Image of God
November 12, 2023 + Faith-Lilac Way + Pastor Pam Stalheim Lane
“Who do you say that I am?” This is the question that Jesus asked his disciples. Peter responded, “You are the Christ, the Messiah, the son of God, the one for whom we have been waiting.”
Peter got the answer right! But before he could do a victory lap, he decides to steer Jesus away from taking up his cross and Jesus chastises him in no uncertain terms, calling him Satan. Peter was right in calling Jesus the Messiah – but Peter didn’t understand what that meant.
And Peter is not alone. Throughout Christian history, followers of Jesus have been trying to explain to themselves and others who Jesus is and what that means for us as followers. As Lutherans, our professed creeds, the Apostles, Nicene and Athanasian, all came about because of arguments over how to answer Jesus’ question, “Who do you say that I am?” The creeds do a good job but the task is impossible. As 13th Century Thomas Aquinas warned followers then and now, we cannot understand who God is. As Aquinas writes, “If you comprehend God, he is not God.”1 No matter how amazing we think God is, the moment that we try to reduce God down to something that we can imagine or worse yet, put into a box – theological or otherwise, we have failed. God is always greater; God is always more than we can explain.
And this is why, I think, when Jesus is talking about who God is and what the kingdom of heaven is like, Jesus tells parables, stories told with a purpose. The purpose of these stories is not to define God or explain the kingdom of heaven but rather to help his followers, including us, to live lives of discipleship in this time in-between the resurrection and Jesus’ coming again.
Stories have a way of getting past the absolutes of confessions and doctrine. In a way, a parable is like a prism – you see it differently depending on where you stand and the angle from which you observe it. Stories leave room for the imagination and the Holy Spirit to work.
Today’s parable is like that. It follows close behind another parable about the kingdom of heaven that stresses the period of waiting that the followers of Jesus will have between the resurrection and the second coming. Taking a slightly different angle, this parable focuses on how the servants act in the absence of the master.
It begins as a simple story of a man who goes on a journey and entrusts his money to three servants. To the first one he gives 5 bags of gold; the 2nd one receives two and the third one receives one bag of gold. But… before you start feeling sorry for the one who only received only one bag of gold, each bag was worth 1.5 million dollars. So, whether it’s 7.5 million, 3 million or 1.5 million dollars worth of gold, they were each entrusted with a fortune. They do not know when he will return. He trusts them with his riches – and he gives them the gift of time to use them.
The first two servants immediately got to work investing the money wisely and doubled their money. So, when the man returned, he complimented both of them and said, “enter into the happiness of your master.” Notice that the they were invited into the happiness – also translated “Joy” -- of their master not because he wanted to get richer, but rather because he was glad because they used what was entrusted to them.
The message of the first half of the parable to the disciples seems to be clear: use the gifts that God has entrusted to you wisely and then you too can enter into the happiness and joy of God.
The parable takes a turn with the third servant. He reveals to the master that he thinks the master is unfair and unjust, “harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed.” The servant says that because he was afraid, he did not dare invest the money and so, instead, hid the gold in the ground. He returns the money he had received to the master, saying – take what’s yours.
The master seems a bit surprised and angered by this insult and judgement by the servant whom he had trusted. The master doesn’t confirm or deny the accusation. Instead, he accuses the 3rd servant of being lazy – if he really thought the master was so bad, why didn’t he invest the money with the bankers? Why did he simply bury the money?
This raises an interesting question: is the third servant right about the character of the master? If they had been asked about their image of the master, the first two servants would, I assume, give glowing reports of the master’s generosity and trust. So which is true? Is the master generous or is he really a hard man who is deceitful and unfair? And what is the message of this second half of the parable for the disciples?
Scholars have different opinions – and since it is a story, there is no way to prove which is true. But because the point of Jesus’ parables is to prepare his followers for discipleship, especially in this in-between time of waiting for the return of Jesus, I find theologian and pastor David Lose’s argument compelling.
Lose suggests that the third servant is so bound up in fear that he is unable to act as a faithful servant and this is why he buries the money that was entrusted to him rather than using it in service to his master. And, it is this same fear and insecurity that causes him to lash out with accusations at the master. Finally, Lose argues, it is the third servant’s all-consuming fear that, in the end, catapults him into the utter darkness.
Fear is a powerful force. Located in the brain stem, it initiates a fight, flight or freeze impulse. It fills us with anxiety and prevents us from reflecting and reasoning and taking time to make good decisions. In this way, fear could keep us from being faithful followers – especially if we have put fear in place of God as what is our operating principle.
In the parable, the master gave each of the servants an abundance of resources, the gift of time and his trust. These are also the gifts that God gives to us – we may not have been entrusted with millions of dollars to invest – but we have been entrusted with God’s trust and the time, skills, resources and abilities to live faithfully in this time between the resurrection and the second coming of Christ. The message for the disciples and us, is that God trusts us and invites us to not to hide these resources but rather use the time, skills, resources and abilities that God has entrusted to you, to us, for our needs and for the needs of our neighbor. And when we do this, we are invited to join in the joy of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ who loves us – regardless of our “success.”
The debilitating fear that the 3rd Servant suffered from is not the “fear of the Lord” that is found in the Psalms and that Luther writes about in his small catechism. The biblical understanding of “fear of the Lord” is not the fear connected to shame, punishment or wrath. Instead, the Biblical understanding of the “fear of the Lord” is silent wonder, radical amazement and affectionate awe at the infinite goodness of God.” 3
God is good and loving and cares for you -- beyond your understanding or mine. This is an image of God that we can embrace. And, when looked at together as a whole, this is the image of God that Jesus reveals in the parables. Jesus portrays God as extraordinarily generous, ready to forgive and abounding with grace and love – not because of anything that we did or deserve but simply because God is so incredibly good and loving. Thanks be to God. Amen.
1Healing Our Image of God and Ourselves, sermon by Brennan Manning, 2007 for Alive Communications’ Authors and Industry Executives p. 3
2David Lose, https://www.davidlose.net/2020/11/pentecost-24-a-believing-and-seeing/
3 Manning, p. 7