Here's where the story gets interesting. If we depart from the traditional stewardship interpretation, let's imagine this great mind-boggling gift from our Master as the gift of Jesus Christ who comes into our lives bearing the good news of salvation, the challenges of serving the world in his name, and the joy of living in relationship to him. The question for the three servants - and for us - is: "What do we do with this gift of Jesus Christ?"
The third servant's response of fear and distrust of his Master leads him to bury this gift in the ground where it is safe and secure - hidden from the world. For those of us who play it safe by retreating from the challenges of sharing our faith with others so that they never get to know the joy of Jesus - we are rightly castigated by Jesus and cast into the outer darkness apart from his presence.
How might we instead risk ourselves, our hearts, our involvement, our vulnerabilities by shouting (or whispering at least) our joy in knowing Jesus?
What a great way of viewing this well-known Scripture. We have so much grace, given freely from God, and with that grace, comes great expectations. It's a little scary though, to imagine how many people can know God's grace through us! But in Christ, all things are indeed possible.
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