[BIBLE] Talents

[Lou Ruppert <lruppert@syr.edu>]

Today's verses are Matthew 25:13-30, about the parable of the talents.

  "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour. Again,
   it 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. 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. After a long time the master of those servants returned and
   settled accounts with them. 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 the 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!' 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.' 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. `Take the talent from him and give it to the one 
   who has the 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.' 

It's easy to give up and not do anything if it looks like you're
underequipped for the task at hand.  Here the guys with lots of money
were free to invest it, but the guy with only a little held fast onto
it and developed a bitter attitude towards the master.  He questions
the master's right to even have what he has, acting as though he stole
it or got it through ill means.  I can understand that attitude in a
way, though I don't agree with it.  For a long time in the church, I
was very shy and didn't see that I had much of anything to offer.  I'd
always see people who God had blessed with abilities like singing and
presentation, prophesy and other cool stuff, and I hated where I was. 
I decided he had nothing for me, and what skills I did have I didn't
use fully.  I withdrew myself and only begrudgingly participated in
ministry.  Even recently I've held onto a lot of who I am because I'd
felt like God didn't really give me anything to offer.  The thing is
though that that's a messed up attitude.  The verses above say pretty
clearly what happens when people do that.  The master (God) calls the
servant (me and possibly some of you) lazy and wicked and throws him
out into the darkness.  If you thought having only one talent was bad,
that tops it easily.  The line about the banker is pretty clear too. 
The least the scrawny little fellow could have done was make an effort
at it, even if he was pretty convinced that it was doomed to abject
failure.  But instead he buries it deep where nobody can get to it, like
a bratty little kid who holds tightly onto a toy he doesn't want to play
with just so the other kids can't play with it.  That's a pretty bad
attitude, and one we see that God will punish.  So if you know God has
blessed you in some way that can benefit others, even if it seems like
a pretty pathetic little thing he's given you, still go ahead and share
it and use it, because if you don't, God'll wrench it out of your pudgy
little hands and give it to someone else.



-Lou

-- 
Lou Ruppert - Network Systems Programmer, Syracuse University: lruppert@syr.edu
       "The Lou Ruppert home page": http://www.ucf.org/~lruppert/
"And the LORD said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon
     thy face?" -Joshua 7:10  See http://www.ucf.org/God/offer.html