Matthew 25:14–30

Jesus wants us to serve him loyally.

All disciples of Jesus are waiting for him to return. They should be working hard for Jesus. Then, when he comes, he will be pleased with them.

Jesus reminded his disciples that they were his slaves. This is not a popular idea today. But, to serve God is an important job. Jesus emphasised this in several ways in this passage.

First, the master was very generous. He decided that his slaves were capable. So he gave them a lot of responsibility. A talent was 6000 dinars. This was a very large sum of money. It could probably pay a worker’s wages for 20 years! But notice something in this story. A talent was the least amount of money that he gave to a slave.

The master gave the talents to his slaves for a purpose. He wanted them to use the money for him. The master returned from his journey (Matthew 25:19). He asked the slaves what they had done with his money. He had trusted his servants when he gave it to them. Now he expected that they would have made a profit from the money.

The truth that Jesus was teaching was simple. God gives gifts to all his disciples. One of those gifts might be wealth. But God’s gifts might be things that we can do well. They could be skills or opportunities. God wants us to use each gift completely. This is how we can serve him.

In the story, two of the slaves pleased the master equally. This was because each one of them had done his best. So the master praised them both in the same way (Matthew 25:21-23). Their effort was more important to the master than their results. Their master was very generous. So there was no excuse for being lazy. The first two slaves would have been very happy.

But there was another slave. An ancient law in Israel explains his action to us. If someone was looking after another person’s property, he would bury it immediately. Then he would not be responsible for it any more. He had done the safest thing. But he might just wrap it up in a cloth. If he lost it, he would receive a punishment. So, this slave was doing the safest thing. He just wanted to protect himself. Jesus was showing that this slave did not care about his master. He did not want to serve his master. This slave just wanted to do the least amount of work that was possible.

But the safe way caused very bad trouble for the slave. (Read Matthew 25:26–30.) Jesus’ words showed the story’s full meaning. Jesus was speaking about the final judgement. He spoke very clearly about this. There will be people who say that they are his disciples. But they have shown no desire to serve him. They have not used the gifts that God has given to them. They have just wanted to be sure that they did not go to hell. But at the time of judgement, they will find that they are in that place.

Questions

• The Bible describes a believer (Christian) as a ‘slave’ of God. What is your reaction to this title?
• (Note: Slaves could often act from their own ideas. They could make their own decisions. Their responsibilities were often great too.)
• God has given gifts to all the members of your church. Are they using the gifts that God has given to them? How do the leaders encourage them to do this?
• Non-Christians think that believers are just trying to ‘save their souls’. Or they think of them as people who do good things. What are our reactions to these ideas?