HT: Outside Connection

Matthew 25, Lines 14-30

The Parable of the Talents

 

14“For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. 15To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. 17So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. 18But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. 19Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’ 21His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.  You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 22And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.’ 23His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 24He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, 25so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ 26But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? 27Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 28So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 29For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 30And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

http://esv.scripturetext.com/matthew/25.htm

NOTE:  A talent was a monetary unit worth about twenty years’ wages for a laborer

Connection to Hard Times:

This Bible parable describes people who make something more from what they started with, and those who choose do not use what was given to them.  The first two servants in the passage, when given several "talents" or huge amounts of money from their master, work hard to trade and make more money, while the third "wicked and slothful" servant buried his talent and hid it away.  Characters in Hard Times also display traits from one of the servants, "slothful" and "good and faithful".  Tom has been born into a wealthy family and has gotten an education, but he chooses to be lazy and gambles all of his money away; characters such as Stephen may have been dealt a bad hand, but he continues to build on what he started with by strengthening his realtionship with Rachael and uniting his fellow workers in the factory, which makes Coketown function as a whole.

Another major connection the passage has to Hard Times are the use of "sowing", "reaping", and "gathering", in the second part of the parable as well as the titles of each book in Dicken's text.  The third servant accuses his master of reaping and gathering where he did not sow, as if he is trying to thrive without any foundation, but the master argues that the servant should have taken what he did have--a talent--and grown from that, building on what he does have.  This idea connects to Stephen well;  he was born poor, and with no education is forced to work in the factory, is stuck with an insane wife, but yet he tries to make something from what he does have with Rachael and his influence on his peers in the factory.  Tom has a foundation of money, yet he gambles it away.  Lousisa was not "sown" with the tools to be inquisitive and creative, and though it seems to burn within her for awhile, she degrades eventually.  It's all about what you do with what you have been given, if you were "sown" and if you decide to "reap" or "gather".