Do Business Till I Return
by
Josprel
According to at least one of the parables of the Lord Jesus Christ, God, the Father apparently functions as a capitalist, who expects a generous return on that which He invests. In the Gospel composed by the physician Luke - traveling companion to the Apostle Paul - chapter nineteen records a parable, known to theologians by various titles: “The Parable of the Talents,” “The Unwise Servant,” “The Unprofitable Servant,” “The Hidden Talent,” among others. Verse thirteen ends with a direct command issued by a nobleman to his servants. Soon departing on a long journey, during which he was to receive a kingdom, he entrusted to the discretion of his servants, the investment of various amounts of his wealth. When we understand that the Lord Jesus was portraying himself as the departing nobleman, and depicting his followers as the servants, the parable requires only minimal commentary.
Entrusting his servants with one "mina" each - nearly twenty dollars in our era, but in biblical times an amount somewhat equal to the wages for one hundred days of labor - the nobleman charged them, "Do business till I return" (literal translation). True to their commissions, nine servants invested the money wisely, gaining a good return. The tenth, though he understood his master's command, sought no profit, choosing instead, to hide the amount entrusted to him.
Upon his return, the master discovered that this servant not only neglected to invest the mina for fear of loosing it, he failed to place it at interest in even the safest, most conservative type of institution; he made not the slightest endeavor to fulfill his commission. He did absolutely nothing, and then he refused to take
responsibility for his neglect.
When called to account by the nobleman, who now was a king, the servant actually implied that the blame lay with his master. "Master, here is your mina, which I have kept put away in a handkerchief," he whimpered, "for I feared you, because you are an austere man. You collect where you did not deposit, and reap where you did not sow."
The master replied, "I will judge you and condemn you out of your own mouth you wicked slave! You knew that I was a stern man, picking up what
I did not put down, and gathering where I did not plant! Then why did you not put my money in a bank, so that on my return I might have collected it with interest?” (Verses 22 - 23: literal translation) The master then charged those who stood by to take the mina from the neglectful servant and give it to the one who had ten minas.
The kernel truth in this account is that maintenance only, no-gain spirituality, ultimately will encounter the Lord's disapproval. It is a spirituality that attempts to please Him with less than even the minimum of effort. If the servant really believed that which he claimed to believe regarding his master, he would have endeavored all the more to please him. What he actually did was rationalize his own laziness and lack of industry. While his fellow servants were keeping faith with their master, this servant was using the master's absence as an opportunity for idleness.
Though he did not confide it to them, the king actually placed his servants in a test situation. While still a nobleman, it appears he understood his kingdom required faithful administrators; therefore, during his absence, he tested their various capabilities, industry, dispositions, and trustworthiness. After receiving his kingdom, he appointed those who were faithful during his absence to exalted administrative positions, as he had intended to do all along. The king tested them in lesser responsibilities, before promoting them to more important ones. The unprofitable servant received nothing.
The Lord never promotes the disobedient, the slothful, or those without initiative.
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© Josprel
josprel@verizon.net Josprel welcomes comments from the readers of this article.
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