Matthew 25:14-15,19-29
God given resources are not meant for the safety deposit box

“So I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground.” Today when we talk about talents we immediately think about ones’ ability to sing, paint, entertain, or just something that someone can do which most others cannot do. However, if we look at the talents that are mentioned in this parable as ingrained abilities of an individual, in all likelihood we will not be able to get beyond the feeling that the Master is indeed unreasonably harsh. We all have invisible gauges to measure people as very talented, somewhat talented, and of course the ones that fall off our gauge as mere ordinary and untalented people. So, we may say of the so-called “untalented” people “what do you expect?” In other words, we dare to say that God sets them up for failure. So, along the same lines, we can ask why should the servant with the one talent not grumble? But then, Jesus is not talking about talents as the abilities that we understand them as today. The talent in the parable is the measure of money in those days, and he is talking about how that resource was expected to be used or invested. The parable actually says that the talents were given according to the abilities of the servants. We know that abilities develop only over a period of time, they have to be learned and sharpened and only then can we call them abilities. So if the talents were given out according to the abilities of the servants, the Master was in fact making sure that the servant with the one talent was not set up for failure. He was given one talent because the Master knew he had the ability to oversee and grow that one talent. The understanding is that the ability to handle more talents would come if he used that one talent wisely. As I have mentioned in one of my earlier sermons, one talent during Jesus’ time was equivalent to 15 years of wages for an ordinary citizen. So, now we know that the third servant was not necessarily complaining about some pocket change that the master had entrusted to his care.

Those of you who own or run a business know for sure that employees have to prove themselves in order to be trusted with larger responsibilities. There is always a progression from one level of employment to the next depending on how responsibly one handles the company’s interests. Who knows after how many years of service the Master gave the third servant the lesser amount of responsibility. But according to conventional wisdom I would trust that the Master knew all his servants well just as he knew what needed to be done with his business when he was gone.

As soon as we read what the third servant had to say to the Master we know that there was a certain level of mistrust and suspicion on the part of the servant toward the Master. And if that is the attitude the Master had been dealing with in the first place, I can understand why this servant was entrusted with a lesser amount of money. But the point is that the Master went ahead and gave this disgruntled servant the opportunity of his life to prove himself as someone who could be trusted to expand his masters’ interests. That great opportunity was received but never made use of. Instead, the servant chose to linger in his presumption about the Master as a harsh man, resentful that he was not given more. The man was given the opportunity not only to prove himself but also to build a more trusting relationship with the Master, but he just could not allow himself to get past his fears and insecurities.

Fear has a way of not only crippling the individual, but also an organization, a community, a country, a vision and everything else that shows life and hope. Fear is one of our most powerful emotions and if we allow it to, it can take over our lives preventing us from taking steps toward growth. I am sure all three servants felt some level of fear at the enormity of the responsibility given to them. But the servant who was given one talent allowed his fears to take over instead of seeing the opportunity and hope in what was given to him. He became so afraid that he convinced himself into believing that he was keeping his Master’s money “safe” by keeping it buried underground. I am sure if his Master wanted to bury his money, he could have done it himself. That talent was given to be used and invested.

God does not give us blessings to be kept in safe deposit boxes. But more often than not, we are very good at finding excuses not to share or invest God’s blessings in ventures that will grow God’s Kingdom. We are afraid that God will expand our resources beyond our recognition, beyond our control, beyond our comfort zone, so instead we convince ourselves to be “safe” in what we know. The servant accuses the Master of reaping where he did not sow, and gathering where he did not scatter seed. Are you kidding me? Did the servant not receive 15 years worth of wages to invest? Was he asked to put even an hour’s worth of pay from his own pocket to invest? Every single penny we earn is a blessing from God; every good relationship is a gift from God; every single day of good health is God’s mercies to us; every nail on the roof of our homes has been put with God standing by our side; and every good deed we have done has been possible only because of God’s transforming presence in our midst. And I know that just like the third servant, we all understand mentally that everything we have is from God, but when it comes to doing something with what God has given us, we would rather play it safe.

One of my uncles is a great gardener. He especially loves fruit trees, and at some point he got hold of an apricot sapling from another state. He had the only apricot tree in town and when it started giving fruits neighbors and friends came to taste the fruit. Very soon he had everyone asking for saplings from him. He carefully nurtured and produced saplings and soon most people had their own apricot tree. What intrigued me most was that the saplings were not from the apricot seeds, he carefully cut off smaller branches from the tree, made cuts on larger branches and crafted in the smaller branches unto the cuts. Soon the crafted branches sprouted roots and behold he had the saplings ready! He was fearless in making the cuts on the larger branches and I thought he should be protecting the tree since it was the only apricot tree in town. But my uncle knew better. His first tree died after many years of bearing fruits and producing saplings, but there were many more apricot trees in town by then. If he had not taken the trouble to grow the saplings, many of our townsfolk would never have tasted and enjoyed apricots.
What are we doing so others can come to taste and know Christ? What are we doing with the talents or the resources God has given us? Are we ready to take the resources He has given us to invest for the extension of His Kingdom? Are we ready to take risks for our Lord and Savior who risked his own life so that we could be redeemed and reconciled with God? May God be merciful to us and take away our fears, may all our hopes be in God alone, and may He give us the grace to trust in His undivided love for all people. Amen.