This parable presents another line of instruction. Here we have the responsibility of servants. It is not the question of profession or possession, but present responsibility to the Lord during His absence, and His future dealing with the servants according to their having been faithful or unfaithful. It gives therefore the most solemn instruction, that when the Lord returns He will inquire into the practical conduct of those who have taken a place of service during His absence. It is presented to us in the most homely, simple way, but full of most serious and searching questions for the heart and conscient, especially in a day like this, when many scarcely deem a man respectable who does not in some way or other profess to be a servant of Christ.
In the Lord’s remarks on the sheep and goats which follow this parable we have a sessional judgment, but it is not so here. It is true that each case will be entered into, and dealt with according to the Lord’s perfectness, but it does not follow that all will be disposed of at the same time. For instance, we expect the Lord’s true servants to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, to be with the Lord, and to be manifested at His judgment-seat, before we come forth with Him in manifested glory. The judgment of false people, such as tares, will not be till we appear with the Lord at His coming to judge first the quick or living, then the dead. The Lord therefore speaks of His going away, committing certain talents to His servants, and when He returns making the most solemn inquiry as to the use they had made of them during His absence. He likens Himself therefore to a man traveling into a far country, who called His own servants and delivered unto them His goods. “After a long time the Lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.” (Matt. 25:14,19.)
As to the talents, it is important to notice that the servants do not all receive the same number of talents. “Unto one He gave five talents, to another two, and to another one.” There was also in the distribution of the talents regard had to the fitness, natural fitness of the vessel, to whom the talents were entrusted. He gave to every man according to His several ability. This shows not only the perfect wisdom of the distribution, but also assures us that the Lord never gives talents to people who have not the ability to use them. It is remarkable, too, that the persons who faithfully used the talents not only gained by trading, but the talants actually increased in number, the servant got “other talents.” Nor should it be overlooked that it was not the person who had several talents committed to his trust that so grievously failed, but the servant that had only one talent. How true it is that he that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much.
How few seem to consider what responsibility there is connected with the profession of the Lord’s service. The Lord has been absent now for a long time. More than eighteen hundred years have passed since He rose from the dead, and sat down on the right hand of God; but the night is far spent, and the day is at hand. The long-suffering of the Lord has been very great, the door of salvation by grace has long been wide open; but long-suffering must have an end, the door must be shut, and the Lord must judge those who have professed to be His servants. “After a long time, the Lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.”
The judgment of the faithful servants is simple enough, and nothing can be happier. They knew the Master’s loving heart; they proved His succor; they experienced His blessing. The joy of the Lord was their strength; His love constrained them; His worthiness enabled them to append their talents in His service with alacrity and delight. They were conscious, too, of vast increase gained by trading. Thus the more they sowed, the more they reaped; the more they gave, the more to them was given. They therefore see their Master’s face with joy, and render their account with confidence and cheerfulness. “So he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saving, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents; behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. “The Lord commends and honors him.” His Lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” (vv. 20,.21). Nor is this all, the talent which the wicked servant did not use was also given to him. With this exception we find the same confidence and joyous confession to the Lord of the one who had used the two talents faithfully, and the same proportionate increase by its use. He has also precisely the same commendation from the Lord: “Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” (v. 23). This is very blessed, and shows that the Lord does not expect from us what He has not given us power to perform. While He loves a cheerful giver, it is accepted according to what a man hath, and not according to what a man hath not. The great instruction seems to be that the Lord expects us to use faithfully for Him during His absence what He has entrusted us with, and at His coming He will reward us accordingly.
The account of the servants who had but “one talent,” reads to us the most solemn and serious lessons. The chief feature in his history is, though professing the Lord’s service, that he has a bad opinion of Christ Himself. This is fatal. He believed not the record that God gave of His Son. He saw nothing attractive in Him. He received not the grace and truth that came by Him. He perceived not the inimitable beauty and worth of Jesus. He knew not the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, that we through His poverty might be rich. This was the root of all His unfaithful conduct. How could he be faithful to one of whom he had such thoughts? “He that had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I know thee that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed.” With such thoughts of our adorable Lord, how could there be confidence? How could the heart be melted and sweetly drawn into willing happy devotedness to such an austere man? No marvel then, that the further confession of his heart, uncovered as it was in the presence of Him whose eyes are as flame of fire, should be, “I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.” (verses 24, 25.) Not a word of faith, or love, or true knowledge of Christ in the whole confession! Like another king Saul, he might have had a splendid gift, but the vessel was unclean, unreconciled, unwashed, untaught by the Spirit of God as to his own guilt, and his need of the infinite suitability and perfectness of the atoning work of the Son of God; his heart was not right with God; there was no right motive in action in his soul. Hence the Lord pronounces him to be “wicked,” “slothful,” and “unprofitable.” He convicts him from His own lips, and shows his utter inconsistency with his own principles: “Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed: thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.” (Verses 26, 27.)
There is a point that must not be overlooked in the Lord’s judgment of this wicked servant. It is this. The Lord permits men here to bear His name, and to be called His servants by others who manifestly know Him not; but it cannot be so in eternity. Everything now covered up is then to be thoroughly unmasked; men will be consigned to punishment as they really are. There will be no professors of the name of Christ in hell fire. If the one talent be but the bearing of the name and truth of Christ, he must be entirely stripped of every shred of it, and go to the pit of everlasting torment as a wicked man, for such he really is. There are those who in the holiness and brightness of the Lord’s presence are declared worthy of that name they have confessed before men, and Christ is not ashamed to call them brethren, or own them as His good and faithful servants. “Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him that hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Verses 28-30.)
Can anything more solemnly admonish us to attach the deepest seriousness and reverence to the Lord’s service; or more simply instruct us as to the grace of the Lord Jesus, and personal acquaintance with and enjoyment of Him, who suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God, as the spring of all faithful service to Christ. Does it not also show how careful we should be to urge any to the profession of the Lord’s service who are not truly reconciled to God by the peace-making, peace-speaking power of the blood of the cross?
O blessed Lord! what hast Thou done!
How vast a ransom paid!
Who could conceive God’s only Son
Upon the altar laid!
Lord! while our souls in faith repose
Upon thy precious blood,
Peace, like an even river, flows,
And mercy like a flood.
But boundless joy shall fill our hearts,
When gazing on thy face;
We fully see what faith imparts,
And glory crown thy grace.