The Life of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels
THE POUNDS AND THE TALENTS
The Life of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels
THE POUNDS AND THE TALENTS
Golden Text: “Well done, thou 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.” (Matt. 25:21)
Lesson Plan:
1. Introduction – Approaching Crisis of the New Kingdom (v 11)
2. Going into a Far Country, To Return Again (v 12)
3. Committing His Interests to His Servants during His Absence (vs 13, 14)
4. The Faithful Servants and Their Reward (vs 15-19)
5. The Man of One Talent (vs 20-27)
Lesson Setting:
Time: March, A.D. 30, directly after the last lesson
Place: Between Jericho and Jerusalem, after visiting with Zacchaeus.
Research and Discussion: Consider Oriental customs on which these parables are founded. Consider that God provides great treasures, even to the least. Consider that each one of us has received what we can use best. While there are differences in the number and kind of talents given to each, the greatest differences are in our use of what God provides.
Scripture Reading: Luke 19:11
1. Introduction – Approaching Crisis of the New Kingdom
Jesus had left Jericho for Jerusalem on His way to His trial and crucifixion. In a very few days the great crisis would come, inaugurating the new kingdom of heaven. It was impossible for the disciples to foresee the course of events, and the way in which the promises of Jesus could be fulfilled. Hence Jesus spoke the parable of this lesson to guard them from error, preserving them from the catastrophe of disappointed hopes “because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear” (v 11). Jesus had lately repeatedly given the impression that the kingdom was coming, and that His going to Jerusalem had something to do with it (see Lk. 17:20, 30; 18:29, 30; Matt. 19:28). There they thought their dreams about the coming kingdom would be immediately and visibly realized. In fact, the great events necessary for its coming, i.e., the crucifixion and resurrection, would soon take place. The rays of its dawning would soon shine. However, the disciples did not now understand, expect or recognize these things. This parable was to put them on their guard against disappointment; teaching them to wait in faithful, patient service, for the coming of the kingdom; assuring them at the same time that the kingdom was certainly coming. Even in our day we need the teaching of this parable.
Scripture Reading: Luke 19:12 (also read Matt. 25:14)
2. Going to a Far Country to Return Again
“A certain nobleman [a man of royal rank who was heir to] a kingdom [in] a far country, [and when he had received the kingdom he was] to return” (v 12). This is a beautiful and accurate picture of the situation of Christ’s kingdom of heaven, at that time, as well as our own time. Analogies in the Parable: (a) The nobleman – Jesus the Christ, royal Son of God, Son of David, our Lord and Savior. (b) The far country – our Savior’s ascension to God in heaven. Going into the far country was through His death on the cross, resurrection and His visible ascension to heaven. (c) The kingdom – our Lord’s reigning over the church of Jesus Christ. (d) The return – Second Coming of Christ. (e) The extended absence of nobleman – the long period of time before the Second Coming.
Scripture Reading: Luke 19:13, 14 (also read Matt. 25:14)
3. Committing His Interests to His Servants during His Absence
“And he called his ten servants” (v 13), rather agents, for the parable implies that the servants had “discretionary power and responsibility in the mode of performing duty” (Century Dictionary). Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon defines “servants of God” as “those whose agency God employs in executing His purposes; as apostles, prophets, and all who obey God’s commands.” In the time of Christ many slaves were prisoners of war, trained officials, literary people, medical and business men.
(A) The ten servants – the servants of Christ, those to whom the interests of the kingdom of heaven were trusted; disciples, true Christians, faithfully, freely and obediently giving themselves to the service of Jesus Christ and mankind.
v 13 ... “And delivered them ten pounds.” One to each. The pound was a Greek measure of money, equal to slightly more than 3 month’s salary. The mina was one-sixth of a talent, meaning that the 10 servants in this parable had been given a considerably smaller sum to account for than any of the 3 servants in the parable of the talents (Matt. 15:14-30). Mina was the money then used in Palestine, worth a hundred drachmas or denarii (often translated pence).
v 13 ... “Occupy till I come,” take possession of, and use, i.e., ‘carrying on business,’ ‘trading with’ (R.V.). They were to invest the capital as each considered the wisest way, testing their wisdom and talent. The end results would test their faithfulness. Regarding the similar parable in Matthew, the amounts trusted are talents. Talents here are not coins, but weights. They are of different values, the heavy weight being twice as much as the light weight. It is possible, perhaps even probably that the light, or common, weight is used here. Weights and measures (including monetary value) are based upon best available information, but should not be considered mathematically precise. We can only arrive at approximate amounts. Weights and measures differed somewhat at various times and places in the ancient world. The MacArthur Study Bible provides the following monetary values: Mina (pound) equals100 denarii and at $32 each equals $3,200. Talent equals 60 minas equals 6000 denarii equals $192,000. The man with five talents had $960,000 to use in his business. The man with two talents had $384,000 to use.
(B) The ten pounds – trust God gives every man. Such are the words of God, the means of grace, the redemption in Jesus, the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, the common blessings of light, life, air, food, natural law, mind, health, work, time, the senses, prayer, faith, love, and many similar things. There is almost no limit to their possible increase in value. A little child may become a Moses, an Isaiah, or a Paul. The Talents equal all that is represented by the pounds, as well as the diversified gifts of intellect, talent, genius, energy, training, skill, honest wealth, attractiveness, a capacity to know God, receiving illumination from God and His Holy Word, and all the special means for promoting the kingdom of God, which everyone has in some kind or degree. Consider the gifts Paul enumerates in 1 Corinthians 12. Talents were given to every man according to his personal ability to use them. Everyone has some talent. The Citizens (v 14) equals secular Israel’s rejection; all those over whom Jesus Christ was rightful King, but who refused to accept Him as King, such as leading Jews of His time. If we refuse Christ’s reign over our lives by refusing obedience to His loving laws, then we, too, are included here.
v 14 ... “But his citizens hated him, and sent an ambassage [‘a delegation’ NKJV) after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us.”
(C) The ambassage they sent ... “We have no king but Caesar.” Note: This parable is made more impressive as well as more vividly real, if we understand the political situation at this time in history. “This parable is unique among the parables of Jesus, because it is the only parable whose story is based on an actual historical event” (William Barclay). Many of Jesus’ hearers could no doubt remember the occasion, following the death of Herod the Great, when his son Archelaus made the long journey to Rome to have the rule over Judaea confirmed by Augustus Caesar. While Archelaus was on that journey, Josephus relates that the Jews ‘greatly complained of Archelaus, and desired that they might be made subject to Roman governors; but when Caesar had heard what they had to say, he distributed Herod’s dominions among his sons, according to his own pleasure.’ Archelaus, son of Herod the Great, went to Rome to be made tetrarch of Judea. A delegation of Jews traveled to Rome with a protest to Caesar Augustus. But Caesar refused their complaint, making Archelaus king anyway. Archelaus’ rule was so inept and despotic that Rome quickly replaced him with a succession of procurators, of whom Pontius Pilate was the fifth. With this parable Jesus warned that the Jews were about to do the same thing, in a spiritual sense, to their true Messiah. Perhaps this was in the mind of Jesus, especially since Archelaus’ magnificent palace was in the area.
Scripture Reading: Luke 19:15-19 (also read Matt. 25:16-23)
4. The Faithful Servants and Their Reward
There came a time when these servants had to render an accounting of what they had done with the money trusted to them. Returning after “having received the kingdom” (v 15) may represent the final judgment, but from a practical point of view the reckoning comes many times during life, and at death, as well as at the last Judgment Day.
v 16 ... “then came the first.” The reports of only three are given as representative of the whole.
v 16 ... “Thy pound hath gained ten pounds.” In an honest business way he had greatly increased his capital. It’s a good bargain when both sides gain. In a number of instances skillful men with acquired skill and insight have made fortunes by utilizing waste materials. For instance, the beautiful aniline dyes, and saccharin, which in dilute solution is 500 times as sweet as sugar, made from by-products of gas-tar. Rags are made into beautiful paper. The beginning of making paper out of certain trees was utilizing the waste slabs left after logs were sawed into boards. The first large baseball factory was started by a man who saw how certain waste materials in rubber and yarn could be utilized. In these and other examples, fortunes were made by benefiting others. Christianity is the Divine art of utilizing the waste products of humanity. In every age and every land the most degraded in body, mind, and soul have been redeemed, sanctified, and transformed into witnesses, teachers, preachers, deacons, elders and missionaries of the Cross. There is no joy like that of gathering the broken fragments of humanity. It is the very joy of Christ Himself.
v 18 ... “The second came, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds.” This man had been faithful too, but perhaps with fewer opportunities, or in less fertile fields, or against greater obstacles, or with smaller talents, or perhaps with less devotion and earnestness. In the parable in Matthew the man with five-talents doubled his capital to ten talents, and the two talent man reported four. Note: (a) Christians are not alike; none are provided the same work. There is an infinite variety of endowments; great differences of capacity both in kind and degree; and a great diversity in service opportunities. (b) Each Christian has precisely what is needed based on ability and circumstances – no more, no less. We each have just as many opportunities of service as we can handle. Our job is to find and faithfully use them. (c) ‘Least’ in God’s hands is always a great deal – always more than needed to accomplish His work. What God has trusted to the poorest and weakest is infinite in value and power.
First reward: the faithful man becomes a multiplied man – His capacity for using other talents is increased. It is the increase of himself, of opportunity in a geometrical ratio. There is scarcely a limit to the increase which faithfulness will add to the spiritual gifts bestowed in common upon all Christians. From the Parable of the Pounds where everyone receives the same amount we learn that success and reward do not depend on original endowments, but on the faithfulness with which we use what we have.
Second reward: approval, friendship, co-partnership with Jesus – “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” (Matt. 25:23). Faithfulness, not success or the amount gained was rewarded. God will say, “Well done” only to those who have done well. In the Day of Judgment there will be no empty compliments. An old, wise, modest and humble Christian once remarked that he did not expect “to hear God’s ‘Well done,’ but he did hope God would say, ‘Well tried; Well attempted.’” “And this one thought of hope and trust comes with its healing balm As here I lay my brow in dust, and breathe my lowly psalm; That not for heights of victory won, but those I tried to gain, Will come my gracious Lord’s ‘Well done,’ and sweet effacing rain” (Kipling ).
The third reward: greater opportunities for service, and a wider sphere of usefulness – The best and most faithful one grew from small capital, to ruling ten cities. Authority over ten cities meant not only larger revenues, but larger spheres of usefulness, increased opportunity for good, multiplied power and influence. The true work of the ruler was to improve the cities and the people, building them up in every worthy direction. Think what a change was brought about in Peter by his faithfulness. He was changed from Simon the impulsive, to Peter the apostle, from one who denied his Master, to one who spent his life proclaiming the Gospel of Christ, dying a martyr like his Master.
The fourth reward: Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord – The same kind of joy that Jesus Himself possesses, perfection of joy, our cup of joy filled full, pressed down and running over. The joy of doing good; the joy of perfect faith in a wise and loving God. Joy in the conscious love of God to us, communion and friendship with Him; the joy of loving others; the joy of triumph over evil.
The fifth reward: The privilege of increased opportunities; taking on the extra work others fail to do; providing a greater opportunity than the natural increase of talents. Greater influence is gained by doing neglected things simply because they need to be done.
Scripture Reading: Luke 19:20-27 (also read Matt. 25:24-30)
5. The Man of One Talent
First: the tragedy of the napkin – At last one came “saying, Lord, behold, thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin” (v 20). This could be done with so small an amount as a pound, but the man with one talent buried it in the earth, a frequent custom in the Orient, without banks.
v 21 ... “For I feared thee.” He was afraid to risk the money in trade, fearing his master’s displeasure. He looked on his master as hard-hearted, as one who would take for himself all that his servants earned. With this attitude there was no inducement to work. Actually his master, as shown by what he did, was exactly the reverse of what this wicked and slothful servant imagined him to be.
The Lord’s answer was “Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee” (v 22). In other words, you thought I was hard-hearted? If you really believed that to be true then why did you put my money in a napkin where it could easily be stolen?
Why didn’t you put it “into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with interest” (v 23 R.V.).
His punishment? – “Take from him the pound” (v 24). He lost all he had received, and all he might have gained. This loss was the natural result of his neglect, the working of the natural laws of God, which are eternally producing the same effect.
Illustration: In one number of the “Household Words,” Dickens describes a visit to what he calls Skitzland. A man, digging a hole in his garden, broke through the crust of the earth, falling into the interior. Here he found a strange land, where every person was born physically perfect. However, at a certain age, any part of their body which had not been used was lost entirely, leaving only bones. Thus a coachman had only stomach and hands; a lawyer had no legs, but a massive jaw; some fashionable young ladies were only a pair of eyes and a bunch of nerves; the schoolmaster had only his heart left. There is a measure of truth in this pertaining to the spiritual life. The punishment for not doing good and bearing fruit for God, is the loss of power and opportunity to bear fruit.
Illustration: From their long existence in perfect darkness, fish in Mammoth Cave, KY are blind, although in the outside streams under sunlight the same species have good eyes.
The man with one talent lost his talent, and all he might have gained from it ... “but he was cast ... into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 25:30).
The slothful servant of the parable in Luke suffered the same punishment, for he practically joined the enemies of his Lord who “would not that [he] should reign over them” (v 27). Everyone is either a friend or an enemy of God and His laws; a citizen of the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of evil. There is no other option. There was a fulfillment of this at the destruction of Jerusalem, 40 years later, when more than a million Jews were slain. But that destruction was but one example of the ruin following a life of sin.
A universal principle: “unto every one which hath [occupies, takes possession of by faithfully using] shall be given” (v 26). This is the only way of progress, step by step, each higher step gained by means of the previous step. You cannot enter high school without being faithful in elementary school and junior high studies. You cannot be successful in business, or in any trade, without faithfulness in learning the trade or business. Can a person who cannot read gain knowledge by being put be put into a library full of books? Can anyone with carpenter’s tools, build a house? There is no escape from this law.
Second: the man of one talent. His possibilities – A man with one talent does not have to be a failure. If he is faithful he can multiply his talent just as the man with two or five talents. The Parable of the Pounds clearly teaches this fact, for the man who kept his silver in a napkin had just as much to begin with as the man who made his grow, and who by so doing became trusted enough to rule ten cities. 1 pound x 10 = 10 cities; 1 pound x 0 = 0; 5 talents + faithfulness = 10 talents = power over many things; 5 talents + neglect = 0, nothing but loss. The one-talented or two-talented man has a great chance in the world. Being an average man he can sympathize with average men, and his success and usefulness show themselves as possible to the majority. Small talents with will and purpose can accomplish great things. There is no limit to their final achievement. The Gospel is the same mighty wisdom and power of God, no matter who uses its power (see 1 Cor. 1:18-29).
