Matthew 25:14-30 (click on the scripture to read it)
An Honest Day…for Honest Pay
Do you know how much minimum wage in Nevada? I didn’t. I had to look it up, and my lack of knowledge spoke to me right there. Minimum wage in Nevada is 7.25 per hour if you are receiving health benefits from your employer. It is 8.25 per hour if you are NOT receiving employer health benefits. If a worker is lucky enough to be able to work 8 hours in a day, their minimum wage job (without health benefits) would earn them $66.00 a day before taxes. A days wage in Jesus’ time was a denarii.
In today’s parable we don’t here about a denarii, we are introduced to the Talent. A Talent was equal to 6,000 days labor for the average worker…6,000 days worth of pay. A Talent was equal to working from sunup to sundown, 6 days a week for approximately 20 years. Due to the age at which someone would be old enough to earn a days wage and the time their health would prevent it, the average person might not even be able to put in 20 years worth of work in their lifetime.
The people who were listening to Jesus tell this parable fully understood a denarii. They relied on it for survival and they held it in their hand every evening when their work day was done. The concept of a single Talent was mindboggling and since five Talents would have equaled 100 years worth of work, that amount of money would have been unimaginable. A Talent is not something that an average person would have ever seen, not to mention held in their hand.
No matter how many Talents we are talking about, they all would be an equally mind blowing, out of this world amount of money… and since the listeners would not have even been able to wrap their minds around this kind of money, you can be assured that this parable is NOT about money, but something much more important.
In this story a wealthy man prepares for a journey by entrusting his estate to his servants; with each servant receiving their share according to their ability. After a long absence the wealthy man returns and discovers what each servant has done with his Talents. The first two slaves go out into the world and continue to do business with the master's money…they double it. Each of them performed according to their potential, and they have been faithful in doing what the master required of them. The master's response to each is the same. He commends the slaves for being good and faithful, and seeing that their Talents have grown, that their abilities have grown, he entrusts them with more and invites them to enter his "joy."
The third servant is not so fortunate. The third slave admits that he was afraid to lose the master's money. He even starts out by making excuses… To protect himself, he buried the talent in the ground. The master is furious. He had entrusted this servant with a portion of his property in order that the slave would use his abilities to create growth and live into his potential. This slave, however, was too afraid to take a risk and instead, he attempted to secure his own well-being. In the end his unfaithfulness to carry on the master's work cost him severely.
The master expected the servants to continue his business, to take risks in order to create growth, and to emulate his behavior. Two servants were found faithful, and they were rewarded. Their faithfulness had increased the master's wealth and expanded his estate.
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Jesus is doing everything he can to prepare his disciples for the day when he is no longer walking beside them. Jesus is trying to teach them the importance of continuing to take the “talents”, the gifts, and the lessons he has been teaching them and use them to grow his business; to grow the kingdom of God. Jesus knows that each of them has different abilities, but he wants them to know that each of their abilities is so great and mindboggling that their potential goes beyond anything they could ever imagine.
Like the early disciples, our abilities are great and our potential to grow and continue Christ’s work goes beyond our understanding. To live into our abilities we have to listen and pay attention to what Jesus is teaching: Jesus is saying, I will soon be gone and you will not know when I'll return. This is what you are to do while I'm gone…this is how you are to live while I'm gone. You are to take the talents, the lessons, the gifts, and the knowledge God has blessed you with and you are to double them…double them beyond your understanding. You are not to panic in fear and guard what God has given you... it is when you guard it and bury it for yourself that you begin to lose it…it hardens, dries up, and slips away. You are not to be afraid to take risks with your talents. Be faithful.
Faith is not about knowing all the answers; it is about being able to live in the mystery of God and to respond in that faith.
How are you responding and living into your faith while you are waiting for Christ’s return?
Is what you are doing creating growth in you or in others?
Are we as individuals and as a community using our abilities to grow our Master’s business?
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