According to his Ability

Matthew 25:15 ESV

To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.

After five years my friend failed. He was removed from his pastorate and given thirty days to move his family out of the parsonage. I say he failed because the flock bit so hard it decided another pastor was needed. This happened and that happened, reasons were given, and the church was diminished. He would find another church and pastor another community, and God would move once again in his ministry. This is not a conversation about the hardships of pastoring or how hard times are to pastor in. A similar story could be told of a young man who graduated from college worked until he was so stressed his body started “bubbling” randomly, he would start finding blood in his stool, then be fired for not developing fast enough. That is the world we are called to minister in. It is hard and things happen we don’t like. Did the master judge rightly?

Isn’t that the heart of the question we ask ourselves everyday as the challenges mount, and failure looms on the horizon? The parable of the talents has two main points to set the stage. The first is that the master is going away and the servants will be left in charge of portions of his wealth. As he decides what each is to be left with it finishes with the reality that the Master already understood each one's ability and had given as he had evaluated. Lest you feel sorry for the guy with one talent, the notes will tell you that a Talent was roughly equivalent to twenty years of wages for a laborer, $600k at $15 dollars an hour. The first and second servants get to work. They trusted the master and the last did not. Looking at the life we have been given it is easy to look around and feel that we are in over our heads. How can I overcome the challenges that are facing me right now? Do you trust the master to know your ability and the world he has created?

You have pressed and pushed, and now the failure lays at your feet, what now? People will mock. I have mentioned Nutt’s Folly before, the beautiful three-story octagonal house started construction in 1861, never to be completed. Named Longwood by its owner, but upon his death in 1864 it would bear his name as Nutt’s Folly, never being completed. “Folly” is the term used by the foolish. It was a home that housed his family even after his death and their subsequent poverty. “Folly” is what they call a home that stands 163 years after its construction that still brings wonder to those that see it. Others do not know and are not fit to judge what your failure looks like. The text tells us in verse nineteen that “after a long time” the master returned. How often did the man with five talents fail? Did you assume he went from glory to glory, never watching as a deal sour? Is that how you have seen God move? Is it not more likely they failed, learned, and succeeded, over and over. l Does the savvy investor put all his money on “lucky number seven” and let it ride, or over the aggregate watching as he is simply trying to capture the 10% gained over a “long time”.

Be encouraged brother and sister, God has chosen and assigned your task as a wise master. You will fail and you will succeed, the only danger is failing to trust the master’s judgment, lose heart, and bury your talents. Let us live wholly, fully, and abundantly in this life.

Living for Jesus, a life that is true,

Striving to please him in all that I do;

Yielding allegiance, glad-hearted and free,

This is the pathway of blessing for me.

Coram Deo