This parable raises a sobering question: How much do we love and respect our heavenly Master? According to the parable, the answer is found in the way in which we serve our Master with the talents and treasures He has entrusted to us. The success of the first two servants was found not in the fact that their work yielded a profitable result but in the fact that they had simply been faithful with what the master had given them. Jesus does not praise them for having the “Midas touch” of investing but simply for being faithful. His benediction to them is one we all ought to desire to hear on that day of His return: “Well done, good and faithful servant.” What could be sweeter than to hear Jesus say that to us?
Vocational success ought to be seen in this light. God created us both to work and to rest. Work is natural. It is a gift from God, and it lies at the heart of what it means to be created in the image of God. God Himself worked and then He rested. Man, as a faithful child created in the image of God, is to work and rest—all for the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31). The reason why success is sometimes an illusory goal is that the fall of mankind into sin affected not only our souls but also our bodies and minds. We no longer love the things we were created to love in the innocence and purity that Adam knew before the fall. Just as our relationship with God was affected by sin, so also was our relationship to the created order. The fall brought about a troubled relationship—one where thorns and thistles now grow among the flowers of God’s creation. The sweat that trickles down our brows is often mixed with anxiety, as our work is peppered with numerous frustrations and disappointments. Sometimes the vexation of our labors seems so great that it is hard not to throw up our hands with the Preacher of Ecclesiastes and declare that “all is vanity and a striving after the wind” (Eccl. 2:17).
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