Lk 19:11-28
11While [people] were listening to [Jesus] speak, he proceeded to tell a parable because he was near Jerusalem and they thought that the kingdom of God would appear there immediately. 12So he said, “A nobleman went off to a distant country to obtain the kingship for himself and then to return. 13He called ten of his servants and gave them ten gold coins and told them, ‘Engage in trade with these until I return.’ 14His fellow citizens, however, despised him and sent a delegation after him to announce, ‘We do not want this man to be our king.’ 15But when he returned after obtaining the kingship, he had the servants called, to whom he had given the money, to learn what they had gained by trading. 16The first came forward and said, ‘Sir, your gold coin has earned ten additional ones.’ 17He replied, ‘Well done, good servant! You have been faithful in this very small matter; take charge of ten cities.’...
20Then the other servant came and said, ‘Sir, here is your gold coin; I kept it stored away in a handkerchief, 21for I was afraid of you, because you are a demanding person; you take up what you did not lay down and you harvest what you did not plant.’ 22He said to him, ‘With your own words I shall condemn you, you wicked servant. You knew I was a demanding person, taking up what I did not lay down and harvesting what I did not plant; 23why did you not put my money in a bank? Then on my return I would have collected it with interest.’ 24And to those standing by he said, ‘Take the gold coin from him and give it to the servant who has ten.’ 25But they said to him, ‘Sir, he has ten gold coins.’ 26‘I tell you, to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.’ ”...
28After he had said this, he proceeded on his journey up to Jerusalem.
INVESTING ONE'S TALENTS: Eusebius, the church historian, saw a “problem” in this parable and reported a different version of the same parable he knew from the apocryphal Gospel of the Nazoreans (now lost) where the master punishes the first two servants and welcomes the third servant.
The focus of the parable, as Matthew tells it, is no longer the ways of the rich and the greedy in Jesus’ time, but the disposition of the believing community as they await the second coming of Jesus, thought to be imminent by the early Christians. In this interval time, they should not be lazy and worthless—acting like “busybodies” as some Thessalonians did and whom Paul corrected (2 Thes 3:11). Rather, they should invest their talents for the works of the Kingdom, imitating the cleverness of the first two servants (but not their rapaciousness). They should also be ready to take “risky choices,” just like what Jesus did.