The Right Investment
Matthew 25:14-30
Tony’s Overview Video
How to Use
Preparing to teach
- Read the Bible Lesson by Tony Cartledge in this month’s issue of the Nurturing Faith Journal
- Watch Tony’s Video for this session
- Select either the Adult or Youth teaching guide and follow the directions
Click to read the Bible Lesson by Tony Cartledge
Key Text:
His master said to him, “Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.”
Have you every entrusted a significant portion of your life savings to a money manager, a professional who supposedly knows best how to invest money for maximum return, but gets paid whether you gain or lose?
It’s a risky business, and not for everyone. Sometimes the investments pay off handsomely, and sometimes money goes down the drain.
Our text for the day concerns a man who turned entrusted considerable wealth to three of his servants and expected positive returns. It is the third in a series of four stories that Jesus told regarding the importance of living faithfully and being ready to meet Jesus when judgment time comes. [DD]
The story is set in the last days of Jesus’ earthly life, when everything Jesus talked about was freighted with eternity and the question of how believers should live.
A serious investment (vv. 14-18)
Can you imagine the story Jesus told? [DD] Before leaving for on an extended journey, a prosperous man distributed his wealth among three slaves, “each according to his ability,” in a ratio of five to two to one (vv. 14-15).
We know what it is to go on vacation and arrange for someone else to look after our pets or get in the mail, but would we ever think of putting them in charge of our bank accounts or our retirement funds?
The text says the departing man entrusted five talents to one servant, two talents to the second, and one to the third.
When we hear the word “talent,” we think of an innate ability to do something well. Our English word comes straight from the Greek, and it is largely due to the popular understanding of this story that we came to define it as giftedness or ability.
The Greek word talenton, however, was a measure of weight used in business, with one talent being about 75 pounds. It came to be used as a monetary measure, probably in silver coins, equivalent to 6,000 denarii. That is probably what is intended here. When v. 18 says the third servant “hid his master’s money,” the word is argurion, which means “silver.”
One denarius represented the daily wage for a day laborer, so one talent of silver would be equivalent to about 20 years of wages. At today’s minimum wage, that would be nearly half a million dollars.
The precise amount is of little concern: the three men were given varying but extravagant amounts of money and expected to use it wisely.
And what did they do?
The man with five talents “went off at once and traded with them” (v. 16). The word translated as “traded” literally means “worked.” Whether he bought and sold goods, invested in real estate, or started a business, we don’t know – but he put his money to work. By the time the master returned, he had managed to double what had been entrusted to him.
“In the same way,” Jesus added, “the one who had the two talents made two more talents” (v. 17).
The third man did not believe that fortune favors the brave. Fearing both the master and the possibility of loss, he “went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money” (v. 18).
A serious judgment (vv. 19-30)
The story is not over, of course. “After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them” (v. 19).
The master, obviously, was pleased with the two servants who had taken the risk of putting their talents to work. To the one who began with five talents and made five more, the master said “Well done, good and trustworthy servant; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master” (v. 21).
The servant who had doubled his two talents got the same congratulatory response (v. 23).
But now comes the one talent man, trying to explain himself before returning the talent he’d buried. “Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours” (vv. 24-25). [DD]
The master rejected his characterization as a hard man, though he did have high expectations. He accused the servant of being wicked and lazy, knowing that the master expected a return and yet failing to seek it. He could have at least earned some interest on the money, but failed even that (vv. 26-27).
So, Jesus said, the master ordered that his one talent be given to the one who had ten, “for to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away” (vv. 28-29).
As if that were not enough, the third servant was to be thrown “into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (v. 30). [DD]
That’s harsh treatment for a man who was cautious, conservative, careful. We generally honor those qualities.
But Jesus didn’t call him cautious and careful, but wicked and lazy. He refused to do what his master clearly wanted. The unhappy judgment he received is not the result of his penchant for doing bad things, but his refusal to do good things.
A serious challenge
This is a hard parable to hear, because most of us would probably identify more with the third servant than the first two. How should we understand it?
The traditional interpretation sees allegorical elements: Jesus as the master, the servants as church members, and the granting of funds as God-given gifts and abilities. The master’s extended absence points to the delay of the Parousia, and the servants’ profitable or unprofitable use of their giftedness determines their outcome at the judgment. [DD]
If that is what Jesus intended, then the clear message is that if we want to fully participate in the kingdom, we had better get busy, using the talents God has given us to further kingdom work.
This view acknowledges that we are not all gifted in the same way, or in the same amount, but we are all gifted. No matter what the amount or type of gift, there is the same expectation: God wants us to demonstrate the same kind of courage in using our gifts as God showed in giving them.
Another way to look at the parable is to consider God’s trademark extravagance.
Stories of God’s relationship to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Gideon, David, and others point to extravagant blessings God promised to those who did what was expected.
The extravagance of God can be seen in parables such as the sower and the seed, where the farmer flung seed into every corner of his land. God is not cheap in showing grace, but his grace is not cheap, either.
Only an incredibly extravagant kind of grace would lead God to risk everything by walking down the road to Jerusalem knowing good and well that a bloody cross stood at the end of it.
In that sense, the parable is not so much about good and bad as it is about trust. It is about the trust that Jesus puts in servants like us to do his work. It is about the kind of trust we are expected to have in Christ by risking and using the gifts he has given us.
Compared with God’s eternal extravagance toward us, our cautious response may look quite pitiful, and the story challenges us to more courageous living.
Another way of looking at the story recognizes that the focus is not really on the first two men, who serve mainly as a foil for the third, who gets most of the attention – and who may seem most like us.
What was the third man’s problem? It was fear. He saw the master as a monster who would hurt him if he lost the money, so he took no risks and kept it safe. The master, however, was not so harsh as he expected.
We don’t know how the master would have responded if the first two men had risked big and lost the money. For all we know, he may still have congratulated them for taking a risk and doing the best the could.
Paralyzed by fear, the third man did nothing.
From any of these angles, the message seems to be that God wants us to dream big and stretch far and open our arms wide to a world in dire need of grace and love.
God wants us to get off of our chairs and stop hiding behind the punch bowl, to get out on the floor and dance. [DD]
Jesus calls us to be more footloose with our faith, more generous with our giving, more profligate with our forgiveness, more liberal with our love.
“Cautious Christianity” is an oxymoron. The same Jesus who showed us the limitless love and extravagance of God is the one who serves as our model for living, and for dying.
For some people, getting reckless with their faith means leaving everything behind and going to minister to homeless people in an urban neighborhood. For others, it may be teaching a Sunday School lesson, or risking a tithe, or spending one morning every week in a soup kitchen.
We are all at different places in our lives. Jesus knows and affirms in this parable that we do not all have the same gifts or abilities or opportunities.
But we all have the same calling. We are called to a risking faith, to an extravagant mercy, to an exuberant love that accepts God’s joyous gift, and then multiplies it by giving it away.
Adult Teaching Resources
Download the PDF of teaching resources for this lesson.
This PDF contains the Teaching Guide, Digging Deeper, and Hardest Question pages.
Read Scripture online: Matthew 25:14-30
Youth Teaching Resources
Social Media Challenge
Post across your various social media platforms different people situations where something simple can grow into something big.
Additional Links/Resources
Read Scripture online: Matthew 25:14-30
Download the PDF for youth teaching resources using the button below. This PDF contains the Teaching Guide for this lesson:
Video
Encourage youth to check out this video ahead of the lesson.
“Multiplying Mogwai” from Gremlins
Via www.youtube.com
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