Parable of the Bags of Gold / Parable of the Talents Matt 25:14-30

It is interesting that the NIV, which I quote from most frequently calls this the Parable of the Bags of Gold and not the traditional name, Parable of the Talents. But that is neither here nor there.

Each entrusted with talents

Each of the servants is given, entrusted with, the master’s goods, whether it be money or ‘talents’. Each of us, when we become His, is endowed with gifts to carry out the master’s work. I bet some are given an abundance of gifts and others fewer. But the point is that the master trusts each and every one of us to carry out His work and will give it to us as He sees we are able.

Who are we to question that ability when he is the one who has just entrusted us with it? Who are we to hide away and not utilize that which we are given? The servant who had been entrusted one bag did nothing with it, because he was afraid.

Is fear stopping you?

Are you afraid? I have been rather afraid of starting this blog; putting myself out there on the web for all criticism and for all to read or shun at will. It is hard. But I could not ignore the bag on my shoulders, the weight to get writing. I had to do something with it. It has taken a long while to get started and it started and stopped but, it has been a constant pressure, prodding me to do this. I’m still ready to flinch at the first sign of offending someone. But I won’t let that stop me from carrying on in what has been entrusted to me. Hopefully, a community will grow from this, and we can support one another in the struggles of following Christ. He never said it would be easy.

Do you have a vision or recurrent sense of what you should or could be doing for Him? Maybe it is time to get involved at church after just attending for so long. Maybe it is going out and finding a job after having raised your kids for the last few years. What is stopping you? Is it fear?

We are in good company with this fear. Moses was afraid and fled the country after killing an Egyptian. David was afraid of Saul and fled to live among the Philistines. Naomi was afraid she could not care for herself or her daughters-in-law. Each of them lived in fear for a time. I read today that David’s time living in Gath (yep, where Goliath was from) that he did not write any psalms. It was perhaps a desolate spiritual time, or he felt far from God.

Setting fear aside

Letting fear take over stops us from living. Living is growth, functional activity and change preceding death (Oxford Dictionaries). We don’t live when fear has caused us to stop following God’s will or intention for us. I want to grow and produce fruit and change in Him, so I choose to set the fear aside and go on. In my case, I have made a commitment and posted it: ‘thrice weekly comments and verses’; that is what you find on my Facebook page. I’ve made it public, and, in Him, I will carry it out. No Fear!

Back to the parable. I don’t know if I have one bag, 5 or 10 bags of gold that our Lord has given me. I just want to plug into Him with an open heart and follow what he says ‘til the end.

This parable ends in a very unexpected way. Thos of us who are accustomed to hearing about the loving and gracious God, the one who is full of mercy, we struggle with the last servant who is thrown into darkness. This is a man who served the master, right? So why this harsh response?

According to ability

Let’s look at what the servant says. Matthew 25:24-25 says, ‘‘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…’. The servant does have a relationship with the master, he says the master was a hard man. He says the master takes where he has not invested. Is this an accurate picture of the master?

The master has given the bags of gold to ‘each according to his ability’, verse 15. This hardly seems harsh, as the master knows the ability of the servants and does not expect more than can be done. He also shows faith in the abilities of his servants by giving them the gold while he is away. Yet this last servant is afraid of the master. He has a poor understanding of who the master is.

Know God and his character

It strikes me that this servant is like the person who feels that he or she must gain the love of the lord or repay the sacrifice on the cross. We can do neither and neither is required or even requested. What is requested is to believe. Believing is the start of our relationship. This servant however believes a lie. He believes the lie that he will never measure up. He believes the lie that he is not good enough. He does not believe in the true God, nor does he have a true relationship with God. True relationships reveal true character. The master does not ‘judge’ that the servant wasn’t good enough in his actions or was disobedient in his actions. The master judges the heart that has not believed, despite all the opportunities to do so. Judgement isn’t about what we’ve done, it is about what we have believed. What do you believe of God? Are you afraid of him? Afraid of disappointing him or not measuring up? What has he revealed to you of his character?

This post has been updated and revised from the Parables of Matthew series from August 2019.