Why was this parable spoken? We mustn’t be superficial and think that Christ only teaches that there will be a delay. It is about the response of human being to the amazing gift of the gospel, and of the blessing that come from putting our trust in Christ. The gospel is a like a deposit of tremendous value which God has placed in the world, which is put into our hands, and which, if we invest it by faith, will bring enormous returns.
The parable has been misinterpreted to teach that we will be assessed at the final judgment on the basis of what we have done with those natural gifts that God gives to every human being. If we have improved these natural abilities then we will be rewarded by God; if we have neglected them, we will be punished. But to teach this is to overthrow grace, for according to the gospel, ‘it is by grace we are saved through faith and that [faith] not of ourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works so that no one should boast.’ If salvation were a matter of improving natural gifts, then human power, human intelligence, human strength and skill would determine who entered kingdom of heaven. These things would tend to exalt man, but God has ensured that this does not happen. In the kingdom of heaven it is God who is exalted and he alone receives all the glory.
This parable is similar to that in Luke 19:11, but the differences are significant enough for it to be certain that they were given on separate occasions. The circumstances for the giving of the parable are not the same; the number of servants is different, as are the amounts given to each one; Luke adds the extra feature of the unwillingness of the citizens to have the nobleman reign over them; the detail of what the servant given least did with his money is also different. Christ no doubt used similar illustrations in different circumstances and adapted them to the occasion.