Parable Of The Talents
PARABLE OF THE TALENTS
MATTHEW 25:14-30
Jesus likens our present waiting for his return to the absence of a businessman who left servants in charge of his affairs.
The parable of the talents elaborates the theme of the parable of the returning master (24:45-51). It bears a general resemblance to the parable of the pounds in Luke 19:11-27 but there are material differences in detail. A talent was not a coin but a weight, roughly equivalent to half a hundredweight or 25 kilograms of silver or gold, tied up in bags (cf. NEB). It is from this parable that the word has acquired its extended meaning of spiritual endowment or faculty. There are not so many five-talent or two-talent people going about; the work of the kingdom of God is done mainly by those who have one talent—and use it. The phrase “to each according to his ability” (25:15) expresses an important principle: no one is responsible for talents which he has not been given. Why did the third servant not trade with his talent? He probably reckoned that trading carries a risk with it—you may gain more, but if you invest unfortunately, you may lose. The safest course therefore was to keep his talent intact by burying it. When safe deposits were not so readily available, this was a common way of guarding valuables.against loss (cf. 13:44). But nothing venture, nothing win.
The kingdom of heaven involves placing everything at hazard (cf. 10:39; 16:24-27). The portrayal of the day of judgment in terms of a master investigating his servants’ accounts (cf. 18:23) is familiar in rabbinical literature. “The reward of a duty performed is a duty to perform,” said a first-century rabbi. So here the reward of the two faithful servants consists in opportunities for further service more responsible in character. “The joy of your master” (25:21-23) is probably the banquet of the resurrection age (cf. 8:11). The unprofitable servant excuses his lack of enterprise as best he can, blaming it on his master’s harsh exploitation of his employees’ labor. But his excuses are not accepted; he is ejected from the merry-making of his master’s “welcome home” feast and left outside in the dark with his frustration and remorse. 25:28 and 25:29 convey a subsidiary moral, already taught in another context in 13:12, which is of abiding application and does not refer to the time of the end. The penalty of neglected opportunity is the loss of further opportunity.
Thought A servant is known by his master’s absence.