Bible Text: Matthew 25 | Preacher: Pastor Christian Preus
The English word “talent” comes from Jesus’ judgment day parable of the talents. That’s ironic because Jesus’ parable of the talents has just about nothing to do with talent, how much you have or how well you use it. In the parable, the master gives his slaves talents (a talent was about a million dollars in our money) and then goes away. This is a picture of Jesus who ascends to heaven and gives all His riches to us and will come again to see what we have done with those riches. But what are the riches Jesus gives us? That’s the question. It’s not our talents. Obviously not. Like you’re really good at investing money or hunting or singing or an instrument and if you use it well then Jesus is going to come back and reward you with everlasting life. No. The clearest teaching in all God’s Word is this: you are not made right with God by what you do, but because Jesus Christ your Savior has made it right. He has made peace between you the sinner and God your Creator. The evil that you are and do, that separates you from God and causes your death and deserves the punishment of God, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, took on Himself, bore it, suffered it, died for it, and offers His perfect obedience and innocence and righteousness before God for you. You will stand before Jesus on the last day. He is the King of the Universe. He made it. He rules over it. He is completely holy. He hates all sin. And you the sinner will stand before Him and hear the words, “Come you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,” and you will stand and inherit, because you have trusted not in your works, but in His work, not in your talents, but in His riches, not in your birth, but in the new birth of Baptism where He named you His child and inheritor of all Christ won for you. On the last day, when the Son of Man comes in His glory, He will point to the works of His Christians, but not because they earned anything, but because they are proof that His Christians trusted in Him.
This is what you see very clearly in the parable of the talents. You have three slaves here. Two of them are so happy, so excited, to see their lord. They can’t wait to show him what they’ve been up to. The third absolutely dreads the coming of his master. And when the master comes, he calls him harsh, hard, and unfair.
This is a picture of the visible Christian church. Not of the world. These three men represent the people who go to church, belong to the church, claim to be Christians. They’re all slaves of the same master and they’ve all received riches from Him. And Jesus’ warning should hit us hard if we think about His returning and the end of this world and the judgment Jesus will render with dread. Because that means we have buried Christ’s riches out of sight and we are instead addicted to the pleasures of this world. And we think that if we lose them, we lose everything. But we need to know that Jesus is everything and to have Him is to have the good life on this earth and forever.
The man buries his talent. That means he buries Christ’s riches. He didn’t want to use them. He didn’t want to make them his life. They were an inconvenience to him. Jesus knows very well, because He dealt with it Himself with Judas, and He knows the hearts of all, Jesus knows very well that there are those outwardly attached to His church who bury the treasure He is and simply don’t care about it. It doesn’t shape their lives. They don’t treasure the forgiveness He gives, because they don’t think of their sins and grieve over them. They don’t pray to Him, look to Him in trouble, thank Him and rejoice with Him when He gives good things. And so the thought of Jesus’ return and facing Him scares them. First, because they don’t actually think it’s going to happen. He’s been gone too long. He’s not going to return. Maybe He never came or went away at all. To bury the riches is to forget about them altogether. But second, because His coming would mean the end of all the things they enjoy instead of Him. Because He isn’t their life. Everything else is. And Jesus coming, means an end to all that.
So you see this man accuse his master. I knew you were a harsh man. And the master doesn’t concede, he doesn’t say, Yes, I’m harsh, you got that right. No, He says, if I were harsh and you knew that, then why didn’t you at least put the talent in the bank and get some interest on it? The point here is why didn’t you do anything with the riches I gave you? What were you afraid of? Me? But I gave you all My riches. I loved you. I showed you nothing but good. The problem is not with the master, obviously. It’s with the slave who is supremely unthankful for everything his master gives him and blames the master for giving him anything in the first place. When he gives back the talent, he says take what is yours. Take take back this righteousness, I have my own, take back this treasure of forgiveness, I never wanted it in the first place, it has only burdened my life, made me think of my sins and my responsibilities and filled my life with worry and care. I don’t want it. And that is the unbeliever whom Jesus orders to be cast out into the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Because that’s what the man chose for himself.
But the two men who run to their master and show him what they’ve been up to, these are the picture of Christians. Not because they’ve done so many good things, but because they look forward to seeing their Lord. They know His character. They know He is good and kind. Because they have dealt all their life with His riches. They haven’t buried them, they’ve used them, day after day, week after week. They’ve sinned and the riches of His forgiveness has covered it, they’ve mourned over death, and His riches have given them life, they have seen happy and beautiful things in life, and they have known that those too came only from the riches He gave, they have borne their crosses and faced pain and heartache, and the wealth of His love has comforted them. They have used His riches, lived by them, and when you do that there is nothing but increase. And you may say, but all my good works are covered with sin, I see a lot of loss, but that is the point, where Jesus is, those sins are covered, gone, erased, washed away in the flood of His blood, and there is nothing left after that but gain.
What marks the Christian is that we look forward with longing to see our Lord Jesus. We are not afraid that He will judge us harshly. We are not afraid that He will point to our works and say you haven’t done enough. We aren’t afraid that He will be ashamed of us in that day. Because you know His character. You see Him on His cross, where He faces the shame and curse of sin and death for you. You see all the righteous and beautiful works that He has done, and you know He has done them all for you. And when this forms your life, you are free. You don’t need to worry about failure, about judgment, about hell, about death, about past sins. The treasure of Christ’s righteousness and life, He’s already given it all to you, and you build on that foundation, so you know that whether it’s five talents you give back, or two, or nothing at all – which you’ll find out is impossible, even if it is to your surprise – you will see in your Judge on the last day the same gracious Master who has judged you righteous and pure and a child of God by faith in His name. Amen.