The parable of the talents is probably the most abused and misused piece of scripture in the entire Bible. It is probably on the top ten list for many preachers because they will first of all allow you to hear the word “talent” as is commonly understood; one’s special abilities. In fact the word talent here is a quantity of silver equal to a vast amount of wealth. Some scholars have said a talent would be close to 6 million dollars today. Other sources determined that one talent was equivalent to twenty years of pay for an average worker at that time.
Secondly, this parable is abused by many preachers because they put God in the role of the wealthy landowner and exhort the congregation to invest the things God has given you and you will not only see your investments grow, God will reward you for it. This corruption is often referred to as the “prosperity Gospel.” Let’s take a closer look to see why this is such a corruption.
If we put God in the role of the landowner, then you have God telling the third slave he should have invested the money with the bankers. This practice of investing money with interest is actually forbidden in the Bible, so here you would have Jesus telling a parable where God in the story is telling people to violate Jewish law. Not likely.
Finally, when the landowner berates the third slave, he says “You know I reap where I did not sow and I gather where I did not scatter.” Part of the promise of the “promised land” was that every tribe of Israel received an allotment of land forever. This reference of reaping and gathering implies taking profit on land that does not belong to the landowner. In other words, on land that was stolen.
Why would Jesus tell a story that put God in the role of violating Jewish law AND one of the Ten Commandments? Notice that Jesus does NOT introduce this parable with “The kingdom of heaven is like …” He begins this story with “It is as if a man going on a journey…”
What if the “it” in this story simply refers to the way the world works? The landowner would be a Donald Trump kind of figure. His two top lieutenants would stop at nothing to deliver a good profit, including taking more land from the peasants. The practice of burying money may seem odd to modern people but it was quite common in Jesus’ day.
Jesus was simply saying that the way the world works is that people will break the law and even break the Ten Commandments in order to get ahead. And if you don’t play along with them in their pursuit of wealth, you will be punished. Jesus was telling this to his disciples to let them know that while they are waiting for Jesus’ return, the world out there is nasty and brutish.
Where is the Good News in all this? This story is not about a God that throws us into outer darkness; it’s about living fully and faith-fully. You can choose a life of taking from others, following the siren call of this world. Or you can choose a life of faithful giving to others. It’s not always the easy way, but it’s the best way.