Some explanations: The word “talent’ is used by us to mean giftedness. At the time of the Gospels is meant a coin of considerable value. Our modern day usage helps us to understand the parable. The parable is about the wise use of our gifts for the glory of God and how we will be blessed by God for furthering the kingdom with even more gifts.
The parable is not about wasting our talents or our gifts. In all the cases it is a given that nothing is wasted. Each of the gifted servants has at least managed to preserve all of his money. Nothing is wasted. The parable is about investing a talent for the benefit of the giver, i.e., God. There are rewards and there are punishments.
We are each given different gifts. One servant is given five, another two, another one. Different gifts are given to different people as God chooses. We know that to waste a gift would be to offend the giver. But here, the parable is teaching us “that to everyone who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough: but from the man who has not, even what he has will be taken away”.
The kingdom of God is like this! We remember that the kingdom of God in Matthew’s parables means the Church. The punch line is about using gifts. The more we use them, the more God is glorified and the more we are given. If we keep them for our selves and don’t use them for the Body of Christ there will be no reward, indeed there will be a dreadful accounting.
This is the second last of the Parables in Matthew for 2014. Next Sunday is the Feast of Christ the King and the great parable of Matthew 25 – the Last Judgement. Then it will be Advent and Mark’s Gospel for 2015.
The parable is not about wasting our talents or our gifts. In all the cases it is a given that nothing is wasted. Each of the gifted servants has at least managed to preserve all of his money. Nothing is wasted. The parable is about investing a talent for the benefit of the giver, i.e., God. There are rewards and there are punishments.
We are each given different gifts. One servant is given five, another two, another one. Different gifts are given to different people as God chooses. We know that to waste a gift would be to offend the giver. But here, the parable is teaching us “that to everyone who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough: but from the man who has not, even what he has will be taken away”.
The kingdom of God is like this! We remember that the kingdom of God in Matthew’s parables means the Church. The punch line is about using gifts. The more we use them, the more God is glorified and the more we are given. If we keep them for our selves and don’t use them for the Body of Christ there will be no reward, indeed there will be a dreadful accounting.
This is the second last of the Parables in Matthew for 2014. Next Sunday is the Feast of Christ the King and the great parable of Matthew 25 – the Last Judgement. Then it will be Advent and Mark’s Gospel for 2015.
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