The Useful Servant

In Jesus’s parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14–30 ESV), a man going on a journey entrusts varying amounts of his talents—or money—to each of three servants. These servants are δουλος (doulos), bond servants. Spiros Zodhiates’s Word Study Dictionary of the New Testament says a δουλος is “a slave, one who is in a permanent relation of servitude to another, his will being altogether consumed in the will of another.”

The Master distributes the talents “each according to his ability” (verse 15). He knows his servants and doesn’t give them more than they can manage.

Servant One, who receives five talents, “went at once and traded with them” (verse 16, emphasis mine). He went, or πορεύομαι (poreuomai). Part of this Greek word is the word from which we get emporium, a place where trading is done. He goes out deliberately with the intent to trade. He doesn’t know he’s going to double his money, but his purpose is to make those talents work for his Master.

Servant Two, who receives only two talents, also manages to double what he’s been given.

But Servant Three, who is given only one talent, went out and hid his Master’s money. He άπελθών (apelthon). This is a more general word for his style of going. He simply went out without any real plan.

Once Servant Three has hidden his talent, he walks away, feeling no more responsibility to work or rethink what he believes about the Master. All he has to show when the Master returns is exactly what had originally been entrusted to him. He justifies himself by admitting to having acted out of fear. And he tries to give the talent back!

Why would the Master want back only what he had given? He could simply have kept it in the first place if all he wanted was to get it back intact.

I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve read this parable and how many sermons I’ve heard preached on it, but I don’t remember ever hearing a good explanation for why Servant Three was dealt with so harshly. I’ve always felt a bit sorry for him.

I think I see a little better now why Servant Three is punished. In his explanation, he says, “Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed” (verse 24). His information isn’t entirely wrong. His master does reap where he doesn’t sow and does gather where he doesn’t scatter. But the servant’s knowledge is superficial.

To the servant, the Master appears σχληρός (skleros)—dried up, hard, stiff. When the Master throws the servant’s words back at him, he doesn’t repeat that part of the description. The claim of hardness brought to my mind Paul’s words in Romans 11:22: “Note then the kindness and the severity of God” (ESV). I find it interesting that the definition of the word used here for kindness, χρηστότητα (chrestoteta), mentions “usefulness.” The word for severity, άροτομίαν (arotomian), has nothing to do with hardness, but is a picture of a man cutting off dead or useless boughs from a fruit tree.

It seems that the servant has noted the effects of the Master’s methods, but not his true character. This surface knowledge evokes an improper response in the servant: paralyzing fear.

God knows I can empathize with that! Is it such a bad thing to be afraid?

If God is love (1 John 4:8), and there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18), but I’m living in and acting out of fear, then God’s perfect love isn’t controlling me.

I grew up in church and memorized large sections of Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount. I knew he had instructed me not to be anxious about anything. But it took me many years to understand his instruction as a command rather than his benevolent wish for my life.

Philippians 4:6 (ESV) says we should not be anxious. In my own paraphrase of Philippians 3:12–14, “I don’t claim to have already obtained this or that I am already perfect, but I  press on toward this goal.”

Servant Three seems well-intentioned. Is he blamed because his abilities aren’t identical to those of his fellow servants, or because he started with only one talent? At least he still knew right where it was when the Master came home. That’s something, isn’t it?

No, the Master distributed the talents based on the abilities of each servant. Servant Three isn’t to blame for the differences in abilities, but he is culpable for what he ought to have done with what he had. After all, as a δουλος, one ought was that “his will was altogether consumed in the will of another.” The Master seems to be implying that what he says his servant ought, investing the talent with bankers, is the very least he could have done. If the talent were going to just be sitting somewhere, a bank would have been better than a hole in the ground. But the servant couldn’t even be bothered to do that much.

The Master calls Servant Three worthless. He hasn’t matured, he’s of no use to anyone else, he has borne no fruit. Bearing fruit is a recurring theme throughout God’s Word. Jesus himself warns us that “every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matthew 7:19 ESV). He isn’t in a hurry, though, to cast unfruitful trees into the fire. In a parable in Luke 13, the owner of a vineyard tells his vinedresser to cut down a tree that hasn’t borne fruit for three years. The vinedresser begs for one more year to dig around the tree and fertilize it. Just one more chance, please? Then, if it doesn’t bear fruit next year, you can cut it down.

Jesus says his people will be known by their fruit (Matthew 7:20). The apostle Paul carries the theme of fruit and usefulness throughout his epistles, even describing exactly what that fruit will look like in a form that fits right in with the current fashion of making lists: “Nine Signs That You Have the Fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22–23).

Servants One and Two acted on the same knowledge available to Servant Three, but they exercised that knowledge in an active faith. In their going and trading, it’s likely they have matured into different men. They are rewarded with more because they have become servants who can manage more. They can now be improved by abundance rather than spoiled by it, and they will be able to acknowledge to whom their talents really belong. They are useful. They have borne fruit.

When my Master returns to see how I’ve used my talent, I long to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Paraphrasing 2 Peter 1:5–8 (ESV), “For this very reason, I will make every effort to add virtue to my faith, knowledge to virtue, self-control to knowledge, steadfastness to self-control, godliness to steadfastness, brotherly affection to godliness, and to brotherly affection, love. For if these qualities are mine and are increasing, they keep me from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Through the gift of a faithful mother and grandmother, Diane Pendergraft grew up knowing Jesus as a friend. Married for nearly two-thirds of her life, there has been time for several seasons, from homeschooling to owning a coffee shop. She has three grown children and eight grandchildren. An element of this season is writing about literature and life at Plumfield and Paideia.

Photograph © Vera Cires, used with permission