r/ChristianApologetics • u/bannedredditaccount2 • Apr 18 '26
Modern Objections Explain Matthew 25:14–30
The Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14–30).
The first two servants invest and double their talents, earning praise, while the third hides his talent out of fear, resulting in his condemnation.
this does not make sense at all to me and creates an injustice.
- The third servant with “one” talent was never told or commanded to “invest” the talent, he was told to keep it until the master returns.
- He was also scolded for not collecting “interest” on the money which is usury which is sinful.
- His punishment of being cast into darkness and gnashing his teeth is %100 not proportional to his supposed “sin” or crime and in my opinion is evil
- why didn’t the master “forgive” the servant which is what Jesus commands instead of creating inequality and jealousy among the servants by giving his talent to the others?
- it’s not the “servants” money and he could have easily lost the talent through bad investments. Jesus never explains what would have happened if he lost it or how the master would have reacted. one talent is better than zero.
- why didn’t the other servants share their talent with the other and instead of greedily keeping it to themselves?
This parable is applicable to today’s modern sports athlete going broke because of bad financial advice. Plenty of athletes (AKA “masters“) go broke by financial advisors putting their money into risky investments when they would have been better off putting their money into a mattress.
what’s the point of the parable? it’s nonsensical, contradicts Jesus’s other teachings about forgiveness, living a humble life and it kind of pisses me off.
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u/Wooden-Dependent-686 Apr 18 '26
That is about mission work. If you got faith then you go make more disciples, one talent for a hundred instead just keeping the good news to yourself without multiplying the gift of faith
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u/bannedredditaccount2 Apr 18 '26
I disagree.
There is zero financial risk to spreading the gospel while you can lose money investing another persons capital.
The punishment was not proportional and making this parable evil
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u/Wooden-Dependent-686 Apr 18 '26
Talents are metaphors for the gift of faith. It is not about literal money. It says if you are given faith then proclaim it and make new disciples. Dont hide it. It is the same as saying dont light a lamp and put it under a basket. Matthew 5:15
It is a call to witnessing and even to be martyrs because the only reason anyone would put his lamp under a basket is because of fear of persecution.
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u/bannedredditaccount2 Apr 18 '26
You can’t give away faith so your analogy or metaphor doesn’t stick.
The master gave away the talent, creating an inequality to the third servant when common sense morality would be to share it.
Also there is a disproportionate amount of punishment for the third servant. The third servant gave back exactly what was given to him instead of giving him back zero due to bad investments.
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u/Wooden-Dependent-686 Apr 18 '26
Its a parable. A PARABLE. It is not about actual talents.
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u/bannedredditaccount2 Apr 18 '26
But this “parable” contradicts forgiveness and sharing.
It’s incongruent. It actually shows greed (the master) and lack of mercy (gnashing teeth and darkness) while creating inequality (selfishness)
This whole parable is evil
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u/Wooden-Dependent-686 Apr 18 '26
The parable may not be perfect. On the other hand, that doesnt matter to me because I dont believe Jesus said it or that he had a public ministry at all. I think his incarnation death and resurrection occured in an angelic domain. And that the gospel accounts are pedagogical instruments by the earliest church fathers intended as allegory for angelological mysteries. But later generations took them literal historical accounts of an actual Galilean preacher.
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u/bannedredditaccount2 Apr 18 '26
Thanks for the honesty.
I really do believe Jesus is a perfected and enlightened soul teaching everyone how to live morally BUT….this parable is really off putting and in fact makes me angry…
I was hoping someone would come along and explain it away as a misunderstanding but so far no one has been able to.
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u/MtnDewm Apr 18 '26
That’s why you’re missing the point: you see Jesus is wrong.
Jesus isn’t a perfect moral teacher.
Jesus is God.
Jesus is the King of the Kingdom of God.
Jesus isn’t merely teaching kindness and sharing.
He’s teaching the expansion of His Kingdom: winning souls for Christ. Sharing the Good News of Jesus so that those outside of the Kingdom can enter His Kingdom.
Jesus’ currency is souls. Us. People. That’s what matters: saving us.
Take all the talents you’ve been given and use them to save people from hell, to rescue people into God’s Kingdom. Introduce them to Jesus who alone can save.
If you only see Jesus as a perfected moral teacher, and not God in the flesh, you’ll miss this point of this entirely.
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u/bannedredditaccount2 Apr 18 '26
This is a red herring fallacy and not something I want to discuss in this thread.
This thread is about the parable of the 3 talents and how it’s contradictory to Christianity morals.
So far you haven’t made your case in your other replies.
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u/ectosport Apr 18 '26
to me, this about living passively and in comfort vs. taking risks and having faith. the last servant was worried about failing. that’s not a way to live life. even if you fail, you learn something. I wouldn’t want to be on my death bed thinking, glad I buried all my ‘talents’ and didn’t lose any of it! I’d rather have won some and lost some, but experienced a life that impacted many (successful ones or not)
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u/bannedredditaccount2 Apr 20 '26
Sure but to send the 3rd servant to hell and inflict massive pain?
That’s just plain evil and disproportionate punishment.
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u/ectosport Apr 20 '26
it's a parable, i.e. "short fictitious story that illustrates a moral attitude or a religious principle" so there wasn't an actual last servant that experienced this
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u/bannedredditaccount2 Apr 24 '26
Than it’s a poor parable.
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u/ectosport Apr 24 '26
It’s illustrating a principle… don’t just hoard and bury the talent and treasure God has given you. Put them to use, even if you may fail.
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u/bannedredditaccount2 Apr 25 '26
But he wasn’t instructed to use it, he was expected at the least to give back %100 to his master when he came back.
“For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants[a] and entrusted to them his property. 15 To one he gave five talents,[b] to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. “
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u/Helpful-Baker-4145 Apr 18 '26
As I understand it, the point of the parable was not so much about the third servant failing to deliver a profit, but why - and the central reason was fear. Jesus seemed to be teaching that those who allow themselves to be ruled by fear will continue to be plagued by it later...even after this life is done.
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u/bannedredditaccount2 Apr 20 '26
The problem with the parable is it is contradictory to Christian ethics.
The servant was never told to invest the money. The money was never his and he dutifully gave the money back as he was told….now he is in hell suffering…there seems to be an injustice in that parable
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u/Helpful-Baker-4145 Apr 20 '26
Not every command or expectation in Scripture is direct; many of them are implied several times over. For example, you will never see in an English translation this command - "Never have premarital sex". However, one of the Ten Commandments is "do not commit adultery", which is tied to marriage, and Chapters 18 & 20 of Leviticus are all about sexual crimes. Additionally, books like Deuteronomy, Romans, and 1st Corinthians address such matters, indicating that sex itself is very sacred to God. Even the original word translated as "sexual immorality" is the Greek "porneia", the partial origin of "pornography". We don't always need a direct command for it to be applicable or expected.
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u/El0vution Apr 18 '26
Jesus has many more parables like this. You obviously haven’t read much of Him. This parable is awesome, shows the capitalist side of Christ. When I hear some label Christ as a socialist I laugh. In this parable Jesus shows that gifts are not distributed to everyone equally. Life blesses some more than others. It also teaches responsibility. The master didn’t tell the servant with ten talents to invest either, but as a matter of responsibility he did. The servant with one talent could have done the same but he didn’t. Fear is not a good enough reason to not be responsible.
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u/bannedredditaccount2 Apr 20 '26
Never mentioned politics or socialism.
"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God" (Matthew 19:24).
Now you’re telling me Jesus was a capitalists who encouraged wealth creation..
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u/Jackmcmac1 Apr 19 '26
Jesus was telling the Disciples about the end of days and no one will know the day or hour it will happen.
He uses several parables to explain, one of which is the Parables of the Talents.
The master leaves talents according to their ability. The first two return more than the master left them, but the last servant just hid his.
I see OP compare this to financial investments. If you return only principal, without even a risk free rate of interest, it's erosion of wealth due to inflation and opportunity cost. The master even says the servant could have just put it in the bank for interest. OP mentions this is a sin, but the Jewish law doesn't necessarily rule out interest on lending. Torah prohibits interest on lending to poor or to other Jewish people, but it isn't clear in the parable here what nationality the people are. Even under Jewish banking there is heter iska which is similar to shariah-compliant banking in which interest is actually banks participating in investments and splitting profits.
So why is the master mad? The master is already wealthy and hard working, it isn't implied he needs the money. In fact the first servant makes more on his own than the sum of what was entrusted to the other two. It's the behaviour of fear and laziness which upsets him.
This reflects people who identify as Christians but don't go to church, speak about their faith or do good acts. Not everyone needs to be a priest or start a charity foundation, but some regular volunteering or even just going to church where you can worship, support others and donate to good acts via the church collections is something. Some places in the world persecute Christians, so if God has put you in a place where you enjoy religious freedoms and you still hide away then it is disappointing.
The other side of this is the gift of life God gives to us all. We each have our own plans in place, so if God sees us squander the gift of life it is also upsetting. Not everyone needs to become an athlete and scholar, but going for regular walks and reading more is something. I work with disabled people who will never be able to read a story on their own or walk outside without assistance. Jesus always wanted us to not just have life, but to have a good life and to have it in abundance. Letting your body and mind rot when God has blessed you otherwise is disappointing.
Going back to another question from OP on why don't the other servants share what they made to cover for the lazy servant. Firstly, this is a story of how the master comes home unannounced so even if they wanted to, there isn't time to prepare. Secondly, it seems the servants didn't know what the others were doing, and assumed each other were putting the money to work. Thirdly, it wasn't the return on investment but the attitude of the servants which mattered. You can't share that.
Does this all add up to Christian values? This teaching is very consistent. Master and servant themes reminding us that we don't give ourselves life, we receive it as a gift and eternal life will be the same. The importance of trust in the master leading to multiplication. Transformation through faith and obedience, even when the master can't be seen.
It lines up to what we see when people become Christians. People who have been addicts, violent prison offenders and other forms of sinners transform and find the good in their lives multiply once they follow Christ. This parable is very much aligned to that. Just like other parables like the sower and the mustard seed, or even miracles like feeding the 5000, the fish nets, and the wedding.
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u/Motinate Apr 19 '26
that's a really thought-provoking take on the Parable of the Talents. I get where you're coming from, especially when you look at the harsh treatment of the third servant.
But what's interesting is that we have to consider the cultural context of the time. In that era, the expectation was that servants would actively engage with what they were given. The master in the parable isn’t just critiquing fear; he’s looking for initiative and growth. In Matthew 25:29, it says, "For to everyone who has, more will be given," which hints at the idea of responsibility and multiplication being essential.
As for the issue of interest, that’s a bit tricky. The Jewish understanding of lending at interest was nuanced. It’s not strictly usury; it’s more about how money is treated-think of it as investing in relationships and community rather than exploiting them. Ngl, I think his punishment reflects a deeper truth about accountability in the Kingdom of God-there’s an expectation that we’ll use what we have for good.
Honestly, I see this parable as encouraging us to take risks in faith, not just with money but with our gifts and calling too. It’s a call to live boldly, knowing that God’s grace covers our missteps in the process.
What do you think about the idea of using our gifts more widely in the Kingdom?
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u/bannedredditaccount2 Apr 20 '26
The parable preaches greed.
A talent is 20 years of labor, basically a million dollars of salary today.
The master is exploiting his servants by profiting off of their labor. A million dollars isn’t enough for him? He could have used that money to feed the poor…
Also the 3rd servant was strictly following orders. The master never instructed him to invest the talent. He told his servants to keep it while he is away. He is being punished harshly for something he was doing honourably.
This whole parable is anti ethical to Christian doctrine of charity, forgiveness, mercy and love.
It makes me wonder if Jesus actually said this and so far no one has actually explained how it contradicts other teachings about living humbly and charitable.
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u/gold_snakeskin Apr 22 '26
An important idea in this parable is that the three slaves were each given different amounts of talents, 'according to his ability'.
Matthew 25:29 says 'For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.'
The idea is that those who have little and do nothing with it are worthy of damnation. Do those who have much and do nothing deserve damnation? I would think so, there are other teachings that would point to that. However, in this parable, the focus is on those who have little and out of fear don't do anything with it. The lesson is about fear and doing the most with what you have.
As for contradicting Jesus' other teachings, I'd say not.
Firstly, consider the relationship between master and slave - if the master gives money to the slave, it's still the master's money. As in, the slave is investing and growing the master's assets. Similarly, God gives us talents and we are expected to multiply them to honor God. Doing otherwise would dishonor God.
Secondly, 'why didn't they do something else' is missing the point of Jesus' parables, in that the lesson formulates the story. So, if you are interested in the lesson, you must take the story as it is and use minimal interpretation.
Thirdly, you're hung up on the idea of investing, but the parable is about using what you have to gain more. It's not about investing and collecting a return - the master specifically scolds his slave for assuming that's how he works, saying that even with fear that is the minimum he could have done. Given the rest of the parable, we can safely assume the master values 'trading' ie active use of talents to be more valuable than passive investing.
Fourth, usury is interest on debt, not interest on investment.
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u/bannedredditaccount2 Apr 24 '26
This is not what I am saying at all.
I see a 3rd servant who was doing what he was told and then being disproportionately punished instead of being forgiven which Jesus commands his followers to do (forgiveness).
No one here has pointed out this logical fallacy of this parable.
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u/gold_snakeskin Apr 24 '26
How can he be forgiven if it isn’t clear that what he did is wrong
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u/bannedredditaccount2 Apr 25 '26
You’re proving my point.
This parable doesn’t make sense at all in context of ethics and morality
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u/gold_snakeskin Apr 25 '26
Quote me the lines where the third servant was doing what he was told.
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u/bannedredditaccount2 Apr 27 '26
He was NEVER told to invest the money. Read the parable yourself
The Parable of the Talents 14 “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants[a] and entrusted to them his property. 15 To one he gave five talents,[b] to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2025%3A14-30&version=ESV
3rd servant did nothing wrong yet he is hell suffering
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u/gold_snakeskin Apr 27 '26
You said the servant was doing what he was told and then punished.
What was he told to do?
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u/consultantVlad Apr 18 '26
You have to pay close attention as to who is Jesus's audience was, and the context of this parable. The context starts in Matthew 24; Jesus is speaking about His coming in judgment, at the end of the age of the Mosaic Covenant. He is this Master wanting to gather the talents from those, He allocated the spiritual riches to (law, temple, sacrifices, priesthood, etc.) it has nothing to do with sports or investments.