You may find this a refreshing departure from the usual "talents" sermon.
(Read Matt. 25:14-30)
It will help you to understand the parable better if, for a moment, we put the modern meaning of 'talent' out of our minds. The word 'talent' in this story means money. A talent was a particular quantity of money in Roman and Greek societies. But where did the other meaning of 'talent' come from? Actually, it came from this parable! Because, through thousands of years of church history, preachers have applied this parable to the lives of their hearers, asking, 'How are you using your "talents" for God?' Of course, they first said 'talents', in quotation marks, as a metaphor for abilities and skills. But this went on for so long that, finally, the word 'talent' completely took on the meaning it has today. In other words, no more quotation marks. Because everybody had forgotten the real meaning of the word, anyway. But that created problems.
The main problem is, we tend to read the parable and take the word 'talent' in the usual modern sense, as an ability, and that creates two more problems: 1) we oversimplify the parable and miss its deeper meaning; 2) we misuse the parable, especially when we apply it to each other. Maybe somebody already wants to object, 'Wait a minute! Are you saying that God doesn't want our abilities, He just wants our money?' No, of course not. The word 'talent' in the parable does mean money, simply because that’s what the word means, and that’s what the people in the story are talking about. But it would be totally wrong to interpret the parable as saying, “God is only interested in your money.” But it is equally wrong to interpret the parable to say, “God is only interested in how talented you are.” Both interpretations are wrong. The money in the parable is talking about something bigger than both money and talents, the way we think of talents.
It will help us to understand this parable and all parables better if we keep in mind this concept: two worlds. There is the world inside the parable, where people interact with each other and relate to each other and do things for their own reasons, and then there is our world, where we read the parable and draw from it metaphors, and parallels, and applications. Let me give you a very simple example, very easy to understand: you all know how Jesus said he was the good shepherd, and how the good shepherd leaves the 99 sheep to go looking for the one lost sheep. Now, Jesus didn't say that the good shepherd leaves the 99 sheep to go looking for the one lost drug addict! That would make no sense. Shepherds look for sheep, not drug addicts! Inside the world of that simple picture Jesus gave us, the shepherd is a shepherd and the sheep are sheep. But, when we relate that picture, as a metaphor, to our world, then we know that Jesus is speaking of God's great love toward sinners, and how He will do everything possible to find lost souls, including the drug addict, the thief, the murderer and, by the way, the person who seems to perfectly fine.
And so we come back to this parable. Inside the world of this parable, the master is a real master, the slaves are real slaves, the money is real money, the hole in the ground is a real hole! And the master's words in verse 27 mean literally what they say: the slave should have put the money in the bank and earned some interest on it! He wouldn't even have needed to roll up his sleeves and work, he could have simply put the money in the bank, and at least he'd have earned something! Something is better than nothing! But nothing is worth precisely nothing, which is why the master calls the servant 'worthless'. The master gave the servant something and the servant made nothing out of it. That's what happened in the story, in that world.
And now, how do we interpret it, apply it to our world? What lesson do we take from this story? In the parable, the master gave the servants money and expected a profit from it. In our life, what does God give us and what does He expect us to do with it? As a hint, I want to suggest that it’s no accident Jesus immediately followed this parable with a prophecy of his second coming, when he will separate the sheep from the goats. And what is the criterion in making the separation? (Read Matt. 25:35-36)
It is interesting that Jesus says nothing here about preaching a sermon, or singing a solo, or playing the piano or washing the church windows. All those things are good and necessary, but sometimes we interpret this parable as if it were only talking about that: about artistic abilities or housekeeping chores or what we do in the service on Sunday morning. It's not. It's a parable about life. A parable about what we do with life, who we become inside, and how we show God to others. Ultimately, your talent – that is, the spiritual currency God has entrusted you with – is your life; it's the gift of life itself. The master in the parable gave his servants money and they were judged by how they used it. God has given us life. That is the precious 'talent' the Master has entrusted us with.
We can look at this priceless talent in different ways: it is the time given to each of us on this earth, to find God and His love. It is our capacity to respond to him. It is the possibility of loving people. This ‘talent’ is God's summons to climb the stairs of holiness through a transformation of heart that bears fruit in works of love. I want to say that again: this ‘talent’ is God's summons to climb the stairs of holiness through a transformation of heart that bears fruit in works of love.
The scriptures portray such a life in many different ways. For example, we all know the passage in Galatians where Paul mentions the “fruit of the Spirit”. There you have a picture of God’s investment bearing fruit. Likewise, Ephesians 4:22-5:1 (read). The apostle is talking here about a wholly new way of life, a new mind, new eyes for seeing the way God sees, and feeling with God’s heart. Because of God’s precious gift, we can throw off and leave behind the old man and become actual imitators of our heavenly Father. Romans 12:1-2 talks about the same thing in fewer, but very powerful, words (read). “Be transformed”, “imitate God”, “be living sacrifices” – this is what the parable of the talents is all about. And the money called “talents” in the story stands for the open door God gives each one of us to enter in to the richness of the Spirit and life in Christ. Yes, yes, of course, this will be demonstrated in certain practical ways in our daily lives, and I don’t ever want to suggest that singing in the church choir or cleaning the sanctuary are not part of that. But what a terrible mistake we will make if we think that that’s all the parable was meant to teach.
In conclusion, let me repeat that we should be careful how we interpret the parable of the talents. When we oversimplify it, we use it incorrectly. Let's be honest, sometimes we exploit this parable to force people to do what we want them to do. We want a brother or sister to sing a song and maybe they don't want to. And what do we say? 'Remember the parable of the talents, brother! God says to use your talents, so you’d better sing this morning!' So we quote the scripture to convince the brother it's God's will for him to sing – work a little “holy guilt” on him - when in reality it’s our will for him to sing! The parable doesn’t actually say anything about doing a solo in church. In fact, to hear how some people throw this parable around, you’d think the whole parable was about singing!
We shouldn't use scripture that way. Instead of applying the parable to others in a shallow way, it would be better to apply it first to ourselves in a deeper way: to examine first how we are using the real ‘talent’ - the precious truth and life – which God has invested in us. We’ve all received this talent. Even the “untalented” brother or sister, in today's sense of the word – the one who can't sing, can't play an instrument, can't preach, can't build anything, it seems they can't do anything... and maybe they can't! – that person, that child of God, still possesses the great, real, indescribable Talent, with a capital T, of God. And we don’t help him or her by forcing them to come up with something we consider a ‘talent’, with a small “t” - as if the parable doesn’t apply to them until we can define how well they do needlepoint or fix a car. No, no matter what they can or can’t do – and praise God for all the abilities He gives us – but, no matter what they can or can’t do, every child of God possesses the true Talent, the secret treasure, the hidden spiritual glory, the eternal newness that is life in Christ. And every child of God can make so much out of it, and we have to help each other do so, as we grow into the glory of the image of the Lord Jesus Christ.
