Faithful Master, Faithful Servant Matthew 25:14–30

Grace, mercy, and peace be with you, from God, our faithful Father, and our faithful Lord, Jesus Christ.

Our sermon title is Faithful Master, Faithful Servant, based on our Gospel, especially verse 21, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant… Enter into the joy of your master.’ 

How does it make you feel to hear the words, “Well done”, or “Good job”? It feels good to be complemented like that. And those kinds of complements can inspire us to try to do even better. 

The words of encouragement that Jesus speaks in our Gospel inspire us to serve  God faithfully, and they warn us of the tragic outcome of being faithless.

Our Gospel is often called the parable of the talents. It might also be called the parable of the wicked servant, or the parable of the faithful servants, or the parable of the faithful Master.

A wealthy master was going to be far away from his home for quite a while. It wasn’t like today when you can take care business online while you’re on the other side of the world.  

There was no such communication back then, so he had to put his trusted servants in charge of his finances.  

He gave his most trusted servant 5 talents to invest or make use of. A talent was worth 6000 denarii. One denarius was worth one day’s wages. Maybe think of a talent as about ½ million dollars today. So that would make 5 talents as about 2 ½ million.

The wealthy master gave another of his servants 2 talents, about a million dollars, and another 1 talent, about half a million dollars.

Then he went away, showing great trust in his servants, in their integrity, their wisdom, and their diligence, their hard work.

However, the servant entrusted with one talent hid it all in the ground instead of making good use of it.

The servant entrusted with two talents used them to make another two talents, or today, another million dollars; and the servant entrusted with 5 talents, used it to make another 5 talents, an excellent 100% return. 

It would be like if 2 years ago you would have invested 2.5 million dollars in Amazon stock; today you would have 5 million dollars of Amazon stock, since it’s gone up about 100% or more in the last two years.

After a while the wealthy man returned home and summoned his servants to give an account of how they had invested his money.

The servant given 5 talents told his master, “I used it to make 5 more; here’s 10.” 

The master was very pleased with the 100% rate of return, and he said, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; (so if he considered 5 talents or 2.5 million dollars a little, he must have been very wealthy) You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ In other words, I’ll give you a lot more to invest, and I’ll share the profits with you to make your life better, from a material point of view, that is.

Then came the servant who had invested two talents and doubled it. The wealthy master said the same to him: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant... Enter into your master’s joy.’

Then came the servant with the 1 talent that he had hid in the ground. The master was angry with him when he found out he had made no use of it and he had been charged to do. Instead of saying the words, Well done, good and faithful servant, the master said, “You wicked, lazy servant”, and he fired him and threw him out into the darkness. 

This parable is not a lesson in financial investment. Jesus isn’t condoning materialism, or shrewd business dealings. It’s a lesson in spiritual investment;  Jesus is talking about the Gospel, trusting in it, investing your life in it, being a faithful keeper of it, not just believing and guarding the Gospel, but also sharing it, that others may hear and believe, and share in the joy of God’s amazing grace!

The last verses of the parable are a warning about neglecting and rejecting the Gospel. Jesus said, Cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Sobering words.

This tells us how serious and deadly the consequences are of ignoring or rejecting the Gospel and the life Jesus offers, the salvation he died and rose to give the world. 

Although in our Gospel and Old Testament readings, Jesus warns of the dire consequences of being faithless to the Gospel, the thing to remember is that Jesus came to save us from that terrible outcome. Eternal anguish and weeping is the last thing he wants for us. He wants us to enter into his joy, and live in his peace.

Today, a precious child of God, Collins Grace, has entered into her Heavenly Father’s joy. Her sins are washed away. The Holy Spirit has blessed her heart to believe. She now lives in God’s kingdom of grace on earth, and, remaining faithful, she will live in His kingdom of glory forever, to the great joy of her Creator and Redeemer.

Ryan and Bria, what great joy you’ve been blessed with. Collins and Peyton are the joy of their parents, and their grandparents, and aunts and uncles, and, most of all, they are the joy of their Father in Heaven. Jesus says that even the angels rejoice when we are brought into this Kingdom of grace.

Be good and faithful parents; faithful to raise Collins and her big brother, Peyton, in this healing, saving, comforting, Gospel.  

Pray for their faithfulness to Christ throughout their lives on earth, that they not succumb to the secular culture; and pray for their great reward in heaven, that they may hear those wonderful, satisfying words, “Well done, my good and faithful servants. My dear, baptized children, come into my joy!”

Those words will be sweet music to our ears. Let those words encourage us to be faithful to our Lord and Master, who died and rose for us; faithful to receive His mercy for today, and His joy for eternity.

What a faithful Lord and Master we have. How amazing it is that our God who made us, became a servant to save us. 

Because Jesus was faithful to die and rise for us, and because He ascended into Heaven and to send us the Holy Spirit, we can be faithful to serve and follow Him on earth, and into eternity. 

Sometimes we might go astray, but He always calls us back. If we will but hear and repent and believe, we will enter again into His exceeding joy. May we never leave that joy, and may we always share that joy.

As He is faithful to love and serve us, let us be faithful to love and serve Him. And may His faithfulness empower us that we might be godly and faithful to serve our family and friends, and to befriend our neighbors in need.

It’s been said that man’s best friend is canine, a dog. No matter how good or bad your day has been, when you get home, there’s your dog, waiting for you, tail wagging, always happy to see you. 

I remember seeing a video of dogs when their owners had come home after being deployed from many months; the dogs would just go berserk with joy.

Even greater is God’s joy for you, for your salvation. Even more faithful is Christ’s love for you.

Let us have that same joy for each other; let us rejoice greatly in this love that we share, in this grace that we live by, in this salvation we yearn for, in God’s work that we do, and in this life-giving Gospel we tell the world about.

How sweet it will be to hear those words we long to hear, spoken to all the faithful in Christ throughout the ages: “Well done, my good and faithful servant; come and share in my joy forever.”  

May God keep you forever faithful in His joy, and may His peace, which passes understanding, always guard your heart and mind, in Christ Jesus, our good and faithful Lord and friend. Amen.