Remember! I told you that I was going to give you food for thought, not answers. Friends, I’m not making these facts up. They are yours to interpret! And so we come to the end of the parable. What is the outcome, the third servant’s bag of gold goes to the first servant. And the third servant only experiences darkness. Now the first two servants know their masters joy…his happiness. Why? Because they made a lot of money? I don’t think so? Don’t you think that the joy comes when you are doing for others with no expectation of anything in return? Don’t you get much more joy risking everything to increase what God has given you. Isn’t that better than fear! I don’t want to live saying, “Oh no, what am I going to do may be wrong? What will God do to me! I think I’ll just stay inside and bury my head in the covers than I won’t get in trouble…or will I.” Please give me the joy of the first two even if I mess up, I’ve made an effort in the name of Christ Jesus!
What does it mean to "enter into your master's joy" (vv. 21, 23)? Neither the noun "joy" nor the verb "rejoice" are used frequently in Matthew. Same word as when the Magi see the star stop, they "rejoice with a great joy." Same as when Jesus tells the disciples to rejoice and be glad when they are persecuted because their "reward is great in heaven" (5:12). It is used having found and hid a treasure in the field, the man "in his joy" goes and sells all that he has and buys the field (13:44).
The shepherd at finding the one lost sheep, rejoices over it more than over ninety-nine that never went astray (18:13). The women, after seeing the empty tomb and hearing the angel's message, leave with fear and great joy, running to tell the disciples (28:8).What causes joy in Matthew? For the most part, joy comes as the result of what God has done in sending Jesus. Could the master's joy be in giving away the riches? Could entering into that joy imply that the servants now have even more that they can give away?
William Long (Matthew, Westminster Bible Companion) offers that this parable is not a gentle tale about what Christians do with their individual gifts and talents, as helpful as that may be, but a disturbing story about what Christians do or do not do with the gospel as they wait for the coming of the kingdom of heaven [p. 281]. How are you managing? Wouldn't it be wonderful if we would be as concerned about increasing the spread of the gospel -- God's grace -- as we are about increasing the return on our financial investments? What are we doing with the generous gift of the gospel while living on this earth before we take our last breath? How are you managing?
