Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth

I speak to you in the name of the One True and Living God. Amen.

Our gospel today is one of those that might need a bit of explanation. It may seem straightforward enough on first reading … three slaves, each given some money to take care of by their master. Over the years, I’m sure you’ve been told that a talent was a lot of money. But the most any of them were given was 5 of these talents. How much could that actually be?

If we think about our current money, what is the largest bill any of you have ever had?

What is the largest bill any of you have ever heard of someone having?

$1000?

So the one who got 5 talents would have about $5000. That’s a lot of money, especially for someone who really has no money. But it isn’t even remotely close to what is being talked about in the Bible.

A talent was a measure of weight. It could refer to an amount of silver or of gold. A talent of silver was said to be nine years wages for a skilled labourer. Essentially a tradesman. If we say that a skilled labourer makes, on average, $50,000 a year, which is pretty low for most of the trades, one talent would be worth close to half a million dollars.

If we try to understand the worth of a talent of gold, it helps to know how much a talent weighs. It was just over 34 kilograms. 34 kilograms of gold is quite a weighty bar, not the coin that I usually picture in my mind. A talent of gold is worth close to $1.5 million at today’s prices.

If someone gave me that amount of money to take care of, I would be scared too. I also would have no clue what to do with it.

Today’s wisdom would be to invest it. You could do this through the banks and receive a small return. Or you could risk losing it on the stock market and maybe make a bundle.

What do you think the common wisdom was for taking care of or protecting large sums of money? According to the rabbis, burying your money was a good way to protect it. So our slave with the one talent was doing exactly what his religious leaders said was right.


Well, now we have the background to at least guess at the reaction of Jesus’ audience. The slave who buried the money did what he should have and the other two were at best irresponsible, at worst, reckless or negligent with their master’s money.

Like usual, Jesus turns our world upside down.


First, he is telling us that even the smallest talent that God gives us is worth more than we’ll probably ever see in our bank account, let alone have given to us.

Second, our gifts are not ours to hold on to. Doing nothing with our gifts is the same as stealing from God.

If we stop there, we already have a great lesson. But Jesus doesn’t stop there. He has a little more to say about gifts from God.

What was the promise to the slaves who used their talents? … When we use the gifts that God gives us, it’s not like a piggy bank, slowly drained of its resources. It’s not even like a well, where what is taken out is replaced as fast as you use it.

Instead, try to imagine a pile of gold. Now this isn’t any ordinary pile of gold. It’s a special pile of gold. … Every time you take a coin off the top of the pile, two more get added in to the bottom.

This is what we mean by abundance. It’s not so much that God will give us what we need. No, we are the ones that are responsible for our fate.

God has given each of us enough to get started. God tells us that we need to use what we’ve been given. And if we use that start, for every bit of our gifts that we spend, we will be given again twice as much.

And if we just sit back and try to protect what we have? There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

I think there has been enough weeping and gnashing of teeth.

How about you?