Proverbs 31: 10-13, 16-18, 20, 26, 28-31 (RM in Canada), or 10-13, 19-20, 30-31 (RM in the U.S.), or Zephaniah 1: 7, 12-18 (RCL); Psalm 128 (RM) or 90 (RCL); 1 Thessalonians 5: 1-6 (RM) or 1-11 (RCL); Matthew 25: 14-30.

Can you trust a crook? Or a predatory business cheater? Or an abuser?

What about when the person claims absolute authority over you?

It looks like another r-e-a-l-l-y problematic parable in front of us this week, one that could have you saying “OK, I’m done!” at first reading. But history is our friend here. And so are exegetes who specialize in the analysis of scripture texts using the historical-critical method and the original languages.

At first glance it looks like the “harsh man … reaping where you did not sow…” is supposed to represent either God, the first Person of the Trinity, or Christ the second Person, presiding at the final judgement, welcoming some and violently abusing and rejecting others. It looks for all the world like a moralistic parable intended to scare the socks off of Christians so they will get their behavioural house in order before they die and come before the awe-full judgement throne. Reading this at the close of the church year, one in a series of end-of-the-world-in-terror-and-ruin readings, just reinforces that.

The amounts of money, if you figure out the equivalent, are simply astronomical – in Luke’s version of this story they’re much lower. Both Matthew and Luke were drawing on an older source for the story. But the real clue that some other meaning was intended here has to do with the vocabulary employed, and what certain specific words would have meant in Greek to the hearers.

It seems likely that the original version was in fact a reproach by Jesus to the religious authorities of his day, probably the Sadducees, for their rigidity and refusal to adapt the religious traditions they guarded zealously. One clue is in the term handed over, as in “Master you handed over to me five talents,” which in Greek refers to the passing on of old traditions. Note that the first two servants made the “traditions” grow stronger, while the third buried them in the ground. Another is the word gained, which in the early church referred to gaining new Christian converts for the church community. Another is dug in the ground, literally hiding the light by burying it out of sight. Yet another is the word translated variously as faithful or trustworthy.

What’s cool is that this word trustworthy involves not only being steady and reliable, but also risk-taking. And here’s a jumping-off point for making this reading make sense to those of us who work for the continuing evolution of our Christian faith communities toward justice, honesty, transparency, and necessary structural reform. Being truly faithful doesn’t mean clinging to what no longer works, or what doesn’t accurately represent what was said or meant, or what remains on the surface and never probes toward deeper meanings. Faithfulness can mean daring risk-taking, articulating a new vision whether or not you’ll be understood. It means running the chance of persecution, bullying or ridicule. Faithfulness means your roots are deep and strong enough, and your trunk and limbs flexible enough to bend in the wind.

So what do we do with this mobster God who harvests other peoples’ crops for himself, and who abuses employees by mistaking fear for laziness? Maybe just recognize that it came from somewhere in our collective past, and let it go.

Imagine it’s a moth or a spider that you caught and then let out the window.

In the meantime, in the words of the song,

“You gotta keep on movin’ forward, Keep on movin’ forward, Keep on movin’ forward, Never turnin’ back, Never turnin’ back.”

© Susan K. Roll