“For everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.“
Matthew 25:29 (ESV)
The implications of the verse above are a bit concerning. And, when you consider that the words came from Jesus Himself, it is even more puzzling. Jesus had just shared the parable about the master who gave his servants various numbers of talents over which to steward while he was away. When he returned, he found that two of the servants had increased the amount given to them by 100%. But the servant to whom the least had been given chose rather to bury his in the backyard claiming to fear what would happen if he lost what had been given. Therefore, the words spoken by Jesus in this verse pertain to the heart of the servants in stewarding the wealth and not to the wealth itself.
For almost the entire preceding chapter Jesus had been sharing parables with His disciples about preparing for His return prior to the day of judgement. And, while His teaching did allude to the “signs of the times” of His coming, His primary focus was on teaching that the time He would be away would be far more crucial than the chain of events that would be initiated by His return. Their mission was to spend their time preparing as many people as possible to be ready when He came back.
We may be assured that Jesus will in fact return just as the disciples were told as they stood staring into the sky as He ascended in Acts 1:11. But, in the meantime, there is something more important to consider than our own understanding of what could be His imminent return. For each of us, there must come a moment of acknowledgement of the talents with which our Master has entrusted us as well. And, with that acknowledgement comes our own commitment to share the love of God through our talents, influence, and resources so that what His love might be multiplied through us.
We have but a very limited window of time to demonstrate our own faithfulness in understanding that “to whom much is given, much will be required” (Luke 12:48).
