑11), God has not destined us for wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ Who died for us. Out of His great love, the God-man Jesus Christ took to the cross the sins of the whole world, including your sins and my sins. There He died for us, in our place, the death we and all people deserved. When we repent of our sins, then God forgives us. God forgives our sins of unfaithfulness with what He has entrusted to us. God forgives all our sins, whatever our sins might be. All who repent and trust in Him are righteous for Christ’s sake, paid the same regardless of time worked, as it was in the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard earlier in St. Matthew’s Gospel account (Matthew 20:1-16), or, in the case of the Parable of the Talents today, all who repent and trust in Him are perfectly good and faithful in their use of His resources, and so they are welcomed into His joys.
Those joys of the master no doubt include a festive dinner or banquet (Roehrs-Franzmann, ad loc Matthew 25:21, p.38), like that festive dinner or banquet of the Messiah (Davies and Allison, ad loc Matthew 25:21, p.408). In what is called a foretaste of the feast to come, already now we feast on bread that is the Body of Christ given for us and on wine that is the Blood of Christ shed for us, and so we receive forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. We come to the Sacrament of the Altar not dressed in foreign attire, like that mentioned in the Old Testament Reading (confer Matthew 22:11-13), but we come clothed in Christ’s righteousness, given to us in our Baptisms. And as baptized children of God, we privately confess to our pastors the sins that we know and feel in our hearts, for the sake of individual Holy Absolution, forgiveness from the pastor as from God Himself.
Referring to today’s Gospel Reading, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther makes much of the fact that the man going on a journey first “called” his servants, which call Luther relates to a pastor’s Divine call to preach the Gospel and to administer the sacraments (for example, Luther, ad loc Galatians 1:3, AE 27:167). Indeed, in the Gospel Reading, our Lord Jesus is primarily speaking to His twelve disciples, His apostles, whom He sends out as His authoritative representatives, and whose successors are pastors today. Of course, gathered around Jesus, the Twelve also represent the Church, and, in the Gospel Reading, our Lord Jesus is not only speaking to those who would be and are pastors, but He is also speaking to everyone else. To everyone the Lord entrusts great resources, according to their abilities. Our lives, moments, days, hands, feet, voices, lips, silver and gold, intellect, wills, hearts, love, and our very selves (Lutheran Service Book, 783) only appear to be our own but in fact are His entrusted to us, and we faithfully let Him work in and through us and all those things to His glory (confer Romans 12:6). When He ends our earthly lives, or when He comes to settle accounts with us, whichever comes first, we enter into His joys by grace through faith in Jesus Christ; our Lord sees as good and faithful in Christ, our works giving evidence of that faith. And, whatever else the Lord might entrust to us as part of our eternal vocations (see Gibbs, ad loc Matthew 25:14-30, p.1336), or whatever differences there might be, not in our bliss, but in our degrees of glory (confer Stephenson, CLD XIII:131), we will not care, for we will be free of our sinful nature and so free from all envy and jealousy.
The Day of Reckoning is no laughing matter, but it also is not something of which believers should be terrified. In light of today’s Gospel Reading, this morning we have considered “The Coming Lord and His Faithful Servants”. As in the Parable of the Talents, the coming Lord has entrusted to us great resources, and He forgives our unfaithfulness and makes us His faithful servants. Let us so faithfully serve Him in all of our vocations now and look forward to whatever our service to Him might be for all eternity.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +