With everything that’s going on in the world these days, you wonder sometimes if Judgment Day is getting close. Jesus listed the warning signals: False teachers who deceive many, wars and rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes, persecutions. The warnings seem to be playing out: Biblical Christianity is disappearing little by little, babies are being murdered by the millions, and millions of adults are rejecting the ideas of marriage and family. Our own nation is divided right down the middle over conservative and liberal values and too many people on both sides trumpet the extreme edges of those positions. And then there’s Covid-19. There’s hope right now, but the pandemic is changing our lives in ways we never thought anything could. I’m not surprised that a lot of Christians are wondering if the end is near.
We can get some perspective on this if we look back in history. Covid-19? Certainly not worse than the Black Death that killed a third of Europe’s population in the 14th century. Not worse than the Spanish Flu that killed 50 million people in 1918. False teachers? The truth about Jesus’ forgiveness was suppressed for hundreds of years until Martin Luther rediscovered it on the pages of the Bible. A rejection of morality? For more than a thousand years, serfs and slaves were shackled to poverty while the wealthy lived like kings and queens. Persecution? Nothing we know today compares with what Christians endured in centuries past.
The point is that the signs of the end have appeared again and again on the pages of history, and whenever those signs appeared Christians were always convinced the end was near. Prophets and prognosticators have been sure they could predict the date. But 2,000 years have passed since Jesus ascended and no Judgment Day yet. We’ve learned not to play guessing games. So what do we do? What’s our plan for now until then? St. Peter posed the right question: Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be?
In the Gospel for today, from Matthew 25, Jesus gives us an answer. He tells us a story about a wealthy man who went on a journey and entrusted his wealth with three servants. Each of the servants is different and each acted in a different way. But the parable makes one thing clear—and this is what Jesus wants to tell us. As we wait for Jesus to come in glory at the end of time, Jesus has this command:
Be Faithful
And This Is Our Task from Now until Then
At the end of Tuesday it was only Jesus and his closest followers. He left Jerusalem and was on his way back to Bethany. They had to walk over the Mount of Olives to get there and Jesus found a place to sit down and talked to them. The days before the end of time aren’t going to be easy, Jesus said, but there will be some signs you can watch for. The trouble is, you won’t know when the day will come. And then he told them three parables. In the first parable, the story of the wedding banquet and the ten virgins, Jesus made the point: Be wise as you watch for me. The second parable, the Gospel for today, makes this point: Be faithful as you wait for me.
Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. It’s pretty straightforward. Jesus is the master, sitting right this minute at his Father’s right hand in heaven, guiding and guarding the whole universe. We Christians are the servants. So what is this wealth? What are these bags of gold? The older Bible translations used the actual Greek word, talent, and then tried to set some sort of modern-day value to it. Doesn’t work. Let’s just say those bags of gold were worth a lot.
So what is worth a lot to Jesus? Within three days of this Tuesday conversation, Jesus’ work on earth would be done. He had kept God’s law perfectly and he was about to pay the penalty for sin with his blood and death. Within five days he would be alive again to prove that his life and death had been transferred to our accounts. That was a treasure, worth a million bags of gold, but it didn’t need to be entrusted or invested. The gold was in the bank and the work was done.
The cross and the empty tomb carried a message and it was good news, really good news. The news was that Jesus had forgiven the sins of the whole world. For those who put their trust in Jesus there were no debts to pay, no guilt to feel, no hell to fear. We call this good news the gospel, don’t we, and the gospel is the treasure Jesus is talking about in this parable. While he is away, he entrusts the gospel to us and says to us: Be faithful as you use this gospel.
To one servant he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Jesus is summarizing the reality that God gives his people different gifts, he puts them in different places, and gives them different opportunities. Older Christians might have more time than younger Christians do to spend hours in prayer or telling Bible stories to their grandchildren. Some Christians might be gifted public speakers and have no trouble sharing the gospel with others. Other Christians are shy and not so sure of what to say about Jesus. Some Christians have jobs that earn just enough to provide the basics for their families, while other believers have money in the bank and lots of it. Jesus loves all his servants the same, but he hands out gifts in different ways. That’s what the master did in this parable--and then he went on his journey.
So what happened? The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The servants presented the evidence. Five bags of gold had become ten and two had become four. Obviously, the master is pleased: Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!
So let’s focus on the servants, Jesus’ followers—that’s us. The gifts and responsibilities Jesus gives us to share the gospel are different. Some of us have more opportunities than others to tell the good news. But Jesus’ point is that both of the servants in the parable used the gift of the gospel to the best of their abilities. They took the gospel Jesus gave them and they put it to work! A gifted young man or woman studies to become a pastor or teacher. A shy person invites her neighbor to church. A wealthy Christian offers more than ten percent of his income to the work of the church or gives an extraordinary gift to build a building or enter a mission field. Maybe a struggling Christian keeps giving her regular offering even when her business closes or her income is fixed. Jesus is not more pleased with people who climb high mountains than he is with people who crawl up little hills. When the widow brough her copper coins to the temple treasury—remember the widow’s mite?--it wasn’t the coins that impressed Jesus. What he loved was that she gave everything she had. She took her gift and she put it to use! She was faithful! To the servant with the five plus five ten bags of gold and to the servant with the two plus two bags of gold, Jesus said exactly the same thing: Well done, good and faithful servant! Come and share your master’s happiness!
And then there was the man with one bag of gold. We haven’t talked about him yet. He took his gift and he hid it in the ground. He didn’t spend it or squander it or waste it—the gold was right there, safe and secure: See, here is what belongs to you, he said. He didn’t lose it, but he didn’t use it, either! What was worse was that he made excuses. I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground.
So sometimes we struggle with being faithful. We all have the gospel; it’s here every Sunday. It’s in Bible Class and home devotions and in our catechism and hymnal. We hear the gospel, we learn the gospel, we thank God for the gospel. The trouble comes with using the gospel and sharing it with others. Well, you know, I don’t want to create a bad scene in my family so I don’t talk about it. Well, you know, I can make a lot more money in other professions than the ministry, so I don’t consider it. Well, you know, money doesn’t grow on trees, so I can’t support it more. Well, you know, I’m getting older…Well, you know, I’m pretty young…Well, you know, I’m really busy.
The master replied, You wicked, lazy servant! Ouch! That hurts. And I’m not even going to repeat what the master said about throwing that worthless servant into the darkness. Jesus’ point is as clear as the noses on our faces. Before he ascended into heaven Jesus said to his followers, You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. He said, Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them. He said, Preach the gospel to every creature. The gospel, the good news about the forgiveness of sins, is the bag of gold that Jesus has entrusted to each one of us. That gold has glistened for all of us. We have seen its brilliance when sin darkened our days. We have known its worth when guilt plagued our conscience. We have remembered its potential when the future seemed unclear. We have the gospel. The question is: How do we use it?
We can’t spend our time fretting about when the end of time will come. We can’t let ourselves shiver and shake because of signs of the times or world pandemics. We can’t cower on the sidelines of life and wring our hands in fear. And we certainly can’t offer lame excuses. Jesus is coming again. He has entrusted to us the gold of the gospel and called us to use it. Different gifts, of course, and different opportunities, too. But in every way and in every place, Jesus says to us: Be faithful until I return. And that’s what we do from now until then. Amen.
