Jesus the Welcomed Stranger

Matthew 25. 14-30, November 19, 2023: “Pentecost 25” 

Matthew 25. 31-46, November 26, 2023: “The Reign of Christ” 

I wonder if we really believe that Jesus is proposing the slaves who double their master’s money as spiritual models, as kingdom-ready exemplary followers of the way of Jesus. Or if, as in the case the wise and ungenerous bridesmaids in the previous parable, their cleverness invites some measure of scepticism towards the idea that we are to emulate them. I wonder if we’re ready to see this as another instance of Jesus telling a story to provoke a probing spiritual and ethical examination of what it means to enter into the fullness of our humanity, to live a “good life”. 

All by itself, without the parable that precedes it and the eschatological drama that follows (and if you can overlook the pretty broad smirk in the story when it commends usury as more-or-less “better than nothing”) this could be the story it’s been fashioned into by so many – a story commending the investment and multiplication of our gifts – their “development” – as an expression of faithfulness. But in the twin contexts of the wider body of Jesus’ teaching, and the narrative flow in which the evangelist locates this story, I have more than a little doubt as to whether Jesus and his narrator-evangelist have any such thing in mind. 

Much of Jesus’ teaching is hard both on wealthy people and on the way they gain their wealth. He teaches that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a wealthy person to enter God’s kingdom. He is saddened by the young ruler’s attachment to his wealth, and he calls Matthew away from his corrupt, if lucrative, employment as a tax collector. His eschatology – “how things end up” – relocates the rich man with his purple clothes into the place of torment, and the sore-ridden Lazarus into the comfort of Abraham’s embrace. And he calls the temple, where the records of indebtedness and its consequences are maintained, a den of thieves. In a society in which (not unlike our own) many would envy the rich, and see their wealth as a blessing, Jesus teaches, “Blessed are the poor.”  So the idea that mastery of the market is at the heart of our humanity, or that the praise of greedy masters assures our human worth, seems substantially (totally) at odds with the drift of Jesus' teaching and ministry. I wonder if there is another way to read this story.

In the unfolding of Matthew's gospel, this story follows the account of the failure of generosity on the part of the “wise” bridesmaids, and precedes a strong and vivid contradiction of the lead actors in both parables. In the “Reign of Christ” wrap-up of this suite of provocation and contradiction, it is not the wise bridesmaids, not the shrewd slaves, not the relentlessly greedy master, but those who clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, feed the hungry, and visit the sick and imprisoned who enter a blessing that has been waiting for them since the first moment of creation. 

Moreover, Jesus is the naked one they clothe, these blessed ones. Jesus is the stranger they welcome, the hungry one they feed, the sick and the imprisoned ones they visit. As the teaching of Jesus moves from parable to eschatology, from provocation to disclosure, it lands on compassion, not wisdom or wealth. No matter how astonishing our gifts, how determined our developing of them, how strong our capacity or deep our wisdom, it is, after all, the welcomed Stranger who welcomes us home.