faithfully reckless

The servant who received the five talents began to invest the money and earned five more. The servant with two talents also went to work and earned two more. But the servant who received one talent dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

– Matthew 25:16-18

 

In my coursework for business management, I learned two fundamental principles of investment. First, investment always involves risk. And supplementary to this, the greater that risk, the greater the potential return is. Matthew’s Gospel records the story of two very different sorts of investors and their unique approach to risk.

 

A nobleman was leaving the country. While away on business, he would entrust his servants with the daily operation of his estate. To each he endowed an amount commensurate with their ability, giving to one some $1.7 million, to another $690,000, and to a third $345,000. Upon his return, they would settle accounts.

 

The first two servants were proactive, investing, working, and earning. Each managed to double the original sum they were given. The third servant employed an altogether different methodology: He hoarded. Rather than risking the loss of his master’s funds on a business venture or in the markets, he simply buried it in a coffee can in the back yard.

 

In due time the master returned. Hearing of the successful investments of the first two servants, he lavished them with praise. “Well done!” he said. “You have proven yourself faithful in managing this limited amount, so I am confident you will succeed with much greater responsibilities. Come, let us celebrate together!”

 

But the third servant, the one who had been so cautious, received a decidedly different response. An analogous passage Luke’s Gospel tells us the master ‘roared’ at the servant. He was furious, calling him wicked and lazy. Unlike his peers, this man was not celebrated but berated, and was summarily dismissed from the master’s service.

 

This tale, told by Jesus and known as the Parable of the Talents, teaches us an essential truth about stewardship: Being “good and faithful” involves taking risks. Without risk, there can be no return – and Jesus expects a return on his investment. He has no interest in our playing it safe, for there is no expansion or multiplication in such halfhearted measures. Rather, Jesus asks us to put ourselves out there, in the places where faith is not an option but a requisite; not playing fast and loose, but taking calculated, God-dependent risks. We somehow feel that this is reckless, foolish even, but little could be further from truth. Following the Spirit’s guidance, responding to the nudges of God, utilizing the gifts we have been given – herein is wisdom.

 

We must unlearn our fear of failure because fear stands in direct opposition to faith. It was fear that motivated the inept servant, as he admitted to his master: “I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth and here it is” (verse 25). If we fail in our initial attempts, at least we do so in the service of God and in obedience to his Word. But more to the point, failure in the world’s eyes does not necessarily correlate to failure in God’s eyes. Consider Jesus. By any earthly standard, he was a dismal failure. One of his own disciples sold him out. His closest friend and right-hand man publicly disowned him. His own people rejected him. And ultimately, he was tried, condemned, beaten to a bloody pulp, and executed as a fraud, blasphemer, insurgent, and enemy of the state. None of this hints at success. Yet the very worst of it all – the public humiliation and death sentence – achieved the greatest triumph in human history: The reconciliation of our souls with God. Jesus is capable of redeeming even our failures, such as they are, and using them for his purposes. The only true failure is squandering what we are given by burying our talents.

 

Friends, may we learn to be fearless, to embrace risk with all of its possibility of failure, that we, too, might be deemed “good and faithful” in our service to Jesus.