This morning, as we do every year at this time of the year, the Church year that is, we begin to set our eyes on the things to come, we look to the day of judgement when the Lord will return to gather us and all His saints to take us to be with Himself in heaven for eternity. Our Scripture lessons for this week and for next week move our focus from this world and our lives in this world to focus our attention on the now and the not yet, our future in heaven. This morning, in our text, Jesus tells the parable of the talents in order to remind us that all that we have is a gift from Him, that He gives gifts according to our abilities, that His desire is that we use the gifts He gives in service to Him by serving others, and that ultimately He will hold us accountable for our own faith and response of faith, in our use of the gifts He gives.
Our text is the parable of the giving of the talents (v. 14-18). Jesus begins the parable with a bit of imagery. In this parable Jesus speaks of a man going on a journey. Certainly we may understand that Jesus is the man going on a journey, because Jesus will be going to the cross, suffering, dying, rising and then ascending to glory in heaven where He will wait until His return on the last day. Now, the disciples may not have understood the completeness of this imagery, as Jesus has not yet suffered, died and ascended, but because we are looking back we can see how these events have played out and how we too wait for Jesus’ return.
Before the man goes on his journey we are told in the parable, that he gives to each of his servants talents. He gives to one servant five talents, to another servant two talents and to a third servant one talent. The man gives to each servant according to his assessment of the servants abilities. In the same way we know that God gives to us gifts and talents and He does so according to our abilities.
The man’s desire was that while he was away on his journey that each of his servants would use the talents he entrusted to them to make a profit. His desire is that they would use what he gave them for their own good and for the good of the whole. In like manner, God’s desire is that we use the gifts and talents He has given to us in service to Him by serving others. In other words, God’s desire is that we use our gifts and talents for our own good as well as for His good which comes about through the good we do for others.
The two faithful servants wasted no time in showing their faithfulness in that we are told that they immediately, or as our text says, “at once” began to put their talents to work. In like manner, God’s desire is that our response of faith is to use our gifts and talents in service to Him and we do that, we serve Him by serving others.
Our text quickly moves forward to some time in the future as it states, “after a long time” the master returned home and his return brought the day of judgement (v. 19-30) for the servants. We are told that the servants came forward in the same order that they were first presented and given gifts. So, the first servant who was given five talents came forward first and joyously returned not only the five talents the master gave him, but five talents more. Also, the second servant returned to the master not only the two talents, but two talents more. To these faithful servants the master gave them each a reward for their faithfulness.
Lastly we are told that the lazy servant is summoned. As he approaches, he simply returns to the master the one talent that was given and entrusted to him. His explanation which is more an excuse for his laziness is that he blames the master because he is a hard man. This servant does not truly know the master and the gifts the master gives, instead he focuses his attention on himself and his own inabilities and laziness.
And so, the master shows the folly of the lazy servant. The master points out that what the servant has is a gift from him, thus discounting this accusation of the master being a hard man. The master gave the servant the talent to use and invest and was simply concerned that the servant use what was given to him for the good of all and instead what the servant did was reject the gift because of his wickedness and laziness.
Finally, the master punishes the lazy servant according to his own misunderstanding. He takes the one talent and gives it to the faithful servant who has ten talents, thus fulfilling what the lazy servant has said, “Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed” (v. 24). And then the lazy servant is thrown out into the outer darkness as warning to all those who refuse and reject the gifts God gives.
So, what does this mean? Again, we are approaching the end of our current church year. Every year as we approach the end of our church year the topic of the end times is put before us. The topic of the end times is an important topic, because we are living in the last days of this world. We have been living in the last days since Jesus’ birth ushered in the last days. Certainly there are many in our world and I might surmise even here in our own midst who do not believe that Jesus will return during our life times. And perhaps He may not. However, even if He dose not physically return to earth during our own life time, we will pass on and return to Him. Either way, at His return, or at our own passing, we will stand before the Lord and we will have to give account for our response of faith, our use of the gifts, talents and abilities with which He has entrusted to each one of us. And that day of accounting I believe will come soon, sooner than we know and sooner that we might imagine, thus the encouragement to always be ready.
Our text for this morning, then, serves, once again, to remind us that God is the prime mover. God gives and we are given to. God gives, faith, forgiveness, and life. And His usual way of giving is through means, in particular the means of grace; Holy Baptism, confession and absolution, His Word and the Lord’s Supper. God gives these gifts and because we have no free will, because our will has been tainted by sin, in and of ourselves our only ability is to be like the lazy servant, to refuse and reject the gifts God gives and we do reject and refuse His gifts every time we absent ourselves from being in the place where His gifts are disturbed and given out, especially divine service and Bible class.
But, not only does God give these spiritual gifts of faith, forgiveness and eternal life, He also gives, gifts, talents and abilities to use in service to Him and His Kingdom. The main reason God gives such spiritual gifts as we call them is so that we might do the good works which He has prepared in advance for us to do, the good works of spreading His news of salvation to others so that they too might be a part of His kingdom. Our failure not only to use our gifts, but even to recognize our gifts brings condemnation like the lazy servant in the parable.
How do we know what gifts talents and abilities God gives and how do we use them? Normally our gifts, talents and abilities are those things we do that come naturally and that we enjoy doing. God does not give gifts and talents as a way of punishment, doing something we do not like or cannot do, but He gives gifts and talents so that we will use them. God also gives to each of us a vocation or more than one vocation. Our vocation is that service in which we use His gifts to serve Him through our serving others. Again, this is an enjoyable service.
At some point, a point I believe to be sooner than we might know or expect, God will return to judge the living and the dead as we confess in the creed. Now, please understand, we are not judged to eternal life or eternal death by our deeds, by what we do or do not do, by our good works. First and foremost God will judge according to our faith, the faith He has given to us. Remember, God is the prime mover, it all begins, continues and ends with Him. He gives faith and the faith He gives He gives through the means He gives as well, either through the means of Holy Baptism or the means of His Holy Word.
Only after we have been judge to eternal life will God judge us according to our faithful response of faith. In other words, the degrees of glory expressed in God’s word are given according to one’s response of faith and how we have faithfully used the gifts He has given to us.
Thus, to use the language of Martin Luther in the explanations to the articles of the Apostles’ Creed, our “duty” is, first and foremost to be given the gifts God gives without refusal, then to use the gifts He gives to His glory, which we do by serving Him through our service to others, through our vocations, and finally to always be ready for His return.
Next week is the last Sunday in our present church year calendar. Should the Lord tarry, that is, should the Lord allow, on Sunday, November 27 we will begin another church year. And we will continue our journey through life so long as the Lord should allow. While we journey here in this world, it is imperative that we continually be reminded that this world is transient, that this world is not permanent, that this world will soon end, or at least our time in this world will soon end, thus it is important at all times to be ready to stand before the Lord for our own day of judgement. Our day of judgement will come and we will be called before Him. His call to judgement is irresistible, as it was even for the unfaithful servant. And there will be those who will stand on the day of judgement and attempt to blame God for their refusal of the gifts He has to give, just like the lazy servant. And there will be those who will be cast into the outer darkness. As for those of us who are given and joyfully and thankfully are given the gifts God has to give to us the Lord will rejoice in our faithfulness. He will robe us in His robes of righteousness. He will invite us into His heavenly kingdom. He will say to us as He said to His faithful servants, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master” (v. 23). My prayer for each of us is that we are ready and that we will be ready so that when we reach our Lord’s kingdom we might rejoice with all the saints and say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
Our text is the parable of the giving of the talents (v. 14-18). Jesus begins the parable with a bit of imagery. In this parable Jesus speaks of a man going on a journey. Certainly we may understand that Jesus is the man going on a journey, because Jesus will be going to the cross, suffering, dying, rising and then ascending to glory in heaven where He will wait until His return on the last day. Now, the disciples may not have understood the completeness of this imagery, as Jesus has not yet suffered, died and ascended, but because we are looking back we can see how these events have played out and how we too wait for Jesus’ return.
Before the man goes on his journey we are told in the parable, that he gives to each of his servants talents. He gives to one servant five talents, to another servant two talents and to a third servant one talent. The man gives to each servant according to his assessment of the servants abilities. In the same way we know that God gives to us gifts and talents and He does so according to our abilities.
The man’s desire was that while he was away on his journey that each of his servants would use the talents he entrusted to them to make a profit. His desire is that they would use what he gave them for their own good and for the good of the whole. In like manner, God’s desire is that we use the gifts and talents He has given to us in service to Him by serving others. In other words, God’s desire is that we use our gifts and talents for our own good as well as for His good which comes about through the good we do for others.
The two faithful servants wasted no time in showing their faithfulness in that we are told that they immediately, or as our text says, “at once” began to put their talents to work. In like manner, God’s desire is that our response of faith is to use our gifts and talents in service to Him and we do that, we serve Him by serving others.
Our text quickly moves forward to some time in the future as it states, “after a long time” the master returned home and his return brought the day of judgement (v. 19-30) for the servants. We are told that the servants came forward in the same order that they were first presented and given gifts. So, the first servant who was given five talents came forward first and joyously returned not only the five talents the master gave him, but five talents more. Also, the second servant returned to the master not only the two talents, but two talents more. To these faithful servants the master gave them each a reward for their faithfulness.
Lastly we are told that the lazy servant is summoned. As he approaches, he simply returns to the master the one talent that was given and entrusted to him. His explanation which is more an excuse for his laziness is that he blames the master because he is a hard man. This servant does not truly know the master and the gifts the master gives, instead he focuses his attention on himself and his own inabilities and laziness.
And so, the master shows the folly of the lazy servant. The master points out that what the servant has is a gift from him, thus discounting this accusation of the master being a hard man. The master gave the servant the talent to use and invest and was simply concerned that the servant use what was given to him for the good of all and instead what the servant did was reject the gift because of his wickedness and laziness.
Finally, the master punishes the lazy servant according to his own misunderstanding. He takes the one talent and gives it to the faithful servant who has ten talents, thus fulfilling what the lazy servant has said, “Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed” (v. 24). And then the lazy servant is thrown out into the outer darkness as warning to all those who refuse and reject the gifts God gives.
So, what does this mean? Again, we are approaching the end of our current church year. Every year as we approach the end of our church year the topic of the end times is put before us. The topic of the end times is an important topic, because we are living in the last days of this world. We have been living in the last days since Jesus’ birth ushered in the last days. Certainly there are many in our world and I might surmise even here in our own midst who do not believe that Jesus will return during our life times. And perhaps He may not. However, even if He dose not physically return to earth during our own life time, we will pass on and return to Him. Either way, at His return, or at our own passing, we will stand before the Lord and we will have to give account for our response of faith, our use of the gifts, talents and abilities with which He has entrusted to each one of us. And that day of accounting I believe will come soon, sooner than we know and sooner that we might imagine, thus the encouragement to always be ready.
Our text for this morning, then, serves, once again, to remind us that God is the prime mover. God gives and we are given to. God gives, faith, forgiveness, and life. And His usual way of giving is through means, in particular the means of grace; Holy Baptism, confession and absolution, His Word and the Lord’s Supper. God gives these gifts and because we have no free will, because our will has been tainted by sin, in and of ourselves our only ability is to be like the lazy servant, to refuse and reject the gifts God gives and we do reject and refuse His gifts every time we absent ourselves from being in the place where His gifts are disturbed and given out, especially divine service and Bible class.
But, not only does God give these spiritual gifts of faith, forgiveness and eternal life, He also gives, gifts, talents and abilities to use in service to Him and His Kingdom. The main reason God gives such spiritual gifts as we call them is so that we might do the good works which He has prepared in advance for us to do, the good works of spreading His news of salvation to others so that they too might be a part of His kingdom. Our failure not only to use our gifts, but even to recognize our gifts brings condemnation like the lazy servant in the parable.
How do we know what gifts talents and abilities God gives and how do we use them? Normally our gifts, talents and abilities are those things we do that come naturally and that we enjoy doing. God does not give gifts and talents as a way of punishment, doing something we do not like or cannot do, but He gives gifts and talents so that we will use them. God also gives to each of us a vocation or more than one vocation. Our vocation is that service in which we use His gifts to serve Him through our serving others. Again, this is an enjoyable service.
At some point, a point I believe to be sooner than we might know or expect, God will return to judge the living and the dead as we confess in the creed. Now, please understand, we are not judged to eternal life or eternal death by our deeds, by what we do or do not do, by our good works. First and foremost God will judge according to our faith, the faith He has given to us. Remember, God is the prime mover, it all begins, continues and ends with Him. He gives faith and the faith He gives He gives through the means He gives as well, either through the means of Holy Baptism or the means of His Holy Word.
Only after we have been judge to eternal life will God judge us according to our faithful response of faith. In other words, the degrees of glory expressed in God’s word are given according to one’s response of faith and how we have faithfully used the gifts He has given to us.
Thus, to use the language of Martin Luther in the explanations to the articles of the Apostles’ Creed, our “duty” is, first and foremost to be given the gifts God gives without refusal, then to use the gifts He gives to His glory, which we do by serving Him through our service to others, through our vocations, and finally to always be ready for His return.
Next week is the last Sunday in our present church year calendar. Should the Lord tarry, that is, should the Lord allow, on Sunday, November 27 we will begin another church year. And we will continue our journey through life so long as the Lord should allow. While we journey here in this world, it is imperative that we continually be reminded that this world is transient, that this world is not permanent, that this world will soon end, or at least our time in this world will soon end, thus it is important at all times to be ready to stand before the Lord for our own day of judgement. Our day of judgement will come and we will be called before Him. His call to judgement is irresistible, as it was even for the unfaithful servant. And there will be those who will stand on the day of judgement and attempt to blame God for their refusal of the gifts He has to give, just like the lazy servant. And there will be those who will be cast into the outer darkness. As for those of us who are given and joyfully and thankfully are given the gifts God has to give to us the Lord will rejoice in our faithfulness. He will robe us in His robes of righteousness. He will invite us into His heavenly kingdom. He will say to us as He said to His faithful servants, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master” (v. 23). My prayer for each of us is that we are ready and that we will be ready so that when we reach our Lord’s kingdom we might rejoice with all the saints and say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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