Sermon for Pentecost 24: "The Good and Gracious Master"

 + 24^th Sunday after Pentecost – November 15^th, 2020 +

Series A: Zephaniah 1:7-16; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11; Matthew 25:14-30

Beautiful Savior Lutheran

Milton, WA

 

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

As I read Jesus’ Parable of the Talents this week, my grade school principal, Mr. Reidl at Trinity Lutheran. Every week he would pick a couple of students from 8^th grade to join him for lunch. That lunchtime invitation – even if you ended up in his office again under less jovial circumstances - gave us a chance to see and know him rightly.

 

Jesus tells the Parable of the Talents that we may see and know Jesus our Master rightly. That Jesus is our good and gracious Master. And that our good and gracious Master calls us to live as His good and gracious servants. 

 

For the reign of heaven will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 

 

One thing is clear from the start of this parable. Jesus isn’t sitting there like Scrooge counting our talents and demanding more, more! No. Jesus’ point is that the Master is good and gracious. Generous. He entrusts 5 talents. Two talents. One. All out of his own pocket. One talent alone was worth roughly 6,000 days’ wages, or 20 years’ salary. What's more, the master is personal in how he gives, and personal in what he gives. Not onerous or burdensome. He gives, “To each according to his ability”. And then he went away.

 

While the master is away, The servant who received 5 talents trades and makes 5 more. The servant who received 2 talents also doubled his master’s money. But the third servant takes his master’s talent and buries it in the ground. Rather strange, don’t you think? Why does the third servant act so differently from the first two servants? Jesus doesn’t reveal the answer just yet. That comes later.

 

After much time the master came to settle his accounts. This is the hinge upon which the story turns. The first two servants bring the master’s talents, along with the extra income they had earned. And the master commends them. Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ The good and gracious master invites them to receive even more of his gifts and joy.

 

Then came the third servant who had received the one talent. ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’

 

At this point, Jesus’ parable sounds like a judgment of works. As if the point of this story was “Work faithfully with what God has given you… or else.” But that’s not it at all. Remember, it’s about the good and gracious master.

 

So, why didn’t this third servant turn a profit? Or do business? After all, he had nothing to lose. It was his Master’s money, not his. And his Master gave no instructions, made no demands, set no profit margin goals. He simply sent out his servants to do business with his property and went away for a while. So why didn’t the third servant that shiny talent and bury it?

The tragedy of this parable is not the servant’s failure to serve. It’s not that he wasn’t faithful enough. It’s that he did not know the master rightly. He thought his master was harsh, cruel, and demanding, when in fact the master is good, gracious, and generous. Jesus’ point is this: to know Jesus our Master and Savior as good and gracious. That he is not a God who demands and takes, but who gives.

 

This is why he is cast out from the master’s presence. A picture of final judgment. Cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

 

The master’s words reveal that this third servant feared and rejected his master whereas the first two servants did not fear and loath their master. They knew him rightly. And so, the servant is spurned because he has spurned his master. 

 

Now we begin to see the answer to the question from the first part of this parable. Why the difference between the two kinds of servants? The third servant distrusted and did not know his master. So he refused to do anything at all. He was unfaithful to his identity as a servant, and to his master. I knew you to be a hard man, so I was afraid. 

 

We have this in common with this third servant. Not just our fears, but our failure to see and know Jesus our Master rightly. How often have we looked at what the happens in the world, or what politicians say and do, or the uncertainty of life in a pandemic, or economic worries, or anything else in creation – and think that our Master is cruel and hard and has forgotten us and that we havefailed to see our Master rightly, when in truth, he is good and gracious?

 

Now, if this parable, if the reign of heaven in Jesus, is all about our faithfulness and working for the master, then this would be a sad, miserable story indeed.

 

Thankfully, though, Jesus’ parable of the talents isn’t about our faithfulness or our failures, but about our Master Jesus, who is good and gracious. It’s about the gracious reign of heaven in Jesus.

 

Jesus tells this parable that we might see and know him rightly. Not as a taskmaster, but as our Savior. Not harsh and cruel but good and gracious. That we might see Jesus rightly. 

 

As the Master of all who became the Servant of all, for you. Jesus our perfect Master who was held captive in our sin that we might be his servants. Jesus our Master who was crucified for you so that we his servants are Reckoned. Accounted. Credited as righteous. The books are settled. The debt is paid. It is Finished. We live, just as the first two servants in the parable do – all by God’s generous, abundant grace and favor in Jesus crucified and risen for you.

 

In Jesus we have good and gracious Master who takes all of our fears, failures, and faithlessness and trades places with you on the cross that you receive his peace, love, and faithfulness.

 

In Jesus we have a good and gracious Master who entrusts his own gifts to you that you, like those the first two servants, would live in his love and service to others.

 

In Jesus we have a good and gracious Master who speaks not a word of condemnation, but commends you to the Father. ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 

 

In Jesus we see God rightly as our good and gracious Master. Today. Tomorrow. Forever.

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.