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Grace, mercy, and peace from God, our Father, and His Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear friends in Christ, one of the best-known verses in all the sacred scriptures that will get the hairs on the back of the necks of Lutherans to stand up is: faith apart from works is dead. For we Lutherans believe, teach, and confess that we are saved by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, as revealed in the sacred Scriptures alone.
But when we look at the appointed gospel lesson for this day, it looks in its telling of the parable of the talents that Jesus is in agreement with James’ words: faith apart from works is dead. The text identifies a master with his three servants. It looks like that the end results are that those who worked and those who doubled the master’s possessions were greeted with kindness and reward, while the one who did not work to bring something to the master was condemned and cast out.
You need to know, you need to know that it is so easy to take one verse out of context and twist it just a little bit to communicate meaning that is contrary to the writer’s original intent. As a pillar of the church in Jerusalem 30 years after the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, James had witnessed the birth of the New Testament church. He had witnessed the persecution of the church. He had witnessed the scattering of the church. And he had witnessed the waiting of the church.
Early in the 60s A.D., God inspired James to send his word in this letter to the people in this dispersion. These words were not intended for the Gentiles. These words were not intended for the unbelievers. These were given to the Jewish Christians scattered throughout the Mediterranean world. As these little pockets of believers dwelling in the midst of the pagan world, James was encouraging them as well as warning them.
He begins his letter with: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” He was pointing them back to the gift that was given to them and how they were saved and transferred into that safe place without any merit of their own. For verse 16 of chapter 1, he writes: “Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures.”
He was encouraging them to remain in the truth of the Gospel, the words and works of Jesus Christ, God in the flesh for them with the passing of time. James was hearing and witnessing with his own eyes a drifting. It was a slow, subtle separating and disconnecting of belief from practice. A movement from the church being in the world, but not of the world, to being a church that was becoming comfortable with a belief that was in conflict with this practice that was mirroring the world.
But the truth is that belief and practice are inseparable. In truth, doctrine and life are inseparable. The lie is this: I am this, but I identify or live or dwell as that. Thus, his letter to the Christian churches was reminding and warning them as they walk by faith of what a Christian life is, as the Holy Spirit works in them and as the Holy Spirit works through them.
It was the feast, the festival of Passover. Jesus was on the Mount of Olives with his disciples looking down on the temple of God in the city of Jerusalem. Jesus’ teaching and preaching ministry was coming to an end, for it was time for him to fulfill his mission for coming into the world. He knew that before the sun would rise on the next Sabbath, he would be arrested, accused, beaten, sentenced to death, whipped, mocked, and crucified on a cross outside the walls of Jerusalem with criminals.
The Creator coming into his creation, true God and true man in the person of Jesus. And why this immersion of the Holy One into this corrupted, unholy world? Why? To pay for the sins of the world, the price of all people, you and me. By being that perfect substitutional sacrifice, and those who are connected to Him by the gift of faith, he showers upon them his righteousness, and as they bask in the forgiveness of their sins, salvation and eternal life. For he has defeated sin, death, and the power of the devil upon the cross. But that day would come soon enough.
Jesus had so much more to teach his disciples. He had just told them about the parable of the ten virgins. The virgins were waiting with their lamps and oil for the bridegroom to come, but the time of his arrival was unknown and long. Upon hearing the cry, “Here is the bridegroom,” the five virgins woke up to see that their oil had been expended and their lamps were dark. So they left the rendezvous point to get more oil, while the five others were ready, for they had enough oil for their lamps to light as a light as they welcomed the bridegroom and followed him into the marriage feast.
The bridegroom is Jesus, and the oil represents the faith that continues as it is sustained by the means of grace and thus able to endure until Christ returns. Jesus concludes this parable before he begins today’s text with these words: “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”
Jesus knew his upcoming death, resurrection, and ascension. He knows about the rumbling that will occur on the day of Pentecost and his disciples boldly proclaiming the good news about who he is and his gifts of salvation for the world, as well as the 3,000 souls that will be saved upon that day. And of this, it was only the beginning. Jesus also knew that he would be separated from them for a time and that his disciples would need to wait, to wait, to wait for his return while living in this world. So he tells the parable of the talents.
This parable would be both of an encouragement as well as a warning to his disciples, and it’s for the church at large scattered throughout all the world through the generations, which includes you and me as we wait, as we wait for his return, as we wait for his second coming.
The obvious is that this man had wealth enough to have servants. This master had these specific individuals serving him on his estate. He personally knew each one of them and provided for their daily needs. Before the master of the estate departed on his long journey, he divided his business affairs and entrusted them to his servants according to their abilities.
Now don’t get lost in the weeds of the number of the servants or the number of talents, but look at the relationship of the servants to their Lord who they served. Upon receiving the talents, the two servants at once immediately began to serve their Lord even during his absence. But this was not the case with the one. His view of his Lord was different, and it was obvious in what he did with his talents entrusted to him.
But what was Jesus conveying in the talents given? It was the recognition that all the resources that the disciples possess are distributed by the Lord of Lords, and since he knows their abilities, he gives the talents accordingly. This includes you, and it includes me. We are intimately known by the Lord Jesus, and the talents have been distributed to each of us. There is no one in this sanctuary this morning who can say, “I have no abilities,” or “I have no talents.” You have them, each and every one of you, given by the Lord.
It’s true; we have different abilities and different talents. We are the body of Christ, and He is our head. We are different in our intellect, in our experiences, in our skills, and in our material possessions as we serve in the various vocations and the different spheres in which we live, but we are all one in Christ. So during this time of waiting as disciples of Christ, we live—we live as we walk in the light of his word.
When the scribe asked Jesus which commandment is the most important of all, he answered: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.”
And before his ascension, Jesus tells his disciples: “All authority in heaven and earth have been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.”
This is the encouragement of Jesus to his disciples. During these last days between his ascension and his return, it is to remain steadfast, you and me, to remain steadfast in the gifts of faith given to us and live it, live it. For the believer, this is not a burden driven by the law, striving to acquire merit to earn one way to heaven—no, no, absolutely not.
God, this was accomplished by the shedding of Christ’s blood on the cross for you. We are able to live it in accordance with God’s Word as we are motivated by the gospel as the Spirit works in us and through us.
I don’t got to go to church to hear the Word and to receive the sacrament, His sacrament. I get to. I don’t got to go to Bible study. I get to. I don’t got to support the church and its mission; I get to. I don’t got to love my neighbor; I get to. I don’t got to use my talents; I get to. You get the point.
There is also a warning for those who lack this relationship with the master, the gift of faith and its benefits, and thus disregard these talents that have been given to them from God. The warning is: the master hasn’t come yet. This parable is like Peter’s words on Pentecost when all the people heard his message. Many of them were cut to the heart, and they said to Peter and the rest: “Brothers, what shall we do?”
And Peter said to them: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” For there will come a day—there will come a day when our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ returns to earth as the judge, and all people will stand before him. There will be a dividing into two groups; Jesus calls them the goats and the sheep, and the only difference between the two is the presence and the absence of faith.
The goats come before Him as sinners with the Lord’s talents, given with this life, both in good and bad they do. As they stand before Him with no trust, no faith in His words and works given to them and the promise during their earthly life, He sees no multiplication of His talents. No matter how much good they did, no matter how many millions of dollars they gave away, Jesus sees zero, zilch, nada, nothing. And His pronunciation is: “Cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Then the sheep will come before him as sinners with the Lord’s talents given with this life, upon which there was good and bad in it. But by the power of the Word and the working of the Holy Spirit, they remain steadfast in the object of their faith, their Lord and Savior Jesus. Jesus knows them intimately; the talents that He had entrusted to each of them, He knows.
And when He sees them bearing the multiplication of the talents returned, worked through the Holy Spirit, He sees them as forgiven children of God through His bloodshed, and they have been washed. And their talents are perfect and complete. Do these words sound familiar to you? In the beginning of the message, James said: “For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
On that day, you, me, and all Christians will lack nothing, nothing. It will be complete, and it will be full. And we will hear: “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.”
So it’s true; it’s true that good works play no part in our salvation. But it is also true that the Lord works in and through us for His glory and for the good of others. You and I are blessed. You and I are blessed to bless others with the talents in which the Lord has given to each of us. Thanks be to God.
The peace which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
