An Hard Man

In the Parable of the Talents, we read this about the servant who received only one talent: “Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed.” This accusation against the lord by the servant was not refuted in the lord’s response: “Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed: Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury” (Matt. 25:24-27). I have often thought about this description of the lord in this parable as a “hard man” who reaped where he did not sow. The latter description would presumably imply that he received the benefit of work that he did not do or that he expected others to do that which he wouldn’t do himself. What are we to understand and learn by this description of the lord the servant gave and the lord seemed to confirm?

                In Jesus the Christ, Elder Talmage suggested that the man was simply trying to put his own failings on his master. He wrote that “the lazy and unprofitable serf, afflicted by distorted vision, professed to see in the Master his own base defects. The story in this particular, as in the other features relating to human acts and tendencies, is psychologically true; in a peculiar sense men are prone to conceive of the attributes of God as comprizing in augmented degree the dominant traits of their own nature.” That interpretation makes sense—that the accusation was not accurate but merely an excuse given by the servant—though it is still seems odd to me that the lord in the parable would confirm the accusation. Elder Talmage gave this comment, “It is notable that to the charge of unrighteousness made by the unfaithful servant, the Lord deigns no refutation; the spirit of the reply was the same as that expressed in the earlier parable: ‘Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant.’ The unworthy man sought to excuse himself by the despicable but all too common subterfuge of presumptuously charging culpability in another, and in this instance, that other was his Lord.” Rephrasing the parable with this interpretation would make it read something like this: “Thou wicked and slothful servant, if thou thought I reap where I sowed not and gather where I have not strawed: Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers….” In other words, we might interpret the lord’s reply as simply saying, “Okay, well if that’s how you think I am you then why did you act as you did?” One thing we do know, is that the description “reaping where thou hast not sown” is not an accurate description of the true Lord. He requires us to be obedient only after being obedient Himself; He requires us to sacrifice only after He has made far greater sacrifices; when we suffer a little He has “descended below them all” (Doctrine and Covenants 122:8).

                For me the lesson of this parable is that I do not want to be like the description this servant gave. I often wonder if my family could describe me in the same way, “an hard man, reaping where [I have] not sowed.” The Lord makes it clear to us that we will be judged according to how we judge others, so if I expect to reap where I’m not willing to sow—or, in other words, if I expect of others that which I don’t do myself—then I am under condemnation. The Lord put it this in modern revelation: “The Lord shall come to recompense unto every man according to his work, and measure to every man according to the measure which he has measured to his fellow man” (Doctrine and Covenants 1:10). If I am a “hard man” and expect to gather from others what I am not willing to straw, the Lord will measure me in the same way.