Accountable Stewards: A Meditation on Matthew 25

For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, 

who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.

And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; 

to every man according to his several ability; 

and straightway took his journey.

In the parable of the stewards and the talents, Jesus continued His teaching to His disciples about the coming end of the age.  Here in the middle of Matthew’s 25th chapter, the emphasis is laid upon the duty and accountability of those to whom God gives His gifts, where the word “talent” refers metaphorically to a large sum— technically a weight measure— of money.  Three stewards or servants of the owner were gathered together, entrusted with the owner’s resources according to their abilities, and then the owner left on a long journey.  Within the context of the other parables in Matthew 25, the assumption is that the stewards knew their master would return, but not precisely when.  Rather than focusing specifically on their master’s return, they were expected to focus on being faithful in their duties, trusting that he would return at a time which was appropriately known only to him.  In essence, the duty of the stewards didn’t depend on the return date of their master, but rather on their relationship to him and the gifts he had entrusted to them.

When the master returned, two of the servants had used their master’s resources wisely and industriously, resulting in the growth of their master’s wealth.  The first was given ten talents, and through his faithful efforts doubled them; likewise the second servant faithfully labored and doubled the two talents given to his care.  The third, however, did nothing with his single talent, but bury it in the yard and wait for his master’s return.  There’s an interesting interlude where this lazy, unfaithful servant tries to accuse his master of wrong doing while he’s being held accountable for his sloth, and the master will have none of it.  The master called out this wicked person’s selfishness, laziness, pride, and unfaithfulness, then took the buried talent and gave it to the first servant, while condemning the lazy, unfaithful steward to ‘the outer darkness”— another way of describing the condemnation of hell.

The parable should deeply shake anyone who reads it.  Every person who lives, or who has ever lived, or who will ever live in this world, is the beneficiary of God’s good gifts.  Life, time, resources, and aptitude in a myriad of combinations is given to every person He creates in time and space.  Not all people are given the same gifts in the same quantities or in the same ways, but in His wisdom, God gives to everyone according to their ability, and holds everyone accountable for how they manage His gifts.  Eventually, every single person will stand before their Maker and give an account of what they did with the resources God gave to their care, whether that day is the end of the world or the end of their lives.  Everyone who comes into this world is bestowed with the grace of God’s resources and a duty to steward them according to His design.  Likewise everyone will eventually stand before the God who made them, and be held accountable for what they have done with what He entrusted to them.

Who among us can say that we’ve used all the gifts of this mortal life well?  Who among us can stand before our Maker and declare that our every breath, every moment, every thought, every energy, every material resource, every intellectual endeavor, was stewarded according to God’s design?  Knowing that our God has woven into us and into all creation the Law of Love— the humble love of God and the selfless love of our neighbor, upon which is built the entire Law of Holy Scripture and the proclamation of the Prophets— who can say that they have never used their gifts for greed, or avarice, or self-indulgence?  Who has never used the good gifts of God for their own pride, their lust, and their hatred of others?  Who has never taken a good gift of God and locked it away so that others could not benefit from it, and then cursed God in their heart for convicting them of laziness, selfishness, and unfaithfulness?  In truth, we are all more like the third unfaithful steward than we would like to admit, and the terrible sentence which befell him at the end of his days, is the fate we deserve as well.  In the end, with all the life and time and resources we have been given, we must confess that we have not used them in perfect accord with our gracious Master’s loving intent, but more often than not for our own twisted desires.  We stand guilty as unfaithful stewards, and no attempt to impugn God’s goodness by exporting our own infidelity to Him, will assuage our accountability before His holy Law.

But thanks be to God, that we need not stand in such judgment!  For Christ, who knew our weakness and our unfaithfulness, served in our place.  He who is always faithful because His is the eternally begotten Son of the Father, in the everlasting communion of the Holy Spirit, One God now and forever, stepped into our world as a servant in our likeness, that He might render to God what we were unable to do.  Jesus took the good gifts of God and used them exclusively for the good of all mankind and the glory of His Father, offering Himself as the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, and thereby satisfying the Law of Love through His holy cross.  Unable to save ourselves from the righteous fate due to unjust stewards, the love of God manifested in Jesus Christ took upon Himself our hell, our outer darkness, our condemnation, and our punishment, so that He might in turn offer to us His forgiveness, life, and salvation in His holy name.  Rather than fearing our unescapable reckoning with our holy Judge, we are free to look forward without fear to the day in which our loving Father receives us for the sake of His Son, in whom, by whom, and with whom we have become inheritors of His kingdom.

And it is in this hope, this faith, that we now live, surrounded by the good and gracious gifts of God which abound to us in every conceivable way.  This life, this time, this multiplicity of resources, this endless depth of God’s grace and mercy is now given to us, that we might reflect His goodness to all people, and by His Holy Spirit be fashioned into witnesses who burn with the love of God and our neighbor.  No longer left to our own fallen abilities, we are raised up in the new life of Jesus, that He may live in us, and His stewardship might flow through us to a lost and dying world.  No longer do we look forward in fear to the inescapable end of the age, but in faith, hope, and love, we labor joyously for our Lord, knowing that His return is the salvation of all who put their trust in Him.  Hear the Word of the Lord come to you again this day, that you might leave the dark destiny of a faithless steward behind, and rise up in faith and repentance to a new life in the faithful stewardship of Jesus your Savior.  Amen.