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Nov. 19, 2017 | 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Kingdom
Matthew 25:14–30

I LIKE SYSTEMS that offer rewards. Check off requirements and you get a reward.

Earn so many points at Starbucks and you get a free drink.

There is a cycling organization called the Alabama Backroads Century Series. They encourage riders to ride designated 100-mile bike rides. For each completion the rider is awarded a medallion. I want one of those medallions. I keep saying I’m going to ride and get a medallion. Reward system — it’s what gets me on a bicycle and keeps me on a bike.

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I THINK A LOT OF PEOPLE look at this parable in our Gospel lesson for today and think that the “Kingdom of Heaven” operates like a rewards system. Compete this and get a reward. Double your talents and get a reward. Most of us have heard the version of this parable — the “talents” are abilities that you’ve been given to invest on behalf of the kingdom, and if you don’t use them, you lose them. But I don’t think that’s what this parable is about.

I think this is a reverse parable. We are to see this as irony. Jesus is talking about the opposite of what the kingdom is like. The king in Jesus’ parables often represent God. But this king is seems to be anti-God.

Why do I think that? Let’s look.

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IN THE FIRST PLACE, a “talent” in that day and time is a measurement of money, not what we might call gifts or abilities. In fact, a talent is an incredible fortune. A talent is equal to about 6,000 denarii. A denarius is the common laborer’s daily wage. So a talent is 6,000 days’ pay. That’s roughly 20 years wages for the average worker. Five talents, the largest amount entrusted to any of the servants, is comparable to one hundred years worth of labor. An extravagant amount of money.

If you pay close attention to the details, this parable is about earning rewards. You get five talents, you earn five more, and you get to keep all the money as a reward. You get two talents, you double that, and you get to keep all four. It’s very structured, very predictable. You do this, you get that. The rewards match the deeds; the merits match the achievements.

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BUT THERE’S A DOWN SIDE. “Underachievers” get thrown out and punished. The servant who got one fortune did nothing with it for fear of losing a great deal of money. That servant didn’t get to keep the original amount given because he didn’t live up to the requirements. The servant, called “worthless,” had taken away from him all he had. He was cast “into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

If you don’t use your talents wisely, this is more than “don’t use them, you lose them.” You will be cast into outer darkness.

Is that really what the “Kingdom of Heaven” is like? This landowner-god looks more like the “Wolf of Wall Street” than a loving creator and redeemer. So, listen to me. If this parable is not opposite, then the “kingdom of heaven” is about a strict system of earning rewards, and there’s not much room for grace or forgiveness or mercy.

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THAT DOESN’T SOUND much like the God revealed in Matthew. Let’s take a look.

Chapter 5: God blesses the poor in spirit. God blesses those grieving. Blesses the meek. Blesses those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. It doesn’t sound much like the God who demands achievements and doles out rewards.

Chapter 6: Does the king described “as a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed” sound like the God who feeds and clothes the birds of the air?

Chapter 7: Is he like the God who gives good things to those who ask like any parent does with a child?

Chapter 10: the God who cares so much about each one of us as to keep track of the very hairs of our head

Chapter 18: the God who seeks us out like a shepherd seeking one lost sheep because it is not God’s will that “one of these little ones should be lost.”

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WHAT DO YOU SAY? No! It doesn’t sound very much like we’re talking about the same God-king.

Nor does the idea of a kingdom that operates based on merit and rewards sound much like the kingdom Jesus talks about.

• In the Jesus-kingdom, there is nothing to earn — no merits or rewards to rack up.

• In the Jesus-kingdom, everybody gets the same gift — God’s full and free acceptance.

• In the Jesus-kingdom, the religious “underachievers” gain entry ahead of those who think they’ve racked up more spiritual points.

The Jesus-kingdom contradicts this parable of the talents. It is a kingdom that works completely contrary to the way things work in our world.
More importantly, if whether we “make it” or not in a spiritual sense is determined by a strict system of merit and reward, then the plain truth is that we’re all underachievers. On our own, none of us can ever earn free Starbucks, medallions, or approval. On our own, we’re all cast into darkness.

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BUT I THINK THAT’S Jesus’ point — the “Kingdom of Heaven” works completely differently from “The Parable of the Talents.” In this kingdom, there are no rewards. Everything is a gift.

• In the “Kingdom of Heaven,” everything depends on God’s love, which never fails.

• In the “Kingdom of Heaven,” everything depends on God’s grace, which always seeks us out.

• In the “Kingdom of Heaven,” everything depends on God’s mercy, which embraces us all completely.

— Keith Cardwell

(I got much of this from: https://thewakingdreamer.blogspot.com/2011/11/.)

Matthew 25:14–30
Holy Bible, New International Version

The Parable of the Bags of Gold
¹⁴“Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. ¹⁵To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag,^[^a^] each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. ¹⁶The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. ¹⁷So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. ¹⁸But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

¹⁹“After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. ²⁰The 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.’

²¹“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!’

²²“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.’

²³“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!’

²⁴“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. ²⁵So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’

²⁶“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? ²⁷Well 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.

²⁸“ ‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. ²⁹For 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. ³⁰And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ ”

— This is the Word of the LORD.

Footnotes:

a. Matthew 25:15 Greek five talents … two talents … one talent; also throughout this parable; a talent was worth about 20 years of a day laborer’s wage.