So what excuse would he have for presenting no increase to his master? In the parable, Jesus tells us:

¹⁶ “Finally the one that had received the one talent came forward and said, ‘Master, I knew you to be an exacting man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you did not winnow.

17. (a) Did this slave approve of his master’s being like the landowning farmer that he described? (b) Why did the slave think his master had no right to complain at getting no increase?

¹⁷ This slave knew that increase was expected of him. But he lacked the courage to take the risk by ‘doing business’ with his master’s silver talent. He did not have the love for his master so as to act, in spite of his fears, and take the risk and make the efforts to expand the “belongings” of his master. He likened his master to a farming landowner, who not only got crops from his own land but also harvested products from the land that he did not own and did not cultivate and gathered grain that he had not winnowed clean of its chaff. The slave did not approve of his master’s making increase in that way. At least he charged his master with making increase in such a way.