A Sermon on Matthew 25.14-30
Preached on November 19, 2017 at St. Aidan's Episcopal Church
This morning we find ourselves in the 25th chapter of the gospel of Matthew with what sounds on it’s face like a difficult parable. The one who has been telling us story after story about how blessed are the merciful, that we should offer not just our coat, but also our shirt, this morning this same Jesus tells a story of a man with no mercy, a man who reaps where he does not sow, who takes everything from those who have nothing. What are we to make of such a dissonant parable?
The part of my biblical spirituality that finds hope and inspiration in Jacob, the limping conniver, seeks to redeem the initial thrust of this parable by hearing it as a part of Jesus call back in Matthew chapter 10 to be as “wise as serpents and gentle as doves” (with a lack of emphasis on the gentleness).
Before we get too far down that road, let’s go back. Over the past five chapters the story has pushed Jesus closer and closer to Jerusalem and the cross. Along the way he has told parable after parable, story after story. I want to lift up two of these parables in the hope they might help us make sense of the one we hear this morning.
