Jesus tells a parable about three servants handed a fortune and a master who leaves. Two put it to work. One buries it out of fear. Only one of them is called wicked. Jesus uses the Parable of the Talents to show that God entrusts real responsibility to his servants while the master is away. The master does not measure the servants by how much they were given, but by what they did with it.

The third servant's failure is not a bad investment; it is fear that ends in doing nothing at all.

Everything we have is a gift, and we are called to put it to work in the time we have before Christ returns. Jesus has already paid the price for our sin on the cross and claimed victory over Sin and Death, so we serve out of freedom rather than fear. Let us use what he has entrusted to us, and long to hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant."