A few weeks ago, my family and I were seated in church when we read the Parable of the Talents, and my teenage daughter looked up and said, “Dad, this story is super scary!” It made me stop and think, “Yes, it is!” and promised her that I’d study it some more so we could understand it better, so she wouldn’t be too scared.
The Parable begins with a wealthy man who’s about to go on a long journey. Today, we may take travel for granted but in the olden days, when someone says, “I’m going on a journey!”, it meant that he would be gone for many years. The trip itself would take weeks or months on horseback, on camels, on sailing ships, and they would stay for many years in the host country, before making the trip back.
Before the wealthy man left, he entrusted his servants with some property; the Gospel of Matthew uses the word “talent”.
A talent was a unit of measure for weight, and they often used it to measure precious metals like gold and silver. So it was also a measure of value. Scholars say that in those days, a talent was worth 20 years’ wages to a regular worker. In today’s currency, one talent would be the equivalent of about P3 million — quite a princely sum!
To paraphrase the verses: To the first servant, he gave P15 million; to the second, he gave P6 million; and to the third, he gave P3 million, according to their ability.
The first lesson we can glean from this Scripture is that we have all been given precious gifts and talents by the Master. And if you say, “Oh, but I’m just an ordinary person, I don’t have much to offer,” I suspect that the Master would strongly disagree.
He would say, “Oh, but I have given you a very valuable gift! Worth a huge treasure to you!”
Our first duty, therefore, as believers, is to discover our gifts, and to nurture it, and bring it to life! We are to enhance it and develop it. Recognize it as a precious gift from God that he wants to use to bless you, so you can bless the world.
The story goes on…. that immediately, the first two servants traded with their talents, and in the course of several years, doubled the value of the money entrusted to them.
Now we don’t realize it often, but the essence of entering a trade, or starting a business, is to invest, deploy, and to present to the world, and to place at risk your precious asset — be it your hard-earned money or life savings, or your unique experience or skill, in order to benefit others.
And when others benefit, they pay you back, so you can profit and grow your business, and offer it to more people.
When a business ceases to benefit its customers, then people stop buying. And it speaks of the diligence of the first two servants.
So then the second lesson we can learn from this Parable is that God wants us to invest our talent, to deploy it, to put it to good use, and offer it to the world… to benefit others. And in the process, to benefit ourselves.
So go ahead and write that book; publish that paper! Go ahead and start that business! Go ahead, apply for that promotion!
Yes, it involves risks, and the prospect of failure and rejection. But when we exercise diligence, faith, and courage in the use of our gifts, God is pleased. And hey, would you rather be known as the servant who buried his talent? Or the servant who traded with it?
Which leads us to the third servant who buried his treasure in the ground. He wanted to play it safe, he wanted to avoid risks. He didn’t want to have to work so hard. And I’m sure many of us can identify with him. Because at some point in our lives, we are that third servant.
For instance, when we see someone hurting, how often have we spared ourselves the hard work, and the trouble of listening to that person, and praying with him?
Or when we see someone being bullied at work, how often do we choose to remain silent, rather than speak up? Perhaps, these are just simplistic examples of when we choose to bury our talent.
Finally, the master returns after a long absence, and asks for an account. (We can almost feel the tension, and hear the background music…)
And we know what happened next: the master was very pleased with the first two servants. And this tells us something about the nature of God. God is pleased with productivity, and the Lord Jesus in this Parable encouraged profit-making. (We said profit-making, and not profiteering, which is different). Contrary to popular “religious” belief, ‘profit’ is not a bad word. God is happy when his people are diligent, and honest, and succeed in their business, and in their career. God is pleased when we Profit with Honor.
Now for the third servant, the master only had some harsh words. And we ask, was the master too hard on the third servant? Let’s take a closer look…
For many years, the first two servants were busy with their hustle. You know, wake up early, open the shop, haggle with their hard-nosed suppliers, and then negotiate with their equally hard-nosed customers. I imagine they would come home late, exhausted, every day, year after year.
What do you think was the third servant doing all those years? What occupied most of his time?
He was told that he could have placed the money in the bank, and each month he could have checked for interest. It was the least he could do! But no, he buried his P3 million in the ground, and it stagnated there, and benefited no one.
The master called him wicked and lazy, and perhaps in that context, I believe the judgment was justified. Because he allowed his talent to remain idle, his career withered and died.
But those who invested their talent, and multiplied it were rewarded with more work and great honor.
The Lord told this Parable to his followers because he wants us to be like the first two servants, and not like the third one. He wants us to be diligent with our talent, and to take risks with it, to profit from it. He wants us to use our talents to benefit the world, and to benefit from it ourselves.
There is actually a third lesson to be learned from this Parable, a very important one: the difference between the two trustworthy servants and the third servant was their mindset on how they viewed their master.
When the two servants went and traded with their talents, and multiplied it, it was because they saw their master as good, and kind, and fair. And if they worked hard and they succeeded, they had faith that the master would give them a just reward.
The third servant, on the other hand, had a negative view of his master, regarding him as a terrible man, hard on others, and unjust. And because of that, the servant buried his money in the ground.
My fellow believers, how do we view God? Do we see Him as harsh, cruel, and unfair? Or do we see Him as good, and kind, and faithful?
If we have a negative view of God, we will be fearful, cowardly, and unconfident. But when we have the right view of God, then we will be bold, and courageous, and diligent.
As I end this, let me tell you another story, a true story about stewardship which happened a long time ago:
Many years ago in the late 1800’s, a young man graduated from Princeton University with a master’s degree. He looked forward to a brilliant career in the ministry, preaching in the large, prestigious churches of North America.
At about the same time, another man, unknown to the first one, made a huge donation to his church to the tune of P22 million in today’s currency. He told his church, “I want to donate my money to foreign missions. Could you start a Christian school in the Far East where the US government has just acquired new territory?” (I think you know where this story is going…)
This man who donated his money was no other than Horace B. Silliman, and the young man from Princeton was no other than David Sutherland Hibbard.
Hr. Hibbard was only 30 years old when he accepted the call to travel with his young wife to this strange, distant, unfamiliar land in the Far East, called Las Islas Filipinas.
When he started the school here 123 years ago, there were only 15 elementary students. In his own words, Mr. Hibbard would later recall: “I was the President, and my wife was the faculty.”
At the prime of their lives, David & Laura Hibbard would spend the next 30 years of their lives working here in this small town, and in 25 years, transformed Silliman Institute from a small elementary school to one of the most respected and prestigious centers of education in the Commonwealth.
We know that because in 1925, the Philippine Legislature received a report from the Board of Educational Survey, which called Silliman Institute “the most influential Protestant institution of higher learning in the country.” It went on to give a most positive assessment of the Institute and its graduates.
So did Horace Silliman and David Hibbard trade their five talents wisely when they invested it in the Philippine Islands? Did they earn five talents more?
When we see how this Institution has shaped the economy of this town and the Province; when we see how it has introduced Christian values and the Protestant work ethic in our community; when we see how it has transformed the lives of thousands of young men and women with the Gospel of Christ, I would say, Horace B. Silliman and David Sutherland Hibbard have multiplied their talents more than a thousand-fold.
When we look around us, let us realize that we are the fruit of the labors and the talents of Horace B. Silliman and David & Laura Hibbard. Each time we hear their names (Hibbard Avenue, Silliman Hall), let us remember them, and the men and women who labored with them.
So it’s been 123 years… where do we go from here? Well, I’ll leave that to the wisdom and the talents of our diligent and humble leaders of Silliman University, our President and her cabinet, and our Board of Trustees.
I do pray that we shall continue to proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ as The Way, The Truth, and The Life in the Silliman campus and throughout the world so that His Kingdom may come, and His will be done on earth, as in heaven.
If we do, I am confident that we, too, shall hear the Master say, upon His return: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant! Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”
Dr. Krypton Kho
