Another interesting tidbit about Jewish culture in the ancient world, and quite possibly today but I am uncertain if this still happens, is the children would be raised for the potential to be discipled. In preparation for discipleship parents would have their children memorize the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) which are the five books of Moses, and in some cases children would memorize the entire Old Testament. Their goal was to be prepared in case a rabbi would choose them to be his disciple. Rabbi's would choose the brightest, the cream of the crop, and to be chosen as a disciple was a high honor. For the most part, depending on the rabbi, when a child was chosen for discipleship, the rest of their life would have been taken care of in each and every way imaginable. It would be the equivalent of Billy Graham coming up to Brian Mackey and stating, "I want to disciple you, Brian. You'll travel with me, all your bills will be paid for, you'll have a generous salary, plus a retirement package that will exceed any expectation as well as have enough left over to provide for your grand kids grand kids. Your ministry will be enormously bigger than my own. Let me be your mentor." Well of course this would be a high honor. Of course there was a little dramatic flair on the part of the authors as I just get excited about the idea.
So apparently there are some doctors reading my blog. Perhaps their PhD stands for Pretty Hot Dad, however, they don't have kids yet. So I'm not certain what they studied. But now I have to back track to explain some parabolic ramblings. :)
The parable of the talents . . .many have preached this parable teaching the idea God distributes gifts (talents) and expects us to use our resources (time/talent/treasure) wisely and bear fruit. Verse 24 of Matthew 25 reveals an interesting insight into the character of the 'master'. Doesn't seem to describe the way the Lord gives gifts through His Holy Spirit. Something must be happening here. Also verses 29-30 do not seem to describe our Lord as evidenced through the ministry of Jesus while on this earth. There must be another message regarding the parable of the talents OTHER than the prosperity message regurgitated in American churches, trying to find biblical evidence that God is wanting to multiply our net-worth and we should take what we have been given and grow our portfolio.
Remember, this is a society that had a mindset of limited goods, there was just enough to go around and anyone who is going to increase in their socio-economic standing would do so at the expense of someone else. Verses 16-17 would have been understood by the ancient mindset to be frustrating, a reason for anger, not applause, as the slaves were taking advantage of their peers to increase the amount of talents they had been given. This was not a reason for praise, but scorn to the ancient mindset. There was only so much and they increased what they had. They took advantage of others to increase what they had. So no one is sitting back thinking to themselves, "I had better pull out my PDP (personal development plan) and figure out some fresh ways to bring glory to the kingdom by expanding what I have." No, it would have made the listener angry.
So what is this parable about? Quite possibly the kingdom of heaven. Verse 24 seems to indicate the man never knew his Master. Do we see his explanation of Christ as true in his words? "I knew you to be a hard man."(NIV) Really? The one who healed, provided food free of charge in abundance, restored sanity to the demoniac, calmed waters, walked upon them? This is a hard man? No, this man didn't know the true Master. This is why he is cast out into utter darkness, not because his portfolio was lacking, but because he didn't know Christ (Matthew 7:23). It seems to make more sense not only contextually in the passage, but also in the biblical scope that the parable is referring to the kingdom of heaven and not to a way to increase ones talents, or stewardship, or any other Americanized version of prosperity we have cloaked over this passage.
Verse 29, everyone who has a piece of the kingdom of heaven through faith in The Lord Jesus Christ, more will be given. Isn't this true? With Christ, when we die we get God! Even now, with Christ, Paul says all the riches of the kingdom are ours. There is salvation that is past, present, and future. We were saved, we're being saved, and one day we will be glorified and have an experience far beyond anything we could think, ask, or imagine in this life. Conversely to the one who does not have Christ, everything they thought they had will be taken from them and God will say, "Depart from me I never knew you."
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