Five, Two, or One? Use What You Have Been Given

Again, the Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone. He gave five bags of silver to one, two bags of silver to another, and one bag of silver to the last—dividing it in proportion to their abilities. He then left on his trip.

The servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and earned five more. The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more. But the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master's money.

After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money. The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of silver came forward with five more and said, "Master, you gave me five bags of silver to invest, and I have earned five more."

The master was full of praise. "Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let's celebrate together!"

The servant who had received the two bags of silver came forward and said, "Master, you gave me two bags of silver to invest, and I have earned two more." The master said, "Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let's celebrate together!"

Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, "Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn't plant and gathering crops you didn't cultivate. I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back."

But the master replied,"You wicked and lazy servant! If you knew I harvested crops I didn't plant and gathered crops I didn't cultivate, why didn't you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it." –Matthew 25:14-27

 

Boston Trinity math teacher Marie Zhang surprised students Wednesday morning when she confessed to struggling with math as a high school student. She told Chapel attendees she grew up in the shadow of an older brother who was good at everything. While her brother did Math Olympiads for fun, she struggled through geometry.  She even went so far as to try to hide her embarrassment over her struggles by not turning in a test she had been unable to complete. Much to Ms. Zhang's shock, her teacher thought she, herself, had misplaced the test and gave Ms. Zhang an "A."  Rather than admitting what she had done, Ms. Zhang spent the next almost-two years avoiding the teacher. "Then in my junior year, Jesus beckoned," Ms. Zhang said. "I found out I was fully known but still fully loved." Confessing what she had done with the test those couple of years before brought such freedom, Ms. Zhang said.

Ms. Zhang went on to talk about the parable of the rich master and his servants. The amount of money given to the servants was considerable, she explained. Some scholars believe a talent ("bag of silver" in the above translation) would be equivalent to $600,000.00 today. Ms. Zhang was struck by the fact that the master gave the exact same praise to the first two servants. Both were told, "Well done ... you have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities."

 "The servant who was given two talents was not expected to make five talents more," Ms. Zhang said. "Growing up, I felt like a two talent servant trying to live the life of my five talent brother. I was given gifts of great value but instead of working to cultivate and double them, I wasted my time wishing I had what my brother had and ruminating on what I perceived to be my lack." Ms. Zhang exhorted her audience that there is such freedom in knowing one's responsibility is simply to take what one has been given and to double it.

Ms. Zhang quoted Psalm 131:2, "But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me." A weaned child, she explained, is a baby who has transitioned from the mother's milk. The child must trust that the mother is giving something better and is not trying to starve her; otherwise she will not be quieted.

The challenge is to trust God as a weaned child trusts her mother, Ms. Zhang stated.  We have to trust that God is not unfair. "There is a reason we are given certain gifts and not others. God was not doing me a disservice when he created my brain differently than my brother's. He was preparing me for something different. Something good."

"My prayer for you," Ms. Zhang said in closing, "is that you will take what God has given you and double it.