NO NEUTRALITY
‘Cast ye the unprofitable servant.… gnashing of teeth.’
The Advent warning, contained in parable of unprofitable servant, is directed against the sin of despised opportunities and a wasted life.
The smallest amount entrusted to the servant, but he must render account for all that. It is ‘his lord’s money.’ So with us; influence, position, talents, wealth are entrusted property—‘Occupy till I come.’
I. The root of the offence was in the hard thoughts of God and His service. The talent buried in the earth represents the justification of the deceived heart for its disobedience. All heart-rebellion begins in hard thoughts of the Divine Service. We wish to be our own master, our own Bible, our own law.
II. The charge of being unreasonable, which the servant brought against the master, was an aggravation of the offence. The sin among ourselves answering to this pretence of unprofitable servant is that, in regard to the great salvation, men shift blame of their deficiencies upon God, that He expects fruit at their hands which He does not give them the means of producing.
III. The positive wrong done to the master in the loss of interest which investment of the one talent would bring is the final aggravation of the offence. The modern equivalent is the excuse that means opportunities, and influences are too limited to do any good with. But parable teaches that the man has not lived whose services are too humble for Christ to accept. A mite cast into the treasury, a cup of cold water may be used. A life of quiet goodness will open to us a wider mission than we think of.
IV. ‘Take the talent from him’ is the consummation of a sentence which begins even in this life. The servant, because he was ‘unprofitable,’ is cast out. Let this warning sink deeply into all hearts. Apathy is sin. Unprofitableness is insult. To be neutral in the Christian warfare is to side with the foes of God.
Prebendary Daniel Moore.