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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. (Amen.)
Britain’s got talent. America’s got talent. “You’ve got talent”. You may even have displayed your talent at some sort of talent show. If not being on stage, then maybe being in the audience is for you. For example, as part of its summer season, the Texas Shakespeare Festival has a popular “Talent Showcase”. The meaning of the English word “talent” as God-given abilities somewhat‑wrongly comes from today’s Gospel Reading, in which the word “talent” essentially transliterates a Greek word that refers first to a scale, then to a unit of weight, and finally to a sum of money weighing that weight. Modern monetary equivalents of the “talent” are difficult to calculate accurately, but we should note that even the servant who was handed one talent was entrusted with a considerable value. And, we should note also that, in the Gospel Reading, the “talents” are money handed-over to each servant, Jesus says, according to the servants’ “ability”—his “strength”, or “power”—which “ability” in the Gospel Reading is distinct from the money, though the “ability” is proportionately related to the money. Ultimately, not the servants’ abilities, nor the money, but their “master’s”—or “lord’s”—generosity and their faithfulness to Him result in their entering into his joy. And, the same is true for us: our Lord’s generosity and our faithfulness to Him result in our entering into His joy.
Today’s Gospel Reading is the second of arguably three “parable-like” teachings that Jesus spoke to His disciples privately while sitting on the Mount of Olives, after having spoken to them at roughly‑equal length in a more‑straightforward fashion about His coming and the end of the age (Matthew 24:1-51). First of the three was the so-called “Parable of the Ten Virgins” of last Sunday’s Gospel Reading, with its concluding command to “watch”, for we do not know the day or the hour of His return (Matthew 25:1-13). Second is the “parable” of today’s Gospel Reading, with its seeming conclusion that, when the Lord settles accounts, “to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away”. And, third will be Jesus’s in next Sunday’s Gospel Reading likening His separating people one from another to a shepherd separating the sheep from the goats (Matthew 25:31-46).
In each of the three “parable-like” teachings, there arguably is an outward manifestation that serves as the basis for judgment: the wise virgins were ready with flasks of extra oil in order to keep their lamps burning and so to go in with the bridegroom to the marriage feast; the good servants traded with the money and made more money and entered the joy of their lord; and the people who were the sheep treated the least of their brothers as the Lord and inherited the Kingdom prepared for them. Yet, of the three, perhaps only today’s Gospel Reading makes clear the inner motivation that leads to those outward manifestations. The servants entrusted with the greatest and middle amounts of money did well because they were good and faithful (or, perhaps, they were good in that they were faithful). The servant entrusted with the least amount of money wrongly “knew” his lord to be a hard man and so, instead of having loved and trusted his lord and so having used his ability (that the lord knew that the servant had) in order to trade with the money, the servant feared apparently his lord and only returned to him what was his, without even a minimal gain of interest from the bankers. That servant, we might say, did worthlessly because he was wicked and slothful (or, perhaps, he was wicked, in that he was slothful). The money was taken from him and was given to the servant who already had the most money.
Today’s Gospel Reading, with its initially mentioning giving to the servants according to their ability and its later mentioning taking from those who have nothing, always makes me think of the socialist slogan popularized by Karl Marx in the nineteenth century, though that slogan originates earlier, the slogan “From each according to his ability, and to each according to his needs”. (At least some of those people who favor socialism today conveniently seem to ignore how the first part applies to their working and paying taxes according to their ability, and instead they only want focus on the last part and have the government to freely give them everything in order to meet their needs.) Thank God that He is not a socialist! The Lord gives us according to our needs, and then He gives again and again and again! In the Gospel Reading, the lord already had made the men his servants, then he entrusted to them his property, and then he gave the faithful ones still more. Us, who are by nature wicked in that we are slothful and so do worthlessly—and so deserve death here and now and torment in the outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, for eternity—us the Lord, in Christ, makes good in that we are faithful, and so we do well. The God‑man Jesus Christ is the best in that He is most-faithful and so does best. Out of God’s great love for us even while we were still sinners, Jesus died on the cross for us, died in our place, died the death that we deserve, and then He rose from the dead. When, enabled by the Holy Spirit, we trust God, trust God specifically to forgive us for Jesus’s sake, then God does just that: He forgives us our sinful nature and all our sin for Jesus’s sake. Our God-given faith makes the difference, just as both of the faithful servants in the Gospel Reading, whose faithfulness was evident by their works, were given more and entered the joy of their Lord.
We repentant sinners are transformed as God works through His Word and Sacraments, giving us grace upon grace upon grace (John 1:16). We are made God’s children in Holy Baptism, which works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe God’s words and promises about Holy Baptism. At the Font many of us were first given access to the joy of our Lord. When particular sins trouble us, Holy Absolution comforts us with the forgiveness of sins from the pastor as valid and certain, even in heaven as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us Himself. Wherever we are when we receive that forgiveness, we hear joy and gladness, and the joy of Christ’s salvation is returned to us (Psalm 51:8, 12). And, in the Holy Supper, with its bread that is the Body of Christ given for us and its wine that is the Blood of Christ shed for us, at the Rail, we have, as the liturgy calls it, a foretaste of the feast to come with the fullness of the joy of our Lord.
Until we fully experience that joy, like those in today’s Gospel Reading, we apply our God-given abilities to the “trade” of the property of God that He entrusts to us, loving and serving God and our neighbors, in keeping with our various vocations in our families, church, and society. The Church sometimes speaks of our stewardship of time, talent, and treasure. And, truly the Church in some sense depends on our faithfully voluntarily using for the Church’s benefit both our God-given abilities and the property that God entrusts to us. One commentator suggests that God has neither given anyone more than he or she can handle nor given anyone less than his or her ability requires (Buls, ad loc Matthew 25:4-18, p.91). And, when we fail to apply our abilities to the “trade” of the property of God that He entrusts to us, or when we fail in any other ways, as we will fail, then, with daily contrition and repentance, we live in God’s forgiveness of sins. For, God has revealed to us, and so we “know”, that He is a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness (Exodus 34:6; Nehemiah 9:17).
Some of us know that before the more-recent television shows “Britain’s got talent” and “America’s got talent” there was “The Gong Show” and, even earlier, its radio predecessor the “Major Bowes Amateur Hour”. Whether or not you “show” off your talent, “You’ve got talent”—talent in the sense of both God-given ability and property that He entrusts to you. May we His re‑created servants remain good in that we are faithful and so use both our ability and His property well and so, at the last, hear our Lord’s invitation to enter the fullness of His joy.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +