Matthew 25:24-30: a reflection

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 are commended. But the third buries his single talent in the ground and returns it untouched, explaining that he was afraid. And the master condemns him, not for losing the money, he returned it intact, but for doing nothing with it: You wicked and slothful servant, at least you could have put it in the bank to earn interest. And the unused talent is taken away. His fear led to inaction, and the inaction was his condemnation.

Notice what the third servant's failure was, and was not. He did not squander the talent or lose it; he kept it perfectly safe, buried and untouched. His failure was that he did nothing with it. Out of fear, fear of the master, fear of risk, fear of failing, he chose the safety of inaction, and buried what he had been given rather than using it. And that fearful inaction, that burying of the gift, is exactly what the master condemns.

That is a searching word about the gifts and opportunities God entrusts to us. God gives each of us something, abilities, resources, opportunities, and calls us to use them, to invest them, to put them to work for him, even at the risk of getting it wrong. The temptation, often out of fear, fear of failing, of risk, of not being good enough, is to bury the gift, to play it safe and do nothing. But the parable warns that the buried gift, the unused talent, is not neutral; it is condemned. Do not bury what God has given you out of fear. Use it, invest it, put it to work for him, and do not let fear talk you into the safety of doing nothing with the gifts he has entrusted to you.

Lord, the servant who buried his talent out of fear was condemned, not for losing it, but for doing nothing with it. Show me where fear, of failing, of risk, of not being good enough, has led me to bury the gifts and opportunities you have entrusted to me. Keep me from the safety of inaction. Help me use what you have given, to invest it and put it to work for you, even at the risk of getting it wrong. Do not let me bury my talent out of fear, but make me a faithful servant who uses what you entrust.