“The Parable of the Talents”
Matthew 25:14-30
11/16/08
Today’s parable has always been sort of a
mystery to people. They usually get that the master in the
parable represents Jesus and that the servants represent His disciples,
but they’re confused about what the talents represent. Some
mistake them for the various skills and abilities with which each of us
has been gifted, such as the ability to play an instrument, speak
foreign languages, play sports, create pieces of art, or fix
things. But if this were the case the parable would be nothing
more than a lesson on how to be a good steward of these gifts, using
them as a way to give glory to God, using them to serve your neighbor,
using them or losing them. And while this is a good lesson,
it’s not the lesson of this parable, for here the one who hides
his talent gets thrown into hell. And as much as our skills and
abilities are gifts to us from God, no one gets thrown into hell
because he doesn’t put his talents to use. What’s
more, the talents here are referred to as the master’s property,
not the property of the servants. And so, the talents cannot be a
reference to our own natural endowments.
In Jesus’ day, a talent was a unit of currency
used by both the Romans and the Greeks. From this, some have
concluded that the talent in the parable represents the money and
possessions that God has given us. Thus, the parable would then
teach that we are to be good stewards of these things and use them for
the sake of our neighbor. Again, a good lesson, but not the
lesson of this parable, for this would suggest that people are saved by
the good works they do for their neighbors, and that those who do not
do this but hoard their wealth are going to hell. But what need
is there for Christ in all of this? Though a Christian will
certainly use both his talents and his treasures in service towards his
neighbor, he is not saved by his good stewardship in these areas.
He is saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone,
who bought and paid for us Himself with the currency of His blood shed
at Calvary.
So, what do the talents in this story
represent? For the answer to this we need to go back to the first
line which Jesus uses to introduce this parable. There He says,
“For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his
servants and entrusted to them his property.” Because
today’s Gospel text is a section of Scripture that’s been
plucked out of its context, we are left wondering what the
“it” is that Jesus is talking about. From the context
we learn that the “it” that He speaks of here is the
kingdom of heaven. So, Jesus is saying, “For it, that is,
the kingdom of heaven, will be like a man going on a journey...”
Why is this important? Because in this parable
Jesus is describing how God’s kingdom grows and increases in the
world. In the Gospel according to St. Matthew, the kingdom of
heaven is a reference to God’s work of restoring His creation and
reclaiming His reign over it in Jesus Christ. Through Jesus, God
is redeeming mankind, driving out sin, death, and the devil, and
reversing the effects of the Fall. This reign began at
Jesus’ Baptism. There Jesus was installed into His office
as King of kings and Lord of Lords. This doesn’t mean He
wasn’t these before His Baptism, but it was at His Baptism that
His ministry as King and Lord began. Following that was His
showdown with the devil, where He overcame the latter’s
temptations with the Word of God. From then on, as Matthew puts
it, “[Jesus] went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their
synagogues and proclaiming the Gospel of the kingdom and healing every
disease and every affliction among the people.” Jesus
continued His ministry of establishing His kingdom until it culminated
in His work on Calvary, where He took His seat on the throne of His
cross and atoned for the sins of the world with His shed blood.
Then, three days later He rose again from the dead, conquering death
and the devil once and for all, and later ascended into heaven where He
is now seated as King of kings and Lord of lords at the right hand of
God the Father Almighty until He comes again to begin His reign in the
new creation.
So how does all this help us understand what the
talents represent in the parable? Because at the present time the
kingdom of heaven comes and increases through the proclamation of the
Word about Jesus and what He has done for our salvation.
It’s this Word, then, that is represented by the talents in this
parable. This Word is the property of the Lord. It’s
His to give, and He gives it to His disciples for the purpose of
putting it to use to gain more believers in Christ. The Word
increases as more people are brought to faith in it. Those
believers, then, in turn are used to proclaim that Word to
others. That the master in the parable gives more talents to some
than others is a reference to how much of the Word is given to each
person, based on their ability to put it to use. For example,
more may be given to a pastor than to an average lay-person, because
the pastor’s job is to study, proclaim, and teach the Word.
“Joe the plumber,” on the other hand, may not know as much
of the Bible as the pastor does, because it’s not his vocation to
preach and teach it. But he’s at least been given the
knowledge of his Savior. He knows that Jesus died and rose again
from the dead for his salvation. And that’s both the Word
he hears for himself and also the Word that he can tell others when
they ask him to give a reason for the hope that he has in Christ.
So, to the one servant the master in the parable
gives five talents, to the other he gives two, and to another he gives
one, each according to his ability. Given your stations in life,
the Lord will give you from His Word what you need to be the salt and
light in your callings that He’s made you to be in Jesus, so that
as you speak that Word to others, they also may come to know the
Savior. The message of the parable, then, is faithful stewardship
with the Word about Jesus. As you “trade with it in this
world,” as it is put on deposit both in your heart and in the
hearts of those who hear it, it increases and multiplies. In the
case of the one servant who was given five talents, as he put them to
work they produced five more. In the case of the other servant
who was given two talents, as he put them to work they produced two
more. The issue is not the amount that you are given nor the
amount that is produced, rather being a faithful steward of the Word.
But this was the problem with the third
servant: Instead of trading with the talent that he was given,
instead of putting the Word to work, he buried it, that is, he despised
it, ignored it, and treated it with contempt. He didn’t
even put it in the bank, so that it might collect interest. In
other words, not only did he not use the Word to tell others about
Jesus, but he didn’t even hear the Word for himself. Even
if you don’t put the Word to use by proclaiming it to others that
it might increase in the world, at least you can continue to hear it
for yourself, so that it might increase in your own life. But
this servant didn’t even do that. Instead, he buried
it. And he did this, because of the kind of Lord he thought his
Master was. He thought He was a “hard man,” as he
calls Him, someone who was in the habit of reaping where He
didn’t sow and gathering where He scattered no seed. So, he
was afraid of his Master. And acting according to his fear, he
buried his Master’s talent.
This is why, then, this servant is ultimately thrown
into hell. People are sent to hell based on how they treat the
Word about Jesus. You either hold this Word sacred, trust in it,
and gladly hear and learn it, or you despise and bury it. Even if
this so-called worthless servant had heard the Word and believed it,
but kept it to himself he would have been saved, since we are not saved
based on how many people we tell about Jesus. But this servant
didn’t even hold onto the Word for himself. He buried it
because he was afraid of his master. Fear of his Lord caused this
man to treat the Word about Jesus the way he did, and it’s this
fear in our own lives that we have to watch out for, in order that it
might not keep us from hearing and believing that Word, too. If
you’re afraid of the Lord as a “hard man,” that fear
will cripple you and you will not want to listen to His Word;
you’ll bury it and keep far away from it, just like this
worthless servant did.
But Jesus doesn’t want you to see Him as a
“hard man.” He doesn’t want you to see Him as
one who’s ready to pounce on you and punish you for your
sins. Instead, He wants you to see Him as merciful towards
you. He wants you to see Him as the Lord who took on the outer
darkness and the weeping and gnashing of teeth for you on the
cross. He doesn’t want you to be motivated by fear in
proclaiming His Word to others. Instead, He wants your witness to
be one that comes from the joy of hearing that you have kind and
gracious Lord, who forgives you all your sins. In effect, the
parable is teaching that how you treat the Word about Jesus depends on
what kind of Lord you think He is. If you think you have a
“hard” Lord who only threatens and demands and wants to
throw you into hell, then of course you’re going to bury His
Word. But if you realize that you have a Lord who is gracious,
merciful, and kind towards you whom He has redeemed with His blood,
then you will treat His Word as sacred, gladly hear and learn it for
yourself, and speak it to others as the Lord gives you opportunity.
There’s great promise and reward for those who
trust Jesus to be the gracious Lord that He is and treasure His Word,
putting it to work both in their own lives as well as the lives of
others. To the servants who put their master’s talents to
work and brought in more talents, the Lord says, “Well done, good
and faithful servants. You have been faithful over a little; I
will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your
master.” Later on, the master takes the talent away from
the worthless servant and gives it to the one who had ten
talents. Then he says, “To everyone who has, more will be
given, and he will have an abundance...” Here Jesus is
teaching that the more responsible you are with His Word, the more
responsibility you’ll be given. The more you scatter His
Word abroad, the more area you’ll be given in which to scatter
that Word. And the more Word about Jesus you receive, the more of
His Word you’ll have, and that in joy and abundance.
So the parable teaches us about what it means to be
a good and faithful servant of the Word about Jesus. Such a
servant is one who is first of all on the receiving end of Lord’s
Word of grace and forgiveness for himself. He does not bury the
Word, but gladly hears and learns it, trusting in his crucified and
risen Lord alone for his salvation. Then he takes that Word with
him in his various vocations and stations in life, proclaiming that
Word about Jesus to others as the Lord gives him opportunity. He
doesn’t worry about the increase, but let’s the Lord take
care of that.
We have to confess that many times we are like this
worthless servant, however, who, out of our fear of the Lord, bury His
Word, refusing to hear it for ourselves, refusing to speak it to
others. The parable ends tragically with the worthless servant
being cast into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and
gnashing of teeth. This is spoken as a warning to us, disciples
of Christ, that we don’t fear the Lord as he did and as a result
bury His Word. But Jesus died for this sin, too. He
doesn’t want to you despair when you realize that you’ve
buried His Word on occasion. Again, Jesus doesn’t want to
be seen as a “hard man.” Instead, He wants to be seen
as a merciful Lord, one who has compassion on us, forgives our sins,
and cleanses us from all unrighteousness, when we confess ourselves to
be the worthless servants that we are by nature.
At your Baptism Jesus called you to be His
disciples. You have been given the gift of hearing and believing
the Word about Him crucified for you, and you have also been given the
privilege of being His mouthpieces in this world, sowing the seed of
His Word of forgiveness into the hearts of those who would listen to
it, so that God’s kingdom might grow and increase. Live
under your compassionate Lord’s words of mercy for yourself, hear
His words of forgiveness for your unfaithfulness, receive from Him the
power to be a faithful servant, and on the Last Day when He who
purchased you with His blood returns for you, you will hear Him say to
you, “Well done, good and faithful servant... Enter into
the joy of your master.” Amen.