'Tis Better to have Risked...

Matthew 25:14-30

“But the man who had been given one bag of gold went off and dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master’s money.” (Matt. 25:18)

This is a hard parable for many people.  A master gives someone he already knows has little ability a little amount of money.  Then the master goes ballistic when that man just seems to act according to his ability.  Is this “master” really what God is like, according to Jesus?

Literally, the master gave the first man five “talents,” the second man two “talents,” and the third one “talent.”  A talent was equivalent to twenty years’ wages.  What if you received twenty years of your annual income all at once?  How hard a man would you consider the master who gave it to you?

And notice what the Master says to that third servant: “You knew, did you, that that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered?  Then you ought to have put my money on deposit, and on my return I should have got it back with interest.” (Matt. 25:26).  Look at that first question again and ask yourself: does the Master actually say that he is a hard man?

No, he doesn’t.  How hard could he be when he gave the third servant around a million dollars?  What was the third servant’s failure?  He risked nothing.  He just dug a hole in the ground, and left the gold there, to do nothing while the Master was away.  And in truth, that was riskier than taking it to the bank.  It was not uncommon for people to bury something valuable where only they would know its location.  That is, unless someone else happened to find it.  Under the law at that time, if you found something valuable hidden in the ground, it was yours.  Finders keepers, losers weepers.

And whenever I read this parable, I am reminded of an earlier parable in Matthew’s Gospel.  Another master (or is it the same master?) calls his servants to account for managing his money.  Before him stands a man who owes 10,000 talents, an unpayable debt, but which the master forgives.  I think that what Jesus is trying to tell us is that God will certainly forgive a risk gone bad.  The worse sin is never even trying to build up the kingdom of God here on Earth.

It seems to me that in the economy of grace and forgiveness, that our God is one who gives us blank checks, and forgives us if we blow it.  What is harder to forgive is to bury the blank check in the dirt.