Matthew 25:14-30

This passage occurs in the RCL "Pentecost"/"Ordinary"/"Proper" Season, Year A, most recently November 2023.
 
Summary:
Alas, another Matthew Parable that seems to preach the Law and not the Gospel.  As a person and as a congregational leader, this passage troubles me.  Yet there is a bit of Gospel is we pay close attention here.  The master gives talents to his slaves.  Talents are huge sums of money.  What kind of person gives someone 1 or even 2 or even 5 to 10 million dollars??  What kind of person gives slaves this kind of money?  Sure, this parable may serve as warning not to hide our gifts.  Law, law and more law.  But the good news is this:  God gives us his assets in a way that in unimaginable in the real world of money.  (You might also say that God blesses his slaves' investments in a way unimaginable in this real world of money...)

What was new in 2020:  Focusing on people as the gifts we have been given.

What is new in 2023:  Focusing on how faith means taking risks and facing the fear of making a mistake.

Key words:

ταλαντον ("talent", a measure of gold weight worth roughly a million dollars or 20 years worth of a standard persons wages, 25:15).  While this parable may produce guilt and anxiety in us that we don't do enough, it is worth remembering that anyone who gives away 5 talents to his slaves (not friends, slaves) doesn't value money they way the rest of us do.  5 talents would be 5-10 million dollars; 100 years worth of human labor entrusted!

I think a sermon nugget here is realizing how much is entrusted to even the person with one talent.  Sometimes we compare ourselves to others and then convince ourselves that either we a) don't have responsibility to make an impact in the world or b) we have no capacity to do good.  We hide our talent.  Even when we are not given the "most" we still have more than we need and can work in the Kingdom with our gifts.

τα υπαρχοντα ("possessions", 25:16)  see below for a grammatical explanation of this word.  This word does mean possessions, but it comes from the verb for "to be" an does not simply mean goods, but really the entirety of one's resources and means.  For instance, in Genesis 12:5, Abraham and his family take τα υπαρχοντα of theirs when they are moving countries.  Second Peter 1:8 actually describes personality traits as υπαρχοντα.  This word is probably better translated as "assets."

εκερδησεν ("gain" from κερδαινω, 25:16)  Worth remembering that Paul said that all of his achievements were "dung" in order that he might gain Christ.  Also worth noting is that Jesus, in all three synoptics, warns of "gaining" the world (same word) but losing the soul.  Jesus is not simply teaching financial advice, but conveying a deeper meaning about the Kingdom of God.

εκρυψεν ("hide", κρυπτω, 25:18)  The word here literally means "encrypt."  The sin here is not having enough gifts, but hiding that which we have.  I wonder too if it is worth playing with this word "hide" and how people hide their gifts.

φοβηθεις ("fear", 25:25).  What is the fear of the third servant?  Interestingly, the third servant is not afraid of losing money for his sake (why people typically refuse to share what they have - they fear they will lack) but because he fears he will not do it right.   What fears hold people back from sharing their gifts?  Normally we would preach on the fear of not having enough, but not doing it right might also be a fear worth unpacking with people.   In 2023, I focused my sermon on the need to take risks for the Gospel.  In order to gain in the market, one must invest; living in faith is moving ahead in an uncertain world in which we might make mistakes. This leads to a nice Gospel message - God takes the risk of giving to us, knowing that God always has and always will make things right.

Grammar Review:  I thought substantive participles were easy!
Generally, one of the easiest participles to translate are a group called "substantive."  Basically, the form is 'the word the'+'participle' and it is translated the 'one(s)/thing(s) that do this verb'.  So in verse 14, you have τα υπαρχοντα.  The second word is a verb meaning "to be" so this substantive participle is translated, "the things that are."  In this case, this is an idiom which means something akin to "possessions" or "assets" but at its core, it is a participle made into a 'substance' by the word 'the'.

However, Greek can get pretty fancy with the substantive participle.  They can stick words in between the 'the' and the partciple.  For example, in 25:18
ο δε το εν λαβων means "But the one having one (talent)."  First, it is tricky because you have to figure out that the words το εν refer to "the one talent" but it is especially tricky because you have to realize that ο goes with λαβων and becomes "the one who has."  Lastly, you have to unpack the middle and put it on the end to translate it because in English you cannot have, outside of poetry, "the one one talent having." 

The nice thing about such participles is that they allow Greek to build some monster phrases, which ultimately are not that hard to translate.  You just have to identify the participle pieces (in this case the 'the' and the participle), translate them and then go after the middle.