A master is about to embark on a journey, and before he leaves, he calls three of his trusted servants into his presence. He is prepared to entrust his own property to them. Just because he will not be there, because he will be absent, does not mean the work he has been employed in needs to stop. He is a man of great means, and he freely and joyfully gives from his abundance so his servants may increase his wealth on his behalf. He seems to know them, at least their work ethic and their ability to manage his affairs, so he gives to each of them according to their ability. In other words, he does not expect something he knows they cannot do. To one he gives five talents, to another two, and to another one. Now, a talent, as a unit of currency, is roughly equal to 20 year’s worth of a laborer’s wage. It is an obscene amount of money. A conservative estimate, according to my quick Google search, is that a talent would be worth, roughly, $1.3 million today.

When the master goes away, the one receiving five talents puts it to work, investing, trading, and so on, and makes five more. He doubles the amount. The same happens for the guy given two. But the man given the one talent decides that the best course of action is to dig a hole and bury it. He is going to do whatever it takes to make sure the money is safe. He will not risk it by investing it. He will not make any sketchy trades. He will keep it until the master returns. And when the master does return, the first servant presents to his master not only the five talents entrusted to him but the five more he has made. It is the same with the one who had the two talents, and the master responds by saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter the joy of your master.”

Now, before we get to the outlier in this story, before we consider the man who was given the one talent and buried it in a field, we need to remember what this is all about. This is a parable taught by our Lord describing what the Kingdom of Heaven will be like. It follows on the heels of the parable of the Ten Virgins and directs us toward the end of this age, the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The master is clearly Jesus Himself. He has gone away but not left his servants, that is, the Church, without His gifts, His blessings. He has entrusted the abundance of what is His to His servants for use while He is away.

So, the servant who comes into focus for us, the servant taking center stage in the parable, is the one who buried the talent in the ground. Why does he take such a dramatically different action from the other two? What reason does he give to the master when he returns? Well, he says, “Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.” He viewed his master as a hard taskmaster, as one to be feared, and responded in kind. Not wanting to risk what was entrusted to him, he did absolutely nothing.

There is a direct correlation between how one views the giver of the gift and the use of the gift itself. You cannot separate the talent from the master’s character. If he is a harsh man, then the talent is handled with dread. There is no desire to put it to work, to employ it in any way, for there is risk in such activities, risk it might be lost, risk that when he comes back you might have nothing to give to him. The real failure of this servant is not that he did not increase the talent entrusted to him, but that he did not rightly understand his master’s character. He fails to be a faithful servant. He fails by holding tightly to what was given instead of using it. To bury it in the ground is to take it out of mankind’s economy, to remove this gift from the playing board of life. Such an action infuriates the master. You could have at least left it with the bankers, and it would have done something. Instead, this servant is cast out as worthless.

Again, this is a parable about the coming end of the age and the return of our Lord. So, what are the talents? What are the great gifts He has left in the hands of His servants? He has left His Word, left the promises of eternal life, left the gathering of the saints, left the washing of Holy Baptism, and left the Sacrament of the Altar. He has left His servant to the proclamation of forgiveness in the sacrifice of Christ alone. And if we are afraid of using these gifts, afraid of employing them for repentance and faith, if we pull back from gathering around the gifts and celebrating the victory we are given, we fail to be faithful servants.

Now look, I know I am preaching to the choir here. After all, you are here. You have come together to joyfully receive and hand on the gifts Christ has given His Church. So, perhaps this text serves as an encouragement to keep going. It is the assurance that we are doing what we are supposed to be doing as we await the Master’s return. We are investing the wonderful gift of the Gospel in one another’s lives, and in your family and friends. Freed from the fear of the Master, you are called to live graciously, live in such a way that you are free to love and forgive as you have been forgiven. You hand on the very character of your Lord to others as you take what is His and employ it in the lives of your neighbor.

As a result, let us continue to put His talents to work in this world. What a joy it is to be a servant of such a Master. You are blessed to be a blessing. And your Master knows you. He knows your ability, and He gives you His gifts to live out in this world. It is not a matter of how much you multiply the blessing. He is not looking for heroic deeds in order to earn you a place in His presence. No, Jesus invites you to see Him as He is, to know His grace and mercy, and, therefore, to live in His hope. And when He comes again in glory, when He returns as King of kings, you will hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your Master.”