A parable of Jesus

The Parable of the Talents

God entrusts each of us with something, and he asks not that we produce more than others but that we faithfully use what we were given.

Where and to whom Jesus told it

This is the second of Matthew 25's three parables of readiness, following the ten virgins and preceding the sheep and the goats, all part of Jesus' teaching on the Mount of Olives about his coming. Where the ten virgins stress being ready, this parable stresses being productive; the interval before the master's return is not to be spent merely waiting but working. It speaks to disciples who would be left to serve in his absence.

A talent was an enormous sum of money, many years of a labourer's wages, so that even the servant given one talent was entrusted with a fortune. The word has since come into English to mean a natural gift, and that is a fair extension, but the parable's talents are first of all whatever the master entrusts: resources, opportunities, the gospel itself, all that God places in our hands to steward.

The parable

A man travelling into a far country called his own servants and delivered to them his goods, to one five talents, to another two, to another one, to every man according to his several ability, and went his way. He that received five traded and made five more; likewise he with two gained two more. But he that received one went and digged in the earth and hid his lord's money. After a long time the lord returns and reckons with them. To the first two he says the same words, Well done, thou good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

But the third servant says he was afraid, knowing his lord to be a hard man, and so hid the talent in the ground, and here it is. The lord calls him wicked and slothful, saying he should at least have put the money to the exchangers to gain interest, and takes the talent from him, giving it to the one with ten. The unprofitable servant is cast into outer darkness. The two faithful servants are commended not for equal amounts, five and two, but for equal faithfulness; the condemned servant is judged not for losing money but for doing nothing at all with what he was given, and for a fear that masked a heart unwilling to serve.

What it means, and how it has been misread and rightly read

This parable is sometimes read as though it taught that God rewards worldly success or financial shrewdness, or as a general maxim that the rich get richer. But the trading is a picture, not a lesson in investing, and the reward is not wealth but the master's joy. The point is faithfulness with what has been entrusted, whatever its amount, not the accumulation of returns for their own sake.

Read rightly, it confronts the sin of the buried talent: a passive, fearful, self-protective religion that risks nothing and produces nothing, then blames its idleness on a distorted picture of a harsh God. The third servant's real problem is revealed in his own words; he did not know his master's heart. Faithful stewardship means putting to work in the master's service whatever he has given, however small it seems, rather than burying it out of fear. The parable warns that doing nothing with God's gifts is not safe neutrality but culpable waste.

The heart of God and the kingdom

This parable reveals a God who entrusts his servants with real responsibility and genuinely delights to reward faithfulness. He does not stand over us as the hard, joyless taskmaster the third servant imagined; he calls his faithful servants good, invites them into his joy, and gives them more. The distortion of his character is precisely what the buried talent exposes and rebukes.

It reveals, too, that he entrusts according to ability and asks according to what he has given, not more. The servant with two talents is as fully commended as the one with five. God does not measure us against one another but asks each of us to be faithful with our own portion. And the goal of all our stewardship is not merely reward but relationship: enter thou into the joy of thy lord, the joy of being welcomed by the master himself.

What it asks of us

This parable calls us to invest, not bury, whatever God has entrusted to us, our gifts, our time, our resources, our knowledge of the gospel, however modest it may seem. We are not all given the same, and we are not meant to compare, but we are all called to faithfulness with our own trust. The one-talent servant is a warning against a cautious, fearful faith that hides its gift and calls it prudence.

It also searches the fear that keeps us from serving. Much spiritual paralysis comes, like the third servant's, from a false picture of God as harsh and impossible to please, so that we hide rather than risk. The remedy is to know the master truly, as one who rewards faithfulness with joy, and then to put our talent to work with confidence, trusting that he asks only faithfulness, not results beyond our ability.

How it points to Christ

Christ is the master who has gone into the far country and will return to reckon with his servants, having entrusted us in the meantime with the riches of his gospel. He does not demand returns beyond our ability, only faithfulness with what he has given. And the aim of all our labour is his own word of welcome, Well done, and the invitation, Enter thou into the joy of thy lord, the joy of being with him forever, which is the true and final reward of every faithful servant.

Frequently asked questions

What does the parable of the talents mean?

A master entrusts servants with money and returns to see what they did with it. It teaches faithful stewardship of whatever God gives, gifts, opportunities, resources. The two who invested are praised alike; the one who buried his out of fear is condemned (Matthew 25:14-30).

What is a talent in the parable?

A talent was a very large sum of money. Because of this parable the word came to mean a gift or ability. The master gives different amounts to each servant according to his capacity and asks each to use it faithfully.

Why was the third servant condemned?

Not because he lost the money, but because he never tried. Out of fear and a distorted view of his master he buried the gift and did nothing. The parable warns against wasting what God entrusts to us out of fear.