Looking into the Lectionary
25th Sunday after Pentecost
33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Matthew 25:14-30
November 15, 2026
When I was a kid, every summer day when my brothers and I were home from school and my mom was at work, we were given chores to do. Invariably, however, we spent the majority of the day lounging in front of the TV or playing outside. My mom’s usual arrival time after work seemed so far away. After whiling away the day doing just what I wanted, I can distinctly remember hearing my mom’s car pull up the driveway. I would spring into action, as if I had been working all day, heart racing because I knew I was probably in trouble. My mom was never fooled. She knew we had wasted the day with our laziness. Our passage today from Matthew’s gospel, the parable of the talents, feels similar: being charged with something and caught without doing it.
This passage comes in a series of three parables that deal with how one should live their lives in the face of the coming of the Son of Man. Jesus, in the previous chapter, has told us that there will come a time when we will see “the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven” (Matt. 24:30), but “about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Matt. 24:36). The question then, in light of this promise, is how then should we live? The answer comes in three parables: the parable of the two servants, the parable of the ten bridesmaids and the parable of the talents.
The parable of the talents begins with what would have been a familiar situation for first-century hearers. A master is about to go away and entrusts all he has to his servants. The master gives each of the three slaves talents “according to (the slave’s) ability” (v. 15). When he returns from his trip, he holds a reckoning and the first two slaves do well. They have taken their talents and made more. But the third slave, out of fear, does nothing. He merely preserves the talent he was given and does nothing with it. The two slaves who used their talents well “enter into the joy of their master,” while the slave who has done nothing is thrown into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (v. 30). A hard master indeed.
A parable is not an allegory, and I do not think this parable makes a statement about the character of the Son of Man vis-à-vis the character of the master. But it does tell us there will be some sort of divine judgment and, in light of that, gives us an idea of how we are to live.
First, note that the master gave each slave talents “according to their ability.” The master does not demand more than the slaves can give; rather, he recognizes their ability and sets expectations accordingly. The slaves are called to use their talents based only on what the master knows they can do. This should comfort those of us waiting for the return of the Son of Man. We don’t have to meet some great expectation; rather, we only have to do what we are capable of with what has been entrusted to us.
Second, note that the third slave acts not out of love for the master or even respect, but fear. His inability to trust his master is at the root of his inaction. As we wait for the return of the Son of Man, could not this parable be directing us to an ethic of living with courage and love? If we are all given talents — whatever those may be — are we not to use them with courage and love until our Lord returns again? Maybe the point of this parable isn’t the fear of the master’s return, but the courage we need until he returns.
I am no longer a child trying to avoid my chores. But I am a person of faith who longs for the time when Christ will come again and make all things right. Until that day, this parable charges me to use what I have — both in the church and in my life — with boldness and courage so that, hopefully, I can one day enter into the joy my master has prepared.
View the corresponding Order of Worship for the 25th Sunday after Pentecost.
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