A Lesson from Wall Street

16 Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. Matthew 25:16-19


It is fascinating to me that Jesus used an example right off Wall Street to describe how the Kingdom of Heaven works. 

If you asked the average Christian what the population of Heaven will be made up of you’d probably get answers like:

  • Saints
  • Apostles
  • Saved people
  • Good people
  • Humble people
  • Moms
  • Little children
  • Mother Teresa and Billy Graham

But apparently, Jesus is looking for traders.

For most of us, Wall Street is the last thing on our minds and “trading” is something kids do with baseball cards and we adults do with cars.

DJIA, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 might as well be abstract art and we probably know more an egg than we do an ETF and more about a cantaloupe than a CEF.   

But when the man who represented Jesus departed on his journey in the parable of the talents, he didn’t leave his assets with preachers and theologians, or good decent church-going people, He left his assets with traders.  (This explains a lot about the men Jesus picked to be his first apostles!) 

This means something…and I suspect it is very significant. 

We’ll drill down more on this in upcoming blogs.  But for now, remember that Jesus has put something of His in your hands.  You are not only responsible for returning it to Him someday, but His expectation is that while you wait for His return, you will put what He has entrusted to work in the Market and give Him a fabulous return. 

The ONE THING for today: When making plans on how you will live your life always think in terms of getting a return for the Kingdom and in terms of ultimately giving a return to the King.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash