Signs of the Times (37)

Having pointed out a few ideas in the parable of the ten virgins, in this article we will do the same with the parable of the talents. You may find it in Matthew 25:14-30. You should read that passage first: it would take too much space to quote it here. And I would personally like to see you read the chapter on this parable in my book, Mysteries of the Kingdom. There are points in that chapter that I cannot bring out for you in this short article.

 

This parable too is part of the conclusion of Jesus’ discussion of the signs of His second coming. The parable of the ten virgins is intended to teach us to watch and to pray, for we do not know the time of our Lord’s coming. The parable of the talents teaches us what we must do while we are waiting for the Lord to return. That is, this parable teaches us how to watch while He tarries.

 

I told you earlier in a forum article that we were going to have to spend more time on what exactly it means that we are called to watch – as well as to pray. This parable explains that.

 

The man is the parable who went to a far country is Jesus who was about to go to heaven. He goes to heaven as the King of His kingdom. He leaves His kingdom here on earth, for His kingdom here on earth is found in the hearts and lives of His people, whom He has made citizens of His kingdom, and has called them to live in this world (which Satan is trying to make his own personal kingdom) as citizens of the kingdom of heaven, while the King is gone to a “far country.”

 

That calling to live as citizens of the kingdom of heaven is pictured in the parable as “talents.” Each citizen has a certain number of talents.

 

It is too bad that the word “talent” has taken on a different meaning in our vocabulary than the meaning it has in the parable. We use the word to designate gifts and abilities that people have. “John,” we say, “has a talent for music,” or “a talent for playing the piano.” “Betty is an artist, and has talent for drawing and painting.”

 

The trouble with this meaning of the word “talent” is that most people in the world have talents of one kind or another, whether they are wicked or righteous. There are many wicked people who have marvelous “talents” for music. But Jesus says that He gives His “talents” only to His servants. And His servants are His people. He does not give “talents” to the wicked.

 

What then does Jesus mean with the word “talent?”

 

Our Lord means, a place and a calling, a responsibility and an obligation in His kingdom while we are still on earth and waiting for His coming. He gives such a place to a child, to a young person, to a ten-ager, to a parent, to an elder or deacon, to a minister or a Bible Class teacher, to a teacher in a Christian school, to an old man or woman, to sick people and healthy people, to rich people and poor people, to an American or a Chinese, to a factory worker or a farmer, to everyone whom He has, by His grace and power, called to be a citizen in His kingdom. Each will finally inherit the perfect kingdom in heaven when they die, but they are citizens already while they still live in this sinful world.

 

The citizens of Christ’s kingdom must not find a mountain top on which they can sit as they look toward the distant horizon while they wait for Christ to come. They must not do all they can to make their brief stay in the world as pleasant as they possibly can – something like a person who spends his time playing rummy while he is waiting in the airport for his dearest friend to arrive. He must not act like Roman Catholic monks acted: get out of the world, crawl into a dark and damp cell, have as little to do with the world as possible, and torment your body with a hair shirt or a whip to drive the world out of your flesh.

 

But there is another mistake they can make. They might say that since their Lord is so powerful to establish His kingdom no matter what he does or does not do, that he just sits in his chair and twiddles his thumbs since Christ is doing all the work anyway and will come when He is ready regardless of anything. This is what the man did who hid his talent in the earth. And you know what happened to him.

 

So Christ, the King of His kingdom, gives to each citizen a place in that kingdom where, as a servant of his Lord, he is called to serve his Lord and, as Jesus said earlier in the Sermon on the Mount, seek first the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 6:33).

 

The places that Christ gives to each of the citizens are different from each other; they even vary in importance. An elder has a more important place than a janitor; and a minister has a more important place that a Bible Class teacher. Yet, we must not think that the more important a place a person holds, the more important he is. That is pride. Jesus puts an end to that kind of talk when He tells us that in heaven the first shall be last and the last, first. The position one occupies is the important thing. If a person thinks he is important because he is given a more important position, then let him listen to the words of the apostle Paul: “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (I Cor. 10:12).

 

And, if that warning is not enough, the Lord himself reminds His servants that the one who is given much, from him shall much be required. If one fails to give as much as his position requires, he is beaten with double stripes. A minister’s sin that he commits in his place is worse than that the same sin committed by a man or woman in the pew. That ought to make every one of us do some serious self-examination. I know, it has made me, at times, afraid to go to the pulpit to preach. What if I preach a poor sermon because I didn’t work hard enough to make it during the week? I still am filled with apprehension every time I walk on to the platform and begin a worship service. To preach is daunting, frightening, and a very weighty matter. But so is the place in the kingdom you occupy.

 

I suppose that it is impossible that the common meaning of “talents” be abandoned and that the word be used only in the sense in which Jesus uses it, but in any case, remember that you have a place as a citizen in Christ’s kingdom. That place may change as you get older, but the calling remains the same. You may have one talent, or two talents, or five talents. The calling remains the same. And don’t try to beg off and excuse yourself by saying, “The Lord didn’t give me any talents; I can’t do anything.”  Are you going to excuse your own sloth by criticizing the Lord because He did not give you any talents? Don’t do that.

 

We shall have to wait till next time to finish our discussion of this.

Herman Hanko