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Reflection on the Thirty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (November 13)

by Don Rampolla

The readings for this Sunday:

Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31

I Thessalonians 5:1-6

Matthew 25:14-30

The full text of the readings can be found here.

The Gospel passages for the past few weeks have all had the theme "be ready". The question is "for what"? The commentaries I’ve read emphasize the notion that we need to be ready for Jesus’ return so that we can receive our reward for a job well done. I propose that the message of this parable and last week’s parable of the ten virgins is about readiness for cruel treatment upon the return of the masters of the world, and readiness for being tossed outside – where Jesus will find us.

Start by considering last Sunday’s parable about the ten virgins. The bridegroom is not a nice guy – not only won’t he open the door for the late arriving virgins, he says, "I don’t know you". The wise virgins themselves, wise by the world’s standards, were not models of virtue – sending off their colleagues at midnight to buy oil.

In today’s parable the master outdoes the bridegroom and the virgins by a longshot in nastiness. The master is the antithesis of who we should be striving to be. In Leviticus 11 and 19 Yahweh says "Be holy for I, Yahweh your God, am holy." In Matthew 5 Jesus says "Be perfect as your Father is perfect." Think about the difference between the master and this model of holiness. Here is my list.

(In what follows I use a number of things Jesus says or does that tell us about the Father. I have in mind the passage in John 14 "Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it will satisfy us. Jesus said to him, "Have I been so long with you, and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father; and how then do you say, ‘Show us the Father?’")

1. The master is a harsh man. The servant characterizes the master as such and as one who reaps where he does not sow and gathers where he does not scatter, and the master agrees. Contrast this with Isaiah speaking for God (Chapter 55) "I send my word upon the earth and it will not return to me empty.” In Matthew 11 Jesus says "Learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart.”

2. The servant says "I was afraid"; the master says nothing to reassure him. Jesus says, something like 89 times, "Do not be afraid.”

3. The master leaves his kingdom to go abroad and is obviously out of touch with what’s going on. Contrast this for example with what Jesus says in Mt. 10 "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them shall fall to the ground without your Father's consent. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered."

4. The master is bent out of shape about money.

5. The master promises to reward the faithful servants with care about more things.

6. The master doesn’t give equally. Contrast this with the story in Chapter 20 of the workers in the vineyard where the owner gives equally despite the unequal number of hours worked.

7. The master throws out servant three on account of a pitiful sum. Where is the seventy times seven forgiveness? Contrast this with the story in Chapter 18 about the unforgiving servant who owed ten thousand talents and was forgiven the entire debt.

8. The master supposedly gave to each according to his ability. He obviously didn’t know the third servant very well – that he was a fearful person. Think of Psalm 139 "Lord you have examined me and you know me.”

So there is nothing in the master’s behavior to admire – we should be wary of him and everything that he does. Perhaps we should be wary of the way he rewards the "good and faithful" servants. These servants were successful at doing just what the master expected. Nothing wrong with that - perhaps – unless they made all that money on the backs of poor people as so often happens. But how they made the money isn’t part of the story. Some commentators interpret the reward of the good and faithful servants as indicating that God gives us gifts and our wise use of them profits us in some way. I don’t disagree with this idea, but I don’t think the parable is intended to make that point. Nowhere else does Jesus praise people for their ability to make money, and Jesus seems to have few associations with those who are prospering financially and in good standing with the religious and secular authorities. He talks in Matthew 15 about being sent to the lost sheep, and is always concerned about people on the margins. In Luke 15 Jesus says there is more joy in heaven over one repentant sinner than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. Now for servants one and two it appears that the story has a happy ending because they are sharing in the material happiness of their wealthy master. However Jesus tells us over and over that not only does happiness not come from material wealth, but that material wealth can be an obstacle to true happiness.
So I don’t think the thrust of the parable is to encourage us to emulate the "good and faithful" servants who got the rewards.

This leaves us to consider the poor slob who got tossed outside. Think about him.

First of all, think about handling money. All you have to do is look around to be assured that in this world there are a few people who are good at making bucks roll in to their accounts, and the vast numbers of the rest of us who are good at making bucks roll out of our accounts. I don’t know about your money, but mine does talk. Mostly it says "goodbye.” So I identify completely with the poor guy who was scared to death about investing the money. After all, he could have made a bad investment decision (there must have been Enron’s even back then, and ships sank much more often than today) and lost everything. Would a harsh master reward him for just trying?

Now the master orders an interesting punishment – put the servant out into the darkness where there will be "wailing and gnashing of teeth.” (The five foolish virgins also wound up outside in the after midnight darkness.) Some commentators are very quick to assign this poor guy to hell, and to assign their readers there too if they don’t use their talents wisely. Isn’t it easy to do this to anyone who doesn’t subscribe to our beliefs and lifestyle? And doesn’t it give one a smug feeling of satisfaction to know that that guy is going to hell, but not me! But Jesus was always looking for people on the outside. It’s interesting that Jesus has only good things to say about the woman who washed his feet with her tears and the tax collector who wouldn’t even lift his eyes to heaven but just said "Lord have mercy on me a sinner.” Maybe wailing and gnashing teeth is a start toward recognizing our need for repentance, forgiveness and Jesus.

So having dismissed all of the usual interpretations of this parable I’m back to what I proposed in the introduction. Servant three is the figure who represents you and me, and the one who actually wound up in the best place. He failed by the master’s standards and got kicked outside where Jesus would be waiting to pick up the pieces. How many of us have failed by the world’s standards and as a result are outside the circle of wealth? (Recent figures indicate that over 95% of us are outside this circle in this country.) How many of us have failed by the standards of religious leaders and are considered to be outside the community of righteous people? How many of us on the outside have turned to Jesus because that’s the only thing we can do? Servant three represents most of us, I think. This doesn’t mean that we should cultivate failure as a life goal. It just means that our failures, which are inevitably part of life, may not be the end – they may be the beginning of an encounter with Jesus.

In my own experience I had one seemingly disastrous work experience that led to losing one job and a lot of security and a lot of money. I’ve looked back at this many times and regard it as one of the best experiences in my life because it did lead to a closer relationship with Jesus and made me realize how dependent I am on God for everything.

So my interpretation of the story is simply this. Be ready! – because this is the way the world works. At some unexpected and inconvenient time the masters of this world will show up and find some reason to toss you outside. But don’t be afraid – because outside is where Jesus is waiting for you. This is all part of the way the kingdom of heaven works.

Finally I’d like to note that a sudden change in fortunes can occur other ways, due to illness, accidents etc. There are reasons aplenty to "be ready" – for an encounter with Jesus on the fringes of the world.

Here’s a comment on the parable of the servant who owed his master 10,000 talents (the term used in the older translations). Various sources indicate that a talent was a good deal more than an average worker made in a year. So this servant owed more than ten thousand years wages; it was probably closer to 100,000 years wages. I can imagine the master falling on the floor laughing at this poor guy promising to pay him back if given enough time, thinking "I’ll be older than God by the time you can pay me back.” What an impact this story must have had on Jesus listeners in a setting where if you started out poor there was absolutely no hope of becoming rich.