The Parable of the Talents
- Fr. Terry Miller
- Nov 16, 2023
- 8 min read
Matthew 25:14-30
Jesus said: “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money.
Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’
He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Reflection
For most of us in the English-speaking world, we think of a “talent” in terms of “America’s Got Talent,” as an ability or aptitude that a human being has for music, art, athletics, business or politics. But that is not what a talent means in the Bible.
In the Bible, a talent was a unit of measurement, like a gram or an ounce of precious metal. In this case, a talent is about 80 pounds of silver coins, worth the equivalent about $1 million today.
Jesus refers to talents in the Parable of the Talents, in which he tells of a wealthy man who goes away on a journey and entrusts his possessions, several talents (bags) of silver, to his slaves. The talents were not divvied out equally. One slave was entrusted with five talents, another with two, and a third with only one, “each according to his ability.” Though the owner didn’t say so, the implied expectation was for them to use the money to maintain and expand the business.
This scenario is not unlike the situation we are all in. Everyone of us was given the chance to live, by the action of God. We did not engineer our birth into the world. It was a gift, a completely unmerited gift. We were all given the same mandate as well: to do with what we’ve been given—our gifts and powers—what God does with his. God is not an irresponsible or indifferent giver. God is going to want to know at the end of our journey what we have done with all we were given through the abundance of His generosity. Yet, even as we are alike in our relation to and dependency on God, like these three slaves, we have not all been given the same gifts. Some have more gifts—talents—than others. But it is what we do with what we have that matters.
In this story, two of the slaves took their talents and used them, trading with them, to the end that they were able to doble their money. The third slave, though, did nothing with it. He sat on it, buried it in the ground, refusing to work or risk anything.
We might wonder why the third slave chose to do nothing with what he had been given, if it was because he was simply lazy and it was easier not to put forth the effort to undertake a more creative route. Maybe he was afraid that he might fail. Maybe the problem was jealousy and envy: he saw what the other slaves had been given and gotten angry at the apparent slight by the master. Or, we might suspect, he just figured that the smallness of his one talent meant that what he did with it didn’t matter. However, the slave himself points to a different motivation: mistrust. “I knew that you were a harsh man.” He went on to accuse him of being dishonest, and then claimed it was his own fear that led him to bury his talent.
What the slave did out of fear is analogous to what we do when we picture God fearfully instead of lovingly, when, like the slave, we project onto our Master our own fears, believing God to be hard, cruel, dishonest and untrustworthy.
It was to undo this misrepresentation that Jesus entered into history. As the author John Killinger said, “Jesus was God’s answer to the problem of a bad reputation.”
Jesus shows us a generous and gracious God, who gives us so many good things and wants us to share in his life. Being cast into utter darkness, rejected, is not what God wants at all. But that fate points to how important it is that we see God’s true nature and to live our lives accordingly. “It is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost,” Jesus said (Matt 18:14).
To warn against such a fate and to invite us to live differently, faithfully, creatively is the reason Jesus told this parable. God, the Master, wants us to accept his gifts and use them to expand his Kingdom. And whether we succeed or fail, as long as we try, we can look forward to receiving the sweet approval of the Master: “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Master”!
Artistic Illumination
1. MUSIC: In giving sound to the story, Protestant church music has tended to focus on the first words of the master: “Well done.” This has been true at least since the 18th century, when Charles Wesley wrote the hymn “Slave of God, Well Done!” The hymn was written on the occasion of the death of George Whitefield (1714–1770), the English Anglican priest who was instrumental to the First Great Awakening (ca. 1731–55) in Britain and in the American colonies. The hymn is now known as “Servants of God, well done!”
Similarly, in her 19th- century adaptation of St. Patrick’s Breastplate, Cecil Frances Alexander taught Anglican congregations to long for “the sweet ‘Well done’ in judgment hour” (v3 in Hymnal 1982, #370) This is echoed in #541 “Come labor on,” which concludes with the Master’s affirmation. And in modern gospel and Christian pop, “Well done” has become a trope, used in song after song.
Song: “Well Done” | Words & Music written by Jason Ingram, Matt Fuqua, Josh Havens | Performed by The Afters on the album, The Beginning & Everything After (2018)
Song: “Well Done, Good and Faithful" | Performed by Andrew Peterson | Written by Andrew Peterson, Aedan Peterson | (c) 2018 Jakedog Music. In this song, it is Jesus who after his crucifixion and death hears the words of the Master: "Well done, good and faithful servant!"
Song: “Well Done” | Written by Warryn Campbell, Joaquin Bynum, Erica Campbell, Larry Whitt, Krista Campbell | Performed by Erica Campbell on the album Well Done ( My Bock Inc, 2017) Christian R&B singer Erica Campbell released her own single in which she imagines herself meeting Jesus after a life spent devoting her gifts to his service. “I just wanna hear you say WELL… DONE…” she sings, her voice layered and stretching into dissonant harmonies, searing the message onto listeners’ brains like a cattle brand.
2. ART
We begin our reflection on the artistic illumination of the parable with a series of six prints by Herman Janz Muller(1540-1617), a Dutch engraver, which were published in book form published by Pieter de Jode, the Elder, Flemish (1570 - 1634). They show the episodes of the story in sequence.
In the first print by Muller we can see the lord handing each of his servants their sums of money. The next print then details a cunning servant at a port, negotiating with another man, obviously investing the money in the hopes of increasing the lord's estate. Whereas, the third print focuses on the third servant foolishly burying his portion. In the fourth print we see the return of a much older lord, coming home after years away, expecting his entrusted servants to present him with good news. However, the fifth of the series in our collection reveals that the lowly third servant's attempts at merely hiding his entrusted gift were not appreciated. Our sixth and final print of this series illustrates a vengeful lord pointing assertively at the third servant receiving his punishment for hiding away what was entrusted to him for use and investment.
In the following collection of pieces, the artists depict the fearful response of the third slave, who buries his one talent.
Note the anxiety of the slave, looking over his shoulder even as he buries his talent:
Remarkably enough, the person who has received the five talents is portrayed as a woman here. She kneels for her lord, depicted as a tribal chief. Instead of bags of money she offers him fruits, a basket and a bag full. This seems to contain a reference to the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot) of the Israelites, who during this feast offered the first fruits of the harvest to God as a token of thankfulness for God's abundant blessing. The very tall chief holds one hand open to receive the gifts, while he blesses his two good servants with the other. In the background the third servant is busy unearthing his hidden talent. A man with a pistol in his hand is about to take his 'treasure' away from him. Thus, the concern of the slave evinced in the picture above is realized here.
The Reckoning
The Inner Turmoil of the One-Talent Slave
A. N. Mironov The Parable of the Talents, 2013, catches the third slave in a moment of reflection, pondering the nature of the talent with which he’s been entrusted and the appropriate response. We can imagine his mind is a-swirl with thoughts and feelings about his situation, tending towards the dark and cramped.
Comments