The Fourth Servant

Do you know the parable about the talents? The one where the master gives 5 talents to one servant, 2 talents to another and one talent to the last servant? The master leaves for a journey. The first two servants double the talents given to them, but the last one does nothing but bury it in the ground. The master is thrilled with the first two servants because they did something with the money he gave them. However, the last one earns his ire because he did nothing with it. He just sat on the money, knowing that his master was hard. He just wanted to give it back to him to avoid the master’s fearsome anger. Then the master takes the talent and gives it to the servant with 10 talents and throws the lazy servant out of his service.

What if there were a fourth outcome? What if the last servant took the money and gave it all away to some other souls who needed it more than he did, giving it away in his master’s name? I think then that the master would have been pleased in the outward effort of the servant to do some good with that which was given to him and adding praise to the lips of others for the generosity of the master, making the others long to work for that generous master too.

I really hope that when God comes to collect me, He finds me divvying out the blessings that he gives me to others who really need it. After all, the gold here will pale in comparison to the streets I’ll be walking someday.

Everyone has talents, time and money. It's what we're doing with them that will count when we want the Master call us “good and faithful servants.”