One of the most challenging stories told by Jesus is the Parable of the Talents. So before looking at it in detail here is the parable in full.
The Parable of the Talents
“For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Matthew 25:14-30 ESV
The word ‘Talent’ here comes from a Greek word refering to a weight, usually of gold, which represented about 20 years worth of the wages earned by an agricultural worker in the time of Jesus. Our word ‘talent’ meaning a gift or skill that a person may have comes from a particular interpretation of the parable of the talents. In the standard understanding of this parable each servant is given money to use whilst the master is away. That money, the talents, is a metaphor for the gifts or skills that the servants have, and the master is a metaphor for God. Two servants make good use of their skills and they are rewarded, The third servant does not fare so well.
Listen to the words of the so called worthless servant,
‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’
In the standard interpretation, this is the so called worthless servant offering a poor excuse for his lack of productivity. But there is another way of looking at this. This is not an excuse, it’s an accusation.
The problem in this story is what it is saying about God, if the master in the story is an allegory for God, then God reaps where God did not sow, and gathers where God scattered no seed. God is a thief. That is unthinkable. ‘Thou shalt not steal’, and yet here is the master taking what is not his, and this is supposed to be God? Moreover if the master has reaped beyond his own fields and into his neighbour’s field, he has clearly not left the crop at the margins of the field un-harvested to be left for the poor as mandated by God’s law.
“‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. I am the LORD your God.’”
Leviticus 23:22 NIV
The master goes on to make another error, he himself suggests that the servant ‘ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest.’
‘with interest’ again charging interest was against the law that God had given the Jewish people.
“If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him.
Exodus 22:25 ESV
God would not break the Law God had given. If we accept this, and it seems logical to do so, then the master in the story cannot be an allegory for God, and if this is the case than the whole standard interpretation breaks down. The villain of the piece is no longer the so called worthless servant, rather it is the master who is the villain and the servant is the hero, a prophet speaking truth to power.
So if master is not an allegory for God who does he represent? On this understanding of the story, the master is representative of those who hold power and wealth in the world. In Jesus’ world this would be the Roman Emperor and the kings, aristocracy and other landowners. One of the ways in which they used that power was to reward those who did their bidding, in the parable they are represented by the first two servants.
The third servant, who is no longer the villain, is the one who accuses those who have power. He represents the prophets. According to the Hebrew Bible: ‘the kings had the power but the prophets preached righteousness’, [i]. The prophets were not thanked for their preaching, they were often persecuted and some were martyred. On this understanding this servant also represents Jesus. Jesus is also the one who spoke truth to power, and what happened to Jesus? He was put on trial by those in power, condemned, taken out of the city and crucified.
‘And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
‘He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.’
Isaiah 53.3 NIV
This parable is speaking truth about how the world is, not how it ought to be, it warns us that the one who speaks truth to power will often suffer the fate of many of the prophets and that of Jesus. Those who have power do not thank those who speak truth to them, invariably they will punish them in order to silence them.
I cannot say that I have come up with this interpretation myself; it comes from the experience of Christians living in some of the poorest places in the world. But having seen it this way I find that I cannot now see it the other way. The standard interpretation now looks like a kind of Aesop’s fable, something we tell children to encourage them to use their talents. That’s not a bad thing to tell children or anyone, but I think that that pacifies the parable, and makes it safe for those who have been given the most. The new interpretation is on the side of those who have been given the least, and are often chastised by those who have more for their poverty. This parable vindicates the poor in the face of their better off accusers.
[i] Anthony Wedgewood Benn quoting his mother the theologian Margaret Benn.
Brislington Community News 