What Can We Learn About God from Jesus' Parable of the Talents?

2/15/12       Sheldon, Daniel      early 20's

I tallked about Jesus' Parable of the Talents with two college students from China, Daniel and Sheldon (their westernized names), who had grown up under communist ideology with no exposure or knowledge of any religions, only faith in what can be scientifically proven. They had never heard of the Ten Commandments, never read a Bible, and when I told them that the parable I was about to read them had been taught by Jesus, I had to explain who He was!

I read the parable to them, considering how three servants had been trusted with differing amounts of their masters wealth and held accountable for what they had done with what they had been given. I asked what they thought of it, and they generally agreed that the master in the parable had acted cruelly to his servants in two ways - by not giving them equal "talents" (resources) to begin with, and by punishing the third servant for not producing a profit.

I went on to ask what they would think of God if this parable described Him. They seemed genuinely surprised, like they have never considered the idea of "God" before. We talked about the obvious injustice, but when on to consider what this would imply about God if it explains anything about Him.

So what can we learn about God from this parable? We talked about three main points: 1.) how if there is an ultimate Creator God, he would be the owner/master of all things; how He would be the giver of all things and ultimately we would only be stewards or managers of "our" possessions rather than owners; 2.) how God would have the right to hold us accountable for what we do with the resources that He provides and would have every right to reward or punish us; and 3.) how an all-knowing God would know our thoughts and intentions and could tell if we give an honest effort or are truly just being lazy.

Whew! These are important lessons to begin to teach when talking to people of an entirely different world view. I think Daniel and Sheldon gained a very different perspective of Christianity than they might otherwise encounter in our culture. I hope and pray this Jesus and his profound teaching compels them to keep learning about Him.