Matthew 25: 14-30
Theme: Graduation
THE RISK OF FAITH
We have several folk graduating from High School and college. It is always exciting to finish school. It has been a long journey. A lot of hard work has gone into it and a lot of dreams and plans have been made for the future. So, the journey is not over, it is just beginning.
Right now, your lives are full of potential. You have many choices laid out before you. Some of them are well-worn highways while others are lonely paths and trails that few of us understand. You have lots of choices but each choice has a consequence. And as you get older, your choices become fewer and you can’t go back. So, what you choose is important.
How do you choose? That is a very good question. In fact, if we all asked that question and sought an honest answer, I think we would be less disappointed in life. You know that many, many people are disappointed with their choices. They get to my age and they look back to where they have been and where they can go from here and they are full of regrets because of lost opportunities, bad decisions and poor choices.
I suggest that you view life as a calling. God has planned your days and his choices are full of meaning and purpose. So, to figure out what choices to make and where you are going, you need to spend sometime in prayer seeking God’s wisdom. Ultimately, life is not about your judgments of you’re your achievements or about your parent’s judgments or your friends. It is about God’s judgments of your choices and your actions. So, what does God want you to do? God has given you all gifts, abilities, and talents to be used to fulfill your calling. What you do with these gifts, abilities and talents is how God will judge you.
This parable is a parable of judgment. It describes how God will judge us as to the use of gifts, abilities, and talents that he gives us and the opportunities that open before us. No matter what you end up doing, teacher, engineer, minister, architect, or just married, all of these are callings issued by God. Your choices are divine choices. So, they require the greatest dedication from you, the best effort you can offer to God.
Even though this parable is about money, it really is not about money. It is about the gift of life that God gives us. Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is like a man who goes on a long journey and he leaves his servants in charge. Please note that he gives to each one according to his ability. He did not give to anyone more than he could handle. Do you understand that God knows us, he knows our abilities, our gifts, and our talents? God does not hand you a job that you can't do and then give you ongoing pep rallies to keep you going. No, God gives you gifts for your life’s work. He has left his kingdom in your hands. A pretty awesome thought isn't it?
He gave one, five talents, another two talents and another one talent, each according to his ability. A talent was not a coin, it was a measure of weight. Most likely these were talents of silver. One commentator points out that one talent of silver was the equivalence of 20 years of the average working man's wages. The man with five talents had a hundred years of wages. The man with two talents had forty years worth wages. And even the man with one talent, though only one it was by no means insignificant, it was twenty years worth of wages. How would you like someone to give you twenty years worth of wages? Even though they had differing levels of ability, each one was given a significant amount of work and significant amount of responsibility.
What were they to do with all this money? They were to work it. The first two went to work immediately. Notice that they did not put the money in a bank. Rather, they put the money at risk. They traded, they put the money into business enterprise in order to make a profit. They understood that their master wanted them to take the risk. And this term risk is a key word, for the third man refused to take risk. He preferred to play it safe.
The third man had no self confidence. He forgot that it was not his money at risk. He forgot that he was merely a steward acting under orders of his master and if he invested his master's money and lost, he was only doing what he was told to do. He forgot that he acted in the name of his master and with the authority of his master so that when he made a business proposition, men knew that it was really his master that they would answer to. He had a lot more power and clout because it was his master's power and clout. No, he took that talent of silver and buried it in the ground.
The master returned and took an accounting of what his servants had done. The first one presented his five talents and said, see, I have gained five talents more. The master said to him, "Well done, good and faithful slave; you were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things, enter into the joy of your master." Notice what his master did. He praised him for his faithfulness. His master expected him to put his talents at risk in order to earn a return. Then his master gave him a reward by giving him more work to do, put him in charge of more wealth. The reward that he received was more responsibility, more work, But, notice by entering into the work of his master, he also entered into the joy of his master. His life earned meaning and purpose and joy because he put it at risk as the master ordered. Joy came in pleasing his master, in putting his master's gifts at risk. Joy came as a reward of faithfulness.
The same pronouncements were made to the second man who had two talents. He doubled his and the same reward was given to him. But, the man who received one talent man failed his master. He brought him the one talent that he had buried. "Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed. And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground; see, you have what is yours." His excuse was fear, I feared you, I feared myself, I feared the results. I feared you because you are a hard man, you take what is not yours, so it’s your fault, don't blame me. Here it is, here is your talent of silver. Be happy you got it back.
The master's reply? He called the servant wicked. If you really believed that I reap where I do not sow and gather where I did not scatter seed, then why did you not at least put it in the bank and earn interest. The master was not interested in holding his own. He was interested in making a profit. In his mind, it is either use it or lose it, there was no neutral ground. So, he took it from the wicked servant and gave it to the one who had five talents, called him worthless and cast him out of his kingdom. "For to everyone who has more shall be given and he shall have an abundance; but for the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away."
I want all you to succeed in life. But no one can live your life for you. You can get sidetracked and no one can get you back on track but you. You have to make the choices and you have to put in the work, the study and the effort to succeed in life. It really is about faith. You step out into the unknown and all you can do is trust that God is God and that he makes no mistakes. He does not give you gifts, abilities and talents to be wasted but to be used to his glory. It is up to you to take the risk of faith and put your calling to work. When you do, you will bring attention, not to your abilities, but to God’s greatness.
So, hit the road running and put your talents to work. Great joy is found in the risk of faith. The result is that one day you will hear those wonderful words, "Well done good and faithful servant."