There is an argument in the church that is probably as old as the church. It is an argument about grace and works.
We say that we are saved by the grace of God. And we say that faith in this grace is all we need. We don’t have to do anything to deserve God’s love and God’s saving grace. But, on the other hand, we have a lot of rules, a lot of expectations about how we should live and be in the world.
We say that when we are living a life of faith we will receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit and we will begin to see the fruits of the Spirit in our lives. We say that God’s grace enables us to live such lives and bear such fruit. To become the kind of person about whom the master might say, “Well done, good and trustworthy servant. Come, enter into the joy of your master.”
The problem is that we tend to get confused about it all. We become very concerned about whether or not we are worthy of God’s grace. And once that has happened, once we have put the proverbial cart before the horse, we have really forgotten all about God’s grace.
And the big problem there is that when we have forgotten about God’s grace, there is absolutely no joy of the master to even consider entering into. That’s a problem. And that was the problem of the one-talent slave.
When summoned, this man came forward and said, “Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid.” There was no joy there for this slave.
This parable comes in the middle of a set of three parables in which Jesus is painting a picture for his disciples of what the kingdom of God is like.
In this set of three parables, he is saying that somehow, someway, some people will see the kingdom and others won’t see the kingdom.
He says in the first parable, it is like ten bridesmaids, waiting for the groom. Five of them are wise, but the other five are foolish and they miss their opportunity to enter the wedding banquet. Then in this parable, he says it is like a master who is preparing to go on a long journey and he summons his slaves to him. He has decided to entrust the management of his property to these slaves, so he distributes his funds among them, to each according to his ability.
The master apparently thought the first slave had great ability. He gave him five talents. The second slave fell short of great, and he gave him only two talents. And the third slave, who is just so-so, received a paltry one talent.
But hold on – let’s consider the kind of money we are talking about here. A talent was a unit of currency, the equivalent of 6,000 denarii. A single denarius was the usual daily wage for a laborer. So get out your calculator and see that one talent is the equivalent of about 16.5 years of labor – that is, if you worked seven days a week, 52 weeks a year.
The low guy on this totem pole received what might possibly be a lifetime’s worth of wages. The next guy got two of those and the best guy got five. Literally, he was handed five times as much money as he could expect to earn over his adult life.
Granted, this wasn’t a gift. The master handed over these sums to his slaves as a trust. The master was expecting his slaves to steward these funds – that is to say, make good use of them, manage them responsibly, while the master was gone.
The first slave went to work and turned five talents into ten talents, by trading wisely. The second slave did just as well with the amount he was given, doubling his money. When the master returned, they proudly handed over these very impressive gains.
But the third slave was different. He took that single talent and he buried it in the ground. He thought that was the safe thing to do. His master said that was wicked. It was also driven by fear.
His fear prevented him from seeing the possible.
When the church has this argument about grace and good works, when we get confused about which comes first – the grace or the works – we have this phrase: works righteousness, the idea that we gain our righteousness by our good works. And it is easy to think this parable of the talents is all about works righteousness. But it’s not about that. what it’s really about is Christian living, which involves taking risks.
The master handed over an unimaginable sum of money to his slaves, and this slave who received one talent – a whole talent – sees it only as a burden. We might see the giving of these talents as an act of divine grace. But this one-talent slave missed that completely. He sees no grace; no possibility, no hope, no joy at all. And why would he take a risk in those circumstances?
It is tragic that he missed out on the wonderful opportunity that the first two slaves seized – the opportunity to take what they were given, take the risk required to make something amazing from it, and ultimately to enter into the joy of their master.
But to get there, the risk was absolutely necessary. Let’s take a moment to talk about why.
So many things in this world are viewed through the framework of transaction – like, you be nice to me and I’ll be nice to you in return. Transactional thinking is so deeply ingrained in us that we have a very hard time imagining God’s grace. Because grace is the opposite of a transaction – it is a gift.
So why, then, you might ask, is something expected of us in return? Whether you call it works righteousness or Christian living, you’re saying I have to give something back, right?
The answer to that is that the relationship we enter into with God is something altogether different.
Imagine this: the grace of God is poured out on the world like a river that flows all around. This river and all its rills and gullies and streams are all around us and we have the option – the invitation – to jump right into it, to flow along in it, to become a part of it. God’s river of grace.
We might read the grand story of the scriptures as something just like this. From beginning to end, it is a story about God – God’s creative acts and God’s amazing grace. Throughout the story we see different characters enter in, becoming a part of the story. It is as if they jump into the river of God’s grace and flow along for a while, doing the work of God for a period of time, then making way for others.
But in that same grand story we also see examples of characters who are at odds with God. Those who seem to resist the river of grace, never jumping in. Never becoming a part of it.
It’s as though some people can’t see the river. They might see only a dry wadi, with nothing of life in it. Certainly not something you would jump into.
Here is the nub: You won’t take a risk if you see no possible gain, no joy. You won’t take a risk if you haven’t already felt the grace penetrate your skin like drops of healing water.
But if you have felt that, then you know that the best life is there waiting for you, all the joy, on the other side of risk.
Come in; the water is fine.
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Photo Credit: Efe Kurnaz (@efekurnaz) | Unsplash Photo Community
