What do you do with what you’ve been given?
A man going on a long trip gave his money to three servants: five bags to one, two to another, one to the third, each according to his ability. The first two put the money to work and doubled it. The third was afraid and buried his in the ground. When the master came home, the first two heard “Well done, good and faithful servant!” The third gave back exactly what he’d been given, and lost it.
A man going on a long trip gave his money to three servants: five bags to one, two to another, one to the third, each according to his ability. The first two put the money to work and doubled it. The third was afraid and buried his in the ground. When the master came home, the first two heard “Well done, good and faithful servant!” The third gave back exactly what he’d been given, and lost it.
About 6 minutes: 4 choices and 2 ways-of-knowing stops. Kids play each of the three servants. The story isn’t about being talented; the word “talent” was a weight of money. It’s about fear versus trust, and it ends with the master’s anger told plainly and briefly.
Ages 6–12
It feels harsh, and Jesus meant it to land. You can say: the servant wasn’t punished for having one bag, or even for losing it; he was punished for refusing to trust the master at all. Jesus is warning us that being afraid to use what God gave us is not the safe choice it looks like. And the other two servants show what God is really like: “well done,” twice, with no counting. If your child worries they’re the scared servant, tell them: being scared isn’t the problem, hiding is. You can dig the bag back up any day and try.
Matthew 25:14–30, in Jesus’ last week, between the parable of the ten bridesmaids and the sheep and goats; Luke 19 has a similar parable of the minas. A master entrusts five, two and one talents (a talent was roughly twenty years’ wages) to three servants “each according to his ability.” The first two double theirs and hear identical praise; the third buries his out of fear, calls the master hard, and is called wicked and lazy. His talent goes to the first servant, and 25:30 adds that he is thrown “into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth,” a line we leave out of the kids’ telling.