Matthew 25:14-30 – Use It or Lose It
In the January 15, 1989 issue of the Lexington Herald-Leader, an article told this story: A family living in a home in West Palm Beach, Florida, told a film crew it was okay to use the front lawn as a set for an episode of “B. L. Stryker”, a TV show starring Burt Reynolds. They knew cars would be crashing violently in front of the house. While the front yard was being blown up, the owner of the home was tipped off and called from New York demanding to know what was happening to his house. It seems the people who were living in the house were only tenants and they had no right to allow the property to be destroyed as the cameras rolled.
You know, sometimes we live our lives in the same way. We make decisions as to what to do with our resources, but we forget that the resources aren’t ours to begin with. Jesus told a story about this very thing in Matthew 25:14-30. As we continue through our summer sermon series on why we do what we do in worship services, we come to stewardship. Generally, the thought of stewardship only shows up when it’s time to give in the offering. Generally, we think of giving back to God only once during a service, maybe even once a week. I’m quite sure that’s not what Jesus had in mind when he told the story of the talents.
Now, a talent was a unit of money, worth over $1000. Let’s keep that thought in mind as we look at one of the last stories Jesus told before going to His death. Matthew 25:14-30.
Let’s put this parable in context. That is, let’s look at what Jesus said before it and what He said after it. Before he told the story of the talents, he told a story about 10 young ladies – virgins, actually – waiting for the bridegroom for a wedding. They wanted to be invited to the wedding reception. Half of them let the oil run out of their lamps, meaning that they weren’t ready to meet the groom when he came; but half of them were ready. The story about the 10 virgins is that even Christians must be ready to meet the Lord when He returns in glory from heaven.
The story after parable of the talents is about Jesus separating the sheep and the goats. The sheep are the ones who have obeyed the Lord and loved other people with compassion. The goats are the ones who didn’t show love and compassion to the hungry, the thirsty, the homeless, the naked, the sick and the prisoners. The story is the eternal separating of those who were faithful to loving others and those who were not.
The story before and the story after speak of being ready to meet the Lord, through waiting and obeying. The message of each is an end-times message: be ready to meet the Lord when He comes, and be ready to give an account of what you did on earth. This is the exact message of the parable of the talents.
Jesus’ story starts off with the master of an estate leaving for a time. The master decides to leave his fortunes with the servants. To one servant he gave over $5000, to another over $2000, and to the third, over $1000.
Well, you don’t have to a rocket scientist to understand that the master is Jesus. He was on the earth for about 33 years. He died, and rose again. He walked on the earth for 40 days after, then ascended into heaven. The Bible tells us that He will be coming back again someday.
So if Jesus is the Master, then who do the servants represent? Us. We are the servants in Jesus’ story. So if we are His servants, then the message of the story must apply to us. Well, what is the message of the story? In a parable, not every detail stands for something else; that is, some details are just there for the story. But, each parable does have some threads of truth, relevant for everyday. There may be more, but there are at least 3 threads of truth running through this story for us today in 2003.
The first is that 1) we’ve all been given things of value. Each one of us has been entrusted with valuable items, direct from God. You’ve heard me say this before, but it’s still true. Each of us has been entrusted with treasures, talents and time. Each one of us has been trusted by God to handle things of great value.
As many times as I’ve read this passage, it just dawned on me this week, that in the story the servants were not using their money. They weren’t burying their own money. It was the master’s finances. From start to finish, the money was never the servants’. It was always the master’s.
And it’s true with us too. Our treasures are not our own. Our talents are not our own. Our time is not our own. 1 Corinthians 6:19 says that our bodies are not our own – we have been bought with a price. Everything of value that we have is not ours – it belongs to our Master. Yet we squander these precious commodities as if they were ours. As Christians, God deserves all we have. When we come to the Lord for salvation, we give Him all our sins. But as we walk with Him, He wants more. He wants us to give back to Him what He gave us in the first place.
Now, as the parable goes, some of us have more valuable things than others. Some of us have more treasure than others. Some of us have more talents than others. And while we all have the same number of hours in the run of a week, some of us are more available with our time than others.
But it appears that Jesus is less concerned with how much we have as He is with what we do with what we have. The second thread of truth from the story is that 2) we are expected to use our valuables to gain more for the Master. Two of the servants invested and doubled what they were given. The 5-talent servant doubled up to 10 talents, and the 2-talent servant doubled up to 4. They received the same commendation from the master, exactly the same: “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!”
It appears that Jesus is more concerned with what you do with your treasure – your money – than He is about how much you have. 2 Corinthians 8:12 says: “For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have.” Jesus cares more about using what you’ve already got, not what you don’t have. He’d rather you just tithe your own finances, rather than sitting around and complaining that so-and-so doesn’t tithe. As for talents, even if you aren’t a multi-talented person, as we all wish we were, use what you’ve got. Let God have what little you have. And use your time for the Lord, too. Some can’t give Him an extra hour a week to pray or worship, but they can commit to several hours a week for exercise, fresh air, a garden or a lawn. Doesn’t He deserve to be put first in our time?
You know, I would be wrong to leave this out. Jesus taught that if you use what you’ve got, God will multiply it. Maybe if you took what few treasures you have, what few talents you have, what little time you have, and used them to please God in all you do, you might find yourself with more. God seems to bless and multiply whatever we give Him.
The third thread of truth Jesus taught in this parable, and perhaps the scariest one, is that 3) we will be accountable to the Master for how we used our valuables. The master returned, and so will ours. And He will ask us to give an account of how we spent our treasures, our talents, and our time. As Christians we are glad that when we face the Lord, we do not have to worry about eternal judgement. That was settled when we asked Jesus to forgive our sins and become our leader. But we do face a judgement yet. We will face the believer’s judgement, when Christians are judged for how we lived our lives.
Now, I’m not sure how far to take the parable, but the servant who did nothing with what the Master gave him was cast into outer darkness. Whether or not it means that Jesus’ servants will be cast out of heaven if they are unfaithful, I’d rather not speculate at this time. At the very least, though, a true servant would not want to hear the words that the Master used towards his servant: wicked and lazy (v26), and worthless (v30). We long to hear Jesus say, “Well done”, but we want it without doing well. Someday you will be asked two questions: “What have you done with my Son, Jesus?” and “What have you done with the valuables that I left you? What did you do with my treasures, my talents and my time?”
In 1969, Lois Cheney wrote these words in her book, God is No Fool: Once, a man said, “If I had some extra money, I’d give it to God, but I have just enough to support myself and my family.” And the same man said, “If I had some extra time, I’d give it to God, but every minute is taken up with my job, my family, my clubs, and what have you—every single minute.” And the same man said, “If I had a talent I’d give it to God, but I have no lovely voice; I have no special skill; I’ve never been able to lead a group; I can’t think cleverly or quickly, the way I would like to.”
And God was touched, and although it was unlike him, God gave that man money, time, and a glorious talent. And then He waited, and waited, and waited. And then after a while, He shrugged His shoulders, and He took all those things right back from the man, the money, the time and the glorious talent. After a while, the man sighed and said, “If I only had some of that money back, I’d give it to God. If I only had some of that time, I’d give it to God. If I could only rediscover that glorious talent, I’d give it to God.” And God said, “Oh, shut up.” And the man told some of his friends, “You know, I’m not so sure that I believe in God anymore.”
Bible commentator Herbert Lockyer summed up Jesus’ message of the parable with 5 words: Use it or lose it. You have been given treasures – are you using it for God’s glory? What about your talents – are you burying them, or multiplying them for what God wants? And how do you spend your time – do you waste it, or do you use all you can to obey God?
