00:00:00 Thanks for joining me on episode 677 of the inspired stewardship podcast. Hey guys, this is Matt ham from you print. I want to encourage you to find your own journey to living your life's calling. And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott Mader, causing fear in the people around him.
00:00:31 And if you think of God as being the master here, there, there's this feeling of being fearful and have God is demanding more and reaping what you don't. So, and this sort of thing. And that's an interesting read. Welcome, and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be,
00:00:59 then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling and the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world. And today's spiritual foundation episode about investing in yourself. I talk with you about Matthew chapter 25, verses 14 through 30 and Luke chapter 19 verses 12 through 28.
00:01:34 I talk about how these both talk about the benevolence and the justice stewardship, and what's different about them and why this is really about a both and not an either or in the Bible. There are many passages in parables and the synoptic gospels in the gospels that tell the story of Jesus that are similar, and yet they each take their own form. And I wanted to talk a little bit about the parable of the talents.
00:02:03 That's both in Matthew and in Luke, and talk about why they're different. Our first read the Matthew version from Matthew chapter 25, verses 14 through 30 for it'll be like a man going on a journey who calls his servants and entrusted to them. His property to one, he gave five talents to another two, to another one to each, according to his ability.
00:02:25 And then he went away. He had received the five talents when it wants and traded with them and he made five talents more. So also the one who had two talents made two talents more, but he who had received the one talent, went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. Now, after a long time, the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them.
00:02:45 And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents, more. His master said to him, well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a little and I will set you over much, enter into the joy of your master. And he went to those who had had two talents came forward and master you delivered to me two talents here.
00:03:05 I have two talents more. And his master said to him, well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enjoy enter into the joy of your master. He also, who had received the one talent came forward and saying, master, I knew you to be a hard man reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed.
00:03:25 So I was afraid and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours? But as my master answered him, you wicked. And slothful servant. You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I've scattered no seed than you ought to have invested my money with the bankers. And at my coming, I should have received what was my own with interest.
00:03:46 So take the talent from him and give it to him who has 10 talents for, to everyone who has more will be given. And he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not even what he has, will be taken away and cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness in that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
00:04:06 Now let's go look to Luke for a slightly different version of this story. In Luke chapter nine, 18 verses 12 through 28 is, as he said, a man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed King and then to return. So he called 10 of his servants and gave them 10 Minas, put this money to work. He said until I come back,
00:04:30 but his subjects hated him and said it allegation after him to say, we don't want this man to be our King. He was made King however, and returned home. Then he said for the servants to whom he had given the money in order to find out what they'd gained with it, the first one came in and said, sir, your Mina has earned 10 more.
00:04:48 Well done. My good servant. His master replied because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter take charge of 10 cities. The second man came and said, sir, your Munis has earned five more. And his master answered. You take charge of five studies. Then another servant came and said, sir, here's your MENA. I've kept it laid away at a piece of cloth.
00:05:07 I was afraid of you because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not. So his master replied, I will judge you by your own words. You wicked servant. You knew did you that I'm a hard man taking out what I did not put in and reaping what I did not. So why then didn't you put my money on deposit so that when I came back,
00:05:26 I could have collected it with interest that he said to those standing by take his Mina away from him and give it to the one who has 10, 10 Minas. They said, but he already has Tim. And he replied. I tell you that to everyone who has more and more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what they have,
00:05:44 will we take it away. But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be King over them, bring them here and kill them in front of me. You know, when it comes to stewardship, this passage is often used as one of the illustrations to illustrate how we are supposed to take care of the gifts that God has given us. And that is true.
00:06:07 That is something that you can read in this passage. But I also find it very interesting that in both of them, there's this version of the map. I asked her who is a hard master who's forcing and causing fear in the people around him. And if you think of God as being the master here, there, there's this feeling of being fearful and have God is demanding more and reaping what you don't.
00:06:36 So, and this sort of thing. And that's an interesting read as well. There's this feeling of, you know, the, the underprivileged, the one who was afraid. And so he hid his money that that, which has means he did cause him to not lose anything. He just didn't cause him to gain anything is somehow now torn down and even lower with Luke,
00:07:01 especially Luke is a justice gospel. Luke is about this idea of the week I made strong and the strong shall be brought down of turning things on its head. And for this idea of stewardship to not be involved in justice in this passage is interesting to me because the truth is, you know, if you look at Deuteronomy and other passages, there's a,
00:07:25 a degree of stewardship. What about bringing together within the community so that each person can take care of each other, each other people, you know, this idea of benevolence as a form of stewardship. I think that one way to read this passage of the talents and by no means the only way it's to also look at it as sort of a, a compare and contrast story,
00:07:49 recognize the fact that within this passage, it's also talking about how you'll go out and charge interest. And yet at that time interest was something that the Jews did not charge amongst themselves. You were not allowed to charge interest of other Jews because that would be consider taking advantage of somebody. Instead you were to lend them money without making more in return. So if he's charging interest of other Jews,
00:08:18 that would be something wrong. And if, if instead they're charging interest of those outside of the community, well, yes, that wouldn't be considered anti Jewish or, you know, against the group or against the con community, but there's still this degree of taking advantage of others. So this idea that maybe there's also a reading of this passage where the justice that it's talking about is us to read into it,
00:08:44 that this going on is not something that is all, all good, that, that people growing their own talents by taking advantage of others, isn't necessarily the way to go that instead looking to yourself and taking care of what you have for yourself is valuable. In this case, the master is calling for others to do things. I also don't think this idea of benevolence versus justice when it comes to stewardship is purely a one or the other.
00:09:17 It's not an either, or I think both of these ideas are tied up in what we do. If we're good stewards of our resources, if we're truly doing what God has called us to do, then there is a degree to which we have to use our resources to stand up for justice, to help those who are disadvantaged, to turn things on its head and look out for those who are not being taken care of.
00:09:43 But there's also a degree to which there's a benevolence for the community that we're being called to do for lifting each other up amongst our neighbors and our community. There's also a degree to which we have to take care of ourselves. It's all of these things. Stewardship is a much more complicated topic that at first may seem to be. And I think this parable of the talents when you really read them and think about what they're saying begins to draw out some of that complexity.
00:10:15 Thanks for listening. Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast, as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoy this episode, do me a favor, go over to facebook.com/inspired stewardship and like our Facebook page and market that you'd like to get notifications from us so that we can connect with you on Facebook and make sure that we're serving you to the best of our abilities with time and tips there until next time,
00:11:06 invest your time, your talent and your treasures, develop your influence and impact the world..