Discover the power of seizing God’s opportunities and faithful stewardship in living a purposeful life within His kingdom. Gain insights from The Parable of the Talents, explore your abilities, and understand the account you’ll give for your actions. Be faithful in little and find abundance in much.

Setting Up The Parable of the Talents

You’ve probably heard the phrase, “Seize the Day.” It was popularized by the movie Dead Poets Society starring the late Robin Williams. We can sum up the meaning of that phrase in one sentence: Take advantage of opportunities while they are available.

“Seize the day” is very similar to what the Psalmist taught when he said: “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”

When Jesus shares The Parable of the Talents, He shares the story of an epic tragedy of people who do not take their only ordinary life and “Seize the Day” for the sake of God’s Kingdom. While followers of Jesus look forward to His second coming, we are not to sit back in idleness. Through the sobering nature of Jesus’ words, we see this is a tragedy of the utmost seriousness. It’s a tragedy of:

• Wasted opportunity

• Wasted life

• The most dire consequences

In our parable, the word “talent” serves a dual purpose. Jesus uses it not only as a reference to money but also as a metaphor for the gifts and graces entrusted to you as a follower of Jesus.

The parable is set up by a man who’s leaving on a journey, and he entrusts his money to capable hands, his servants. He’s given them a responsibility he can reasonably expect them to handle. Jesus validates that each of them is responsible and faithful to what’s been entrusted to them.

We must be mindful that as Jesus shares this story, this parable illustrates the Kingdom of Heaven, and the man who goes away is Jesus Christ. It is the distinction of Jesus’ first and second coming. While He’s away, there are three levels of responsibility to illustrate the wide variety of giftedness that people possess before Christ. All of our aptitudes, intellectual capabilities, spiritual gifts, and resources should be viewed through the lens of a servant’s heart in God’s Kingdom.

Even the disciples had varying abilities. Peter, James, and John were in Jesus’ inner circle. Peter had a prominent position in the future of the Church. So, the implication we see in this parable, anecdotally speaking, is that there are varying levels of giftedness, but it doesn’t undercut the responsibility that we all have to be responsible with what’s been given to us.

Let’s examine three realities we can ascertain from this parable.

Three Essential Realities From The Parable of the Talents

1) The Abilities We All Have

JESUS: “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.” Matthew 25:14-15

As we know, with Scripture, context matters. In Matthew 25:1, Jesus says, “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like…” To be faithful to our text, we need to understand what He does and doesn’t mean by this because when He references the kingdom of heaven, we need to look at the context of the way it’s intended.

1. The sphere of God’s dominion in the person of Christ.

2. Sometimes, it represents redeemed people. JESUS: “Unless you are converted and become like children, you shall not enter the Kingdom of heaven.”

3. Sometimes, the kingdom of heaven refers to the visible, outward body of professing Christians, in which true and false ones are found—genuine and imitation Christians. We know this because immediately following verse one, He tells The Parable of the Ten Virgins. The foolish virgins and the faithless servant do not represent professed pagans, atheists, agnostics, or reprobates, but those who profess to belong to Christ. This parable precedes our parable today, The Parable of the Talents. Jesus uses these two parables to illustrate the outward, organizational church is composed of those who do belong to Him and those who allege to belong to Him.

JESUS: “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 his master’s money.” Matthew 25:16-18

The servant who had received five and two talents was eager to serve his Master, and they immediately went and traded with them and gained five more talents. This man represents the genuine believer whose supreme desire is to serve God, fulfilling what Jesus declared to be the first and greatest commandment, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” Deuteronomy 6:5 & Matthew 22:37 (NASB)

The point is not the type of work they did but the fact that they used all the resources entrusted to them to their fullest advantage. Both persons demonstrated supreme commitment to their master by making the most of what they had by maximizing their opportunities.

The behavior of the third servant, however, was radically different. He who received the one talent went away, dug in the ground, and hid his master’s money.

2) The Account We Will Give

In Matthew 25:19-27 there is a significant portion of this parable designated to the account that the three entrusted servants give to the master.

“Master, you entrusted five talents to me; see, I have gained five more talents.” Matthew 25:20

When the Master said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” He was commending the servant’s heart and attitude more than just his accomplishment. Attitude and posture of heart matter more than the accomplishments that may or may not have been attained in being faithful with kingdom matters. He says, “You have been faithful in little, and now I will set you over much.”

However, let’s look at the man’s response with one talent.

JESUS: “‘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.” Matthew 25:24

This servant demonstrated a counterfeit allegiance to God by distorting God’s character and nature. He accuses God of being a “hard man, reaping where he does not sow and gathering where he has not scattered seed.” He charged His owner with being unmerciful and dishonest.

How does that happen?

He runs on a populist understanding of the nature of God. He may be a vague deist, and he doesn’t even know it. He runs on the fumes of what he gleans from others about God rather than searching out God’s Word and heart or knowing God, in Christ, for himself. He would likely check a box that says he is a Christian but only has a vague notion of God because He has not allowed God to search His heart.

If you think I’m being harsh, look at what Jesus said to this person.

JESUS: “…You wicked and slothful servant!” Matthew 25:26

Jesus calls him wicked because he has twisted the nature and truth of God. He calls him slothful because he’s too intellectually lazy to open the Scriptures to have the truth revealed in his own heart and life.

Let’s recognize what’s unfolding in this sobering story is the reality of the account that we will give of our lives. We’re all on level ground when we stand before Jesus.

3) The Action God Will Take

JESUS: “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.” Matthew 25:28-30

There are positive and negative in this passage. We’ll address the negative first.

1) Negative

We have to be faithful to Jesus’ words, so the third servant was not simply unfaithful; he was faithless. Even though he professed faith in Christ, it’s illustrated that a person’s unproductiveness in serving the kingdom reflects how they do or don’t know God. Because he wasted his abilities for the kingdom, he wasted any potential spiritual gifts that could’ve been awakened in his life. Jesus pronounces severe judgment upon his life because of these wasted opportunities.

Sometimes, I hear people say, “I like the God of the New Testament better” or “I’m a red-letter Christian (indicating they only read the things Jesus says, which are often in a red font in print Bibles).”

To those people, I have to ask, have you read the New Testament or Jesus’ words? No one in Scripture spoke more of judgment than Jesus (Old vs. New Testament).

• Jesus spoke of sin that could not be forgiven. (Matthew 12:32)

• Jesus spoke of the danger of losing one’s soul forever. (Matthew 16:26)

• Jesus spoke of spending eternity in the torments of hell. (Matthew 10:28)

• Jesus spoke of existing forever in “outer darkness (Matthew 22:13)”, where there is perpetual “weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 25:30).”

• According to the words of Jesus, Hell is not only a place of eternal darkness, but it is a place of eternal torment. (Revelation 14:9-11)

But all of these warnings are acts of love by Jesus—Don’t miss that! This is why Jesus Christ, God in body, would weep over cities that refused Him. Jesus seeks to draw people into Himself, not only through the attraction of salvation and the beauty of His kingdom but also by warning people of the horrors of the alternative.

However, there’s a divine principle at work here: Those who trust in Christ will gain everything, and those who do not trust in Christ will lose everything. Saving faith is a serving faith. We are not saved by works but by the grace of God in the person of Jesus Christ when we humbly repent our sins and confess Him as Lord and Savior.

2) Positive

JESUS: “For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance.” Matthew 13:12

JESUS: “…enter into the joy of your masters.” Matthew 25:23

Not only will the Lord entrust greater earthly tasks to those who prove themselves faithful, but their heavenly reward will be an opportunity for greater service throughout eternity.

The popular iteration of heaven in the media is a place with clouds, and everyone is floating in white robes while playing harps. Per Scripture, that is not an accurate representation of what heaven will be like.

Scripture teaches that believers will reign with Jesus because He will recreate the heavens and the earth (Revelation 21:1). We will dwell here on a recreated earth where there is no sin, and we live in communion with God (Isaiah 65:17-19). We get to live fully the design that was intended before the fall of humanity.

Within that reign, it’s denoted that we will have honorable responsibilities. You will continue to have stewardship of your life, resources, gifts, and graces. But what Jesus promises in our parable is that as you’re faithful in this life, not only does He entrust you with more, but there is a day coming when you will be rewarded with responsibilities in your future eternal life.

These are Jesus’ words, not mine.

Allow me to encourage you: Seize the day. Stay humble before a loving God who shares in the hard and tender things of life. He views you as worthy of pursuing, and He is worthy of serving with our labor, attention, and heart orientation to the lives around us.

TL;DR

1. The Parable of the Talents from Matthew 25:14-30 teaches us the importance of:

   1. Seizing opportunities

   2. Being faithful with our God-given abilities

   3. Understanding the consequences of faithlessness

2. This parable illustrates that all believers are responsible for their talents and will be held accountable in the end.

3. Ultimately, the rewards of faithfulness in this life and the next.

Related Reading

How to Manage God’s Gifts for His Glory by Rev. Paul Lawler

The Temple Tax: A Stewardship Poem by WIlliam Merriman

The Power of Prioritizing God by Rev. Paul Lawler

Beyond Bread and Fishes: A Message of Trusting God by Rev. Paul Lawler