Matthew 25:14-30 recounts Jesus teaching about the kingdom of heaven through a parable known as the parable of the Talents. We tend not to grasp the amount mentioned, and some confuse it with abilities to do something flawlessly. It’s money, and a lot of it. Probably equivalent to $2,000,000.00 each.
I converted each talent to a Burger King restaurant. To one he gave five restaurants, to another he gave two restaurants, and to another he gave one restaurant. So the first operated five Burger Kings and opened five more. The second operated two Burger Kings and opened two more. The third went to the Burger King and boarded it up as if in anticipation of a hurricane.
You know the result. “Great job!”s to the first two, and an “Are you nuts?!” to the third. He could have at least run the Burger King he was responsible for, and sold a lot of fries and soft drinks.
Placed back into the context of the day, Israel is basically an agricultural country. Land was the property of a specific family in perpetuity. “Selling” the land was actually selling the crops it produces, and selling price was tied to the number of crops before the year of Jubilee, when the land reverted to the original owners without them having to buy back the land.
So the investor would find a family who could not afford seed for planting and either “buy” the land until Jubilee and run the farm to make money on the crops, or offer to pay for the seed, and perhaps pay workers to sow a crop and harvest it in due time, in exchange for a cut of the profit of the harvest. It helps the poor who can’t afford the seed, and the investor who gains from the harvest.
The great value to what we have in Christ is intended to be invested. Not in Burger King Restaurants, but in the Kingdom.