What Motivates You?

 

Based on Matthew 25:14-30

            The parable of the talents is a fascinating story. It is the second of three stories Jesus tells in this section of Matthew that have a focus on the time between when Jesus leaves the earth and when Jesus returns to establish the reign of God on the earth. Last week’s story was the parable of the ten bridesmaids. We considered what it means to be prudent during this long delay of Jesus’ return. We spend our time now getting ready by living righteous lives. The third story in this series, which we will look at next week, is about the final judgment, that well known scene where people are separated like sheep and goats and what you have done for the least of these you have done to Jesus.

            This week’s story is on the parable of the talents in which three servants are given different amounts of money to manage while the master is away for a long time. Often this story is turned into an allegory. The master is Jesus. His being gone a long time reflects the delayed return of Jesus. The servants are disciples. The talents could be spiritual gifts or skills. It is unclear exactly what the talents are supposed to represent. At the end of the story, the master, Jesus, returns and holds the servants, his disciples, to account for what they have done with what the master has given them. This perhaps symbolizes the final judgement. What the servants did or did not do is either rewarded or punished. The moral of the story is that we need to use the gifts and abilities God has given us to serve God in the world. If we hide those abilities and not serve God with them, we will lose those abilities and be held accountable. That’s basically how this story is usually talked about in sermons. This is often a go to passage for Stewardship Sunday, as you can imagine.

            As we look at this story again, I want to focus on the motivation and actions of the three servants. I believe this is the heart of this story. I want to set aside what this story may be trying to say about Jesus and his role as a judge. I also want to get away from wondering why one of the servants got five talents and why the last servant only got one talent. We are going to avoid trying to figure out exactly what the talents are supposed to represent or what trading money in the marketplace has to do with being a disciple. I want us to instead look at what really separated the first two servants from the last servant. What separated them was not the amount of money they were given to manage but what motivated them and the actions that followed their motivation. If we focus on that, I find this story has something important to say to us in these times we find ourselves.

            The first two servants were motivated by faithfulness. The master was going away for a long time. He had confidence in his servants to manage his money while he was gone. He gives them a lot of money to manage. As you may recall, one talent is equivalent to what a common day laborer would make over fifteen years. So, five talents are equivalent to seventy-five years of labor. Most people would never earn five talents in their whole lives. So that is a substantial amount of money. Two talents are a lot of money. Even one talent is a significant amount. The first two servants receive that money and are motivated by faithfulness. They are motivated to honor the faith that the master has put in them.

            Now, notice this. The master does not give any instructions on what the servants are supposed to do with the money. He just gives them the money and hits the road. Each servant has to make a decision about what they will do with the money they have been given. The first two servants, motivated by their faithfulness, wanting to honor the faith their master placed in them, take the initiative and follow the example of their master. See, the reason why their master has all this money in the first place is because, as we see in verse 24, he reaps where he does not sow and gathers where he did not scatter seed. In other words, he is an investor. He provides the capital the farmers need to grow their crops and expects to get his cut from what they produce. That’s how he grew his wealth. His servants watched and learned what their master did, how he handles his business. So, the first two servants take the initiative to do what their master would do. They put the money to work, exposing it to potential risk, with the goal of doubling that money. That’s how they honored the faith their master had put in them. They did what their master would do. Motivated by faithfulness, the servants took the initiative, took on the potential risk, with the hope that they would make their master proud, so they could demonstrate to their master that he was right to put his faith in them.

            The third servant, however, was motivated by fear. He was afraid of what might happen if he put that money to work and he lost it all. What if he let his master down? What if the faith the master had put in him was misplaced? He was paralyzed by fear. So, what he decided to do was to protect that money. He decided to bury it in the ground where it would be safe. That way, when the master came back, the servant could give him the money back. Safe and secure. Motivated by fear, fear of the master, the servant’s fear of his own lack of ability, he took the route of burying the money for safe keeping. Risk free.

            That’s the thing about fear. When we are motivated by fear, we seek to minimize risk. For anyone who has experience with investing, especially if you are working with an investment advisor, one of the first questions asked is about what your risk tolerance is. An investment advisor might say to you, “OK, you have this money that you are not going to need for ten years and you want to invest it in the market. With a range from very aggressive to very conservative, where would you be willing to place your investments and still be able to sleep at night?” It is a question about how much risk you are willing to take. If you take on more risk than you are comfortable with, that gets into fear mode. You would be so afraid that you won’t sleep well at night. That’s just one example. Fear as a motivation tends to get us acting in ways that conserve, that circles the wagons, that closes in and seals off. Motivated by fear, the third servant acted accordingly by avoiding risk and, frankly, not doing anything except bury the money and then go on with his life.

            Of course, when the master gets back and finds out what the third servant has done he is furious. It’s not even so much that the servant didn’t make him any money. I think the master was mostly disappointed because that servant did not follow his example. All this time the servant had been watching how the master worked with his money. He watched the master go about his business. The master gave this servant an opportunity to do what he did, to follow the example he had set, to take the initiative with the associated risks. I can imagine that if the third servant had followed his master’s example and ended up losing all the money, that the master would have been disappointed but, hey, it goes with the territory. At least the servant tried. He followed the example of his master. He did the right things. We don’t control the results, especially when it comes to investing. Fear did this servant in. The master was not sympathetic.

            Were the first two servants fearful? Were they afraid of what might happen if they lost the money through their investments? Apparently not. Or at least whatever fear they may have had was overridden by their gratitude that their master had placed his confidence in them to do what he would do. They were honored by what the master had entrusted to them and they wanted to do their master proud by following his example and doing what he did, in spite of whatever anxiety they were likely feeling. They were on their own, after all. They had to take the initiative. They had to put in the work. They had to do the things and take on the risk. But their faithfulness to their master was the overriding motivation that got them out there to do what their master taught them to do. If fear motivates us to turn inward, conserve and protect, faithfulness motivates us to be engaged, get out there and do what we need to do.

            What is your motivation these days? If you had to choose your main motivation in your day to day living between faithfulness and fear, which would you choose? Motivational speakers sometimes get a bad rap. They can be the butt of jokes. Many years ago, on Saturday Night Live there used to be that bit where the fictional character Stuart Smalley would give these daily affirmations. He would start his bit looking in the mirror saying, “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and dog gone it, people like me.” But even though they are being spoofed, the truth is that what motivates us does matter. Fear is a powerful motivation. But so is love. You are loved. You are precious to God. God has given you your life. God has faith in you, that you can live your life after the example that Jesus has set for us. Yes, it takes initiative. Yes, there is risk. But you can live your life in a way that honors the faith that God has placed in you. You can live a life that is faithful to God. Even with the anxiety and stress that you are carrying in these anxious and stressful times, you can and are being faithful.

            I want to encourage you today to keep at it. Keep striving, every day, to live your life motivated by faithfulness, faithful to the way of Jesus, confident in God’s faithfulness. Keep living a faith filled life with confidence that the day will come when you will hear spoken into your life, “Enter into the joy of your master.”