Signs of the Times (38)

In my last article, I began a discussion of the parable of the talents that is found in Matthew 25:14-30. I made the point that the “talents” of the parable cannot refer to gifts and abilities (as we commonly use the term), for all men are not given these talents; they are limited to those who have a place in the church. They refer, therefore, to our God-given place in the church of Christ. Each one has such a place, some more responsible a place than others, but all a place.

 

Nor must we forget the main point of the parable. The parable answers the question of what we must do here on earth while we wait for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ to take us to heaven. Christ is now in heaven, but history continues as Christ, from heaven, gathers His church. Christ will not come back until every elect is born and brought to faith in Christ. So the point of the parable is that each member of the church, in his own place, must work on behalf of the church, for the welfare of the church, and to the glory of Christ to Whom the church belongs. The church belongs to Christ Who bought it with His blood and we all are servants of Christ in His church.

 

There are two kinds of servants in the church: those who are faithful servants and those who are unfaithful. The former are the true people of God who are regenerated and converted and who love the church. The latter are not true members of the church, but are members only outwardly. Their main interest in life is not the church, but something that belongs to the world. They do not use their place in Christ’s church for the welfare of the church.

 

The unfaithful servant, when the Lord returns, makes his excuse for not using his place in the church for its welfare: “I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed. And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: Lo, there thou hast that is thine.”

 

It was a clever excuse. He said to the Lord: “Lord, I confess that Thou art the sovereign King of Thy church. Thou art able to save Thy church by Thy own power. Thou hast no need of us, for Thou art able to do it all. I was afraid that my puny and weak efforts would do more harm than good to the church. But I did take care of Your talent. I hid it in the earth. Here it is; take what is Thine.”

 

That was an outwardly pious but hypocritical answer to hide his own sin, for what he said about the sovereignty of Christ was true. Christ can do it all if that is His will. But Christ’s will is also that we who belong to His church must work in it. If we do not work in and for His church, we are hypocrites, and the text makes clear that hypocrites go to hell.

 

I think this wicked servant’s excuse hid other sins. I think the most important one was that the wicked servant was not satisfied with only one talent – an apparently small and insignificant place in the church. He was a janitor and he wanted to be an elder. He was asked to do very little of the church’s Sunday worship, and he wanted to be chairman of the worship committee – if there is such a thing. He was crabby and a complaining member who always found something wrong with those who worked hard. And so he said, “I am ignored. No one recognizes my abilities. I sit here in my pew with nothing worthwhile to do. I’ll show them; I won’t do anything.” And so, when he is asked to lead a Bible study, he refuses and says, “Let someone else do it.” In other words, he thinks he is more important than the church, and his criticism is not of the church, but of Christ who gives to each his place; and does so with a wisdom we do not have.

   

Underneath it all, of course, is a desire to accomplish big things in the world that prompts him to set above the church his earthly pursuits and interests. He, as it were, says, “If the church does not recognize my abilities, I’ll show them what I can do by being successful in my job and business.”

 

The sin is terrible enough to warrant the punishment of hell.

 

But the faithful servant recognizes that his place in the church, no matter how unimportant by the standards of men’s measurements, makes him humbly thankful for a place in the church given him by unmerited favor (grace) and even though he is undeserving. And so, with joyful thanksgiving, he puts the church first in his life and does everything else in his daily occupation to seek the welfare of the church. He loves the church, sacrifices for it, gives of his bounties, prays for the church, does whatever he is called to do, and does it joyfully and thankfully knowing that Christ will presently come again to take His own church to heaven. In heaven we shall serve Christ in the glorified church and in the new creation perfectly.

 

I can think of nothing I prefer more than hearing my Lord say to me when He comes again, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”

Prof. Herman Hanko

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