Don't be fooled, a new world is dawning
Matthew 25.14-30 (Proper 28A, 2Bf Advent)
I stand before you contrite. I have to tell you that I've got it wrong. That the gospel has come as a shock to me - again! That's what Jesus does. Time and time again. I rest easy, thinking that God's ways are obvious; that really I've got it taped; that it comes down to what is reasonable, to what fits, to what I expect. Then bang! There's a shaft of light brighter than any firework and suddenly I realize I'm in the dark when I thought I was in the comfortably glowing light.
The gospel sheds a light that's startling, unexpected, different, shaming, profound, liberating, that comes as a new thing- literally gospel - good news. You're in for a shock.
As Walter Brueggemann puts it somewhere: 'I have news for you. That a new world is dawning in the mess of this broken world.'
It dawned on me by realizing this is a really difficult parable - and I do mean really difficult. The first mistake is to think this parable easy:
I've heard it said, "The parable of the talents spells out what watchfulness consists in: carrying out the Lord's
instructions to the best of one's God-given ability. God has given each of us special gifts (talents). If used well these talents will enrich our own lives and the lives of others." Indeed I've taught this parable along those lines so many times and I was wrong.
Think about it. Who is the Lord in the parable? He is a thoroughly nasty guy that's who he is. He is the one to swan off to secluded hideaway in the Maldives while his minions struggle. He is the absentee overlord who takes full advantage of other people's labours and struggles. He is one whose wealth is so great recession means not a lot. Why should he worry? He has his millions, his trillions. He is tyrannical, harsh, and unforgiving, "I knew you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you didn't do anything to earn it."
You see we've got to get out of the mind set that sees the Lord in this story as some kind of benevolent capitalist - a kind of first century Cadbury or Rowntree. We have to try to think ourselves into a Palestinian peasant in the ancient world long before our economic system came into being. The categories that operate in this parable are quite different from the ones we understand, quite different from the ones that render this parable easy.
Also we have to be clear that this parable focuses on money, not skills or abilities.
Money makes the world go around,
the world go around,
the world go around,
Money makes the world go around,
it makes the world go round.
A mark, a yen, a buck or a pound,
a buck or a pound, a buck or a pound,
Is all that makes the world go around,
that clinking clanking sound,
Can make the world go round.
(Liza Minnelli singing in Cabaret)
When Jesus says talents he means a unit of money - the word talanton in common Greek meant scales, so a talent was a quantity of precious metal weighed out on a balance. This is money, and what money! Say, in very rough terms, 6000 denarii or pennies to talent, where each denarius equals an agricultural labourer's daily wage. So the first slave gets 5 talents, say equivalent to tens years labour; the second two, say four years; and the third one, maybe two years work equivalent. In today's terms what? £200,000, 80,000 and 40,000. This is big stuff in a world where all resources very limited.
A first century peasant lived in a world where all goods and indeed all good were experienced as
strictly limited. They had no sense whatsoever of economic growth as we have. A thought that even today comes hard in many places where subsistence farming or foraging is still the way of life. This notion that there is only so much and it has already been divided up means that seeking more is always wrong because it means someone else has to lose. The honourable thing is to maintain what you've got, to seek neither loss nor gain. In this way of looking at the world acquisition by its very nature is stealing. So Saint Jerome in the fourth century wrote, "Every rich person is a thief or the heir of a thief." In the ancient world the notion of an honest rich man is an oxymoron.
Then the terms rich and poor were descriptions of social and moral circumstances as much as economic
ones. The rich had the power and capacity to take from someone weaker what was not rightfully theirs.
The poor were unable to defend what was rightfully theirs. The poor cannot be granted honour are therefore socially weak; the rich are greedy and shamelessly strong. Power brought wealth (whereas in our day wealth buys power). Being powerless meant being vulnerable to the greedy who prey on the weak.
These are the facts of the social world from which the parable comes: a tyrannical overlord, huge sums of money, and a view of resources as limited. How they change what the parable says!
The first two slaves are determined to get a slice of the action. In fact they are just like their overlord. From the peasant's point of view they robbers who co-operate with their oppressor in extortionist schemes to steal resources that should rightfully stay with others. This shamelessness is rewarded by the overlord on the day of reckoning - like him they were vicious enough and ruthless enough to wrest resources from others.
The third slave, on the other hand, did what a responsible free person would have done. He acted honestly because he refused to participate in the rapacious schemes of the overlord. He did the right thing - rabbinic law said that burying a deposit was the safest way to care for someone else's money; indeed if a loss occurred the one who buried it had no liability because the responsible thing had been done.
Of course from the Lord's point of view the third slave is wicked and lazy so the money is taken
from him and given to the one who embezzled most. Just as every powerless peasant knows - those with more get more and have it in abundance, while those with nearly nothing have even that taken away from them. The slave who secured the one talent is shamed as worthless. The rich can be counted upon to be true to form - they take care of their own.
This is news. Stirring, uncomfortable, disconcerting news. The corruption of the world is plain to God: a world in which the poor get poorer and the rich get richer. Jesus gives it to us explicitly in verse 29: "to all who have, more will be given, but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away." In
other words, "the rich get richer, and the destitute lose everything." Yes, the one who does the right thing will often be condemned; and illicit gains and underhand dealing will often go rewarded. But awake sleeper! For a new world is dawning in the mess of this broken world.
Is the behaviour of the Lord something that God would commend, let alone imitate? Is this kind of behaviour Jesus expects of God's people? Certainly not! If you've got any doubts of that, read what comes immediately after: the story of the separating of the sheep and goats, which tells us that when the Son of Man comes, judgement will not be on the basis of how much money we made, or for that matter on how religious we were or whether we prayed rightly, but rather on whether we saw that the least of our sisters and brothers in the human family, whether in or out of prison, had food, clothing, and health care. We serve Jesus himself to the extent that we do these things, and we neglect Jesus himself to the extent that we don't.
This is news. Stirring, uncomfortable, disconcerting news. The one condemned is the one who did the right thing. The slaves who made the profit are the corrupt ones whose final end is sure. Perhaps you think this a fanciful interpretation - well it goes right back to Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea at the beginning of the fourth century, so I have some claim of support.
This is news. We shouldn't be like the Lord in the parable because the world in which people like that come out on top is passing away. Jesus is bring his work in the world to completion; God's kingdom is coming and God's will will be done on earth as it is in heaven, as Jesus taught us to pray.
The live question for us is whether we can really believe that, if we really can trust in that enough to risk living as Jesus taught us rather than kowtowing to the demands of those who try to set themselves up in Jesus' place as our lord, who try to enslave us to worldly standards by telling us that our security is in acquiring resources for ourselves and striking out at our enemies.
I have news for you. Don't be fooled. A new world is dawning in the mess of this broken world.
For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
For more on first century Palestinian society see Bruce J Malina and Richard L Rohrbaugh, Social-Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospel (2003, 2nd edition), Fortress Press, Minneapolis, from which work the social commentary given here was taken.
The gospel sheds a light that's startling, unexpected, different, shaming, profound, liberating, that comes as a new thing- literally gospel - good news. You're in for a shock.
As Walter Brueggemann puts it somewhere: 'I have news for you. That a new world is dawning in the mess of this broken world.'
It dawned on me by realizing this is a really difficult parable - and I do mean really difficult. The first mistake is to think this parable easy:
I've heard it said, "The parable of the talents spells out what watchfulness consists in: carrying out the Lord's
instructions to the best of one's God-given ability. God has given each of us special gifts (talents). If used well these talents will enrich our own lives and the lives of others." Indeed I've taught this parable along those lines so many times and I was wrong.
Think about it. Who is the Lord in the parable? He is a thoroughly nasty guy that's who he is. He is the one to swan off to secluded hideaway in the Maldives while his minions struggle. He is the absentee overlord who takes full advantage of other people's labours and struggles. He is one whose wealth is so great recession means not a lot. Why should he worry? He has his millions, his trillions. He is tyrannical, harsh, and unforgiving, "I knew you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you didn't do anything to earn it."
You see we've got to get out of the mind set that sees the Lord in this story as some kind of benevolent capitalist - a kind of first century Cadbury or Rowntree. We have to try to think ourselves into a Palestinian peasant in the ancient world long before our economic system came into being. The categories that operate in this parable are quite different from the ones we understand, quite different from the ones that render this parable easy.
Also we have to be clear that this parable focuses on money, not skills or abilities.
Money makes the world go around,
the world go around,
the world go around,
Money makes the world go around,
it makes the world go round.
A mark, a yen, a buck or a pound,
a buck or a pound, a buck or a pound,
Is all that makes the world go around,
that clinking clanking sound,
Can make the world go round.
(Liza Minnelli singing in Cabaret)
When Jesus says talents he means a unit of money - the word talanton in common Greek meant scales, so a talent was a quantity of precious metal weighed out on a balance. This is money, and what money! Say, in very rough terms, 6000 denarii or pennies to talent, where each denarius equals an agricultural labourer's daily wage. So the first slave gets 5 talents, say equivalent to tens years labour; the second two, say four years; and the third one, maybe two years work equivalent. In today's terms what? £200,000, 80,000 and 40,000. This is big stuff in a world where all resources very limited.
A first century peasant lived in a world where all goods and indeed all good were experienced as
strictly limited. They had no sense whatsoever of economic growth as we have. A thought that even today comes hard in many places where subsistence farming or foraging is still the way of life. This notion that there is only so much and it has already been divided up means that seeking more is always wrong because it means someone else has to lose. The honourable thing is to maintain what you've got, to seek neither loss nor gain. In this way of looking at the world acquisition by its very nature is stealing. So Saint Jerome in the fourth century wrote, "Every rich person is a thief or the heir of a thief." In the ancient world the notion of an honest rich man is an oxymoron.
Then the terms rich and poor were descriptions of social and moral circumstances as much as economic
ones. The rich had the power and capacity to take from someone weaker what was not rightfully theirs.
The poor were unable to defend what was rightfully theirs. The poor cannot be granted honour are therefore socially weak; the rich are greedy and shamelessly strong. Power brought wealth (whereas in our day wealth buys power). Being powerless meant being vulnerable to the greedy who prey on the weak.
These are the facts of the social world from which the parable comes: a tyrannical overlord, huge sums of money, and a view of resources as limited. How they change what the parable says!
The first two slaves are determined to get a slice of the action. In fact they are just like their overlord. From the peasant's point of view they robbers who co-operate with their oppressor in extortionist schemes to steal resources that should rightfully stay with others. This shamelessness is rewarded by the overlord on the day of reckoning - like him they were vicious enough and ruthless enough to wrest resources from others.
The third slave, on the other hand, did what a responsible free person would have done. He acted honestly because he refused to participate in the rapacious schemes of the overlord. He did the right thing - rabbinic law said that burying a deposit was the safest way to care for someone else's money; indeed if a loss occurred the one who buried it had no liability because the responsible thing had been done.
Of course from the Lord's point of view the third slave is wicked and lazy so the money is taken
from him and given to the one who embezzled most. Just as every powerless peasant knows - those with more get more and have it in abundance, while those with nearly nothing have even that taken away from them. The slave who secured the one talent is shamed as worthless. The rich can be counted upon to be true to form - they take care of their own.
This is news. Stirring, uncomfortable, disconcerting news. The corruption of the world is plain to God: a world in which the poor get poorer and the rich get richer. Jesus gives it to us explicitly in verse 29: "to all who have, more will be given, but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away." In
other words, "the rich get richer, and the destitute lose everything." Yes, the one who does the right thing will often be condemned; and illicit gains and underhand dealing will often go rewarded. But awake sleeper! For a new world is dawning in the mess of this broken world.
Is the behaviour of the Lord something that God would commend, let alone imitate? Is this kind of behaviour Jesus expects of God's people? Certainly not! If you've got any doubts of that, read what comes immediately after: the story of the separating of the sheep and goats, which tells us that when the Son of Man comes, judgement will not be on the basis of how much money we made, or for that matter on how religious we were or whether we prayed rightly, but rather on whether we saw that the least of our sisters and brothers in the human family, whether in or out of prison, had food, clothing, and health care. We serve Jesus himself to the extent that we do these things, and we neglect Jesus himself to the extent that we don't.
This is news. Stirring, uncomfortable, disconcerting news. The one condemned is the one who did the right thing. The slaves who made the profit are the corrupt ones whose final end is sure. Perhaps you think this a fanciful interpretation - well it goes right back to Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea at the beginning of the fourth century, so I have some claim of support.
This is news. We shouldn't be like the Lord in the parable because the world in which people like that come out on top is passing away. Jesus is bring his work in the world to completion; God's kingdom is coming and God's will will be done on earth as it is in heaven, as Jesus taught us to pray.
The live question for us is whether we can really believe that, if we really can trust in that enough to risk living as Jesus taught us rather than kowtowing to the demands of those who try to set themselves up in Jesus' place as our lord, who try to enslave us to worldly standards by telling us that our security is in acquiring resources for ourselves and striking out at our enemies.
I have news for you. Don't be fooled. A new world is dawning in the mess of this broken world.
For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
For more on first century Palestinian society see Bruce J Malina and Richard L Rohrbaugh, Social-Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospel (2003, 2nd edition), Fortress Press, Minneapolis, from which work the social commentary given here was taken.
