OUCH: The Bible says “to those who have, more will be given… but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.”
OUCH!!! “ … to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.” This is a terribly troublesome text. It has been used to betray and pervert the presence of unmerited generosity as a strategy to foster fear and legitimize oppression of the masses for the benefit of the libertine few. (Read the teaching tale from Matthew below.) I do not like it!
How can these words appear in the Bible? “… to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away?” Is this not the rationale used to cut programs for the poor as well as taxes for the wealthy? to justify the accumulation of wealth by the 1% at the expense of the 99%? to foster the ever widening wealth gap? This makes me want to scream.
Reading the parable more carefully I ask myself, “What if instead of looking for someone to blame for injustice, I look more carefully at the three slaves behavior, and my own? The first thing I notice is the slaves who are given five and two talents respectively must know their master is a harsh man, still, they accept the unearned talents and take the risk to invest them. The third slave also accepts one unearned talent, but is paralyzed by fear of losing it. Rather than taking a risk and investing his talent, he hides it. In all three cases, the slave does nothing to deserve or earn their talents. They are gifts freely given by their presumably ‘harsh master.’
This raises an important question. What is a suitable response to receiving an unearned gift or talent? Fear and therefore hiding, hoarding or protecting it? Or, faith and allowing the unmerited generosity to continue to flow through you by using or investing it?
None of the three slaves know when the master will return nor what will be the outcome if they invest their talents. Even though they are all exposed to the same uncertainty, the first two slaves act in faith and take the risk to invest all that they are freely given. The result; not only do they double their talents, but their benefactor welcomes them to “enter into the joy of their master.” By contrast, the risk averse third slave tries to lower the uncertainty of his situation by assuring he will not lose what he already has. This time the master’s response is disturbing, taking away the third slave’s single talent. Is the slave not simply being prudent? Is the master really a harsh and unreasonable man?
Digging a bit deeper into the text I realize, even though the master has no idea how much the first two slaves gained by investing their talents while he was away, the slaves hold nothing back for themselves when the master returns. Living by faith rather than fear the first two slaves continue the unimpeded flow of generosity by giving everything back to their master, thereby “entering the master’s joy.”
In spite of my initial — OUCH — this teaching tale begins with the master’s generosity. The first two slaves respond openhandedly. They fully receive, invest and return the gift. But the third slave fails to recognize the gift of the talent freely given to him and so he clings to the little he has, burying the talent and effectively stopping the flow of generosity. Instead of being welcomed into the masters joy the third slave experiences the contraction of living in fear rather than faith, essentially casting himself into “the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Turns out the master knows all about generosity as he freely admits being accustomed to “reaping where (he) did not sow, and gathering where (he) did not scatter seed…” In other words, he knows he does not depend upon himself for his prosperity, or profit. He admits that all that he has is unmerited. So he opens his hand and generously continues the flow of wealth to the slaves.
I still find this far too freely ill-quoted text, “ … to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away,” to be terribly troublesome because it is misunderstood and perverted to foster fear and legitimize oppression of the masses for the benefit of the libertine few.
What will it take for all of us, whether we have very much or very little, to realize that whatever we have is unmerited gift born of God’s infinite generosity pouring to and meant to flow through us? When will we cease being slaves to fear, hoarding whatever we have while “weeping and gnashing our teeth” and choose instead to live in the abundance of faith “entering the master’s joy?”
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Matthew 25:14–30 Jesus said, “It is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’
Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ But his master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”
