The parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30 is a parable that is familiar to most of us. We have heard it in Sunday School and in many sermons. This parable is about the manner in which God will judge the world and his people. It is a straight forward. A man who is about to leave on a journey entrusts his servants with different portions of his property. They are to look after that property while he is away. Two of the servants double the investment they are entrusted with, and are richly rewarded for doing so and are given even greater responsibility but the third gains nothing for his master. All he does is keep what he was given doing nothing with it and so what he was entrusted with is taken from him and he is cast off the estate of his master.
As I said, it is a straightforward account. But what lesson does this parable have for us? I have seen this parable interpreted as a simple exhortation to work hard at developing the gifts and talents that God has given us. The message is that if you aren’t productive with what God has given you, you will lose it. I feel this is true and it explains why so many people are so spiritually impoverished, why our churches and our society is in so much trouble. Too many of us have failed to use what God has given us and we have failed to do anything more than hide God’s gifts deep in our own lives. We have failed to reach out and share God’s gifts with others, and so these gifts have been wasted helping no one. It is as if those gifts had never existed and God had never given us anything. Use it or lose it that is one of the messages of this parable. But I want to suggest to you another explanation.
I believe we are not judged according to the quantity of the work we do for God, but rather we are judged by our attitude by our willingness to do as God wants us to do. I believe we will be judged by our willingness to risk all that we have been given for the sake of the Kingdom just as Jesus gave His all for our sake. As Paul writes “it is by grace, through faith, that we are saved, not by works, lest anyone should boast.” If we reduce the parable of the talents simply to a matter of saying that we must be productive for God or else be condemned by God then we miss what is good about the Christian life. We will end up being afraid, worried more about how well we are doing in the eyes of God than if we are doing the will of God. Consider the servant who buried the talent entrusted to him. He said in verse 25 that he was afraid. The servant was afraid so he buried what he had been given to keep it safe and ends up doing nothing. The judgment of the master falls upon the servant when he hears his explanation of what he had done. He angered the master because he did absolutely nothing. The parable of the talents is not a lesson about our degree of ability or productivity. It is a lesson about our attitude and responsibility, about stepping out with God’s gifts in our hands and on faith using what we have been given to further the kingdom of God.
We all need to ask ourselves if we are using the gifts we have been given to build up the church and to bring praise to God? Would you have to admit that you are using your gifts only for your own benefit? There is a little piece I’ve seen reprinted in various forms in different church newsletters. It goes like this: What would the church be like if every member were just like me? This spoke to me many years ago and it still does today. Would our church be empty on Sunday, or full to overflowing, if everyone attended as I do? How much Bible Study and prayer would occur if everyone took the time I do? How many bruised, hurting, lonely people, would be touched by the church if every member acted exactly as I do? Would we need more ushers and offering plates if everyone gave like me? How many children would be led to Christ through the Sunday School and church if everyone had my priorities? Would the church just be an attractive social club, would it be closed, bankrupt, out of business; or would it be a dynamic force for Jesus Christ in our community and our world if everyone were just like me? What would the church be like if every member were just like me? This is an important question we all need to ask.