What would you do if someone loaned you a million dollars? No specific time has been placed on the loan - it could be twelve months, it could be twenty years. Some day it will be required back by the owner. What would you do with it? That is rather different. It's yours to use, and yet never quite yours. It's not safe to waste it away - it does have to be given back sometime. Any suggestions?…
At the very least it could be banked. Even at today's low interest rates, that would provide an reasonable living allowance. You might do better with the church's investment service. Of course there are investments that would attract a higher interest than that. Or perhaps a viable business - if you're prepared to work at it!
Whatever we do, even though it is loaned for our use, it's always someone else's money! It will have to be paid back some day! The inclination of some people would be to "blow it all", use it up while you can! Hardly responsible, though! Where is the point of balance between cautious fear and reckless irresponsibility?
Or take a third possibility. A million dollars has been entrusted to us to use on behalf of someone else, to look after it for them. Does that affect what we do with it? Would that lead us to do more with it or less? Would that make more cautious, or more reckless?
The parable this morning is more like this third possibility. This man is about to set off on a journey of unknown duration. Before he goes, he entrusts his property to the care of his servants.
He gives to each "according to his ability" - he knows the capabilities of each of them - five talents, two talents and one (Mt. 25.15). We have tended to think of the parable in terms of our modern use of the word "talent" - a particular aptitude or ability that some people have to do certain things. But that isn't really what the parable is about. Its focus is on something entrusted to someone else. In fact, the "talent" was a weight. The exact weight varied somewhat in different places and times. A talent of silver in Israel weighed about forty-five kilograms. So "five talents" represents a rather substantial monetary value - even "one talent" is hardly to be "sneezed at", for that matter!
The first two servants put their money to work. They trade with it, do business with it - in an active sense of commitment, involvement and personal action. As a result, there is a profit and in time they double their capital.
The third servant is taking no risks. He "dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master's money" (v. 18). One writer has said, "…the man who received the smallest sum was so afraid of losing it that he buried it in the ground, where he knew that at least it would be out of the range of burglars and not subject to the hazards of a fluctuating money market" - though one wonders whether the money market was as unstable then as it can be today!
In time - "after a long time" - the master of those servants comes back. It is now the time of reckoning. He settles accounts with them. What have they been doing with his money in his absence? How has it all gone? He has actually trusted them with his possessions. He has been careful to assign to each one what he was capable of looking after. We shouldn't picture him coming after them with stern expression and a big stick! He has every expectation that all of them will have done well.
The first servant brings back the "five talents" together with another five talents that he has earned by trading. He hands them over - they aren't his but belong to his master. His master says, "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!" (v. 21)
The second servant comes, bringing the extra two talents he has earned. He receives the same commendation and reward. There is no sense in which he is seen as being inferior in having received a smaller amount and therefore having a smaller earning capacity. The five and the two are both regarded as small amounts. The master knows he can entrust them with much larger responsibilities.
The third servant - the one-talent man - comes in with a complaint to his master. "Master, I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed." He was not only hard-working himself, but expected that of others as well. "So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you" (vv. 24,25). He was afraid of losing what was entrusted to him. He was "playing safe" so that he could at least hand back to his master exactly what he had been given.
The master calls him, "You wicked, lazy servant!" The other servants had been "faithful" - worthy of the trust placed in them, careful to work with the money entrusted to them. This servant is "lazy" - slow, hesitating, uncertain of what to do. If he had believed that his master expected to receive what others had worked for as well as from his own work, this servant should at the very least have "put the money on deposit with the bankers" so that his master could, at the very least, have "received it back with interest" (v. 27).
One writer notes, "The over-caution of the third servant is treated as a breach of trust, for he was not dealing with his own money but with someone else's; and the sum committed to him is now transferred to the man who has proved to be the most enterprising and successful."
This story is seen to illustrate a spiritual principle (first given by Jesus when talking to the disciples about parables in general, Mt. 13.12). It is vitally important how we respond to what is given to us. The good and faithful use of our gifts will lead to their increase. The neglect of our gifts will lead to their decrease.
The third servant looks as if he is to lose his job in disgrace. But the warning of the concluding words reaches beyond the immediate story. The outer darkness, with its "weeping and gnashing of teeth" (v. 30), is a picture of those excluded from the Kingdom (as in 8.12 and 22.13). In talking about the amazing and wonderful love of God, we can too easily forget that the Bible also speaks of the possibility of living under his judgement - there is a heaven and a hell.
What is Jesus saying to us through this parable? There are several important spiritual principles for us to note carefully:
Don't spend your time dreaming about that million dollars! God has entrusted you with gifts which are unique to you. They are for you to use on his behalf, to look after for him. Use your gifts wisely - don't bury them! The Lord wants to say to you, "Well done, good and faithful servant! Come and share your master's happiness!"
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