Luke 19:26 –
“‘Yes,’ the king replied, ‘and to those who use well what they are given, even more will be given. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away.’”
Luke’s version of this story initially has ten servants given money, but only talks to three. The story is familiar where one servant invests and doubles his money, the other invests and makes 50% more, while the last one hide it and makes nothing. The key here was the king’s response to the three “investors.” He was upset at the one who did nothing, the one who was safe!
Have you heard the saying “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer”? There is actually some Biblical truth to that saying. If we work hard and invest wisely, we will be entrusted in more wealth and the ones who just try to get by will lose it. I would be interested what happened to the other 7 “investors” here! What if someone invested it in a failed business and lost half? What if they made a foolish investment? I often wonder if you get “points” for “trying”?
This parable twists the compassion thing in knots also. We are to help the poor, but this goes further into enabling them. The servant who hid the money and did not mess up lost it all. Now is this parable does not touch on helping the poor, but is does give an example of enabling. Our country is in a time of “wealth envy” and “enabling” that has gotten out of hand! The wealthy are making more and the ones who get stuff handed to them are expecting the rich to hand it over so they can “live large” also. Look at many lottery winners, they get the 10 pieces of silver and end up back to where they started or many time worse. Why? Because they just went on a spending spree and did not invest.
With that said, what would happen if we gave all the rich’s “excess” to the poor? The money would most likely end up back in the hands of the rich, because they invested what they had wisely. So the key is be wise with the money given to you and try to make more. Help the poor, but don’t enable. There is a fine line between compassion and hurting, as Christians we must learn that and ensure we can still teach the Gospel being “firm.”