You Are a Gifted Servant!

13th Sunday after Pentecost, Stewardship Sunday #1, 9/11/11
Matthew 25:14-30


You Are a Gifted Servant!
I. Look how generously your Master gives.
II. Realize what a joy it is to use your gifts.


“If only I had done something, things would have been different.” We’ve all thought those words and have spoken those words countless times in our lives. We had the opportunity, but let it pass. A harsher way of describing it is that we wasted an opportunity and that fills us with regret.

Wasted opportunities, wasted time, wasted abilities. How pitiful! How sad!

And we try to console ourselves by thinking we couldn’t have done anything anyway. What we had to offer wouldn’t have mattered.

Jesus knows how tempted we are to waste our opportunities and our abilities. He saw it in his own disciples. Thus he spoke this parable to them just three days before his death. You see, Jesus knew that soon his work on this earth would be finished, but that would mean the beginning of the work of his disciples as he sent them out into the world as his apostles. As they went out, he wanted them to use the talents he had given. He wanted them to understand just how gifted he had made them.

And he’s done the same with us. He says to each of us, “You are a gifted servant!” Join me in seeing how true that is and what our Lord wants us to do with the gifts he’s entrusted to us.

Part I.

Jesus used this parable to teach his followers how to use what he has given them. The parable’s main character is a man with servants and money. While it doesn’t explicitly say so, we assume the man was rich. Since he was going on a journey, he decided to entrust his wealth to his servants. The text says he gave one servant five talents, one servant two talents and one servant one talent. A talent in Bible times was a unit of weight, about 75 pounds. It came to be used for a certain unit of coinage. Suffice it to say that it was a lot of money, thousands of dollars. He entrusted it to them because he knew them. He knew how they had worked for him and had shown that they had his best interests in mind.

And not only was he rich, he was also generous. As I mentioned, the amount he doled out was not pocket change. He entrusted thousands of dollars to these three men. And notice how he did it. He didn’t give each of them the same amount. Again, he knew these men. He knew their abilities. He entrusted more to the one who had the most ability. He entrusted lesser amounts to the other two. That’s not showing favoritism. He’s entrusting them with an amount they can handle with their abilities.

That generosity continued upon his return. He praised two of them generously, “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!” This man doesn’t want to hoard his possessions or the joy that is his. He wants to share them with his faithful servants and he does so generously. They were gifted servants and he generously gives them blessings.

We understand these details, but what’s the point for us? We often view our lives from the perspective of what we don’t have. Jesus looks at it from the perspective of what we do have. Just look what he’s given us! Let’s start looking first where every Christian should, and that’s at our spiritual blessings. We’re children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. Our sins are fully forgiven in Christ. He brought us into his eternal family at our baptisms and now he continues to keep us in the faith through his word and his Holy Supper. We have his word in its truth and purity. He blesses us with fellow Christians with whom we share life’s joys and sorrows. We could go on and on.

He also blesses us with abilities and talents. Our English word “talent” comes from this very parable. When I look at our congregation, I’m always amazed at the variety and the depth of talents God has given. The way you use your minds, your hands, your voices amazes me.

And don’t forget the material blessings. It’s easy in this economy to think about what we don’t have. But look at what we have! Many of us could get rid of half of what we have and still live comfortably. Who doesn’t have closets and drawers stuffed full? We have more than we need in so many cases.

Jesus gives us all these things so that we can use them to his glory. What a privilege that is! As the Bible repeatedly states, these things come from our generous God and belong to him. He entrusts them to us for a time to use and to enjoy. That’s why we call it stewardship. We’re stewards or managers of the things God has given us. That includes everything we have. What a privilege to be given so much!

But we don’t think that way, do we? Instead, we think we should be entrusted with more. We wonder why God doesn’t give us more. After all, haven’t we shown that we can be entrusted with more? Let’s go back to where we began. Wasted opportunities. Wasted time. Wasted abilities. And now we think we should be entrusted with more?

In fact, let’s be honest. We’ve never been perfectly faithful using anything God has given us. At least at one time or another and usually many times over and over again we’ve misused every single thing God has entrusted to us. Instead of pleading to God for more, we need to be pleading for his mercy. To be faithful servants we’re going to need an extreme makeover of sorts.

And that’s exactly what Jesus did for us and does for us. He forgives us. Only he perfectly used everything he possessed to be our Savior. He did that as our holy substitute. And now he washes our sins away with his holy blood. He renews us as his people so that we can serve him and others with what he has entrusted to us. Indeed, you are a gifted servant. Look how generously your Master gives to you!

Part II.

Indeed, we are gifted servants of our Lord Jesus. But how should we use what we have?

The parable before us describes two very opposite options. The first two servants used what was entrusted to them faithfully. Let me emphasize that. Faithfully. That’s what their master commended them for. They sprang into action with what was entrusted to them. They put it to work immediately. And when their master returned, they considered it their privilege to return his talents to him along with the profit they had gained. Again, they were commended for their faithfulness, not for what they earned.

But the third servant was a different story. He “went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.” What he did took more work than simply depositing the money in a bank. And then, when his master rightly accuses him of laziness and wickedness, he falsely accuses his master. He calls him a hard man, meaning that he’s cruel and ruthless. The truth about his master, as we recently discussed, is that the master is generous with all that he has. He even wants to share his happiness with his servants. What better master could there be? But this wicked servant fails to realize it.

But isn’t it interesting the way Jesus told this parable? Why wasn’t the five-talent servant the one guilty of unfaithfulness? After all, wouldn’t that have been the greater crime? Perhaps. But then each of us could have replied, “But I’m not a 5-talent type of person. So the Lord doesn’t expect much from me. In fact, if I don’t use my talent, no one will notice.”

And that’s what Jesus condemns—not using your gift or your gifts at all. It’s so easy to do—to take what Jesus has given us and to bury it rather than use it.

This Sunday we’re focusing our stewardship attention on using our gifts to serve others. That sounds like an easy concept, but in practice it’s difficult for every one of us. When faced with the opportunity to serve others, we’re going to do battle with our sinful nature which is selfish to the core. That selfishness convinces us that we don’t have the time, when in reality time is the one gift that all of us have in exactly equal amounts—24 hours every day for every one of us. It’s just how we chose to use it. Or we tell ourselves that someone else is more gifted than we are—a 5-talent type person—and could do a better job than we could, so we won’t use what level of gift we have at all. Finally, we convince ourselves that, if we don’t help, if we don’t serve, if we don’t give, it won’t matter anyway. No one will miss it.

To all those actions and attitudes Jesus says, “You wicked, lazy servant! Is that all you think of the tremendous gifts I’ve entrusted to you?” And even when we think we’ve done our share, we still earn Jesus’ condemnation, not his commendation. Doing our share implies we merit what we receive. Jesus once said, “When you’ve done everything, you’re still unworthy” (Luke 17:10). That’s because such an attitude forgets the grace of our God, a grace which sent us Jesus as our Savior, a grace which sacrificed him on the cross for all of our unfaithfulness. That’s also a grace which forgives us and restores us and motivates us to serve others. Recalling what our God gave us in his Son, Jesus, moves us to serve others, to support God’s kingdom work with our offerings, and to use our talents and abilities faithfully and to do so with joy.

By God’s grace you are a gifted servant. May love for Christ fill you and guide you as you serve your God and your neighbors with what he has entrusted to you. And may that service then fill you with joy. Amen.