Leadership and Talents

By Mike Glenn, Founder & President of Engage Church Network.

In Matthew 25, Jesus tells the story of the talents. Most of us know the story by heart. A rich man is going on a trip and entrusts 3 servants with parts of his wealth to oversee while he is away. When he returns, the servants report to their master what they've accomplished while the master was away. The first servant was trusted with five talents and doubled his master's investment. Likewise, the servant entrusted with two talents doubled his master's investment. Both of these servants are rewarded for their work. The third servant, however, afraid of disappointing his master, does nothing at all and simply returns the talent that was entrusted to him. As we can imagine, this servant received the master's full wrath. We've all heard the same sermons from this text -- I've preached them. All of us have abilities and we should invest our abilities in service to Jesus. Some of us have a lot of abilities -- and much is required of them -- and some of us have few abilities (and bless their hearts, we know who they are), but all of us have at least one talent to use for Jesus.

Photo by Zachary Olson on Unsplash

The sermons build to the climatic moment when we all stand before Jesus and give a report about how we've been doing since He has been away. You don't want to be embarrassed on Judgment Day and have nothing to give to Jesus. You don't want to be ashamed in front of your friends and have nothing to show for Jesus' investment in you. Now, besides the lousy theology of these sermons, it's also a very shallow reading of the story.

For one thing, the parable of the talents illustrates the kingdom principle of starting with small and working from there. Only as we are faithful in small things are we then trusted with bigger things. If you follow the logic of the story, the servant with five talents had two last time and the one with two was trusted with one last time. The servant with one was being trusted for the first time. Being faithful with one means we'll be trusted with two. Being faithful with two means we'll be trusted with five. I've often said one of the main questions of our faith isn't whether or not we can trust God, but whether or not God can trust us. I believe God wants to do more in His world. I believe He wants to do more in His church and in us, but He can't trust us with more. Love won't allow Him to put more on us than we can handle. We quote this often when it comes to suffering, but it is true in blessings as well. I believe there are times when God wants to give us more but He simply can't trust us with more.

That means we have to learn to be faithful with what we have where we are. We spend a lot of time daydreaming  of what we could do with this man's talents or that woman's gifts. What we don't do is pay attention to the opportunities we have right in front us. We often tell Jesus what we would do if we had a million dollars, but most don't have a million dollars. Most of us do have a twenty in our pocket. Perhaps Jesus is interested in what we'll do with the twenty we do have rather than the millions we don't. Pastors think they'll be better preachers if they can just get to a bigger church when they need to be focused on being the best preacher in the church where they are. Jesus won't trust you with the future until He can trust you with now. Be faithful where you are. As trust is earned, Jesus will give us bigger moments. Everybody starts small.

Second, there's no social promotion in the kingdom of God. In our nation's schools, students won't be held back if they don't know the material. Administrators and teachers don't want the students to feel bad about themselves when they aren't producing with their peers. Jesus has no such problem. Jesus doesn't mind if I'm the tallest first grader in class. Remember, Jesus' primary concern for me is to shape me more and more into His likeness. If that takes a few months, fine. If that takes a few years -- or my entire lifetime-- that's OK with Jesus. His love for us won't let Him do anything less.

Third, the reward for good work is more work. All of us dream of being so successful in our lives we don't have to work anymore. There's no such plan in the Kingdom of God. Do well with one assignment, your reward is two assignments. Do well with two and you get five. Do well with five and in celebration, Jesus gives you one extra. (Have you ever thought the servant with ten may not have wanted the last one? He could have been saying I've worked hard with five and now I have ten.  Getting eleven is more than I asked for). The work for Jesus doesn't get easier. It gets harder. Don't be surprised when opportunities come disguised as overwhelming challenges. Be grateful you're ready to be trusted with such.

And yes, in the end, we all stand before Jesus to account for our living. Notice, the servants had one Master. The good news of this passage is that it's Jesus and Jesus alone on the throne. We don't have to make anyone else happy. We have been given a task from our king. It's His work and it has to be done His way. There' only one voice in our lives that matters -- His. Once I wore a pink shirt to church and one of my friends made a joke about my shirt. I told him, "Jeannie (my wife) says I look good in it. I have one vote in my life that matters and it's not you." In the same way, believers need to be able to tell the world there's one voice in our lives that matters -- and it's not them.

Jesus is looking to big things in His world. Let's pray Jesus can trust us to be part of them.