Scripture Daily

Context No. 636 of 4322 · Matthew

Context · Reflection

Matthew 25:24-30: in context

24“He also who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you that you are a hard man, reaping where you didn’t sow, and gathering where you didn’t scatter. 25I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the earth. Behold, you have what is yours.’ 26“But his lord answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant. You knew that I reap where I didn’t sow, and gather where I didn’t scatter. 27You ought therefore to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received back my own with interest. 28Take away therefore the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 29For to everyone who has will be given, and he will have abundance, but from him who doesn’t have, even that which he has will be taken away. 30Throw out the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

In the parable of the talents, two servants invest what their master entrusted to them and double it, and are commended. But the parable lingers longest on the third, the one who received a single talent and did nothing with it. Hear his explanation, because it is the key to the whole thing. Master, he says, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you did not scatter, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here is what is yours. He did not lose the money or waste it; he buried it, kept it safe, and gave it back untouched. And the master condemns him, not for losing anything, but for doing nothing: you wicked and lazy servant.

Notice the root of his failure, because he names it himself: I was afraid. And notice where the fear came from, a distorted picture of the master as a hard, exacting man waiting to catch him out. That false image of the master produced fear, and the fear produced paralysis, and the paralysis led him to bury the gift and play it safe. His problem was not recklessness but its opposite; he was so afraid of getting it wrong that he did nothing at all, and doing nothing with what the master entrusted was itself the sin. Playing it safe was not neutral. It was the failure.

That exposes a fear I know well. God entrusts me with gifts, abilities, resources, opportunities, and a distorted picture of him as harsh and exacting, waiting for me to slip, can make me so afraid of failing that I bury what he gave me and do nothing, telling myself I am at least keeping it safe. The parable says the safe, buried, unused gift is exactly what condemns the servant. What has God entrusted to me that I have buried out of fear, and is that fear resting on a false picture of a hard God, when the master actually wanted me to risk using what he gave?

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