It is Christ Himself Who is the Author of this parable and He told it to
show us how we are to prepare for His Coming. Every word of it is of
importance and bears some instruction or warning for Advent.
The "_man going into a far country_" is the Man-God, He Who came from
Heaven to take our human nature and to redeem us to God by His Blood.
His work of Redemption is finished and He is going back to His own
country--"_A far country_"--implying that He will be gone a long time.
(He) "_called His servants_." They are His own servants, He has created
them, He has bought them with His Blood, they belong to Him--their
service, their time, their very lives are His, and this not because they
are _slaves_ forced to labour, but because of their own free will and
out of love and gratitude to Him who has bought them from the cruel
slavery of sin, they have said: "I love my Master ... I will not go out
free" (Ex. XXI. 5).
"_And (He) delivered to them His goods._" They are _His_ goods not the
servants', they all belong to Him and He entrusts them to His servants
to take care of them and to do the best they can with them while He is
gone. What are these "goods?" All the good things which God has given to
man--his life, his preservation, his Baptism, his christian education,
intellect, faith, health, rank, wealth, talents, conscience,
opportunities of doing good, position,--and all have to be traded with,
for the Master to Whom they belong. His "goods" include too what the
world would label "evils"--ill-health, difficulty, failure, poverty,
incapability; these have to be traded with too, and there is often a
higher profit to be made out of these than out of the others. They are
all the Master's goods and He delivers them to His servants.
"_To one He gave five talents and to another two and to another one, to
every one according to his proper ability._" He knows His servants, and
He knows exactly the strength and capability of each. He measures each
burden before imposing it and calculates each sum before giving it. This
servant can manage five, this one two, this can only manage one. It is
no disgrace to have only one talent, the ability of the servants is the
Master's affair, not the servants'. They cannot turn to Him and say:
"Why hast Thou made me thus?" (Rom. IX. 20). He makes each one according
to His own Will and endows him according to His Will too. What the
servant has to remember is that he is responsible for all that is
entrusted to him, that he _can_ trade with it and that it is not too
much for him, it is "according to his proper ability," and that though
his Master will never try to reap where He has not sown, He _will_
expect to reap where He _has_ sown, He will expect a harvest from each
talent.