Full Transcript for Reading parables backwards: Jesus and the Master in the Parable of the Talents | Matthew 25:14-30

them. 00:03:04.560 --> 00:03:07.120 Now he gives one slave five talents. 00:03:07.280 --> 00:03:11.840 Now, I have to mention a talent here is an enormous amount of money. 00:03:12.080 --> 00:03:14.719 That was about 6,000 denarii. 00:03:14.800 --> 00:03:19.360 What denari was a day's wage uh back in those days? 00:03:19.520 --> 00:03:21.280 So this would be like 20 years of work. 00:03:21.360 --> 00:03:23.520 This would be like a lifetime of work. 00:03:23.919 --> 00:03:28.800 Um, and uh so it's an enormous amount of money. 00:03:28.960 --> 00:03:31.039 This is not something casual. 00:03:31.280 --> 00:03:40.319 He gives one slave five talents, he gives another slave two talents, and he gives another slave one talent, and of course they do different things with them. 00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:51.599 Then he comes back after a while and he uh he notices that the five the slave with five talents has made five more talents from this. 00:03:51.919 --> 00:03:55.840 And the master says, Well done, good and trustworthy slave. 00:03:56.080 --> 00:04:00.240 You have been trustworthy in a few things, and I will give you more. 00:04:01.039 --> 00:04:04.560 And he does the same thing with the two the slave with two talents. 00:04:04.719 --> 00:04:10.159 He says, You know, the two talent slave comes back and says, Yeah, look here, master. 00:04:10.240 --> 00:04:14.719 I gave you two talent, two talents uh more uh back. 00:04:15.120 --> 00:04:16.639 So look at what I've done. 00:04:16.720 --> 00:04:23.199 And he goes, Well done, uh trustworthy slave, and says the same thing to him. 00:04:23.439 --> 00:04:29.519 And then the third slave comes back and says, Uh, no, here's your here's your one talent back. 00:04:29.680 --> 00:04:46.720 I hid your talent in the ground while you were gone, because I knew that you were a hard man, and that you would uh that you dealt heart harshly with people, and that you, this is very important. 00:04:47.199 --> 00:04:53.279 You reap where you do not sow, and you gather where you do not scatter. 00:04:54.639 --> 00:04:58.639 So um, so I was afraid and I hid it. 00:04:58.800 --> 00:05:00.399 So here's your talent back. 00:05:01.120 --> 00:05:07.680 And uh the master, of course, becomes very angry and says, You wicked and lazy slave. 00:05:08.319 --> 00:05:18.720 And then he you could tell that he was insulted by uh the slave because he says, What I reap where I do not sow, I gather where I do not scatter. 00:05:19.680 --> 00:05:24.240 So um he says, At least you should have invested the money with a bankers. 00:05:24.480 --> 00:05:27.199 At least I'd have something that you would do it. 00:05:27.439 --> 00:05:37.759 So then what he does is he casts the slave out into the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, like other uh parables that Jesus tells. 00:05:38.079 --> 00:05:54.160 And you gotta go, well, okay, the traditional um interpretation of this, very much that you and I were taught in Sunday school, that is uh part of American culture, is well, this is quite clear, right? 00:05:54.319 --> 00:06:06.560 Is that the um the two slaves that were trustworthy and good, uh, they invested the money wisely while the bat uh while the master was gone. 00:06:06.800 --> 00:06:12.079 And that wicked slave who was afraid uh didn't do it. 00:06:12.319 --> 00:06:16.319 And it's traditionally been used in saying that you've been given gifts by God. 00:06:16.480 --> 00:06:29.600 If you use the gifts, God will reward you well, and that if you um if you don't use the gifts that you've been given, uh God will curse you and cast you out. 00:06:30.720 --> 00:06:33.439 Well, this is a very mare American way to look at it. 00:06:33.519 --> 00:06:45.839 This is a very capitalist way to look at it, and it fits in with uh our culture, and we can see this in the uh uh other um the other parables around it. 00:06:46.079 --> 00:06:52.959 We can also interpret it sort of this way is that being prepared, being ready, being wise, being smart, right? 00:06:53.199 --> 00:07:15.040 Those things, and that Jesus is encouraging people to do this, but we have to ask a few questions here, and that part of this is about ambiguity, and that this parable is backward from probably what you have been told and what you uh thought about it in a couple of ways. 00:07:15.199 --> 00:07:28.240 Now, I'm not going to say that it's completely one way or another, because the fact is, is we don't know, but we have to ask a few tough questions, and then it will kind of reveal a little bit about what we think of Jesus and what we think of God. 00:07:29.199 --> 00:07:35.839 So, question uh the one question is is we always have to ask, what is a talent? 00:07:36.399 --> 00:07:40.079 How how did the master get that talent? 00:07:40.399 --> 00:07:48.399 Talent is an enormous amount of money, something like we would think of half a million dollars, you know, a lifetime's wages. 00:07:48.800 --> 00:07:55.199 Um it's it's something that, especially if you had five of them, you're talking about millions of dollars, right? 00:07:55.519 --> 00:07:58.240 Being something being entrusted to you. 00:07:58.639 --> 00:08:08.800 And so then you got to ask the next question in that culture, in that place, how did this master have that much money? 00:08:09.360 --> 00:08:20.480 And what did the people that Jesus who Jesus was was speaking with, what would they have thought about um the master having that much money, having that much wealth? 00:08:20.720 --> 00:08:34.080 Now, of course, we hear a lot about uh people and especially the patriarchs having enormous wealth in the old testament, for example, but um Jesus doesn't say nice things about wealthy people. 00:08:34.240 --> 00:08:44.240 He talks about the uh, you know, that it's easier for um a camel to go through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to get into uh heaven, right? 00:08:44.480 --> 00:08:45.200 We hear that. 00:08:45.279 --> 00:09:07.279 We hear about the

um the young rich man who said in in Mark who says uh who's trying to find a way for Jesus to um insure him about the kingdom of heaven, um about his salvation and so forth, even though he was clearly exploitative, right, in order to get his money. 00:09:07.360 --> 00:09:10.240 Uh and he says, well, yeah, I mean there's one more thing you can do. 00:09:10.320 --> 00:09:13.519 You can go and you can give all your money away and give it to the poor. 00:09:14.080 --> 00:09:29.600 So you can see that in the character of Jesus and the way Jesus thought of wealth in this, in cons if you're gonna be consistent and say that Jesus was consistent, then you've got to ask these questions. 00:09:29.759 --> 00:09:33.919 First of all, would Jesus have taken the side of the master? 00:09:34.720 --> 00:09:41.919 The traditional way of looking at this uh at this parable is to say that the master is God, right? 00:09:42.159 --> 00:09:47.759 That the master is entrusts gifts to the slaves who they do it. 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:51.519 But then you always have to ask, do the slaves get anything for this? 00:09:52.080 --> 00:09:54.159 Or are they just being exploited? 00:09:54.960 --> 00:10:06.240 Do they really get they don't get the five talents, they don't get any benefit from the uh from the investment other than the praise of the master. 00:10:06.960 --> 00:10:09.600 All of the benefit count goes to the master. 00:10:10.159 --> 00:10:12.480 Say, okay, is that God, right? 00:10:13.120 --> 00:10:19.279 So you if you think of it in this way, then you begin to think about liberation theology a little bit. 00:10:19.600 --> 00:10:38.080 Now, being in the United States uh or being in Western Europe, uh, you know, uh traditional ideas about Christianity, uh, we tend to favor the the landowner, we tend to favor the the order of the system, right? 00:10:38.639 --> 00:10:51.279 Whereas uh liberation theology people from uh you know, especially from Latin America, Africa, Asia today tend to look at this uh parable quite differently than we do. 00:10:51.600 --> 00:11:04.879 They tend to see that the um that the master is the villain of the story, that he is the exploitative system where there's a concentration of wealth. 00:11:05.120 --> 00:11:10.799 And we're not talking about a small amount of wealth, we're talking about enormous amounts of wealth, right? 00:11:11.679 --> 00:11:24.720 And then uh in that view, uh, that the two slaves who invested and received back, they were complicit to this exploit system of exploitation. 00:11:24.960 --> 00:11:36.320 And actually, the hero of the story was the one uh slave who hid the talent and did not participate in the exploitation. 00:11:36.559 --> 00:11:42.399 Because you always have to ask that second question is that where did the earnings come from? 00:11:42.720 --> 00:11:47.919 The for the five talents that were invested, where did those come from? 00:11:48.480 --> 00:11:58.000 They probably in that culture, in the way that they

thought, came from the exploitation of labor and exploitation of slaves. 00:11:58.240 --> 00:12:10.320 It could have come from landlords going out and uh um, and we also have the story of you know, the slave that goes out and tries to settle accounts with for his landlord, right? 00:12:10.639 --> 00:12:12.480 At a discount, right? 00:12:13.440 --> 00:12:30.000 But it when you talk about this amount of wealth in that culture, likely the people who were listening to Jesus, especially the disciples, thought negatively about the master and negatively about the two complicit slaves. 00:12:30.480 --> 00:12:44.720 And uh now we don't know how they would have thought of this the slave who uh who hid the talent, but that slave could have been seen as a resistor, a resistor against the system. 00:12:45.519 --> 00:12:48.399 And this is something that liberation theology has. 00:12:48.559 --> 00:12:54.720 There's problems with that as well, but at least we have to consider it and we have to look at it. 00:12:54.960 --> 00:13:04.080 So, whenever I'm faced with this kind of situation, and I'm going to be preaching on this, by the time you're listening to this, I will have preached on it. 00:13:04.320 --> 00:13:12.320 And uh I I always ask the question if you're confused, uh, whose side should you be on? 00:13:13.519 --> 00:13:19.279 Whose side, which character would Jesus be with? 00:13:20.639 --> 00:13:28.639 Would Jesus be with the comfortable people who are behind the walls, you know, and the smug master? 00:13:29.600 --> 00:13:38.000 Or would Jesus be with the one who was cast out into the outer darkness with weeping and gnashing of teeth? 00:13:39.200 --> 00:13:40.480 Where would Jesus be? 00:13:40.639 --> 00:14:04.080 And every time we see this, when we see it from our perspective, especially if we have a dominant uh perspective uh in the West, we would tend to see it as, well, of course, Jesus is for law and order, and Jesus is for wise and wise people and wise investing and all of that, and uh he's not for laziness for sure, right? 00:14:04.720 --> 00:14:08.879 So he's gonna be on the side of that orderly part, right? 00:14:09.440 --> 00:14:22.240 But you have to say then, okay, is Jesus then who is he for in the final parable of the sheeps and the goats when we talk about exploit systems of exploitation? 00:14:22.799 --> 00:14:34.240 And when we talk about the ten bridesmaids and the five bridesmaids who were foolish, well, maybe was Jesus the bride but the groomsman? 00:14:34.320 --> 00:14:35.039 We don't know. 00:14:35.200 --> 00:14:39.440 Well, would the groomsmen cast and lock the door? 00:14:39.919 --> 00:14:47.600 Uh um cruelly lock the door against the the three brides uh five bridesmaids and say, I don't know you. 00:14:47.919 --> 00:14:49.840 Is that the Jesus we know? 00:14:50.080 --> 00:14:51.919 So we have to ask that question. 00:14:52.240 --> 00:15:04.000 Maybe this tells us more about us, because certainly some people say, Yeah, that is

Jesus, because that Jesus is fair, that Jesus is upholding the truth, you know. 00:15:04.080 --> 00:15:08.799 That Jesus is the the one I believe in, you know, believe in. 00:15:09.120 --> 00:15:11.840 Uh, but then you gotta go, well, wait a bit. 00:15:12.080 --> 00:15:30.159 What about all the times when Jesus forgives people, shows grace to people who don't deserve it, uh, hangs out with prostitutes and um and tax collectors and all of these people that are shunned and thrown away, and eunuchs and people like that. 00:15:30.399 --> 00:15:36.559 You gotta go so part of this story, a big part of it, is about ambiguity. 00:15:37.120 --> 00:16:02.879 And we uh whenever we read this and whenever we take sort of our Sunday school uh uh versions of this, which was clearly this parable when I was taught, and uh, and if you look at almost any uh uh commentary, especially traditional commentaries today, you would see this um as about investing and investing gifts given by God. 00:16:03.200 --> 00:16:08.639 Um, it also kind of uh supports this prosperity gospel idea, right? 00:16:09.200 --> 00:16:14.559 But if you if you're a believer in prosperity gospel, you're definitely gonna see it that way. 00:16:14.799 --> 00:16:35.200 You're gonna definitely see it is that those who give their talents and then give back to God, you know, in God invested in you and you give your investment back to God is the way they think, then you would say, Oh, well, this is uh clearly what is meant by this. 00:16:35.440 --> 00:16:39.120 But that's not the gospel, because the gospel is upside down. 00:16:39.360 --> 00:16:45.519 The gospel is giving grace uh without payment is not a transaction. 00:16:46.080 --> 00:16:49.679 So we have to always ask that question here. 00:16:50.240 --> 00:17:03.039 So even if we do take the liberation theology point of view of this, then we got to ask the very next question about the um the servant who was afraid. 00:17:03.600 --> 00:17:19.599 Well, if the servant was doing the will of God, what Jesus would have wanted, if the message was to the disciples to be um a resister against the system, because the system was gonna certainly come after the disciples. 00:17:19.759 --> 00:17:28.640 Remember, this is just maybe days before Jesus was to be crucified and raised again, and he's talking to his disciples. 00:17:29.519 --> 00:17:31.039 Well, what kind of message is this? 00:17:31.200 --> 00:17:34.960 The disciples, you know, he's talking about, is he talking about end times? 00:17:35.039 --> 00:17:37.839 Is he saying, well, you're gonna get, you know, whatever? 00:17:38.079 --> 00:17:53.039 Or is he trying to encourage the disciples, you know, you've got to put up with uh some pretty bad behavior by people like this master, who's probably gonna cast you out, who's probably gonna uh throw you into the darkness. 00:17:53.440 --> 00:17:56.400 And you've got to ask, well, what are you gonna do? 00:17:57.119 --> 00:18:04.000 So one of the messages could be don't be like the lazy servant, don't hide the talent. 00:18:04.319 --> 00:18:10.079 Maybe the better thing to do would be to invest it and then give the money away. 00:18:10.559 --> 00:18:14.640 That wouldn't that sound a little bit more like Jesus, for example? 00:18:14.960 --> 00:18:21.279 Maybe the resistor should have been more resisting to authority. 00:18:21.599 --> 00:18:23.599 Maybe you have to ask that too. 00:18:24.160 --> 00:18:28.160 So I'm not gonna give you an answer to this because there are many ways to look at this. 00:18:28.400 --> 00:18:32.799 So I'll back up a little bit and I'll talk a little bit about what it means to us. 00:18:34.079 --> 00:18:45.119 In our world, the idea of investing, interest, uh banking, uh, money is very different than theirs. 00:18:45.440 --> 00:19:00.480 Because in our world, uh we believe in that wise investing that's widespread rather than just a few people, is a good thing that we benefit from that. 00:19:00.640 --> 00:19:03.119 I certainly benefit from that. 00:19:03.279 --> 00:19:05.519 I'm in my second career as a pastor. 00:19:05.680 --> 00:19:07.440 I would not be able to do this. 00:19:07.680 --> 00:19:17.119 I would not be able to speak with you if I had didn't have a career before this that gave me the means to be a small church pastor. 00:19:17.279 --> 00:19:25.839 I would immediately have to go and find a more lucrative church or a more lucrative situation in order to be able to do what I do. 00:19:26.319 --> 00:19:57.119 So I am living uh uh and I bet have benefited from the system that uh that allows me uh to uh to have invested and invest and uh gain rewards for things that for seed that I don't scatter, for uh things that to reap on things that I didn't sow, that we believe in investing in a different way than they did back then. 00:19:57.440 --> 00:20:08.079 Because the idea of a stock market, capital investments, uh you know, spending money for capital and things like that didn't exist in those times. 00:20:08.319 --> 00:20:25.359 No, they lived in a very hierarchical society that was very, very polarized between those who had property and those who did not, that based on slavery, that you know, based on that hierarchy in a way that we don't. 00:20:25.599 --> 00:20:34.400 So it's very hard, and we have to be careful not to impose our ideas on this too much. 00:20:35.119 --> 00:21:00.880 The idea of the uh the parable of the ten talents being about investment also has an ugly history in the United States because it was seen very much in the way of supporting slavery, for example, that the master could be like a godlike figure, and that the master is saying to slaves who were slaves, who were owned and did not have choices. 00:21:01.519 --> 00:21:20.000 And you would say, Well, if I uh am a slave master uh, you know, on a plantation in America 200 years ago, if I had a slave that took uh my money and buried it instead of doing it, well, I would cast that slave out too.

00:21:20.160 --> 00:21:22.240 I might even kill that slave, right? 00:21:22.559 --> 00:21:24.319 Or certainly sell him off. 00:21:25.680 --> 00:21:32.880 So this mentality informs us and has become part of our Christianity today. 00:21:33.119 --> 00:21:35.200 We have to be aware of that too. 00:21:35.440 --> 00:21:42.000 We have to go, is so is Jesus on the side of the slave master or not? 00:21:42.720 --> 00:21:45.519 Is Jesus on the say side of the slave? 00:21:46.480 --> 00:21:47.599 Always ask that. 00:21:47.759 --> 00:21:51.759 Like I said, I always ask that of my congregation too. 00:21:51.920 --> 00:22:02.400 Is it you know, when we were talking about things like uh the um the rapture, for example, I always ask the question if you Believe in the rapture, which is not in scripture, by the way. 00:22:02.559 --> 00:22:10.319 That's something that was invented later by uh by um by preachers in the 19th century. 00:22:10.559 --> 00:22:15.279 Um, but you look at that and you go, whose side would Jesus be on? 00:22:15.599 --> 00:22:26.240 Would Jesus be smugly crossing his arm with all of his people in heaven, looking down on those poor people being uh in the tribulation? 00:22:27.279 --> 00:22:30.240 Uh that that's not the Jesus we know. 00:22:30.319 --> 00:22:32.079 That's not the Jesus in Scripture. 00:22:32.240 --> 00:22:43.599 No, the Jesus we know would be down on earth hanging out with the prostitutes and the slaves and the people who are being exploited. 00:22:44.240 --> 00:22:46.079 So we have to be consistent here. 00:22:46.240 --> 00:22:47.839 That's what we have to do. 00:22:48.480 --> 00:22:59.519 So if we if so then if today's society and if people like me and probably like you benefit, we have to ask, how do we benefit? 00:23:00.319 --> 00:23:20.160 Now, I you know, we you and I uh are uh engaging in this podcast using resources, uh, you know, using data centers, for example, using technology that is developed by very rich corporations, right? 00:23:20.720 --> 00:23:38.640 Uh we are using uh technology that was uh that could not have been funded, and could not, we would not have unless it were for the investment of other people, um the capital investment of people. 00:23:39.359 --> 00:23:42.559 So we've got to say, oh, well, am I gonna just throw away the system? 00:23:42.640 --> 00:23:46.720 Is Jesus advocating for communism or socialism or something like that? 00:23:46.880 --> 00:23:47.759 Marxism? 00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:52.000 Uh, the people who say that are foolish because that is not true. 00:23:52.240 --> 00:23:55.519 That's not what Jesus is advocating for at all. 00:23:57.119 --> 00:23:59.359 But we but is he advocating for? 00:23:59.519 --> 00:24:04.240 He is uh he is advocating against exploitation. 00:24:05.119 --> 00:24:13.839 So he's not saying you don't invest, he's not saying, you know, that these uh these we have a system, right? 00:24:14.079 --> 00:24:18.960 He is saying that the system is exploitative and corrupt.

00:24:19.200 --> 00:24:28.400 One thing that you should always look at with the parables too, because we tend to personalize everything, especially modern people in the United States. 00:24:28.480 --> 00:24:30.079 We're very individualistic. 00:24:30.319 --> 00:24:32.240 We we internalize everything. 00:24:32.480 --> 00:24:44.720 We don't realize that when Jesus is speaking in this, the you he has, uh the when he says the we, he's talking about groups of people. 00:24:45.119 --> 00:24:50.480 This parable comes directly before what's called the uh judgment of nations. 00:24:51.119 --> 00:25:04.960 And if you look at the uh the pronouns in the sheep and the goats, it's the you all, it's the plural you, it's the plural first person, we. 00:25:06.160 --> 00:25:10.160 When did we not feed you, Lord? 00:25:10.319 --> 00:25:14.319 When did we not uh to so forth? 00:25:14.640 --> 00:25:28.480 And that's very, very important because what when you're talking about we and you all, we're talking about groups of people, we're talking about systems, we're talking about uh how society works. 00:25:28.720 --> 00:25:38.960 And that is very, very clear in Jesus' parables all along, and especially in these, is that he's not talking about you as an individual. 00:25:39.519 --> 00:25:55.759 He's not talking about the even these people as individuals, he's talking about the the system, the people, the society, the culture, the nations, and how they're treating people. 00:25:56.400 --> 00:26:00.079 So let's look at that uh too. 00:26:00.319 --> 00:26:12.160 We would not be able to do what we're doing without good investment, wise decisions, people working hard, uh without so forth. 00:26:12.480 --> 00:26:21.759 But we also can demand fairness, equality, uh not being exploited. 00:26:22.240 --> 00:26:48.799 Um, the kingdom of heaven, all of us hope for, all of us have an image of the kingdom of heaven in one way or another that includes the fairness, kindness, loving kindness, um uh obedience to the law, yes, even that, um, and all of these things in and some semblance of order, right? 00:26:49.519 --> 00:26:58.559 None of us thinks that chaos, anarchy, cruelty, exploitation are have anything to do with the kingdom of heaven. 00:26:58.720 --> 00:27:02.480 I shouldn't say none of us, but the vast majority of us don't see it that way. 00:27:02.640 --> 00:27:07.839 Some people see things the kingdom of heaven being very hierarchical, you know, like the umbrellas thing. 00:27:07.920 --> 00:27:09.279 That's ridiculous. 00:27:09.599 --> 00:27:14.559 When we talk about in scripture, the kingdom of heaven is the peaceable kingdom. 00:27:14.720 --> 00:27:20.240 It's the cassette of God, which is the loyal love of God unto all people. 00:27:20.319 --> 00:27:25.920 There is no Jew, there is no Greek, there is no man, there is no woman, there is no slave, there is no free. 00:27:26.079 --> 00:27:28.000 This is the kingdom of heaven. 00:27:28.319 --> 00:27:35.519 So we have to look

at this parable and the others through that, through that lens. 00:27:35.759 --> 00:27:37.039 And what is that lens? 00:27:37.200 --> 00:27:40.400 The lens of of goodness, fairness. 00:27:40.559 --> 00:27:51.279 Now we can think that the kingdom of heaven is only in the future, and is are these uh parables eschatological, uh meaning only about end times. 00:27:51.440 --> 00:28:13.440 Now, uh in the lectionary, uh these are um paired with 1 Thessalonians, where Paul is talking about uh eschatological things, he's talking about the future, um, the future kingdom of heaven in that, but Paul is also talking about what you do today in 1 Thessalonians. 00:28:13.680 --> 00:28:23.200 The reason why this is important is that 1 Thessalonians was about a group of people, mostly poor people, poor Macedonians in Thessaloniki. 00:28:24.240 --> 00:28:32.480 These people were uh the these people had hoped that Jesus would come very soon. 00:28:32.720 --> 00:28:40.400 And in fact, their hope was so hyped up that they stopped working, they stopped marrying, they stopped having children. 00:28:40.960 --> 00:29:00.720 And then when Jesus didn't come fast enough for them, they were losing hope, they were losing faith, they were starting to see that their neighbors and their family members were dying, and they were very, very worried that they were gonna miss out, the fear of missing out on the kingdom of heaven. 00:29:00.880 --> 00:29:02.880 And Paul says, No, no, no. 00:29:03.200 --> 00:29:04.960 It's about today, too. 00:29:05.279 --> 00:29:06.720 That time will come. 00:29:06.960 --> 00:29:07.920 Jesus will come. 00:29:08.079 --> 00:29:14.160 Don't worry, Jesus will will raise the dead, Jesus will bring you along. 00:29:14.400 --> 00:29:24.640 That's why this idea of the uh um the rapture being about separating people is ridiculous, because that's not what it is in uh for Thessalonians at all. 00:29:24.880 --> 00:29:32.079 No, it's about stay, uh do what you can for the kingdom here and now today. 00:29:32.400 --> 00:29:36.240 So that's why we should look at these three parables as well. 00:29:36.799 --> 00:29:40.880 They're not only about the end times. 00:29:41.200 --> 00:29:51.039 Certainly, many Christians have taken the uh parable about the sheep and goats about doing unto the least of these in a in a positive way. 00:29:51.200 --> 00:29:54.079 It's like do unto the least of these today. 00:29:54.960 --> 00:29:56.480 And your reward is in heaven. 00:29:56.640 --> 00:29:58.480 Well, is that heaven only in the future? 00:29:58.640 --> 00:29:59.519 Is that heaven today? 00:29:59.680 --> 00:30:00.400 Who knows? 00:30:00.640 --> 00:30:13.599 The thing is, is that we're talking about the behavior, and even in this story about the talents, the behavior of people today, and what the implications of that behavior will be. 00:30:15.119 --> 00:30:33.200 So this is why I think sitting with this, if you have an authoritarian view of Christianity, and if you view God as a

taskmaster, and if you view Jesus as complicit in that taskmastering, you're gonna see this quite differently. 00:30:33.440 --> 00:30:59.200 If you're gonna see that Jesus as a slave master, then you're gonna see this quite differently than you are if you are a poor person or you're a person that's been shoved down by the system and see this as a way of freedom, and that Jesus is pushing back on the system and pushing back on the complicity of those slaves who go along with the master, right? 00:31:00.640 --> 00:31:06.720 Uh you have to see it in both ways, and then you've got to ask, where would Jesus be? 00:31:07.200 --> 00:31:08.240 Always ask that. 00:31:08.480 --> 00:31:10.799 Where would Jesus be in this situation? 00:31:11.920 --> 00:31:14.880 So, what does that mean in terms of investing? 00:31:15.440 --> 00:31:26.160 Where you put your money, where you put your effort, whether you protest, whether you stand up, whether you're teaching, what kind of job you take. 00:31:26.960 --> 00:31:31.519 You there are no simple questions because all of us are participating in real life. 00:31:31.839 --> 00:31:37.680 All of us have to make compromises, all of us have to figure out how where is God in this. 00:31:38.240 --> 00:31:40.319 I don't know how many times I say that. 00:31:40.480 --> 00:31:44.880 I wake up in the morning and I say, Where is God in this? 00:31:45.279 --> 00:31:46.559 Help me, God. 00:31:46.799 --> 00:31:48.079 I say that a lot. 00:31:48.240 --> 00:31:52.799 Help me understand God, help me understand that. 00:31:53.200 --> 00:31:55.839 So that's the way I approach this. 00:31:56.079 --> 00:32:03.039 So now when I go to my congregation with this, uh I'm I have to be careful. 00:32:03.200 --> 00:32:16.640 If I only preach the liberation theology way, uh way of looking at it, then my congregation is go, oh, there's that liberal talking again, he's a Marxist communist, all of that. 00:32:16.960 --> 00:32:23.279 All the things that people accuse us, you know, us liberals, right, in the Presbyterian church about. 00:32:24.240 --> 00:32:27.359 And it's not, that's not the message. 00:32:27.680 --> 00:32:30.880 And Jesus doesn't endorse that either. 00:32:31.119 --> 00:32:45.920 But then if I just go, and in fact, I even have it in the script of my sermon, I'm gonna say, I don't know how to preach this, but if I just preach you what you were taught in Sunday school about it being only about investing, I'm misleading you. 00:32:46.079 --> 00:32:54.960 I'm telling you an untruth because that's not what this is, and that's not the way Jesus saw it, and that's not the way people heard this in the first century. 00:32:55.119 --> 00:33:02.160 We know that for quite for sure, that that they didn't hear it in the capitalist way that we think about it. 00:33:02.799 --> 00:33:07.440 Um you know, but you can't so you can't take either side. 00:33:07.519 --> 00:33:12.240 You have to look at this and you have to say, where is Jesus in this? 00:33:13.680 --> 00:33:15.920 Yes, we are given gifts. 00:33:16.400 --> 00:33:47.200 Yes, we are expected to, you know, uh to be rule followers, do the right things, follow the law, be faithful, be supportive, uh, work hard, do all of those things, we are expected to do those things, but we are also expected to uplift the person who's pushed down, to have grace for other people, to not be part of exploitative systems. 00:33:47.599 --> 00:33:49.920 We're expected to do that too. 00:33:50.240 --> 00:33:58.799 So if you're looking for an easy, quick answer, sorry, there isn't one, but that's what it means to live the Christian life. 00:33:58.960 --> 00:34:09.119 That's what it means to not just take the scriptures, believe one thing about them, take your political ideology ideology from it and move on. 00:34:09.679 --> 00:34:19.599 No, instead, it's about wrestling with the scriptures and saying, uh, maybe the way I have been seeing it, maybe I need to look at it another way. 00:34:19.840 --> 00:34:33.280 So with that, I say, uh and you know, uh almost every and every time I say this, and I the reason why I do this podcast and I do my media is that people do say things about the Bible that aren't really there. 00:34:33.679 --> 00:34:37.440 That we're always projecting a modern idea on stories. 00:34:37.519 --> 00:34:39.119 It's just what people do. 00:34:39.440 --> 00:34:46.239 So all I ask you to do is look at it differently and ask where would Jesus be in this? 00:34:46.480 --> 00:34:50.480 So, with that, I say thank you so much for listening and God bless you.