To those who have shall be given, and from those who have not shall be taken away

It sounds wrong when Jesus says that those who have much shall be given more and he who has little shall lose even the little he has. At the same time, this paradoxical statement appears a surprising number of times in our society and personal lives from sports to economics.

In Matthew's Gospel, you find the parable of the talents, where the ruler entrusts his stewards with the talents (a contemporary unit of about 30 kg of gold or silver), and when he returns after a while, he finds that two of the stewards have doubled the value of their talents, but one of them has buried his talents because he was afraid. The first two get praise and the third gets punished.

And it is here that you hear that strange phrase that you can ponder with the sages across the millennia, "For to everyone who has, to him shall be given and added; to him who has not, from him shall be taken away even that which he has."

This seems unfair, after all, those who have not are to be given and those who have are to be taken away, right? After all, this is how every tax system works, every champion of equality and freedom. And now this straight from the mouth of Jesus? What principle is he describing? What about it?

This paradoxical statement appears a surprising number of times in modern economics. First, we can look at the matter through the prism of the Pareto rule, which says roughly this: 80 percent of the effort is wasted, and 20 percent of the work yields 80 percent of the result. It is said among sculptors that sculpture is five percent inspiration and 95 percent perspiration, or sweat.

It is sure to be similar to painters, architects, or other creative works. In my experience, Pareto's rule applies to book writing as well. It takes me 20 percent of my energy to write 80 percent of a book, but it takes me 80 percent of my energy to finish the work and to think through the final 20 percent (which, after all, separates a good book from a bad one).

To have such spirit!

Coming up with an idea is one thing; seeing a patent through to the end is quite another. And so it happens that if someone doesn't have even that little bit, even the 20 or 5 or 1 percent, not only will he not have the rest, but he will lose that one percent of inspiration in time. Or maybe he has them, for everybody has some talents, but he keeps them (to himself). And then he doesn't do anything – out of fear maybe – of that 80-percent effort.

Such a person loses even the little bit of inspiration he has. Because even inspiration, that little mustard seed that lets the whole big tree grow, seems to have only a given amount of patience. If it doesn't find fertile soil, it will eventually die.

So perhaps Jesus is saying: be a fertile ground for the spirit. When the creative spirit speaks to us, it still takes less than one percent of the following effort to bring forth a great project. Man is to live in such a way, to create in such a way, to have such an inner infrastructure that when the Spirit speaks to him from time to time, he stops doing everything else and listens.

Then from one sentence, one drop, one breath of inspiration he can live for many years, nay, he can live and work on it for many more lives. And Jesus talked about the Spirit having these qualities quite often. It only takes one milligram of living leaven to lift a ton of dead flour and water into several times the volume of living-leavened dough. It only takes one little flame to ignite your whole life.

The second principle, well known to economists, is the winner takes it all. It works in sports, just as it does in music, and ABBA sings about it: the difference in the effort a world-famous athlete or musician puts into preparation and performance is more or less the same as for all competitors. The difference between the former and the latter is often measured in milliseconds in sports; you wouldn't know the difference with the human eye.

Yet only the winner is graced and rewarded with wealth, fame, interest, and sponsors. No one cares much about fourth place. That's why the one who was given a little more takes it all, and the one without that millimeter drop of "something extra" goes into early retirement with broken knuckles.

Live with an advantage

And yet, among economists, the term Matthew Effect is used, named after that gospel. The effect describes how people with an initial advantage given to them accumulate more and more advantages over time, and people without an advantage do the opposite. Perhaps this principle describes the workings not only of capitalism, where money gravitates money but also the course of the world.

Be those people with an advantage. Find it in yourself. Beware, however, it is often buried as deep as a treasure which it takes almost a hundred percent effort to uncover.

This article was first published by Hospodářské Noviny on February 9th, 2024.