Matthew 25:14-30
14 ‘For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; 15to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. 17In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. 18But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. 19After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. 20Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, “Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.” 21His master said to him, “Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.” 22And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, “Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.” 23His master said to him, “Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.” 24Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, “Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; 25so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.” 26But his master replied, “You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? 27Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. 28So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. 29For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. 30As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
BLOG DISCUSSION QUESTION: A talent was a huge sum of money, 20 year's wages. Also, in Jesus' day, the safest thing to do with one's treasure was to bury it. So, what do you think the Master was all upset about with the third servant?
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As the first verse tells us, it was the Master's property and his decision to entrust it to the slaves. So it seems the biggest risk taker was the Master. The Master seemed to be upset after the third slaves' evaluation of the Master which was apparently not well received by the Master as he restated it as a question. Would this master respond like the father in the prodigal son parable, if what was entrusted was squandered and lost completely?
Or can it be lost?
a sneek peek at my comments....rjq's last comment may just be the most important point of the parable......stay tuned.
I wrote a term paper on this parable when I was in seminary....so, I have a bit of an edge on this one.
It seems to me that the clue to this parable are the words of the single talent servant, who when he was brought into the master said, "I know you are a harsh man, reaping where you do not sow and gathering where you did not scatter seed."
He says he knew that. And what exactly did he know.....well, the word "harsh" does not mean mean, but rather "one who always gets the best end of a deal". The servant said that he knew that.
He also said that he knew that the master somehow reaped and gathered even when he had nothing to do with it, and we saw that that was true in the case of the two previous sermons.
So, why did he play it safe? "I was afraid."....of what? That he was such a "poor" slave that the master couldn't work through him, as he did the other slaves. So, his wrong, and the master says it, was that he did not trust the master's "absentee productivity" (my terminology for my term paper...sounds impressive, doesn't it?)
So, it seems to me that this parable is a call for boldness in our ministry of the Gospel, for God can, and will, do amazing things, even with such poor slaves as ourselves.
mmmmm...something to empower us as we follow Jesus into this broken world.
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