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.
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.
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.
