The Parable of the Talents: Points & Prayers

Read Matthew 25:14-30

After a long time, the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 

For over a decade, I have been preaching or teaching or examining this parable with you at least twice a year.  The year that we did all of the parables, I taught this 3 consecutive Sundays.  This year you can get it twice a Sunday for two Sundays in a row.  That’s 4 messages in 2 Sundays at no extra charge, but you must act now to receive this special offer.

If you know me, then you know how special this parable is to me.  It ranks right up there with lost and found in Luke 15, and has so many perspectives and dimensions. 

I always try to take a slightly different approach to the parable each time.  There is, of course, some overlap.  In the earlier service, we focused on the perspective of the master in this parable, noting his expectations and what he valued.  It was a good model for our own leadership.

Though many of the aspects of the master surely represent Jesus, we should not make the parable allegorical.   Today, I ask us to look at this unique aspect of the parable—the master was gone for a long time.

This wasn’t a typical 2-week vacation.  This wasn’t a 6-month sabbatical.  The master was gone a long time.  The servants were left to their own inclinations for a long time.

There is a short book by the title of A Message to Garcia by Elbert Hubbard.  It was published first in 1899 and is therefore in the public domain and can easily be found on the internet.  It puts us in the age of President McKinley, Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders, and the Spanish American War.

In all this Cuban business there is one man stands out on the horizon of my memory like Mars at Perihelion. When war broke out between Spain and the United States, it was very necessary to communicate quickly with the leader of the insurgents. García was somewhere in the mountain vastnesses of Cuba—no one knew where. No mail nor telegraph message could reach him. The President must secure his cooperation, and quickly.

What to do!

Someone said to the President, “There’s a fellow by the name of Rowan will find García for you, if anybody can.”

Rowan was sent for and given a letter to be delivered to García. How “the fellow by the name of Rowan” took the letter, sealed it up in an oilskin pouch, strapped it over his heart, in four days landed by night off the coast of Cuba from an open boat, disappeared into the jungle, and in three weeks came out on the other side of the island, having traversed a hostile country on foot and delivered his letter to García, are things I have no special desire now to tell in detail.

The point I wish to make is this: McKinley gave Rowan a letter to be delivered to García; Rowan took the letter and did not ask, “Where is he at?” By the Eternal! there is a man whose form should be cast in deathless bronze and the statue placed in every college of the land. It is not book learning young men need, nor instruction about this and that, but a stiffening of the vertebrae which will cause them to be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies; do the thing—“Carry a message to García!”

General García is dead now, but there are other Garcías.

The remainder of the essay is worth reading.  My own children have read it numerous times, surely mumbling bad things about me on some occasions and joyous when they needed a last minute book report.

It looks at how unique it is to find a person who will do his job, do it right, do it with excellence, and do it without someone having to look over his should every minute.  The first two servants in the parable were such people.

They took what had been entrusted to them, put it to work, produced an excellent return, and stood ready to settle accounts with their master upon his return.

I have previously used an acronym that I created for this parable.  It’s TURN.

T is for Trusted.  Each of these servants was trusted with money in accordance with their ability.  That means that there was a relationship of trust already in place.  The master knew what each servant could handle and extended his trust accordingly.

Such a trust sets up the scenario for success.  Failure is always a risk, but these trusted servants would find a way to succeed.  Trust continues even in the absence of the master, perhaps especially in the absence of the master.

At this time, I ask that we consider the trust that we have been given by our Master.  We are trusted with the gospel, being a light unto the world, these temples in which we live, the stewardship of this planet, and so many things that we may not think of on a daily basis.  So we pause briefly from the didactic form of this message to seek our Master in prayer.

Lord,

We seek you once again, coming this time thanking you that you trust us so much.  We thank you for your confidence in us, giving us the gifts and talents which we need to produce good fruit for you.  We petition you to open our eyes and ears and help us to see the many trusts given to us.

Our children and parents.

Our church family.

Those who are shut in or alone.

Those whom you have called the least of these.

The day itself for you have made it.

The gospel.

Our example.

Our tithe.

Investment of our time.

Our testimonies.

Lord, help us to see those things with which you have trusted us, so we may give a good account upon your return.

Amen.

U is for Urgency.  The first two servants went at once and put their talents to work.  Realize that these servants knew that they were the master of their master’s money.  They were also prepared to be trusted with more.  Part of the trust was the servant’s preparation to be trusted with more.

When the time came, they were ready.  There was no delay.  There was no when I get around to it attitude. They did not badger their master with a million and one questions before he departed.  They were ready and they put their master’s money to work at once.  They were ready.

Urgency without preparation is busyness and chaos.  They were ready and put their master’s money to work at once.

Let’s think on the things with which our Master has entrusted us.  Are we putting them to work at once?  Are we waiting to share the good news with our neighbor when the situation becomes more inviting?  Are we waiting to share our testimony for a time when we are more comfortable?

Comfort zones and obedience to our Master are often in conflict, at least until obedience becomes our comfort zone.  Let us pause once again amidst this homily and seek our Lord.

Lord,

We approach your throne of grace once again.  We come in confidence that this is exactly where you want us to be, seeking you with our entire being.  For this moment, we come in petition, asking you to grant us urgency in the right things.

Prompt us to preparation and readiness, so that when we receive a new trust from you, we are ready to put it to work.

Sustain us in those things with which you have entrusted to us for some time.  Let us begin each day with new enthusiasm as we pour ourselves into what you have given us.

Amen.

R is for Return on Investment.  We must always desire to produce fruit that benefits the body of Christ and that brings glory to God.  Obedience produces a return for our Master.  Doing things his way—putting his words into practice—produces a return for our Master.

Generosity produces a good return.  Love produces a good return.  Discipline and instruction produce good returns, that is, pruning increases the harvest. 

Study produces good returns.  Group study—those inclined towards the proverb as iron sharpens iron, so one sharpens another—produce good returns.

Ministries that connect people with the God of love and salvation and with each other produce good returns.  Let us approach our Heavenly Father once again as we seek to produce good fruit for him.

Lord,

Our hearts desire to produce a good return for you.  We long to produce fruit that benefits the body of Christ and brings glory to your name.

Help us hear your voice as we minister in this world.  Help us be fluent in your word—a workman approved—who produces good fruit for you.

Give us eyes to see those things that produce good fruit for you and those that do not.  Grant us wisdom and determination to seek only the things that bring glory to your name.

Amen.

The N in this acronym stands for No Fear.  Fear is real and is always a factor.  Having no fear is not really an option, but not letting fear govern us is within our grasp.  We do not have to give in to fear.  We are reminded that perfect love casts out fear.  It does not mean fear does not exist.  It simply kicks fear to the curb.

Without fear, we might never know courage, but rest assured that God desires us to live governed by courage and not fear.

All three servants knew fear.  Only the third servant was governed by it.  Choose courage over fear.  Remember that we are trusted servants.  God is not setting us up to fail.  He knows what we can handle and we should boldly use our gifts and talents.

Let us go to God once again in prayer.

Heavenly Father,

Help us to be bold.  Help us to fear only you and even then, to know with a blessed assurance that you have set aside our punishment, that Christ Jesus has paid the price for all of our sins.

Help us to be strong and courageous.  Help us to remember that you are with us wherever we go.

Help us to never dilute the gifts and talents that you have bestowed upon us with fear.

Help us to recognize fear for what it is, a tool of the enemy, and live as if we have no fear.

Amen.

We have taken on this parable today with a little different tact, but I hope that our points and prayers this morning have been a good investment on the year ahead. 

We are God’s trusted servants.  Let us act with urgency, desiring to produce fruit for our Lord, and kick fear to the curb every chance that we get.

Let us be people who know that they will hear, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

Come and share your Master’s happiness.  Let’s conclude in prayer.

Lord,

We love you.  We want our lives to please you.  We want to take what you have given us and put it to purposeful use without delay.  We want our very lives to be a living sacrifice to you, that they are a pleasant aroma to you.

We want to live unchecked by any fear generated by the enemy, this world, or our own sinful nature.

We want to bring glory to your name.

We desire to live this life as fully as we can by using all that you have given us for your glory.

Help us produce good fruit by all that we do.

In the name of Christ Jesus, we pray.

Amen.

Parable of the Talents - Part III

Read Matthew 25:14-30

Read in other translations…

Read the Parable of the Talents Part I or Part II.

We come to the Parable of the Talents, Round III.  We have looked at the first two servants and the acronym TURN.

Trusted—each of the three servants was trusted by his master.  They were entrusted with money in accordance with their ability.

Urgency—the first two servants acted at once and put their master’s money to work.  We noted that they were the master in their relationship with this money.  They put it to work and it did not get a day off.

Return on Investment (ROI)—the first two knew that their master was demanding and expected a return.  They were wise and demanding with their investments and produced a fantastic return for him.

No Fear—while fear is real and risk is real, the servants were not immobilized by fear.  Wisdom, not fear governed what they did with their master’s money.

We have looked at how fear governed the decisions of the third servant.  He tried to blame his master for his decisions, but it was very simply his fear that impacted a terrible decision to bury his master’s money in the ground.

He was a trusted servant at the beginning of the parable.  His master knew that he could manage and produce a return on one talent of money.  He was not being set up to fail, he was trusted and expected to succeed, even if success was only putting the money into a savings account. Fear governed his actions.

The end result was that two servants were deemed to be good and faithful and invited to share their master’s happiness and one was labeled wicked and lazy and given the boot.

At the heart of this parable is what I have been describing as Tom’s Tweet on the Parable of the Talents.  It is the question never asked but answered by all three servants.  It is the question always before us as disciples of Jesus Christ and a generous God who is in the gift-giving business.

What did we do with what God gave us?

If you made it through rounds I & II you know that acting with urgency and producing a return are essential.  You know that fear offers nothing good in the way of return on investment.  You understand that what we are given by God is a trust.

You also understand that love precedes trust.  We do not do our best with what God gave us to earn his love.  We already have his love.  His love for us was poured out in the blood of Jesus.  Love preceded trust.

It is now time to go fully into application mode.  So what do we do?  Most of the time, we are not handed bags of money, but we are trusted with much—very much.  What do we do?

For this third homily on the parable, I want to look at what we do with what we are given in these areas:  time, talents (or gifts), treasure, and the gospel.

Let’s start with time.  Believe it or not, we all receive the same amount of time each day.  We have 1440 minutes in each day.  Whether you count your day from 6 a.m. to 6 a.m. or midnight to midnight, the math comes out the same.

Now if you are staring at the microwave for the last 45 seconds of you breakfast burrito, that single minute seems like an eternity.  If you are in the middle of doing twenty things and making good progress on all of them and look at the clock, you might think, “Where did my day go?”

We have the same amount of time but to some, time drags on and to others it is so fleeting.

Why do some people get so much accomplished and some seem to get nothing done with the time trusted to them?  Is it motivation?  Is it force of personality?  Is it heredity?  Is it our socialization?  Is it an incentive program?  What is it?

I will suggest to you that it is purpose.  It is plain and simple purpose that produces results.  It is purpose that puts our time to good use.  Much as the first two servants were the master in their relationship with their master’s money; we are master with the time given to us.

Understand we are not gridlocked by our calendar, but we budget our time to important things—things that God has purposed us to accomplish.  That means that we can say “no” to many, many other things.  We decide—wisely decide—what to do with each minute of our lives.

The psalmist declares to the Lord, “Teach us to number our days.”  This was not a request to switch to Julian dates.  It is a request for wisdom that values our time in these vessels of clay.  Every minute counts.

I spent time as a counselor in prison and can tell you that some count minutes but don’t make their minutes count.  Some count days but don’t make their days count.  I sent many an inmate client out of my office in a bewildered state because in the middle of his story, I said, “Time’s up,” and sent him on his way.

Some, after a time, learned to talk about the things that were important instead of just running their stories over and over again.  Sadly, people who just count minutes instead of making minutes count are not all in prison.

We have a world of people ignorant that our time on this earth is so fleeting.  James would say that we are but a mist, here for a moment and then gone.  But we are to be numbered among the wise.

Our time matters and we desire to use it to produce a return for our Master.  So do we pack our calendars as full as possible?  No, we live every moment with purpose.

If we jam pack every day with activities, we might miss out on some very essential things that God purposed us to do.  You might get your kids to soccer and ballet and baseball and FFA and even to the lock-in, but are you just meeting the schedule or bringing them up in the way they should go.

You made it to the gym and then paid all the bills and worked in the oil change on the car.  Put the clothes in the dryer before you left the house.  It seems like the washer and drier are always running. The truck can wait until next month for service.  You even updated your Facebook.  

Wow!  Thirty birthdays in one day seems like a lot.  You don’t even remember who most of these people are.  You’re getting a lot done but are they the things God made you to do?

Purpose is more important than scheduling.

Next, we look at talents or gifts.  These are the raw materials that God gave us and expects us to refine into skills that produce a return.  I think the first two servants were better gifted than the third with some raw ability, but they still had to put these talents or gifts to use to produce some skill.

Some gifts are intellectual.  Some are athletic.  Some are artistic.  God packed a whole lot into us and as we work out our salvation, we should discover what these gifts and talents are and put them to work.

We put these gifts and talents to work.  We put them to work.  Much as the first two servants put their master’s money to work, we put our talents to work.  Have you ever noticed that when you put your gifts to work, it’s not like we are working?

When we do the things that God hard-wired us to do, it doesn’t seem like work, like labor.  We are putting what God gave us to work.  We leverage these talents and produce a good return.

Now we might break a sweat or have some sore muscles at the end of the day or our brains might get tired if you work in an intellectually challenging environment, but if it is what God made us to do, we are very much putting our talents to work.  These gifts and talents labor for us.                                                                                                     

Not everyone has the same package of gifts and talents.  Some are better wired to work with small children.  Some can see music in a financial spreadsheet.  Others can listen to the conversations of twenty people and find and share the common thread.  Some find great joy being locked into a laboratory for weeks searching for a cure for cancer or the common cold. 

But some talents are never tapped.  They are never leveraged to produce great things.  They are safely tucked away inside of us.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. once said, “Many people die with their music still in them. Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it time runs out.”

That’s a quote that hits both time and talents.

The term for what Justice Holmes described is called tragedy.  All the potential is there but is never put to work.  We are people who use what God packed inside of us to produce a good return.  We put our gifts and talents to use and our Master is pleased.

We put our gifts and talents to work at once, and quite often work doesn’t seem like work.

Let me touch briefly on Spiritual Gifts.  We who have professed Jesus as Lord and have received the Holy Spirit also received special gifts.  These gifts when put to use produce extraordinary returns.  Many of these gifts are named in the Bible, but we don’t view these lists as all inclusive.  The biblical enumerations were not meant to say “these and no others.”

Surely pastor, teacher, evangelist, and prophet fit the bill, but it is likely that God gifted some with gifts such as music or leadership or writing or even listening.  God put something in you—or called it to life—when you received the Holy Spirit.  This is a gift that goes beyond your God-give talents that were there from your human birth.  These are gifts that have be given to you are called into service since your spiritual birth.

Here’s the thing.  Whether it is a God-given talent that we were born with and honed over the years or a Spiritual Gift that manifested itself when we were baptized by the Holy Spirit, we are to put these gifts and talents to work to produce a return for our Master.  We are to put them to work at once.

Let’s talk treasure.  Not all of us are trusted with bags of gold, but most of us are.  We don’t carry it in bags but we have this thing called an income.  It might be because we work or because we invested wisely or it might be because somebody said you get paid just for breathing.

In this country, you might get paid because you have a job or you might get paid because you don’t.  Compared to the rest of the world, what income we have—wherever it comes from—is like a bag of gold.

But, I’ve got bills!  I get that.  You are probably going to have bills next month too, and very likely the month after as well.

But, you also have a trust.  You have some income and what you have is a trust.  We could talk about the tithe and how that is trusting God back with a tenth of what he is trusting you with, but that’s really all I’m going to say about that.  If you missed the money sermon last year, then read it online.

that what we have been given in money or property or stuff is a trust.  We still are called to answer the same question.  What did I do—or will I do—with what God gave me. 

Sometimes we use money to produce a monetary return.  We start a business.  We invest wisely in other businesses and industries.  We put our money into a very low risk account.  We stick our monetary necks out a little on something with a little more risk but potential for a greater payoff.

Whatever we do with our treasure should be governed by wisdom and not fear.  Not all investments of our treasure produce a monetary return.  I will be very up front with you here.  We are not going to make any money on that playground for which some of you made special offerings.

We are not going to sell day passes or season passes.  It is not going to make any money but it will pay a dividend.  

We are not going to sell lunch tickets for Chewy Tuesdays or Pop Tarts and Peanut Butter.  We spend money on food and spend time in preparation and delivery, but we don’t make one cent in profit.  We do produce a fantastic return on investment.

We take some treasure—mostly money but also some in-kind donations—and we invest it in meals for kids.  Our return on that investment is in smiles, hugs, and an affirmation that along the way something reached these children and they know God’s love by our actions.

We used our treasure to let our light shine before men so that people could see God’s love in action and in so doing, bring glory to God.  That’s paying a good dividend!

But we won’t make a cent on the whole deal.  That said, it is a fantastic investment of our treasure.

What did Jesus say about treasure?

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Don’t bury your treasure in the ground thinking it will be safe.  The only way that treasure is safe is when it is put to use in this world so our account is credited in the age to come.

That doesn’t mean that you should not have a savings account or an IRA or some cash or gold in a safe place.  It doesn’t mean that you should not have money for emergencies.  It doesn’t mean that a little buffer in your checking account is not a wise thing.

It means that you are the master of your money and you tell it where to go.  If you do this wisely, you will fare well in this world and have treasure in the age to come.  You are master over you treasure and you put it to work in accordance with the God-given purpose that you are living.

We consider the treasure that we have a trust from God and we wisely put it to use.

That covers the standard time, talents, and treasure framework that typically you will find attached to this parable or attached to a Stewardship Month or series.  It’s good to know and good to apply, and it is just part of the equation. I would say that’s the warm up part.  We are just getting warmed up.

What’s left?  Our commission and the gospel, that’s what.

Of all the things that God has trusted to us—from the macro level, that being the earth, to things such as time and talents and treasure—nothing really compares to our commission and the gospel.

Am I saying that the gospel is a greater trust than the stewardship of the earth?  That’s a pretty big trust.

Yes.  That is what I am saying.  Heaven and earth will pass away.  We are told that God will give us a new heaven and a new earth.  That’s no excuse for bad stewardship of the planet entrusted to us, but we must understand that the gospel is an invitation to eternity.

Our commission to take this gospel across the street and across the planet is bigger than 5 bags of gold.  This is the biggest trust that God has placed in us.

If one day someone comes up to you and says on behalf of the Lord, I am giving you these five big bags of gold; I want you to respond: “Thank you very much.  I will put them to work at once.  This is the second biggest trust that I have been given.”

Our commission and the gospel are the biggest trust we have been given.  Remember that a commission is not just a command.  It comes with authority.  In this case, God-given authority. 

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

If we do a really good job at putting our time, talents, and treasures to use and bury our commission in the ground, what have we done?

Should we expect to hear a Well done, good and faithful servant from our Master.  Our time, talent, and treasures are sort of like practice for putting our commission into effect.

These are the few things that we have done well with and produced a good return.  The gospel is something greater that we have been trusted with to put to work—to bring to a blind and broken world.

Our commission and the gospel makes us partners with our Master.  In the parable, the master said, now come and share my happiness.  Come and be a part of what I am all about.

Jesus called his disciples friends because they would be about his Father’s business.  They were family now.  So are we.  We are on the friends and family plan.

We should be wise and produce a return for our Master with the time, talents, and treasures that he has entrusted to us.  We should produce a good return with what we have been given.  Sometimes those returns last a lifetime.

But putting the gospel to work is playing in the big leagues.  That’s where we produce returns that last for eternity.  That’s where our hearts should desire to hear, Well done good and faithful servant more than anywhere else.

We conclude where we began some time ago, with the question that is never asked in the parable but was answered by all three servants.

What did you do with what I gave you?

My rewording to make it applicable to us is, what did we do with what God gave us?  I hope that each of us is living in such a way that we will receive a well done for what we did with our time, talents, and treasures.

Most of all, I pray that we hear well done good and faithful servant with what we did with the ultimate trust given to us—the gospel.

More than all the bags of gold that we could manage, the good news that God really does love us is news that we are called to put to work at once.

When we answer the question, what did we do with what God gave us, I pray that we can say we produced a good return on the time, talents, and treasures that he gave us; and that we put everything that we had into our commission and never gave the gospel a day off.

Amen.

Parable of the Talents - Part I

Read Matthew 25:14-30

If you have known me for a while, you know that the Parable of the Talents is my favorite parable.  Yes, the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son are close contenders, but I have never come across a single parable with so much packed into it. 

I won’t bury the lead.  Tom’s tweet for this parable is, “What did you do with what I gave you?”  It is the question never asked in the parable but for which every servant answered.

To bring the tweet into application mode, we ask:  “What did you do with what God gave you?”

We could put it into the corporate mode and ask:  “What did we do with what God gave us?”

I have preached and written on this parable so many times that we will surely cross some familiar territory.  I will start with my own analogy that I have used over and over again, and then get to the parable particulars.

Imagine that you gave your son a new baseball glove.  You spent some time picking it out.  You knew exactly the one that would be the very best for him.  You catch him a little off-guard when you present it to him, but you have high hopes for what he will do with that glove.

Your son takes the glove and puts it high on a shelf in his room.  It seems to be a safe place, but the glove stays there day after day.  He does not take it down to play catch or go to baseball practice or play in a game.  It is stored safely on his shelf in his room.

It might get scuffed or dirty or even wet if he took it outside.  It would become worn if he used it in practice or games.  So he leaves it preserved, if you will, sitting on the shelf.

The problem is that a baseball glove is supposed to be scuffed from digging ground balls out of the dirt.  It should have grass stains on it from bringing a little blindness to those line drives with eyes by making diving catches and sliding across the outfield.  A baseball glove is meant to be worn and to have wear and tear on it.

It is meant to be cleaned and oiled and even re-laced after time.  It is meant to be put to use.  There is nothing like the smell of a new glove, well, except, wearing off the new glove smell of the glove from putting it to use.

A baseball glove is meant to be put to use.  The son who puts the glove on the shelf for fear of getting it dirty breaks his father’s heart.  The glove is meant to be worn out.

Now to the parable. 

The parable is about the Kingdom of Heaven.  We know that because the parable begins with the word, “again.”  Some of your translations may include what is implied in that word and say, “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like.”  Which way is correct?

Neither.  Jesus didn’t use the word again or even refer to the Kingdom of Heaven in the original text that we find in this parable.  Such words provide smoother transitions in our reading and fit into the context of the entire chapter, but we should be careful not to presume that Jesus was just rapid-firing one parable after another.  There was probably some time to digest each teaching before he began the next.

We should also not presume that what we extract from this parable applies only to the end of the age, for this parable is very much about every day of our lives.  It is very much about what Paul would later refer to as working out our salvation.

Let’s get to the four main characters in the story.  First there is a man of some substance.  He has property and money and servants.  Three of his servants are included in this parable.

He is about to go on a journey, so he entrusts the property of his estate to these servants.  He also gives each of them money—a substantial amount of money.  In today’s terms, we are talking hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars. 

This isn’t here’s twenty bucks until I get back.  He gives them 5 talents, 2 talents, and 1 talent worth of money in accordance with their ability. 

This tells us that this man—the master of the servants—knew his servants very well.  He understood what they were capable of, probably because he had trusted them with something smaller before. 

These were men that the master deemed worthy of his trust.  His trust in this story is revealed in talents of money, some of your translations read, “bags of gold.”  Even though the third servant doesn’t fare very well in this story, the master deemed him worthy of trusting him with one bag of gold.  That’s not small potatoes.

These are trusted servants.

Let’s get to the story itself.

The first two servants act immediately.  They went at once and put their master’s money to work.  The term that I prefer here is urgency.  They were not rash or careless, but they acted with urgency. 

Notice also that these two servants didn’t go to work; they put their master’s money to work.  They already had a job—talking care of the master’s property.  Now, they had something extra.

They could have pondered what to do with the money, hoping to find a good investment; instead, they put their master’s money to work right away.  Were they careless?

No, they were prepared to be trusted with something more. 

In the course of their relationship with their master, the servants surely revealed much about themselves to the master, but they also received revelations about their master.  He was a man who expected a return on his investment. 

The third servant described the master as a hard man who expected a return even when it appeared he didn’t make an investment.  I think if the first two servants would have described their master, they would have used the term demanding.  I think the first two would have just said that he sets the bar very high and expects us to meet or exceed his standard.  That’s just who he is.

So knowing this, I expect that the first two servants had something in their hip pocket if their master were to trust them with more responsibility.  They knew their master and knew what he expected and they were ready when they received their talents.

They put them to work at once.  The acted with urgency.

Consider again, that the servants put their master’s money to work.  In the relationship with their master’s money, they became the master or manager of that money.  They put the money to work.

What happened next?  The first two produced a return on investment for their master.  We don’t know what they did, but they were surely wise about it.  The one given 5 bags of gold produced another 5 bags by the time his master returned. 

We do know that the master was gone a long time, so this was likely not an overnight windfall.  They didn’t go to the track or casino because the master would be back in a week.  They were surely wise investors and produced a return on investment for their master, something they knew that he expected.

Let’s talk a little bit about fear.  Investing has risk.  If the risk is low, the return is often low.  The higher the risk, the higher the return, usually.  Things can go wrong.  War, famine, or even the abundance of some commodity reduces the return of the investor.  Ask any wheat farm who has a bumper crop and then finds out that the whole nation is having a bumper crop and the price per bushel drops significantly because there is wheat for sale everywhere.

But, to make money, you have to spend money.  You have to invest money.  There is risk.  With risk comes fear.  Fear is real but the question is whether fear is controlling.  Does fear rule?

We understand that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.  We understand that perfect love casts out fear.  We understand that God loves us so much that we should not fear punishment from him.

But what about fear in the context of buying a $100,000 worth of calves to fatten up and sell?  The fear of Mad Cow disease might not let you write that check.

The fear of drought might cause you to put off such a bold purchase until next year or the year after that, or never at all.

Fear could immobilize people so that nobody ever invested.  But people do invest and they do make money.  Some invest a lot and make a lot.

Wisdom, not fear, must govern those who invest. 

The first two servants did not have to decide as to if they would invest their master’s money.  That was settled in their minds before the money hit their hands.  They would be wise, not fearful investors.

Fear would not adversely impact their decision-making model.  They might lose everything.  That was a real possibility.  They might take huge losses, but if fear controlled them, they would never have a chance to produce a return for their master.

Their desire to please their master was surely greater than the fear of losing all of his money.

We know how the story turned out for these two.  The one trusted with five earned five more.  The one trusted with two earned two more.  Their master was very pleased.

In fact, he said that they had done well with a few things and now he would put them in charge of many things.  Well done!

The master went beyond saying, “Well done!”  He added qualities that he considered noteworthy.  He called each of these two a good and faithful servant.  Good and faithful—who would not want to be commended by our Master with those words.

Then the master in the parable put icing on the parable cake.  “Come and share your master’s happiness.”

The master did not say, “I’m giving you a good tip” or “There will be something extra in your Christmas stocking once people start celebrating Christmas and confuse it all with stockings.”

He said come and enjoy my happiness.  Consider the words of Jesus that we find in John’s gospel.  Jesus told his disciples that he no longer called them servants.  Servants don’t know the will of their master, but you guys understand—as much as you can now—and that makes us friends.

The relationship had changed.

The master in the parable had trusted his servants and expected a return on his investment and they delivered.  In a master-servant relationship, promotions would have been sufficient.  You were in charge of a few things, now you will be in charge of many things.  You get a raise and a corner office and first pick on the doughnuts on Fridays.

But the master added, “Come and share my happiness.”  There was more than a promotion.  There was a significant change in the relationship.  Share my happiness! 

What servant is invited to share his master’s happiness?

We will continue this parable in two more segments, but for now let’s consider what we have gleaned from these first two servants.  I will use the acronym that I constructed almost 10 years ago.  The acronym is TURN.

T is for trusted.  These were trusted servants.  There was a relationship already in place.  The master knew what they were capable of and entrusted them with his property and money accordingly.  The master didn’t just give out his money to anyone and everyone.  He had a trusted relationship with these servants.

U is for urgency.  The first two servants put their master’s money to work at once.  They were the manager in this equation.  The money worked for them and they put it to work right away.  Their own master was demanding of them and they too were demanding of what their master had given them.  They did not give their master’s money any time off.

R is for Return on Investment.  Their master expected and the two servants produced a return on their investment.  ROI is the modern day term—return on investment.

N is for No Fear.  The servants acted as if they had no fear.  Fear was surely a factor.  Risk is involved in most investments, but fear would not be the governing factor.  Fear would not debilitate.  Fear would be recognized for what it was and wisdom would be the prevailing principle. 

This short acronym is not just for the end of the age.  This is good daily counsel for godly people—for the wise. 

We have a relationship with our Master and he has trusted us with gifts and talents and a commission.  We will discuss time, talents, treasure, and the gospel later, but for now know that he gives to us in accordance with who we are.  Every good gift is from above, and in the context of this parable, it is also a trust.  What God gives us is a trust, not a whimsical provision. 

We should also understand that in this trust we find our purpose.  We will never have to live a single day without purpose—a God-given purpose.  I have written and remarked many times that there is no Sabbath to take in a life without purpose.  We will never live in that pitiful state because of the trusted relationship that we have with our Master.

We should live as if tomorrow is not promised to us, even though eternity is.  We must value the hours and days of our lives.  For the things the Lord has given us to do, we do them at once.  My term for this is urgency.  This does not mean that we don’t take time to rest.  It means that what we have been given to do gets done and we can take a Sabbath and rest.  We take care of our master’s business at once.

And we should produce a return. We might call it fruit.  We produce.  It’s not all about a monetary return.  Sometimes, it is about money.  Most of the time it is other things.

And we live this life in freedom not fear.  Fear is a real thing that thrives in this world from generation to generation, but it does not control us or govern us or get invited into our decision-making process.  We assess risk, but we don’t do fear.  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and discipline but our decisions are not governed by fear.

We will talk more about fear next time.  We will get to the third servant next time.  For now, let’s consider the lessons we can learn from these first two servants.  How did they answer the question that was never asked?

What did you do with what I gave you?  Rephrased for us:  What did we do with what God gave us?  I will be challenging you to ask yourselves this question for the rest of the month.

My hope is that our answers are those that will produce this reply:  Well done good and faithful servant.

Amen.

Read in other translations…