11.19.23 Matthew 25:14–30 (EHV)
14 “You see, the kingdom of heaven is like a man going on a journey. He called his servants and entrusted his possessions to them. 15 To one he gave five talents, to another two talents, and to still another one talent, each according to his own ability. Then he went on his journey. 16 The servant who had received the five talents immediately put them to work and gained five more talents. 17 In the same way, the servant who had received the two talents gained two more. 18 But the servant who had received one talent went away, dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master’s money. 19 “After a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20 The servant who received the five talents came and brought five more talents. He said, ‘Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have gained five more talents.’ 21 “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You were faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 22 “The servant who received the two talents came and said, ‘Master, you entrusted me with two talents. See, I have gained two more talents.’ 23 “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You were faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 24 “Then the servant who received one talent came and said, ‘Master, I knew that you are a hard man, reaping where you did not plant and gathering where you did not scatter seed. 25 Since I was afraid, I went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.’ 26 “His master answered him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant! You knew that I reap where I did not plant and gather where I did not scatter seed? 27 Well then, you should have deposited my money with the bankers so that when I came I would get my money back with interest. 28 Take the talent away from him and give it to the servant who has the ten talents. 29 Because everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. But the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. 30 Throw that worthless servant into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Put Your Talents to Work, and Enjoy the Master’s Response
Did you know that 70% of lottery winners go bankrupt? It’s like giving a teenager a Lamborghini. It probably wouldn’t take long for him to get multiple speeding tickets and crash the car. He’s just not mature enough for such a thing. But when God gives out the talents in today’s text, He does it proportionately, each according to his own ability. He doesn’t set us up to fail by giving us more than we can handle. He knows what you can handle and what you can’t handle. And if you think about it, this changes as we go through life. We can handle more things when we grow in our experience. We can get more done in less time after we’ve done the same thing multiple times. Then when we grow older, we can’t handle as much because our minds don’t work as quickly and our bodies can’t handle as much effort either. Sometimes we can handle five talents, sometimes two, and sometimes one.
Even one talent is plenty. One silver talent was said to be worth 6,000 denarii, which was a day’s wage, so that would be over 16 years worth of wages. A gold talent was worth thirteen times more, so about 78,000 days wages. Even ONE talent then was worth a lot. It’s not like the manager was cheap with the guy who only got one talent. He was generous with all of them. That’s true of God with all of us as well. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 9:8, “God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” One talent or five, we all have many gifts from God in one way or another. And if we’re going to live our lives in faith, God wants us to believe that we have the exact right amounts of gifts that we can handle.
The servant who had received the five talents immediately put them to work and gained five more talents. 17 In the same way, the servant who had received the two talents gained two more. Notice the urgency in this - IMMEDIATELY. The first two servants were excited about their talents. They couldn’t wait to put them to work and gain more with them. They were also excited to speak with the Master when he came back. ‘Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have gained five more talents.’ It reminds me of a child that makes a painting and shows it to their mom or dad. “Look at what I did!” That’s how God wants us to work with what we’ve been given.
Think about your children and grandchildren. Are you excited about how you get to raise them? “I can’t wait to take them to worship! I can’t wait to read bible stories to them, pray with them, and get them to know you, Jesus!” The same could ring true with a job you’ve been given . . . “I’m excited about how I can use my talents here! Now I’ll be able to provide for my family more. Give to church more. Help the company to grow!” It could be with the new girlfriend or boyfriend . . . “I can’t wait to find someone to grow in faith with, to raise children with, to buy a house with. . . I want to do this relationship right!”
Whether five talents or two, the Master has the same response for both. “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You were faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master.’ There’s three things I notice here. Excitement and joy, first of all. Jesus is saying to us that God enjoys giving us gifts, and He enjoys seeing us use them to the glory of His name, when we use these gifts the way that HE wants us to use them, whether it’s your body, your money, your time, whatever it is. He also then lets you keep using what you’ve been given, and even to give you more things to do. He just keeps giving all the more. God enjoys the whole process of seeing us use His gifts well!
Contrast all of this joy with the one talent guy. The problem wasn’t that he only had one talent. He’s not jealous or bitter because he only had one talent whereas the other guys had more. The problem was with the way he viewed the Master. He said to the Master, ‘Master, I knew that you are a hard man, reaping where you did not plant and gathering where you did not scatter seed. 25 Since I was afraid, I went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.’ No thankfulness. No joy. Only fear. So he didn’t do ANYTHING with his talent at all.
That’s what can happen when you only look at the holiness of God and the demands of God. You only worry about messing up. You fear what kind of a spouse you’d be, a father you’d be . . . so you don’t want to get married or have children because you don’t want to fail. You don’t want a promotion because you don’t want the pressure . . . you don’t think you can handle it. . . you don’t want to ruin the company. But what about the God who says He LOVES you and the God became you? What about the God who suffered for you and chose to die for you? What about the God who forgives you? Feeds you? Cares for you? Protects you? Gives you your talents and abilities? Yes, He is holy and demanding. But He is also GRACIOUS and MERCIFUL. He is also generous and caring. He has paid for your sins. He wants you to see His mercy and forgiveness as well, in Jesus. He has worked mighty miracles through Moses and Paul and plenty of other sinners. He can work through you too! He doesn’t want you to be driven by fear. He wants you to be driven by faith in His grace.
The one talent man didn’t even want to look at his talent. He wanted to live without it and act as if it didn’t even exist in his life. So his sin wasn’t that he was addicted to drugs. He wasn’t a murderer. He wasn’t committing some vile and outrageous sexual sin. His sin was simply that he did NOTHING with what he’d been given. He used his fear as an excuse to be LAZY, and so God called him both WICKED and WORTHLESS. This is for people that want to live and act as if God didn’t exist. They ignore Him. If they have children, they live as if they had no responsibility to God with how they raise them. Their job is their own. Their money is their own. They don’t want any responsibility. They only want to get by with as minimal effort as possible, minding their own business and getting involved with no one.
So how did the Master respond? He basically said, “You want to look at me that way? Then I’ll be that way!” The Master had NO mercy on him. He was cast out into hell, into the outer darkness, where there was weeping and gnashing of teeth. It is quite the contrast to the happiness of those who used their gifts and were excited about what the Master had given them to use. They got to enter into the Master’s happiness. This fearful and lazy servant was cast out into anger and sorrow. God didn’t create the man and give him these gifts to just bury them in the ground. It was a complete waste of talent.
Apply that to your view of God and how you view His gifts in this world. If you’re constantly worried about messing up, if you find yourself disgruntled over what you’ve been given, feeling like you’ve been short changed by God, what does that reflect in your view of God? “I can’t do anything right. I’ll just mess it up anyway.” If you’re lazy and don’t find yourself wanting to do anything for anyone, is that how God created you to live? You only have one talent and not five? That’s still plenty! Why live and act as if God has been cheap with you? Is that how you would want your child to talk or think? Afraid to try? Afraid to go out for anything in life, try anything in life, because of a fear of failure? A fear of disappointing you? Only content to live in the basement and do nothing - have no goals and no drive in life? How would that reflect on you as a parent? Hasn’t God been kinder to you than that? Hasn’t God raised you to live outside of yourself, as a generous neighbor to those in your life? Haven’t you seen His grace and mercy for you? Didn’t He send His Son to die for you? Hasn’t the cross been before you all these years?
There are professional scouts who evaluate prospects in the college ranks to try and predict who will make it in the NFL and who won’t. They put them through a combine, see how they perform. Even then, it’s hard to know how they’ll develop. Teams don’t want to waste a draft pick and money on someone who will turn out to be a loser. Their future could rise or fall based on who they pick.
God works differently. He puts all His time and effort into all of us, by putting the life and death of Jesus on us, and adopting us into His family and bringing us to faith. On top of that, He promises to work all things out for our good. He knows exactly what kind of talents we can handle in our sinful lives, five, two, one, it’s all good. Yet even with these great gifts, how many end up dying in fear and unbelief? That’s not God’s fault. It’s their own fault. This parable shows us how God entrusts us with these gifts so that we enjoy them and we USE them. God wants to see you participate in life. He doesn’t want you to live your life in fear of failure. In the end, God doesn’t say “well done, good and successful servant.” He says, “well done, good and faithful servant.” You’ve been given the gift of salvation, and so much more. Be faithful with what you’ve been given, and use your gifts to the glory of His name. Be excited for He has to say and give in the end, for He is a generous and gracious God who promises to give you more than you could ever ask or imagine in heaven, with Jesus. Amen.
