Reflection on Matthew 25:14-30

 

Could it possibly be that you have been given a worth well beyond anything you could possibly imagine? 

Could it be that all of the voices, including your own, that have said; “You are not good enough;” “You are not smart enough;”  “You do not have enough education;”  “You are too fat;”  “You are too small;”  “You are worthless;” are all evil attempts to keep the gift that you are, buried from the world? 

Could it be that you are loved beyond all measure, and the one who loves you can’t help but give you gifts beyond measure?

Here is the thing; Jesus Christ is like a master who gives his servants some money (called talents in the ancient world) that they get to manage over a good amount of time.  Now, I should not have said that the master gives “some” talents, because that sounds like an insignificant amount.  In reality, just one talent is worth thirty pounds of gold.  So, the guy who got 5 talents has a pile of gold coins that any dragon would want to sleep on.  The amounts given the other two servants were also nothing that you would have turned down. 

The master has been very, very generous.  The master has given the servants great amounts of worth.  The servants are loved beyond measure.

Though the bank has no vault with my name on it with vast amounts of gold coins given from God (and I am willing to bet the bank does not have one for you either) it would still be dishonest to think that we have been somehow shorted by God. 

We have this word from God, these promises from God that Psalm 19:10 says are “more precious than gold, than much pure gold.”  The eternal promises of God are worth so much more than anything in this world.  After-all, all the things we value today and store away in our attics, is just going to be thrown away by our children tomorrow.  Am I right? 

Besides, we do not have quality goods today anyway.  God’s promises are not like our cheap, imported pieces of merchandise that we buy at our bargain stores.  They are not handheld bullet blenders that seemed essential to every kitchen, including yours, just 10 years ago, but now have a fine home in dark reaches of cupboards across America. 

God’s promises are not used up after only a couple of years.  God’s word…God’s promises are a gift that never come to an end.  

Jesus, as Matthew 24:35 recounts, puts everything I said in this way, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” 

And, 1 Peter 1:25 reminds us that “‘the word of the Lord remains forever.’ And this word is the good news that was preached to you.”

So, what is this word…this good news…that has been preached to us in so much abundance?  What is this promise that is so eternally valuable?  

I will give you a hint; it looks a lot like creating us and shaping us like clay and giving us breathe.  It looks a lot like sending bread from heaven down upon us when we were stranded in the wilderness.  It looks a lot like giving a second chance to a nation that did the unthinkable and forgot to care for the widow, orphan, and poor.  It looks a lot like being nailed to a cross so that we might have forgiveness, and life, and a second chance, and a rebirth.  This word is nothing short of “love;” true love that never ends.

Not only does it not end, in 1 Corinthians 13:7, the apostle Paul continues to say that it is a love that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things,” and “endures all things.”

It cares desperately for the unlovable.  It cares for the fragile and vulnerable.  It loves the enemy and prays for the persecutor.  It endures even when everyone else has given up.

It truly believes that 2020 can be redeemed, no matter the amount of virus, murder hornets, stay at home measures, toilet paper shortages, election disputes, or tragic deaths.

Not only that, it is a love that believes that you can be redeemed, no matter the sin, or apathy, or tiredness, or discontent, or utter loss, or uncertainly in life.  You have been given an abundance of love, and it is an investment that makes you a very valuable asset to God, indeed.

Not only does this love make you valuable to God, but it also makes you valuable to all of us. Here is what I mean by that: Jesus Christ is convinced that if you are loved, you will love others.  If you are deeply loved, then you will inherently love us.  Jesus staked his life on this idea.  

If you are made of love, you cannot help but be love.  And, if your love is stuffed into a tomb, you will simply roll the stone away.  This love that Christ has given cannot help but shine from the depths of the tomb.  This love cannot help but shine on those in the world around you, shaping their lives.  The love that you show will multiply like loaves of bread and fish and feed a crowd.  This love will baptize a eunuch and let him enter into a loving community even when no one else has let him in.  It is a love that would cause us to give own life for a friend, or for a fellow soldier, or even, imagine this, to save the enemy.  This kind of love multiplies.

You see, the servant who was given the 5 talents comes up to his master, and his master sees that the servant, over time, has produced 5 more talents.  "Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master,” the master says.  The same happens to the one who was given two talents.  He produced two more.  It multiplied!  

So, what Isaiah 55:11 had to day is absolutely true: “my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” 

This word of love that has been entrusted to you will be used by God, to achieve God’s purposes.  This is a certainty, as long as it is not buried.

I know that there are lots of reasons that people bury their love.  Sometimes love is buried under a pile of hate.  Sometimes love is withheld because of the complications of the past. Loving your enemy is challenging and evil rejoices in stuffing love into a tomb to rot.  But, Christ rejoices when love is shared anyway.

Sometimes love is buried because we have been hurt by it and we cannot stand to look at it.  Some of us have poured out our hearts on other people, holding our hearts out in the open, only for them to be stabbed.  To love again is to open yourself up to more pain.  So we bury it.  

I get that.  I really, really, get that, but it does not change the fact that we are allowing our love to be buried.  Do not forget that death on a cross and burial in a tomb did not mean the end of love for Jesus Christ.  So, your love has not come to an end either.  Evil rejoices in stuffing love into a tomb to rot.  But, Christ rejoices when love is shared anyway.

Sometimes love is buried because we have been convinced by evil that some people are not deserving of God’s eternal, forgiving love.  They may have the wrong color of skin, or wrong political affiliation, or wrong religion, or wrong morality, or wrong way of living their lives.  Evil rejoices in stuffing love into a tomb to rot.  But, Christ broke open that tomb after three days and was raised to a new life.  In love’s eyes there are no lost causes.  Love wins in the end.  And, love is the gift that you have been given in abundance.

There is a certain joy that comes when you take part in Christ’s abundant love.  It is as if everything is right.  You can feel it.  It is a joy that just surrounds you. 

It is similar to the joy that I had when my grandpa took me fishing.  It is not that he would have refused to loved me if I had chosen stay home and not to go in the boat with him, but when I did, I got to be a part of his deep joy as we tossed in our fishing lines together and shared memories with one another.  It is good to enter into the joy of your master.

And, God’s love is the same way.  If you want to live in the torment of hate and despair, if you desire to live in the grave and ignore love, go ahead, I guess.  You can live in that gnashing of teeth if you want, but it is of your own creation.  As for me, I think that I will bask in the joy that comes when we live lives of love.  And, I invite you to do the same.  You have been filled with love by Christ.  Be that love.  Enter into the joy of your master.