Jesus’ Parable of the Talents: Matthew 25

Jesus’ parable of the talents tells the story of a rich man who entrusts his servants with large amounts of money to invest while he goes on a journey. This parable teaches us about investing in God’s kingdom and answers the question: Is it really worth sacrificing our time, energy, and resources to know God and to serve him?

Investing the talents

In Jesus’ parable of the talents, the master of an estate entrusts various amounts of money (or “talents”) to his servants. He expects each of them to invest the money while he’s gone so that when he returns, their investments will have grown.

Again, [the kingdom of heaven] will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. (Matthew 25:14-15, NIV 1984)

A talent was a unit of weight in Jesus’ time, equivalent to about 75 to 100 pounds. When stated as monetary value, it equaled 6,000 denarii, a denarius being a day’s wage. So, a talent was a significant amount of money. This is an example of how Jesus used exaggeration in his parables.

In the story, each servant invested the talents as they saw fit:

The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. (Matthew 25:16-18)

Each servant’s investment gave a return proportionate to the amount invested and how wisely they invested.  The wise investors received a high rate of return—100% profit. But the unwise servant didn’t invest at all, hiding the money in the ground.

Time of accounting

When the master returned, he scheduled a time of accounting to review the performance of each servant:

After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. (Matthew 25:19)

At this meeting, the master commended the wise servants according to their faithful stewardship of the money.

The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.’ His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ The man with two talents also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.’ His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’  (Matthew 25:20-23)

The wise servants gave back to the master both the initial amount plus the profit. So, the master was pleased with them and rewarded them for their success. He first commended them for their faithfulness and competence: “Well done!” People who perform good work always deserve an acknowledgment of their good work. Because they were faithful in this one thing, he promoted them to even greater responsibility, putting them “in charge of many things.” They were glad that their master was pleased and celebrated their success with him.

The unfaithful servant

But the unfaithful servant had nothing good to report:

Then the man who had received the one talent came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’  (Matthew 25:24-25)

This servant didn’t obey the master’s instructions to invest the money but buried it in the ground. As expected, the master was displeased:

His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest. (Matthew 25:26-27)

The master was understandably angry. The least this servant could’ve done was to deposit the money in a bank so that it would receive some interest. By burying it, he ignored its potential to grow in value. So, the master took the talent from him and gave it to the top investing servant, the one most likely to create additional wealth from it:

‘Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ (Matthew 25:28-30)

The master then fired the wicked servant on the spot and threw him outside into the darkness of the night. There, he cried out in anguish and ground his teeth in anger at how the master treated him. Now he was out of a job and out of a home.

Why such a strong punishment? Jesus tells us. This servant believed that the master was a hard man and someone to be afraid of, “harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed.” He thought of him as harsh, demanding, and easily angered. And of course, the master was offended because the servant thought of him this way. This was not a compliment but an insult.

Interpreting the parable of the talents

In this parable the master is Christ. To those on the earth he gives his word and the responsibility of furthering his kingdom and then leaves to return to the Father. The reckoning of the servants’ performance at the master’s return is a metaphor for the final judgment, when Christ will reward the righteous and condemn the wicked. Upon his return, Jesus expects those who received revelation about God and the gospel to have appropriated it, to believe in it, allow it to grow and increase in its effect.

The wise servants are those who believe the gospel message and follow Christ’s teaching to invest in God’s kingdom. How do we invest in God’s kingdom? By being good stewards of the resources God has given us. These include our personal resources (skills, gifts, abilities), our spiritual resources (spiritual gifts and God’s Word), and our many physical resources (our time, life, health, possessions, property, and wealth).

The different returns gained by the wise servants teaches us how God has gifted each of us with unique gifts, abilities, and physical resources. We shouldn’t compare our work with that of others. Each believer contributes to God’s kingdom by their faithful and unique Spirit-led work and service. Christ will commend and reward each believer accordingly, based on their wise and faithful investment of resources.

Who is the wicked servant?

Jesus’ story portrays servants of a household wherein the faithful were rewarded and the lazy or wicked were punished. It’s easy for the modern reader to interpret the word “servant” in this parable as “servant of God.” If that were correct, the wicked servant would be a metaphor for disobedient Christians. But that interpretation is a “modernism” based on our modern mindset and values of today. Not everything in Jesus’ parables teach specific commands to the individual believer, as many assume.

The wicked servant in the parable of the talents was condemned, not for not being as good an investor as the others, but for doing nothing with what the master gave him. It wasn’t because he failed at something he wanted to do. He was afraid of the master and just didn’t want to please him at all.

So, the wicked and lazy servant represents the unrighteous and unbelieving who do not trust and love God. They grossly misjudge God’s character and believe him to be harsh, angry, vindictive, and someone to avoid, not someone to please and serve.

Those who believe that God is like this don’t really know God. They have rejected the revelation given to them about God and have a distorted view of him. Their lives, choices, and actions toward God reflect this. They avoid God and don’t want to spend time with him or serve him. They have had chances to dispel their false view of God, but they prefer to keep it and associate with the cynical and the unbelieving.

Responding to God’s revelation

Jesus words “everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance” speaks of God’s gifts of revelation and spiritual blessing. God reveals to everyone some knowledge of himself and blesses those who respond. And Christ expects all to respond to whatever revelation God gives, whether general revelation through nature, or specific revelation through his Word and the gospel. To those who respond to what they have been given and want more of the blessings and knowledge of God, God will gladly give more.

“Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him” speaks of those who don’t respond. As a result, God takes away the little that they have —these people decrease in their knowledge of God. The opportunities to know and serve him decrease with time as they go farther away from him.

Jesus repeats this saying several other times in his teaching. One is found in Luke:

Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they think they have will be taken from them.”  (Luke 8:18)

In this passage, Jesus is restating the principle that to those who seek truth, God will give more. But those who ignore or reject the truth that God gives them will end up with less, until there is only darkness.

Day of accounting

Most importantly for believers in Christ today, the parable of the talents teaches us that we need to take every opportunity to invest in what is eternal and lasting, for God’s kingdom. The time we have to serve God on this earth is limited, and each day that goes by is a day that we can never relive.

After we die, we will all face God on the Day of Judgment. On that Day, we will have to give an account of what God had entrusted to us. What will we have done with the time and opportunities given to us? Did we seek to serve the Lord, or did we waste our time away with worthless pursuits? What will we have done with the resources God entrusted to us? Did we invest them for the eternal? Or did we spend them all on the temporal?

But what a day it will be for those who choose wisely! The blessings awaiting them will be invaluable, far exceeding any earthly treasure or pleasure. Jesus’ word to those who serve him faithfully will be:

Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!

Bible quotes in this article are from the 1984 New International Version

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