Matthew 25:14-30--The Parable of the Talents

​Matthew 25:14-30 English Standard Version (ESV)
LISTEN:  https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Matt.25.14-Matt.25.30

The Parable of the Talents
14 “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. 15 To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16 He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. 17 So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. 18 But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. 19 Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20 And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ 21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 22 And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ 23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 24 He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ 26 But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? 27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 29 For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

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We are sill in the Olivet Discourse, so we are still talking about the end times.  Many of you are familiar with this parable, but did you know it was part of this larger teaching on "the last days"?  Let's investigate this passage in light of the broader context of the Olivet Discourse as a while.

I think many of you know the story.   The rich master (maybe even fair to call him a prince or a king given the amount of wealth that we see he has) is going on a long journey and entrusts vasts sums of money to three of his servants.  He does not apportion his estate equally, but seems to apportion based off of what he already knows about each of them.  For the sake of reference, let's approximate each talent of gold is approximately $2 million USD (I looked up the weight of a talent of gold and the current gold index before writing this blog and it's a fair estimation).

To one servant who He knows is faithful He entrusts with 5 talents.  This man doubles this while His master is away and says "Here is your 5 talents and 5 more."  To another faithful servant He gives 2 talents and this man also doubles what was entrusted to him and upon His master's return says, "Here are your 2 talents, and see I have gained 2 more for you."  Did you catch that the Master just made 7 talents that He didn't work for, and the servants give it willingly to Him because they knew they had nothing without the gift He had given and that it was therefore all His money and they didn't deserve to keep any of it?  Keep this in mind when you hear the answer given by the unfaithful steward--he's not wrong about what He says about God and God doesn't argue with the servant on those points.  God only says that if the man knew and understood these truths, then it should have driven the man to action.  To both of the faithful servants, the Master says, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master."  This is how we know that this is talking about the end times and the accounting that will be given at the end of days.  

The third servant here is the foolish and unfaithful one.  He takes the talent (again remember this is nearly $2 mil in today's currency) and buries it in the ground and does nothing with it the entire time that his Master is away.  He says that he did this out of fear because, "I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground."  and he ends with, "Here, you have what is yours."  The Master is angry because He did not entrust them with the money just to get back what He had given them.  He could have been better off by putting the money on deposit with the bank and earning a small amount of interest on it...I think the criticism here is along the lines of "even the world would have done better with what I gave you if it was given to them.  I would have at least gotten something out of it."  But this wicked servant did nothing the entire time his Master was away to put the Master's money to work in order to accomplish His master's goals.  In this parable the goal of the rich is to get richer, but for God, His purpose is to bring many sons and daughters to glory and in dong so to bring glory and honor to His great Name.  I think it is fair to say that this so-called Christian was not about the business of the kingdom and was not out to expand the kingdom of God or to be an ambassador for his King and make His name great.

Once again, it is not the actions of any of these men that save them or condemn them, but their actions reveal what is in their hears and the true nature of their relationship with God. So the king took the talent from the man who had earned nothing and give it to the man with 10 talents  (the one that had originally been given 5 and doubled it) so that he now had 11 talents.  Jesus wraps up the parable to say "For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away."

Like God in this story, we will earn rewards in the coming kingdom that far exceed what we worked for, and we deserve nothing because we had nothing of our own to start with, but God let's us remain stewards of these gifts and then gives us even more, but for those who prove themselves to be unworthy of what has been entrusted to them, it will be taken from them and given to others who have been found faithful and true, and those unfaithful servants will be thrown out of the kingdom to the place that we might call hell or the lake of fire...a place described in the Olivet Discourse as a place of darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

What are you doing during this time that Christ is away with the talents that He has given you.  What about the most precious gift of the gospel?  Are you taking it to all the world to make disciples of all nations as we will be commanded to do in the 28th chapter of Matthew?  Are you busy about the work of the kingdom to be "fishers of men" and "laborers" that will bring in the harvest of grain?

Or are you sitting by like the foolish servant doing nothing of eternal significance at this time and hoping that Jesus doesn't pay attention to that when He returns.  Those who truly fear and love the Lord love His commandments and obey them and are about the work of His mission and His kingdom.  We are His ambassadors.

This is not a story about how God gives and takes away what we call "talents" in the here and now based off of our faithfulness (though that may not be wrong).  This is a story about using what has been entrusted to us to do the work of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit and the judgement of both the righteous and the wicked in the last days.  What will you hear Jesus say to you when you stand before Him?  What does your life say is of value to you?  Do you seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness?  Do you seek the things of God laid out in the Beatitudes where we started the study of Matthew so long ago? If you are about the work of your master, what work is that, and who is that master?  Is that master the Lord Jesus Christ?  Your flesh?  The devil?  Your words and works and even your thoughts will be exposed at the end and will reveal your true nature.  Are you a caterpillar or a butterfly?  A lump of coal or a diamond? A man who was born into death, or a man who died to self to be born again into eternal life?  Let you actions be in concert with the identity that you claim.