It was the last week, and Jesus had been talking about the revolution and so forth, and his disciples were all excited. And they were wondering whether they were going to have a press conference, take over the airport and the telephone exchange, and there was excitement in the air. Perhaps the revolution was about to burst out immediately with overwhelming force. And to answer that kind of thinking, Jesus told the parable of the talents.
I’ve heard so many sermons preached on this idea, “Give your talents to the Lord.” They got that thing backwards. The Lord gives his talents to US. A talent is not some skill. We go around saying, “He’s a great athlete. He should consecrate his talent to the Lord. She’s a great organist. She should be an organist for the Lord.” But this isn’t what Jesus is saying.
What are these talents? It’s his ideas, his concepts, his teachings. He leaves them to his followers. All these three years he has been “talenting” them. Now he’s saying, “You want me to come in here and pull some angels out of the sky and set up a revolution? Oh, no. I’ve been giving you, over all these months together, the currency of the kingdom, and if it comes, it’s gonna come by your doin’ business with what I’ve turned over to you.”
Source: Cotton Patch Parables of Liberation by Clarence Jordan
