Let's begin with some problem areas in this so-called "Parable of the Talents":
- The word "talent" was a first-century word designating a certain weight of silver. We use the word "talent" to refer to skills or abilities that we've either learned or honed to a high level. Often when we hear this parable with the word "talent" we immediately jump to this modern meaning, and the thrust of the interpretation then seems to be "if you don't want to end up gnashing your teeth, use your talents for God's glory (and make sure you at least double His investment in you)!" Please note: there's not an ounce of Gospel in this interpretation! This Sunday, I translated "talent" as "bag of gold."
- Side note: Because Jesus said the servant with five bags brought five more and the one with two bags brought two more, don't you wonder what happens with someone who gets five bags but only brings three more, or the one who gets two bags but only brings one more?
- The "well done, good and faithful servant" sounds too much like a Performance Review phrase, as if the master is checking these guys off from the scale "3=Well Done, 2=Satisfactory, 1=Needs Improvement, 0=Gnash those Teeth." In fact, the Greek word is just a simple positive expletive, which might just as well be translated into American English as "Cool!" or "Sweet!" - and that's how I've translated it here.
The basic problem with the way we deal with this parable, though, is that we look at if it were a story about a boss and his employees at their annual Performance Review. When we do that, we come up with nothing but Law - no Gospel at all. I think the foundation to getting at the Gospel in the story is to begin by looking at the way the third ("wicked and slothful") servant perceives the master.
This servant sees the master as a tight-fisted, hard-hearted guy. He neither loves nor respects his master; he serves the master in fear or, in this case, not at all.
How many people see the God of the Bible that way? As a fearsome, vengeful, smiting god? Then they decide they don't want a god like that, and refuse to believe in Him. How much sense does that make? If God is truly vengeful, wouldn't it make more sense to try to play up to Him?
But the God who has revealed Himself to us in the Bible and through Jesus is not that kind of God at all. He is, instead, a kind and loving Father-God, who (in the Lord's Prayer) invites us to consider Him as a Father dear to us because He considers us to be children dear to Him. So we approach Him with joy and excitement and love rather than avoid Him in fear, because for Jesus' sake we are His children, not His servants.
But if we insist on hanging on to the servant-master metaphor, how then shall we serve Him? As Martin Luther once wrote of the Apostles' Creed, ". . . in righteousness, innocence, and blessedness." We serve Him in righteousness, knowing that for the sake of Jesus who was completely righteous the Father counts His righteousness as if it were our own; now our service to Him is also righteous and everything we do for Him is without fault, but perfect. We serve Him in innocence, knowing that for the sake of Jesus who was completely without sin the Father looks at us and sees His children as without sin as well; now our service to Him is done by people who are perfected in His sight by Jesus. We serve Him in blessedness, knowing that for the sake of Jesus, of whom the Father said at His baptism in the Jordan River "This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased," our Baptism is our connection to Jesus' Baptism and so to the Father's blessing.
If we insist on hanging on to the master-servant metaphor, then, remember that our service is done perfectly because it is done in the righteousness of Christ; it is done by sinless people because it is done in the innocence of Christ; and it is done by blessed people because it is done in the Blessedness of Christ. That's not a Performance Review - that's the way a dear Father and His dear children love each other.
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