Matt 25:14–30 — Well Done, Good And Faithful Servant

Gifts and Responsibilities

This is the famous parable of the talents. Talents, of course, refers to this amount of money that was given to the various servants and the outcome that happened when Christ, when the master returned and settled accounts with them. It is important to remember that this parable is given in the context of the overall teaching of Jesus in the Olivet Discourse, that is the discourse that Jesus gave on the Mount of Olives, concerning the end times, concerning this time between the first and the second coming of Christ. Remember from last time that we looked at Matthew 24 verse 36 and following where Jesus basically says in simple words, you can look at verse 42 as a great little summary verse that applies to this whole passage.

He says, stay awake for you do not know. on what day your Lord is coming. And again in verse 44, therefore you also must be ready for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. And so Jesus in this whole section of the Olivet Discourse is teaching about the fact that no one knows the day or the hour of the return of Christ. And therefore we must be ready, we must be alert and awake and ready for Christ’s coming. He then gives the parable of the ten virgins to illustrate what this means. There were ten virgins who took their lamps to go and meet the bridegroom.

Five of them were foolish and five of them were wise. The foolish ones, they took lamps, but no oil for their lamps. They took flashlights, but no batteries. But the wise ones, they took the lamps and extra flasks of oil in case the bridegroom was delayed. And it turned out that the bridegroom was delayed. And when he did show up at midnight and the cry went out, here is the bridegroom, go out to meet him.

The wise virgins were ready to go and they were ready to receive Christ and to go into the banquet hall with him. But the foolish virgins had to go and buy some oil for themselves. And when they did that, they went away to buy the oil and when they came back, The door was already shut and they were not able to enter into the marriage banquet. And so Jesus is giving this parable of the ten virgins to illustrate this idea of what it means to be ready for Christ’s return.

It does not mean the idea of hypervigilance and being on a state of red alert at any moment as if Christ would come back right the second, because clearly in the passage here, there is a delay. In verse five, it says, as the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. Even the five wise virgins slept. So it does not mean that they were caught off guard and not ready for Christ’s return.

It just means that they were prepared. They had prepared in advance so that when the cry did go out, here is the bridegroom, they were ready to meet him. And so there is this interesting combination of both imminence, that is that Christ could come back at any time. He could come back in a near way. But on the other hand, this idea of delay, this imminence and delay are marbled throughout this whole passage.

We do not know the hour because we do not know the time. That means that we have to be ready. But at the same time, there is also this idea that Christ is going to go away and we do not know when he is coming back. There is going to be a delay between the first and the second coming of Christ.

So being awake and ready does not mean hypervigilance, being on a state of red alert, never sleeping, never doing anything other than being awake. It just means being faithful to the responsibility the Lord has given you, having a relationship with Christ, and being ready for that time when he does come. I gave the analogy last week of it is more like preparing for your wedding day. So when you are preparing for your wedding day, It does not mean you cannot do anything else during the months up to the wedding day. You do have to eat and sleep and do other things, but you are in a constant state of readiness and preparedness, and you are longing for that day, looking forward to it, and being wise in getting ready for it.

Of course, the difference between that analogy and the coming of Christ is that usually you know your wedding day, but the coming of Christ, we do not know. Nevertheless, the thought is the same, that being ready for Christ’s return is more a matter of being faithful to the responsibility God has given you and longing for that day when Christ returns than it is a matter of being hypervigilant and on red alert and on pins and needles at any moment. That is not what the Lord is asking of us.

The Parable of the Talents

So we come now to this second parable, the parable of the talents, which is just continuing on from the previous parable. And you can see that in verse 14, the very first word in verse 14 is for. It will be like a man going on a journey, just continuing the same thought of continuing to talk about what does it mean to be awake and ready for Christ’s return. But now we get a clearer idea of what this means, a clearer idea of what it means to be faithful to the responsibility God has given you. Because in this parable, in this analogy, the master, which of course stands for Christ, the master is preparing to go on a journey.

And in the story, it even says, after a long time, in verse 19, the master finally came back to settle accounts, just like in the parable of the ten virgins, where it says that the bridegroom was delayed. And so in both parables, we have this idea that there is going to be a period of time between Christ’s first coming and his second coming. There is going to be a church age. There is going to be a period of time in which God’s servants, which Christ’s servants must go about their work and prepare for the second coming of Christ.

Now in this parable, the parable of the talents, we are given a different metaphor, a different way of thinking about this idea of being ready and preparing. Unlike the previous parable, which focused on this analogy of having oil in your lamps, of having extra batteries for your flashlight, in this parable, Jesus uses this analogy of the master distributing talents to his servants.

Now right away we have this difficulty in English, which is that the word talents in English usually refers to a specific gift or aptitude that you have, an ability that you have. And so you have a talent for something, and so you should use your talents? Now that is not totally incorrect to apply this passage to that. In fact, the idea of a talent in the sense of an aptitude seems to be somewhat implied, at least a little bit, in the parable in verse 15, where it says, to the one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, and then it says, to each according to his ability. So the idea of a talent or an aptitude is somewhat implied there in the text.

Nevertheless, the word talent itself originally just simply meant an amount of money. In English, that word has changed in meaning because of this parable, actually, to become this idea of an aptitude or a gift. But in the analogy, in the parable itself, looking at the first level before we get to the application, a talent is simply an amount of money. One talent referred to about 20 years wages for a laborer. So it is a lot of money. A talent is a lot of money. It is a financial entrustment that is being given to the servants.

And you can tell that by the way the parable works out. For example, in verse 19, it says, after a long time, the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. So it is a financial metaphor. Again, in the words of the master to the unfaithful servant, he says, what you should have done is, verse 27, you should have invested my money with the bankers.

And at my coming, I would have received what was my own with interest. So clearly the talents that are being given here, the five talents to one servant, the two talents to another, and the one talent to another, refers to a quantity of money. If we were using modern day terminology, we would say, he gave to one servant a million dollars, he gave to another servant $500,000, something like that, something to that effect.

So we need to be careful then that when we hear the word talents, that we are correctly understanding the significance of it. Now as I said, because of that reference there to the master giving the money to the servants based upon their abilities, to each according to his ability, that is a legitimate application when we ask, what does the parable signify? It is a legitimate application to think of talents as including talents in the other sense of aptitudes and gifts that God has given to us. But let us be careful that we do not narrow it down too much as if it is only referring to that. I think that the analogy that Jesus is giving here is intended to be as comprehensive as possible, to think of all the different ways in which Christ as our master entrusts us with various responsibilities.

That can literally mean money. If God has given you a lot of money, that is a responsibility he is given to you that he wants you to use wisely. That could include your gifts. That could include other responsibilities that God has given you. For example, children. If God has given you children, that is a responsibility that has been placed upon you to care for your children.

The issue is that each disciple has been given a responsibility in God’s kingdom. If we are talking about talents in the narrow sense of gifts or aptitudes, we could say, yes, an aptitude or a talent in that sense does create a kingdom responsibility in many cases? If God has given you an aptitude for leadership and teaching, then perhaps God is calling you to church office. So aptitudes do create responsibilities, but not all kingdom responsibilities are based upon special talents. You do not have to be especially talented to have children, but having children is a responsibility that God has given to many of his servants.

On the other hand, we also have to realize that not every aptitude, not every ability, necessarily implies some great kingdom responsibility, because there are quirky aptitudes that some people have? Like the ability to roll your tongue and make weird shapes with your tongue. Some weird genetic thing that some people have. Does that mean you are called to some somewhat tongue-twisting ministry? No. So aptitudes create responsibilities, but not all aptitudes have significant kingdom significance and responsibility attached to them.

The point is that this parable of the talents is calling us, in the broadest possible sense, to think about all the ways in which each and every one of us, as disciples of Christ, are given various responsibilities in God’s kingdom, and that can include a whole slew of different things, just use your imagination. Whatever station and position God has placed you in right now in life. If you are a student in college, he is called you to that right now. That is your kingdom responsibility, to be a good student and to prepare yourself for future ministry and service in his kingdom.

Now what is important about this parable that Jesus gives, the parable of the talents? One of the key things about it is to think about the weighty significance of this parable and this whole teaching in the Olivet Discourse concerning the end times and concerning this period of delay until Christ returns and the need to be ready. This whole teaching of Jesus here, but focus specifically on the parable of the talents, is given just before Jesus goes to the cross. It is an amazing thing when you think about the way in which Jesus is putting such significance to this teaching.

This is right before Jesus goes to the cross. If you turn the page over in Matthew 26, the very next chapter, what do you have? You have the beginnings of the passion narrative. The Passover is coming, they are preparing the feast, Jesus has the Passover with his disciples, the Last Supper. Peter is going to deny the Lord. Jesus is going to go before the high priest and be put on trial, and he will be crucified within a few days.

So this teaching of Jesus is given as such an important juncture in the ministry of Christ and his relationship with his disciples. And notice as well, there is another key thing to keep in mind about this, that all of this teaching here in Matthew 24 and 25 is looking ahead to something that will be very significant at the very end of the Gospel of Matthew. After the passion narrative, after Jesus goes to the cross, and he is buried, and then he rises again from the dead on the third day, what does he do at the very end of the Gospel of Matthew? He meets with his disciples? Matthew chapter 28. Matthew 28, verse 16.

Now the 11 disciples went to Galilee, where Jesus told them. He said, I am going to meet you in Galilee, where they were first called when they were called as fishermen by the sea. And he is recommissioning them now. He had called them to be fishers of men, and now he is going to commission them to do the great commission. They went to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.

And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And behold, I am with you always. to the end of the age. He is already looking ahead to his second coming. He is already entrusting them with a kingdom responsibility that is going to continue throughout this church age. It will be handed on to the successors of the apostles. and to those who come after them to continue to preach the gospel, to baptize, to teach all that Christ has commanded, to teach everything that is now contained for us here in this gospel, the gospel of Matthew, and all those great five blocks of the teaching of Jesus, such as the Sermon on the Mount and so on. And Jesus is saying, behold, I will be with you throughout that whole time. It may seem like a time of delay. It may seem like it is been a long time since the master has returned, but I will be with you until the end of the age.

And so here in Matthew 25, Jesus looks ahead to that great commission and he says, verse 14, it will be like a man going on a journey. who called his servants, just like he is going to call the disciples at that mountain. He called his servants and entrusted to them his property before he goes on his journey. And there is going to be a time of delay when the servants must do the work that he has entrusted to them. and then the master will return. Verse 19, after a long time, the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them.

Behold, I am with you to the end of the age, and then I will settle accounts with you at the end. So the timing of this teaching is very significant because it is looking ahead to not only the cross, but also what goes beyond the cross, the cross, the resurrection, the great commission, the church age, and then the second coming of Christ. And he is preparing his disciples for that. So what is the teaching of our Lord in this parable? What does the Lord want us to take away from this passage? The teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ in this parable has three main things that he is calling us to think about.

First, in the time between his first and second coming, Christ is our master, and he has sovereignly distributed gifts and responsibilities among his servants. And we are all his servants. Every single one of us here, we are his disciples. We are disciples of Christ. And He has sovereignly distributed gifts and responsibilities to us.

Not equally. Some get five talents, some get two. Different gifts given to different servants. And that means that you should not compare yourself with others. You should not look at the servant over there that has five talents and look at the fact that you only have two or one and say, how come he got more than me?

Well, because that is not what he is calling you to. Your master is calling you to be faithful with those two talents that he has given to you. Simply do what Christ is calling you to do. That means that all that you have, all that you are, as the way God has made you and the various gifts and aptitudes he is given to you, all of your money and resources, your education, your family, your station in life, your career, all that God has given to you is not really your own. It is not your money to do with it as you please. It is not your career to achieve your own pride in your accomplishments. It is simply a stewardship that Christ as our master has given to us and entrusted to us so that we will be faithful to that stewardship until he comes.

We belong to Christ. He has bought us with his blood. That is why it is so important to see the context that Jesus is about to go to the cross. He is about to redeem us. He is about to save us from our sins. And that means he is our master. He has purchased us.

And therefore, all that we are, all that we have is a gift. that we must put to good use for the advancement of his kingdom and to use as an opportunity to bear witness to Christ and his gospel. So that is the first thing that Jesus is teaching in this parable. He is teaching his disciples, he is teaching us to think about ourselves this way. We are not our own to do as we please with ourselves and our lives and our careers and all that we are. We belong to Christ.

In fact, the word that is used here to refer to the disciples is not disciples, it is slaves? Verse 14, it will be like a man going on a journey who called his slaves and entrusted to them his property. And so when the slaves receive the five talents, it is not for them to do with it as they please. They are simply slaves being given a responsibility to be faithful to their master’s money.

Throughout the passage, throughout the parable, the master refers to it as his, money? For example, you see that in verse 27. I already read that, but he says, then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers. And at my coming, I would have received what was my own with interest.

Love for the Master

You are simply a servant. You are simply a slave who has been entrusted with something for a temporary amount of time in order to be faithful to the stewardship that your master has given you. The second thing that we need to learn from this text, the second thing that Jesus is subtly teaching the disciples in this text, is that in order to do that well, In order to faithfully serve Christ well and to use the gifts and the talents and the resources that he is given to you for his glory and for his honor, love for the Master is critical. In order to faithfully serve the Master, we must love the Master. And we see this very clearly by way of contrast with the third servant.

The third servant, he has the opposite of love for the master. He has no love for the master. He does not think well of the master. He does not think that the master is a good person, a good man. He is very skeptical of the master. Notice what the third servant said. He said in verse 24, Master, I knew you to be a hard man. a very strict, demanding, tyrannical master, reaping where you did not sow, unfairly expecting things that you did not deserve, that you did not scatter the seed, and so you are gathering resources that you are demanding out of an unfair and unjust spirit.

And so I was afraid. I was afraid of being punished by you. And so I went and I hid your talent in the ground. Well, here is your talent. Go ahead, you can have it back. Interestingly, the master responds to him and says, You wicked and slothful servant. That is verse 26. You wicked and slothful servant.

The word that is rendered slothful does not just mean lazy. So the problem with this servant is not just simply that he did not want to work hard, okay? The word that is rendered slothful in Greek really has a different connotation than just being lazy.

It has this idea of shrinking, of hesitating, out of fear. It is used in classical Greek literature of soldiers who are hanging back in the battle because they are afraid of getting into the fray and being injured. It has this idea of shrinking and hesitating out of fear, of being timid.

The wicked servant, the third servant, the one who was a bad servant, was not just lazy, he was afraid. He was afraid of making a mistake. He was afraid of being punished because he had such a low and negative view of the master. He viewed the master as a hard man, he says. He viewed him as a tyrant rather than as a gracious master whom he would delight to love and to serve.

And so in reality, he actually did nothing wrong. He obeyed the letter of the law. When the master gave out the talents, he did not say, I want you to go and make money from it and make interest. He just simply said, here is an amount of money. I want you to keep it safe until I come. And this third servant did that. He kept it safe and returned it back to him.

But he had no love for the master. He is trying to hide his love, actually, or his lack of love, by actually deflecting and accusing the master of being a bad guy. And so we see here from this foil, from the bad example of the third servant, we see that the key to faithfully serving Christ, our master, the key to being a good and faithful servant, so that we hear those words, well done, good and faithful servant at the end, the key is love for the master. It is the opposite of that third servant who was very critical of the master, had a very low view of him, who thought that he was simply a tyrant rather than a gracious master whom he would delight to serve. It is interesting, as well, that the other two servants who went and traded, and made interest, and brought back that interest to their master, they were not told to do that. The master did not say, I want you to do that.

They simply did it on their own initiative. Why? Because they had this intuition, this feeling that my master is a great master. I love him and I want to increase his wealth. I want to be a part of his glorious kingdom that he is leading and I want to do what is best for him.

The two servants had faith that the master was a good master, a gracious master, one whom they delighted to serve, who they delighted to help and to be a part of his ministry and his work and his wealth. And so the key then to being a faithful servant is to have the right view of who our Master is. Our Lord Jesus Christ is not a hard man who is demanding and who is going to punish you for every mistake that you make. Our master is the Lord Jesus Christ, who in the very next chapter or so is going to go to the cross to lay down his life for you, to save you from your sins, so that you might be forgiven. He is a gracious master who loved you and gave himself for you. And so you ought to believe in him and to care for his interests and to delight to advance his cause.

Let us not be shrinking, timid servants, whom the Master later on also refers to as worthless in verse 30. Cast the worthless servant. The word worthless could also be translated as useless. Let us not be shrinking, useless servants. Let us not be passive or idle and holding back in fear because we have such a low view of our Master.

The Final Accounting

Rather, let us nurture our gifts and develop the resources God has given to us. because we delight to see the kingdom of our master advanced and to see him honored and glorified. The third thing that we learn from this passage is that when Christ returns, he will give account, we will give account of what we have done with our stewardship and we will be rewarded. We will be rewarded Note, however, that the reward is not varying degrees of reward, but rather simply the master’s commendation. Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master.

There is only one reward, not degrees. The point of the passage is not to compare the two good and faithful servants, the one who had five talents and made five more, and the one who had two talents and made two more. That is not the point of the parable. The point of the parable is to compare both of them together with the one useless servant. the degrees of responsibility that the two good servants had do not result in two different rewards. They result in one reward, as opposed to the total loss, which is the third servant’s fate, because he demonstrated himself not to be a true believer, because he had such a low view of his master.

I love that language there of the servant being called to enter into the joy of the master. This is what the master says to the good and faithful servants. Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. What a wonderful thought that is? And this somewhat goes back to the previous point. The previous point was that the key to truly being a good and faithful servant is loving the master. And so part of the reward that should motivate us to serve the Lord is that we get to enter into His joy.

We are no longer really slaves at that point? Even though the story starts out as assigning different amounts of money to the different slaves, by the time you get to the end of the story, the slaves are not slaves. They are fully participating in the glory of their master’s kingdom. They are entering into the joy of the master.

Serving Christ in this way, being a part of His kingdom, is a tremendous privilege and joy. As we use the gifts, the talents, the resources that God has called us to and given us, we are participating in Christ’s own work. We are participating in His joy of seeing His elect gathered into His kingdom. We are participating in the fulfillment of Christ’s own joy in seeing the fulfillment of the covenant of redemption. The covenant of redemption is that covenant between the father and the son before time in which the father entrusted the elect to the son and the son agreed to become man and to accomplish their salvation. And then he receives as his reward his bride that he purchased with his own blood. And you see how now in this interval period between the first and the second coming of Christ, we are participating in the fulfillment of the covenant of redemption as we bear witness to Christ’s kingdom and his gospel.

And as we are a testimony to others, as we are evangelists sharing the gospel with our friends and neighbors, as we are fulfilling whatever sphere of responsibility God has entrusted to us, It may just be a small corner of the world. It may just be being a parent to your own children. But whatever it is, you are being a witness and a testimony. You are proclaiming the gospel of Christ. And you are participating in the fulfillment of Christ’s own joy in the covenant of redemption. So those are the three things that the Lord wants us to take away from this passage. But let me just close finally with this word of encouragement to servants who regret their failures in serving Christ.

Perhaps you think that you are a failure. Perhaps you think you have blown it. Perhaps you think when you look back on your life, You have made too many mistakes, many responsibilities have been given to you, and you have messed them up. Perhaps you are thinking that maybe you are in danger of being one of those worthless servants at the end. Take heart, my friends, take heart.

Remember, in the very next chapter, Peter is going to deny Christ. Matthew 26, you can read it. It is the very last paragraph of Matthew 26. He denied his Lord. He denied his master. What a failure he is. But he was not rejected. He was restored. He was forgiven. You can read about that in John chapter 21 when the Lord came to him after he rose from the dead. He said, Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord, I love you. Well, then feed my sheep?

Christ will lay down his life for a worthless servant like Peter who denied him, but he will forgive him and he will restore him and he will commission him again to go out and to preach the gospel and to be faithful to the charge that he has given to him.

That is true of all of us. I think every single one of us has disappointments in life and worries if we have been a good and faithful servant. But the good news of the gospel is that Christ died for worthless servants too. Take heart in the forgiveness of our Lord Jesus Christ. Remember guilt, grace, and gratitude? That is the Heidelberg Catechism in summary. That is the gospel according to Paul and Romans in summary. Guilt, our sinfulness. Grace is the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, this master who loved us and gave himself for us.

But then we come to gratitude. We are very good at one and two. We are very good at seeing our guilt and feeling our guilt. We are very good at two, I think, of emphasizing the grace of the gospel. But let us also move on to the third stage, recommitting ourselves to faithfully serving this gracious master who loved us even to the point of death on the cross. And you ask yourself, what is it that I am called to do? What is God asking me to recommit my life to do?

Gospel Encouragement

Well, just look at where God has placed you in life. Just look at your circumstances in life, where you are right now. And that will tell you, and it will become immediately obvious that God and His providence has placed before you this responsibility. Be faithful to that and look forward to that day when the Lord will say to you, in spite of your shortcomings and failures, in spite of your unfaithfulnesses in the past, he will say to you, well done, good and faithful servant.