THE PARABLE OF THE TALENTS IN MATTHEW 25:14–30

BY ESAYAS EMENE ENICHA (REV.)

text. Accordingly, for the question, “what is the reason of the third servant to bury his talent?” it is suggested that the third servant had buried his talent because he was afraid of losing it by working on it because it was only a small amount of money.

Therefore, understanding the monetary value of the talent could help the reader to realize how precious God’s gift is. This also encourages the disciple to work diligently and responsibly on God-given talents. When the readers realize that one talent was a considerable amount to do business, then they recognize that burying the talent is negligence or disobedience to use God’s gift. Thus, there was no reason to bury the talent.

5.3. FINDINGS OF THEOLOGICAL AND BIBLICAL MESSAGES OF THE TEXT AND THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE CONGREGATIONS IN THE SOUTH WEST SYNOD

5.3.1. UNDERSTANDING THE MEANING OF THE TRADE AND GAIN IN THE USE OF TALENTS

In the Parable of the Talents, the servants who had been entrusted with five and two talents had traded by their talents and had gained one hundred percent. Exegetically, the trade marked the personal investment of effort involved in the effective use of the talent. Likewise, theologically gain signified losing one’s privilege for the sake of the wellbeing of others, or it is regarded as working to benefit others.

In the empirical analysis, trade is interpreted as effectively using God’s gift for the purpose that it is intended for. Thus, regarding the meaning of trade, the empirical meaning is identical with the exegetical meaning. However, gain was mainly suggested as the promotion of the servants who were effective in use of talents or gain denoted increasing spiritual gifts. Thus, gain referred to the individual servant’s promotion rather than to sharing what we have for others.

Thus, the idea of gain, which is a critically important aspect of the use of talents, is not well understood in the congregations of the SWS. As it is well expressed in the exegesis of vs. 16-17 and in the empirical analysis, gain is perceived as working for the spiritual, economic, social, and political transformation of the community. Therefore, this implies that, for the use of talents, the theological meaning of gain and its practical implementation needs to be thoroughly taught in the congregations of the SWS.

5.3.2 UNDERSTANDING THE USE OF TALENTS FROM THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH PERSPECTIVE

The Parable of the Talents does not explicitly say anything about the mission of the church; rather it is about the need for effective use of the talents of the disciples in anticipating the Parousia. However, there are indications in the exegesis that the use of talents has a relation with the understanding of the master.

Indeed, all the three servants are introduced in the text of v. 14, as the master’s “own” servants (τοὺς ἰδίους δούλους, tous idious doulous). These servants were entrusted with the talents. This implies that all the servants are disciples of Jesus, and they were expected to bear fruit. However, the third servant had buried his talent in the ground (v.18), because he misperceived his master (vs. 24-25).

According to the exegesis in vs. 24-25, the wickedness of this servant primarily stems from his attitude to his master, which in turn led him to laziness and bad stewardship. Thus, as already indicated in the exegetical discussion, this third servant might represent the disciple who seems to worship the Lord but is unpractical in his deeds (cf. Jas 1:26-27). This is the way many people deal with God. Their wrong attitude to God results in disobedience to their calling. Thus, our perception of God and our knowledge about His attributes are so important in determining our action. As the empirical analysis shows, the understanding of God primarily relates to the approach of mission when introducing Christianity.

Thus, according to the empirical findings in chapter four, the congregations in the SWS are not effective in the use of talents (except Mafo congregation). The root causes of inefficiency in use of talents in the congregations of the SWS were related to the primary evangelism approach of the missionaries. In the beginning, missionaries never taught the people about gifts as one of practical demonstrations of salvation. Sharing what we have with the needy, the biblical concept of work, giving tithe, social justice, and the political responsibilities of Christians had not been integrated as a part of Christian life in the mission approach of evangelism. Moreover, initially the church work was fully dependent on funds coming from abroad, but no internal attempts were made to complement the external support. But strikingly, Mafo is one congregation that has become effective