Mt 25:14-30 Good and Faithful Servants

Mt 25:14-30  Good and Faithful Servants

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Jesus said to his disciples:  “For to everyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

What does it take to get on Christ’s good side?  Trying.

Master, you gave me five talents.  See, I have made five more.  Originally, the word “talent” referred to money.  Today, it has been used to represent a gift or an ability given to us by God.    This is what the Lord wanted to convey to his disciples.  They had received the gift of faith.  Now, they were to go out and give it away; give it to all who would accept it.  Are you trying?  Are you really trying?  Do sweat or tears (and occasionally blood) come forth from your effort?  We often assume that if the Lord gave us a talent, then it must be for our own benefit.  But knowing the Lord, and all that he said and all that he did, I don’t buy it.  Rather, I would say that if the Lord gave us a “talent”, it was to teach others a better way of doing things.  The talent was meant to be shared.

Yesterday, I watched on Sci TV a documentary on the Apollo missions.  When the Apollo 11 astronauts returned to earth, after having landed on the moon for the very first time, they took a tour around the world.  They were shocked at how people, from the various countries, would come up to them and say, “We did it!!!”  It was this “we” that first shocked them, but also helped them to put things in a very new and much needed perspective.  It wasn’t the United States that did it.  It wasn’t Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin that did it.  It was mankind that did it.  It was their mothers and fathers that did it.  It was their ancestors that did it.  It was the engineers that did it.  It was the world that did it.  It was God that did it and made it all possible.

Master, I went off and buried your talent in the ground.  Here it is back.  Who is the wicked and lazy servant?  The one who doesn’t even try.  What does it take to get on Christ’s bad side?  Stop trying or don’t even try. 

Go ahead and blame as many people as possible for the state of life you are in.  See if that makes things better!  Make every single possible excuse for your miserable existence.  Create your own pitiful story.  Now, I have no sympathy for British Royalty, but let’s see... Prince Harry didn’t have enough, so he had to go looking for what was missing.  And so in a single day he ruined the family name he inherited.   Queen Elizabeth didn’t have that privilege.  When she was a child, she didn’t have time to party.  She was too busy working as an emergency worker during World War II.  But here comes Prince Charles and then Prince Harry, who received just as much as grand-ma-ma, but considered themselves superior enough to ruin the family name they had nothing at all in doing in building up.  Oh, the price of privilege! 

In today's parable, the servant was scared at his master because he knew his master was a demanding man.  So we are now suppose to believe that it was all the master’s fault. 

How convenient...It’s no longer the student’s fault; it’s the demanding teacher’s fault.  It’s no longer the child’s fault.  It’s the school’s fault.  It’s no longer the parent’s fault, or the husband’s fault or the wife’s fault.  It’s everybody else’s fault!  It’s not that we are spending more than we are taking in; it’s that we aren’t paying our fair share of taxes that got us into the huge deficit we are in.  I get it!!!  Bury your head in the sand and blame everyone for not getting you out. 

I hate to ask this, but what is “fair”?  And why is it not fair today but it was yesterday?

Ugh!!!

The Lord does not appear to be too preferential towards the poor today:  “For to everyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”   To me, it sounds like the Lord is saying, “Where much is given, much is expected.  And where much is lost, an account as to what happened will be demanded. 

If this is true, then anyone can be a wicked and lazy servant, regardless of their social standing.  And anyone can be a good and faithful servant, regardless of their social standing.