Greed or Generosity: the Power of a Story

Stories are the power of politics and change! So the study of stories is very important. I want to introduce you to the power of a story, an very old story that still influences what people do. So I beg your indulgence in discussing a story from a religious source. For this article, please set aside your long held religious beliefs and just look at the story. This story has been used to justify the value of greed! Despite the incredible weight and number of words and stories from the same source supporting the value of generosity, people still found a justification, a story to fit what they had already chosen to do, supporting the value of greed.

Here is that story that has been used to support two perspectives: greed and generosity. A Progressive Lutheran (not me) gives the generosity value commentary. Given our culture, the greed interpretation is obvious. Indeed I am very amazed that there is a generosity interpretation of the story. As I read this I was struck by our technology has changed, yet how much our social organization and social thinking still is the same. Note that how the story is interpreted depends on whether you value money more or value people more, so the initial bias determines the interpretation.

The Parable of the Talents:The Fate of the Whistleblower

Matthew 25:14-40 (NRSV) “[14] For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; [15] to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.

Jesus’ listeners would have recognized this portrait of a great household--the closest thing in antiquity to the modern corporation. The powerful patriarch would often be away on economic or political business. These servants had been faithful in many things. The master would have good reason to trust them with such an enormous amount of wealth.

A talent was the largest coinage in the ancient world. It was a coin of silver that weighed between 57 and 74 pounds. To put a talent in context, it was estimated that the tax revenue of all of Herod’s kingdom was around 900 talents. If the tax burden itself was 50%, then the GDP of Herod’s kingdom would be around 1,800 talents. These 8 talents are about 1/200th of the annual wealth of the country. Most likely, the master in this parable is the richest man in Judea.

[16] The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. [17] In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. The increase of these two servants was about 500 pounds of silver. [18] But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money, or 70 pounds of silver. Jesus was telling this story to farmers who are familiar with planting seed in the ground.

[19] After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. All the servants of the household, and there were hundreds, were gathered together in this very public event. It was never a one-on-one review. The first servant with the greatest standing and honor who had received five talents came forward publicly declaring what he has accomplished saying, [20] 'Master, you handed over to me five talents, or 350 pounds of silver. See, I have made another 5 talents, or 350 pounds of silver. [21] 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.' [22] And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, “Master, you gave me 2 talents [140 pounds of silver]. And I have done as the 1st servant. I have offered predatory loans to desperate peasant farmers, foreclosing upon their property when they could not pay, and driving them off their land. Then I was able to hire them back as day-laborers for a daily wage. I only had to pay them for their labor during the planting season and the harvest season. See, here is another 2 talents, or 140 pounds of silver. [23] 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.'

[24] Then the 3rd most gifted and trusted servant, who had received the one talent, also came forward, and spoke saying, 'Master, I knew that you were a hard-hearted man, as the Pharoah of the Exodus Passover story. You reap where you did not sow, and gather where you did not scatter seed. You profit off the back-breaking work of others.

All the servants were astonished by what the 3rd most powerful servant of the household was saying. [25] so I was afraid. Not so much for myself, but for the peasant farmers to whom we offer predatory loans. We drive them off their land; the very land the Torah says is theirs. We hire them back as day-laborers for a few months a year paying the subsistence wage. But they have to beg the rest of the year. They endure long bouts of hunger. Their bodies waste away. They get weaker. Then their bodies can no longer heal their sores. Then they are too weak to work. Finally, they are too weak to push away the dogs that lick their sores. And they know the end is near. I can no longer engage in these practices. I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.

The peasant farmers who were listening to this parable roared with laughter at the idea of the master’s money being planted in the ground. For they would recognize the supreme irony that just as their seeds would not grow in the master’s bank, so his seed could not grow in, at least what used to be, their ground. The 3rd servant could have distributed the 70 pounds of silver, but was hoping the master’s heart might be changed. Imagine what might happen then?

[26] 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? In front of all his other servants, the master has shamed the 3rd servant by castigating him as evil and lazy; a favorite slur of the wealthy against those who do not play the game. He has not refuted the charges, but confirmed them!

[27] 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. The master has confirmed the first two servants are indeed guilty of the crime of usury, and that the bank is a safe place to place the money. But the 3rd servant has taken the money out of circulation so no one else can use it for predatory purposes and is declaring that even ethical participation in a corrupt institution is still an action supporting a corrupt institution.

The master makes sure all his servants understand the master’s expectations. He says, [28] So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. He recites his rule for living. [29] For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. It is the rule of predatory economics; the survival of the fittest.

The master continued. [30] As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Weeping and gnashing of teeth is what a day-laborer like Lazarus might do on a cold-winter’s night. The 3rd servant has been thrown into the class of the day-laborers. He has been used to 3 meals a day. He is not used to hard labor. He will not survive long. He has been given a death sentence and will die as Lazarus died.

This parable is part of a larger set that began with the phrase , “the Kingdom of Heaven is like”: It meant, “When the Kingdom of Heaven arrives on earth, all will act as this 3rd servant. For the story that immediately follows this tragic conclusion—the famous last-judgment parable of the sheep and the goats may illuminate the nature of the dissident slave’s exile. For the 3rd servant embodies the principles of the next parable, the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats.

Matthew 25:37-40 Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? [38] And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? [39] And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?' [40] And the king will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.'

This singular judgment story in the Gospels suggests that we meet Christ mysteriously by feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, and visiting the imprisoned. In other words, we meet Christ in places of pain and marginality; the “outer darkness”. The whistle-blower punishment kicks him out of the rich man’s system, but brings him closer to the true Lord, who dwells with the poor and oppressed.

After Jesus finishes these last two Parables in Matthew, he goes to the cross.