Your Talents

To all atheists and/or Jesus-allergic readers, let me recall an old joke by way of introduction: „You have a horseshoe hanging over your door. Do you believe in it?“ – „No, but it works even if you don’t believe in it.“

In this humorous spirit, please accompany me today as I reflect on a biblical parable. I promise you, it is useful „even if you don’t believe in it.“

The Parable of the Talents

I am thinking today of the Parable of the Entrusted Talents (Matthew 25:14-30).

A rich master goes on a journey. He entrusts his wealth („talents“) to his servants. But they handle it very differently.

The servants who received two and five talents respectively trade with the money and double it.

The servant who received only one talent, however, buries it in the earth—and does nothing.

When the rich master returns, he summons the servants to account for themselves.

The two who traded with their talents are praised and given more responsibility.

The coward, however, who fearfully buried the one talent in the earth, hears this:

So take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has, more will be given, so that he has abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness! There will be loud weeping and gnashing of teeth.

– Matthew 25:28-30

The Kingdom of Heaven Is Already Here

It is a common mistake to think that the Kingdom of Heaven Jesus speaks of always refers only to the future—or even only to a future beyond the horizon of one’s own earthly death. The Kingdom of Heaven is coming—and is already here. This applies, I believe, to the interpretation of this parable as well.

The one who does not invest and multiply what is entrusted to him here will experience „loud weeping and gnashing of teeth“ already here. From him will be taken even today.

It would probably not be wrong to take the „talents“ of the parable literally as money. Yes, it is advisable to invest one’s assets wisely. Nevertheless, the story is a parable.

Your Attention and Thinking Ability Are Talents

These days I interpret the „talents“ as our time, our attention, and our thinking ability. Your attention and your thinking ability are „talents“ entrusted to you.

Do you invest your attention and your thinking ability wisely, in order to become more attentive and wiser?

You bear responsibility for how you invest your time, your attention, and your capacity to think.

As a Christian, you are responsible to your Creator.

As an atheist, your responsibility is more unspecified, ethereal, but still present. (Atheist does not mean „without responsibility.“ Only the psychopath feels himself to be without responsibility, and that is not the same thing.)

Not Belonging to the World

I sometimes feel it in my bones, what Jesus means when he says that we „do not belong to the world,“ though we live in this world (John 17:14-18). (And yes, such a feeling of foreignness can also be felt by the atheist.)

The „world“ wastes its time, its attention, its thinking ability—and thus its life. Whether you as an atheist become generally wiser or as a Christian approach God’s wisdom: You are surrounded by people who meanwhile squander their lifetime—and to whom you are a stranger.

But whether Christian or pagan: Each day comes only once, each hour and minute likewise. Seize the day, we learned, and it remains true!