An Amazing and Unexpected Responsibility

One of my favorite parables of Jesus is the parable of the talents in Matthew's gospel.  The ancient equivalent to a One Percent-er entrusts three servants with his fortune (sorry--it was definitely a he, given the gender roles at the time).  The three servants are given, respectively, five talents, three talents, and one talent.  The servants that are given five talents and three talents invest the money and double it, while the servant who is given one talent buries the talent in the ground and returns the money to the master when he returns.  The master praises the two servants who invested the money and gives them greater responsibility.  The master punishes the servant who buried the treasure in the ground, claiming that he wasted a great opportunity.

In the ancient Middle Eastern world, when your master entrusted you with a large treasure, the only prudent, responsible thing to do was to bury the money in the ground.  Think about it.  There were no banks or financial institutions.  Even paying for an armed guard over the treasure is risky; if someone knows about the treasure and the master's absence, they could try to overpower the guards. More importantly, it was considered sinful and profane in Jewish culture to invest money.  Investing money would have brought shame and dishonor on the master and the master's family.  Everyone listening to Jesus tell the parable would have been appalled and shocked at the two servants who invested the money, and shocked even more by the master's response.

God has entrusted us with a treasure that is greater than anything that we could possibly imagine.  The treasure that God has given us is our life; free will, choice, and consciousness.  We were not responsible for earning this gift.  We are just given it, unexpectedly and surprisingly.

God does not want us to play it safe with our gift.  God wants us to do daring, surprising, even shocking things to maximize God's investment in us.  God doesn't want us to be concerned with what is considered prudent, responsible, or socially acceptable with our life.  God wants us to do amazing things.  Like the servants in the parable who invest the money, there is no limit to the amount of good that we can do in this world if we aren't afraid to invest our lives in something that will maximize God's investment.