The Parable of the

TalentsToday’s Gospel tells a the familiar story of three servants who are entrusted with funds in varying quantities, apparently in proportion to their abilities-five, two, and one. The first servant, who received the five talents, invested everything to yield another five. Likewise, the one with two talents doubled the sum. The third, however, the one given only one talent, dug a hole and buried it. When the master returned, he rewarded those who doubled their resources, commending their trustworthiness. “Come, share your master’s joy.” But the servant who buried thetalent gave a different report of stewardship. “I know you are a hard man, so out of fear I went off and buried your talent in the ground. Here is your money back.” For this, he is called a worthless, lazy, lout! “You should have at least banked it and got interest!”

After the sum is given to the others, and just before the laggard is thrown out into the dark to grind his teeth, the master says, “Those who have, will get more until they grow rich, while those who have not will lose even the little they have.” So…the moral of the story would seem to be, "make the most of what you have, or what you are given.”

Thus, it comes as no great shock that this parable is often taken as a recommendation of usury and capitalism, which is a favourite of those who preach a ‘prosperity gospel.’ The problem with this, is that

Jesus’ listeners were not capitalists committed to self-improvement. They were peasants. Would this interpretation bring good news to a peasant? Of course not! So, when Jesus first told this parable, He must have

applied it to something quite concrete in his ministry. Perhaps he was condemning the

Jewish religious authorities, whom He saw as like the third servant-so carefully bent on preserving in its purity the tradition with which they had been entrusted that they lost their openness for new things and refused to accept Jesus’ message.

One thing that can help us unravel this parable is knowing that in first-century Mediterranean culture people believed in the concept of ‘limited good’-that all good things already exist in a limited amount, that are already distributed. There is no more where this came from, and the only way to get more is to take it from another. Thus, anyone who suddenly acquired something ‘more’ was automatically regarded with jealousy, suspicion, and judged to be a thief! Wealthy people were especially suspect. How could they honourably increase their wealth?

But here we have the rich man, who sounds like an honourable enough person at the outset. It is only at the conclusion of the parable that we learn how dishonourable he really is. As the third slave states, the master is a ‘hard man’ reaping what he did not sow and gathering where he did not scatter seed. (v 24). And the master agrees with the slave’s description of him, confirming it by rebuking the slave, calling him useless and lazy and casting him out with nothing. The first two slaves, on the other hand, did not simply serve their rich master; they imitated him. And why not? If you can’t beat the system, join it! Any human being can be as greedy as the next; and joining forces with the ruthless but successful master, gives one a leg up on others like that wretched third slave who buried the money, for fear of losing it in investments. And the strange thing is that the third slave did exactly what the rabbis would later commend as the safest and therefore most honourable course of action.

But with all Jesus’ parables, there is always more than what meets the eye.

On the surface, we assume that this parable is about God, and a talent equals more than a labourer would earn in a lifetime. So that in itself gives us a picture of how much the owner entrusted to the three. He left them more than just money, he left them everything he had! House, car, cabin etc. He took a great risk and he wanted them to do the same, not leave the investment mouldering away underground somewhere. Sounds like God so far. He entrusts an even greater amount to us: life, abilities, the gift of love, the living breathing human beings around us.God gives all this free of charge,gives to us our very lives with alltheir potential rewards andcatastrophes, and He says to us,“make whatever you will with itbecause you are my beloved.”

But then an awful question arises. Will God curse those who are afraid and who bury what they are given? Jesus at least seems to say so. “To everyone who has, more will be given, and he will grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” Does this sound like the God whom Jesus preaches? To note,the parable does not begin with theusual:The Kingdom of Godis like…?Of course,

a peasant audience would not find this story ‘good news’ at all. The rich get richer, and we continue to be abused! Therefore, if God behaves no better than the rich master, who needs God? Right?But now here is a different twist to this parable, that someone shared with me a few years ago, which speaks to us as we continue to fight the temptations of the world. It has a beautiful internal logic but is less logical when looked at in the context of the rest of Matthew 25. text

Is the harsh taskmaster in the story really God as we generally suppose? If we don’t use our talents properly,

does He really cast us out into the outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth? (Someone once said to the preacher upon hearing this story, “But I haven’t got any teeth.” And the preacher replied, “Teeth will be provided.”). Just suppose, that we have failed to understand this story properly over the centuries and that the master is not God at all, but the Tempter—Satan, or a representative of the powers of this world, and that this isn’t a story about stewardship, but something quite different.

Like Discipleship?

First of all, for the man to go on a long journey and leave large amounts of currency with non-relatives is highly suspicious. Why would anyone entrust that much money into the hands of slaves while there were out

of town? Well, we know this is a ‘harsh’ man, who ‘reaps where he did not sow;’ and he even admits it! He is an unscrupulous businessman. He’s greedy. He’s ruthless. And there’s method to his madness. What on

earth must these two slaves have done to double their master’s money? Even today, whatcan you do legally to double your money in a relatively short space of time? So the first

two servants engage in shady practices, pyramid selling , and other

get rich quick schemes. But what about the third, the one who buried his talent? He is a conscientious objector,

turning down the way of the world. In fact, he might be seen as a kind of

Christ figure in this version of the story.So what does the third Jesus like slave do? He buries the unclean, evil, blood-money that his unethical master has forced upon him. He says “I won’t participate in your illegal schemes. I know who you really are. And I will have no part of it. I buried what was yours because I did not want to touch it. I don’t want anything to do with it.” A dangerous move. Here is a person standing up to the world and saying…”You don’t own me, God owns me. You can’t use me to do your dirty work.” And this servant pays for his honesty and insubordination. This servant goes to Golgotha, and to the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. This servant choose-deliberately and willingly – to take up his cross, rather than give in to the world’s unethical power and lustful greed.

And this wretched distorted, bleeding body, abandoned by God and mocked by the world, belongs to Jesus. And yet he cries out, “Father, forgive!” This is our God! Not one consigning people to outer darkness and strewing battlefields with bodies, but one who goes into those places himself, sharing people’s pain, knowing their shame. And redeeming it, if they but come to Him. We make the choice. We can choose to receive God’s reconciling power, through Jesus Christ, or we can reject it. Choose life or choose death.

Whichever way we interpret this parable, one thing is very clear: Whatever is given to us-money, talent, opportunity-is meant to bear fruit for the Kingdom, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. As the parable immediately following this one makes clear, the entire judgement of history and of each individual will be based upon our service to the least of our brothers and sisters. In this context, then, the faithful servant would seem to stand for those Christians who hear the teaching of Christ and follow it; while the unprofitable servant represents all them who do not.

And in the most fundamental sense, the image of the talent represents the bounty of life itself, as well as the preeminent gift of faith. In the end, it is incumbent upon us to invest our gifts—to use them, not to hide them out of fear or laziness.God calls such people fools, who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich in works of love and mercy. And Jesus’s teachings throughout the Gospels is quite clear; that the amassing of money for oneself is not only foolish, but evil and sinful. The goods of the world and the wealth derived from our labour must be used for God’ s glory and in ministry to the poor, homeless, and hungry.The trustworthiness of the profitable servants ensures their share in the ‘joy of the Lord.’ This is because the wealth of life, and talent given them had been invested to bear fruit in labours of the Kingdom of faith, hope, and charity. There is only one thing I know of that goes away if it is buried, but which gets greater if you use it.

LOVE! If fear closes the door tightly against love, guess where the loveless one will be. In the darkness, outside the door, wailing and gnashing our teeth. Without love. It is upon this criterion that we will be judged.Love casts out fear. Controlled by fear, the third servant did nothing to increase what had been given him. Fear can surely paralyze us and cause us to lose everything. As disciples who are entrusted now with the saving work of Jesus, we are to act boldly with the unmerited and generous ‘possessions’ we have been given, knowing that, beyond the pain, beyond the shame, beyond the cross, comes resurrection. And in resurrection lies our hope.

Our faithfulness and dedication to the mission leads us to an even more wondrous ‘possession’-full participation in our ‘Master’s Joy.’Thanks be to God who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen