The "Parable of the Talents"always bothered me-any of you folks have problems with it?

[Ken Burch]

It's the one that right-wing "Christians" cite to justify their argument that Christians have an obligation to be capitalists.

The one where the lord who has essentially enslaved these people gives them some coins(talents) and tells them to invest them in something.

Some of them do, but one of them assumes it's a trick, is sure that that he'll get in trouble if they make money off the deal, so he just holds on to the talents.

Later, the lord(not "The Lord", a lower-case "lord&quot comes back and mocks the dude who didn't so something with the talents. Jesus takes the side of this "lord" dude on the matter and kind of disses the one who didn't

Well...really, why SHOULD those people have trusted this guy about the investment thing?

And why the heck would Jesus condemn this guy for wanting to be sure he didn't get slapped down by the aristo who basically owned him?

Did this parable ever bother any of the rest of you? Should we really trust that it's something that Jesus himself would actually have believed? And does anybody know of any alternative interpretations for this parable?

I've sometimes wondered if the editors didn't put this in to get the merchant class in the Roman Empire off of the new faith's case.

Just wondering. Have a nice Friday.

[L0oniX]

1. This is a spiritual lesson, not physical. Works are not required but if you have a real connection..

with the Lord then you will perform good works ...in spite of you still being a sinner ...in human eyes. Read Eph 2:8

[Ken Burch]

2. OK, that makes sense.

Always wondered why Jesus would be fixated with getting his followers to build up a stock portfolio.

[L0oniX]

3. The beginning of the church in Acts shows those with a lot sold so that others with less could have

more.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. I think it's more about developing the abilities and spiritual gifts that you have been given

and putting them to use rather than just living in fear.

For example, suppose you're born with great artistic or musical talent but you belong to a sect that considers such things to be "vanity." So instead of developing your talents and sharing them with the world, you suppress this side of your nature and never do anyone any good with what could have been a great gift.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

5. It's about taking the talents God gives you and doing something with them

It really does not matter how much you achieve, but you have to do something. The lord says to the servant who simply buried the money in the ground, "Hey, passbook savings interest would have been acceptable. But you did nothing." Indeed, if the servant had said, "I tried a risky investment and it didn't pay off, I lost money on it", I suspect that would have been acceptable. Think of Revelation 3:15-16, "I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth."

No, the parable is not about "I will bless whoever makes a killing on Wall Street." It's "I will bless whoever tries to make the best of the gifts he or she has." Indeed, Christ's attitude towards wealth is shown in Matthew 19:21-24:

Jesus said to him, ‘If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’

[Ken Burch]

6. And that makes a lot more sense to me.

What I don't get is how the "Christian" right-wingers somehow turned that parable into an argument that people of the faith had an obligation to be moneygrubbers and defend the system of exploitation.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

8. I have another quote for you, this not from the Bible

John Kenneth Galbraith said, "The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."

[Leontius]

7. I've always thought as the talents used as a symbol of the Gospel.

[47of74]

9. Sometimes it's lost in translation

Depending on how the parable in question was translated from the original Greek to English the original meaning can be distorted, especially if it passed through several languages on the way over.

[hedgehog]

10. Here's a good commentary:

http://www.feedingonmanna.org/?p=333

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

11. But that's commenting on a different parable, the Unjust Steward, Luke 16:1-9

Which is one I have never understood. He is hoping to get in good with the people who owe his master money, but if I were one of them, I wouldn't hire him. After all, he cooked the books of his old master, why wouldn't he do the same to me?

Consider the comment after the parable itself, Luke 16:10-11, "Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?"

[hedgehog]

12. OOOps! I was so stuck on thinking about this reading, I didn't notice you

were talking about another one!

[Brigid]

13. I think the parable is about using the talents God gave you,

Stashing them away somewhere instead of using them to do some good.