A Waste of Talent

"And the one who had also received one talent came up and said, 'Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed.  And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground.  See, you have what is yours.'"  Matthew 25:24-25

In the parable of the talents, Jesus imparts the story of a man who entrusts his servants with varying sums of money, ostensibly to grow, while he goes away on a journey.  When the man returns, two of his servants doubled that which they had been entrusted.  The kind master complimented and rewarded them both with promotions and greater resources to manage.  One of them, however, buried the funds in the ground so as not to risk losing them.  Upon returning to his master exactly that which was entrusted to him, he was not happy.

The larger context of this story is that we Christians must be prepared for the Lord's return.  More specifically, here, that we are not to neglect the use of the skills, abilities and gifts he has provided in the pursuit of producing desired outcomes.  In other words, Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, has made an investment in us and he expects a return on that investment.

Beloved, we are too often like the scared servant who essentially does nothing with what he has been given.  Make no mistake, all children of God are the recipient of spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12:4-11).  These gifts are to be used for the common good, which is to say that they are not so much for ourselves as they are for others.  When we fail to use our ability to teach, comfort, provide financial resources, do manual labor, provide expertise in our field of work or study or any other skill with which are blessed, we are in effect, burying the "talent."  In no uncertain terms, this is failure.

As much as when a farmer plants his or her crops with the expectation of a yield, Jesus expects for us to produce fruit.  Failure to do so can result in the withdrawing of that which sustains us and our removal in favor of another that will produce (Luke 13:6-9).  Be it far from us that we should ever waste the talent that has been given us.  We have been saved by the blood, invested by our Savior and commanded by our Master.  Let us use what has been given in his service and for the benefit of others.  After all, every Christian is the result, in part, of the work done by a faithful servant.

Discipling,

Lee