“Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
“After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.’
“His master replied, ‘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!’
“The man with the two talents also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.’
“His master replied, ‘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!’
“Then the man who had received the one talent came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’
“His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.’
“ ‘Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ ” (Matthew 25:14-30)
In the parable of the talents, Jesus tells of a rich man who is about to go off on a journey. He calls three of his servants together and gives them money to be used while he is gone. He gives five talents to the first, two talents to the second, and one talent to the third. In Palestine, a talent was not a coin; it was a measure of weight. Because coins could be of copper, silver, or gold, and Jesus does not specify the kind of coinage in his story, it is impossible to calculate how valuable the talents were. It is sufficient to say that each was a large amount. If a talent was six thousand denarii, it would have taken a worker twenty years to earn that much money, so we are thinking here of hundreds of thousands of dollars at least. The footnote in the NIV specifies “more than a thousand dollars,” but this amount is too low.
Yet the amount is unimportant, and so is the fact that the parable is about money. Money is one thing God entrusts to us that we often misuse. But the same is true of many other endowments. J.C. Ryle says rightly, “Anything whereby we may glorify God is ‘a talent.’ Our gifts, our influence, our money, our knowledge, our health, our strength, our time, our senses, our reason, our intellect, our memory, our affections, our privileges as members of Christ’s Church, our advantages as possessors of the Bible—all, all are talents.”
The point of the story is that waiting for Christ’s return and being ready for it are not passive matters. We must work faithfully and energetically for him now. The decisive matter is the way in which the two good servants and the one bad servant related to the master. The faithful servants served well because they loved him and wanted to please him, while the wicked servant failed to serve well because he actually hated and resented his master.
When the master returns for their accounting and the faithful servants tell what they have done, their words do not merely report that they have doubled the amount they were given. The man who was given five talents seems to have come with two bags, each containing five talents, and what he literally says is, “Master, five talents you placed in my hands; look, an additional five talents I have gained.” You can almost feel his proper pride in the achievement.
The man’s eyes are sparkling. He is bubbling over with enthusiasm, is thoroughly thrilled, and, as it were, invites his master to start counting. The man has been waiting for this moment and is pleased at having done so well. The master is equally delighted. “Well done,” he says. We might almost translate his reply as, “Excellent!” “Great!” or “Wonderful!” It is the same with the servant who was given two talents. He says the same thing and receives an identical word of commendation.
By contrast, we can hardly fail to hear the angry, self-justifying, accusing tone of the servant who hid the master’s talent in the earth. “Master, I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you” (vv. 24–25). This accusation was not true. The master was not a hard man. He had been generous in giving his servants much wealth to work with. But this man hated him. We can hear his contempt as he resentfully throws his talent on the table. “Here is what belongs to you,” he says. It was returned exactly as the master had given it, not a bit more and no less.
In response, the master condemns him both for his wickedness and for being lazy—wicked because he accused his master unjustly, and lazy because he did not faithfully use what he was given. The master then gives the talent to the one who has ten, on the principle that “everyone who has will be given more” and “whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him” (v. 29). He then has the lazy servant cast “outside, into the darkness” (v. 30).
The point is this: we must avoid a “do nothing” Christianity, of course. To have done no harm is praise for a stone, not for a man. But the situation here is worse than that. To have done nothing is proof that we do not love Jesus Christ, do not belong to him, and have no share in his kingdom. It is to perish forever. Let us be found faithful and lovingly working for the Master.
