I... buried your talent in the ground

The third servant in the parable is condemned as "wicked and lazy" (v 26) and the talent is taken away from him.

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But the audience of Jesus may have realized that what the third servant does with the money is both legal and safe.

In what way then does the parable disorient us and lead us to a different outlook? The opportunistic and hardnosed master (surely not an image of God) expected him to take a risk and to obtain results, not to play it safe by hiding the money in the ground. It is easy enough to dismiss this as a greedy person's point of view. But in life, one who does not take risks may eventually lose out. “Use it, or lose it,” goes a saying. Lose what?

Talents, skills, opportunities, connections—the list is endless. And this may well be true of eternal life. Jesus teaches that whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever would lose his life for the sake of Jesus will find it (Mt 16:25).