Pastor Michael Harman, St. Peter LCMS – Newell, Iowa
Matthew 25:14-30 - November 13, 2011.
When pastors get together to prepare for sermons, we have a nervous joke.
Sometimes Jesus gives PURE Law: readings to warn hearers about a failure to
act on faith - the 10 Virgins, 5 of whom were locked out of heaven (Mt. 25);
the Unjust Servant (Mt 18) who would be tortured until he paid off his trillion
dollar debt; or the foolish man who built his life on sand (Mt. 7). When we
finish such studies, we all say, ‘hear ENDETH the Gospel!’
God freely gives pardon, life, hope, joy, and so much more to His
children. When you use His gifts to invest in your own faith, or make more
heavenly profit by reaching out to others, not only will your own joy increase
here on earth, but you will be rewarded.
IF you choose to do nothing with His gifts: you will be held fully
accountable. No more grace. No more heaven. Game over. And God’s decision
is final and can’t be overturned in the only true Supreme Court on Judgment
Day. Yes, there endeth the Gospel!
Here, the twelve were curious about when the End would come. They still
did not grasp why Jesus came: to die for us on the cross.
So Jesus spoke to His disciples privately to warn them about false
teachers {just as every genuine pastor is required to do}, and more chaos as
the world abandons the message of the cross. His real concern is not WHEN
Christ will Return for the Day, but what you, His servant, are doing until
then. {Read chapters 24-25 at home}.
Jesus tells this warning for you. It could be arranged in a system of 3
like this. A master supplies capital to invest, giving what each needs
according to abilities then leaves. Growth is guaranteed; in like form.
Each servant is accountable to the master.
Christ is the Man in the parable. Your Master has gone to a far country,
and will visibly Return on the Father’s unannounced day. The gold talent
spoken of here is 19 years wages. Think of all you earn in a year; multiply by
19. If you owned a business, would YOU trust a common employee that much
riches? God trusts you!
God desires for all to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth,
that is: salvation is in Jesus alone. He trusts you, His servant, with His
precious Word to tell others for their good. That’s Law.
God uses Word and Sacraments as His chosen tools to bring and keep people
in faith. He orders you, His servants, to tell the Gospel in your daily living
and life-goals so others around you and the world will come to faith in Jesus.
God does NOT give equally. He provides some of you, richly, with skills
of management, money-making, speaking, writing, art, music, hospitality,
teaching, friendliness, youth, medicine, and thousands of other abilities.
Some of you have many talents. Some of us have few. God gave these to
servants. God trusts you. He has given you personal resources that can be
used to carry out work in His Kingdom of Grace so people will hear about Jesus,
believe, and be saved. That’s Law.
(v.15) Jesus asks you to manage no more than you can handle. Jesus is
certain of your limits {1 Cor 10:13}. So He supplies you with His resources,
His capital, AND He gives abilities to labor in your location and life. Your
life is not your own, you were bought with Christ’s blood (1 Cor 6:20). (Eph
2:10) Your life, talents, position, abilities and opportunities all belong to
Him. That’s Law.
Does God deprive you from using His gifts for your personal purposes? No.
He does want you to enjoy His gifts of absolute forgiveness, life, family,
friends, and more. At the same time, He wants you to realize His gifts are
first to seek His Kingdom and Christ’s righteousness. (Mt 6). Simply put:
God expects you to invest for His business as you go.
Until Jesus Returns, OR He summons you to eternity thru death, you have
His gifts and orders as His servant.
In Jesus’ parables, one or more things don’t work the same as they do in
real life. Trust with THAT much wealth? Also, in this case, growth is
guaranteed!? There is no such thing in earthly life, due to sin. You can work
hard on your farm all year, then be wiped out by accidents or weather. You can
put your money in a bank for Black-Friday shopping, then the dollar collapses
and your money is worth half of what it was before. You should take good care
of your health with diet, exercise, and social interaction, but you could still
be struck with cancer, injury, or depression. Earthly investments have NO
guarantees of success.
Heavenly growth is guaranteed, in God’s form, now or another time. Jesus
says, “My Word will not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I
please and PROSPER in the thing for which I sent it.” {Is 55:17, 40:8; Acts
12:24, 2 Cor 9:10, etc.}.
God always blesses faithful labors. Blessings MAY include money, health,
security, food, and successes in an earthly sense, BUT He doesn’t pledge that
for you. If you plant beans, do you expect to harvest pizzas? If you put a
pie in the oven, do you expect to pull out a car? Of course not. You are
given God’s riches, the Gospel, to apply in life. It is crazy to expect
UN-godly riches to be the main, desired result. But the LORD, Who does not do
things the way we do, may add “these things unto you” as you “seek first His
kingdom and righteousness.”
You may have noted something in the text. The ESV translates it as “here”,
which is weak. It is the word the angel used to bring attention to Jesus being
born: “Behold! Look! Wow!” The servants are excited! They did not
understand they would succeed, but they did! Look! Doubled!!
Maybe they didn’t see the final results before that reckoning and were
surprised. But they found joy and excitement while serving Christ. When you
serve Jesus, your life always has purpose. What you do IS important.
You use the priceless treasure of the Gospel to forgive others who have hurt
you. You tell others in a card, letter, or visit about the Hope within you
because of the cross. In joyful, Christian faith you offer your skills to help
someone who will never return the favor. You create music to draw a weary soul
to the cross. You give an offering of money, trusting God will use it to
support a church or missionary telling about Christ. God gave to you, His
servant; according to the abilities He gave you; and in the unique
circumstances He put you in. Then, in response, you acted in faith. God gave
the increase.
In the parable, God rewarded their joyful service with a job promotion.
They went from labor to management. They were faithful over the “little
things” of eternal life! Now here is a big understatement! God sets them over
much as they move from an earthly shanty to heavenly home.
Would that it had ended here! God’s rewards are certain for each who
believes. But for those who don’t: ‘here endeth the Gospel.”
Since your life is from God and your talents and your opportunities: is it
any surprise for servant #3 and his Day of accountability? The third servant
was not just too lazy to get to church. Jesus calls her or him wicked; evil;
damned to hell; “here endeth…”. Not only did the servant fail to truly pardon
others, tell a neighbor about Jesus and invite them to church, sacrifice an
offering for missions, or any other action to serve God and their neighbor in
genuine faith: she or he refused to do anything with their God-given talent of
faith - even for their own self. There was no ‘interest’.
If that servant parked in a pew, rarely, they saw God as a hard man who
required his time and money; a god to be obeyed rather than loved. He had a
title servant. He was afraid he’d waste his life serving Jesus: so he pursued
business, sports, family, friends, and all the extras God gives while ignoring
the One Thing Needful. He buried Christ and left Him in the tomb without
resurrection. {for them, either}
All people who ever have-or-will live are God’s servants. If they, or
you, refuse to believe {faith always produces works}, or counts ‘good works’ as
something to their credit rather than God’s praise alone: ‘here endeth the
Gospel.’ Whether they will own-up to being servants or not: they are (or
were). Non-membership in a church means nothing. Neither does membership.
Only faith.
The tragic and hellish end for that wicked servant did not have to be; but
that WAS the servant’s choice. The LORD will judge unto you, and every person,
according to their works. {Gen 18:25; Psalm 62:12; 2 Cor 5:10; Rom 14:10; 2
Tim 4:1; Job 19:29; Eccl 11:9, 12:14; Rev 20:12; and how many more do you
need?} “True and genuine faith is always a busy and active thing” (Luther).
“Works serve our neighbor and supply the proof that faith is living” (LSB
#555:9). When any wicked and slothful servant will not sow for the Savior or
gather for the Gospel, there is accountability on the Final Day. ‘Here endeth
the Gospel.’ Verse 30 begins an eternal punishment.
As I started, as genuine pastors gather to study parts of God’s
unbreakable Word, we laugh uneasily. None of us deserves any reward. You and
I must confess we are like the 3rd servant.
This parable is God’s Law: not man’s opinions about God but His Word to
us. God’s Law always accuses, always condemns, and always crushes you; me; and
ALL people. There is no reason why even the best of servants should be
rewarded. “We have only done our duty” {Luke 17:10} even at the best of times.
BUT ‘God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through
our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us’ as today’s Epistle proclaims. There is
our only Source of Hope. There is our Good News of God’s mercy. There is ‘God
for us, so who can be against us’. There is the LORD in His faithfulness and
compassion. There is why God gives all things.
Because of Jesus, you are God’s beloved servant and saint and child.
Because of Christ you have gifts and abilities, you have life and
opportunities, and you have guaranteed growth as you serve. You have assurance
on Judgment Day that all of your failures and sins have been forever forgotten
in Christ’ perfect life of service in your place, and they have been paid-for
absolutely and eternally by His death on the cross.
By grace, you can hear, ‘well done, good and faithful servant… enter into
the joy of your Master.’ By God’s grace, heaven is yours. Because of Christ,
there NEVER-endeth the Gospel. Amen.
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