In the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30), Jesus presents the story of a master who entrusts his servants with all of his wealth, in proportion to their ability, while he is away. They, in turn, are to take care of his wealth and conduct business with it in order to gain even more.
There are certainly different ways to interpret a parable. You have to be careful that you don’t stretch it too far or read too much into it. In this parable, Jesus seems to be conveying several basic points: He is leaving. He has entrusted His servants with responsibility while He is gone. When He comes back, there will be an accounting.
What is a talent? In Jesus’ day, a talent was a unit of measure. It represented about 70 pounds of gold or silver. You are talking about a massive amount of treasure that is put into the hands of these servants. Since the servants are given talents “based on their ability” (25:15), then I don’t think the talents represent “talents” or abilities alone. I think it is much bigger than that. The talents represent all the abilities, resources, relationships, time, and opportunities that God places into our hands. Every breath we take and every thing we have is a gift from God. And we are responsible for how we use these gifts.
When Christ comes back, when we stand before His throne, the issue will be faithfulness. What did we do with what we had. We won’t be evaluated in comparison to anyone else. God knows our abilities. He knows our hearts. And He knows the specific gifts and opportunities that He gave us. His question will be…what did you do with the specific time, abilities, and resources that I gave you? It’s worthless to spend all your time comparing your life to others. God holds you accountable for you.
And faithfulness is not a measure of worldly success but of the overall trajectory of our lives. We all will fail. We all will mess up. But over the course of life, as the Lord gives us breath, and we seek to honor Him each day, God will bear fruit through us. We are to be faithful. He will be the one that makes us fruitful. I control my response. God controls the results. Thus, the multiplication of the talents is a testimony not to the business savvy of the servants but to the fact that they sought to honor their master with the time and resources that they had. God did the rest.
I love the master’s words to his two servants. Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.
He commends them. They were good in their heart attitude. They were faithful in their actions. These two things must go together.
He promotes them. They were faithful with a few things; he makes them ruler over many things. It is faithfulness in the little things, in the things that people do not see, in the things that don’t garner a lot of attention, that give us the best indication of where our heart is.
He welcomes them into Paradise. Heaven is the “joy of your Lord.” If you know Jesus Christ as Savior, then heaven is experiencing the unbridled, unhindered joy of relationship with Him. The creator of your soul knows what will truly bless, satisfy, and thrill your heart. You have shown me the path of life. You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand (Psalm 16:11). Don’t ever buy the lie of heaven being a boring monotony of playing a harp on a cloud. The greatest thrill you have ever experienced on this earth was but a small, temporary taste (or a cheap imitation) of the eternal pleasure that will engulf you in heaven.
Lord, help me to be faithful. I have so much to be thankful for in this life. Help me not to take these gifts for granted or clutch onto them as if it were mine. Instead may I use my time, my resources, my abilities, my possessions, my body, my breath to bring You glory and to bless others.