Day: April 21, 2024

FAITHFUL OR FEARFUL?

Luke 19:11-27 NET.

¹¹ While the people were listening to these things, Jesus proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately. ¹² Therefore he said, “A nobleman went to a distant country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return. ¹³ And he summoned ten of his slaves, gave them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Do business with these until I come back.’ ¹⁴ But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to be king over us!’ ¹⁵ When he returned after receiving the kingdom, he summoned these slaves to whom he had given the money. He wanted to know how much they had earned by trading. ¹⁶ So the first one came before him and said, ‘Sir, your mina has made ten minas more.’ ¹⁷ And the king said to him, ‘Well done, good slave! Because you have been faithful in a very small matter, you will have authority over ten cities.’ ¹⁸ Then the second one came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has made five minas.’ ¹⁹ So the king said to him, ‘And you are to be over five cities.’ ²⁰ Then another slave came and said, ‘Sir, here is your mina that I put away for safekeeping in a piece of cloth. ²¹ For I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man. You withdraw what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow.’ ²² The king said to him, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked slave! So you  knew, did you, that I was a severe man, withdrawing what I didn’t deposit and reaping what I didn’t sow? ²³ Why then didn’t you put my money in the bank, so that when I returned I could have collected it with interest?’ ²⁴ And he said to his attendants, ‘Take the mina from him, and give it to the one who has ten.’ ²⁵ But they said to him, ‘Sir, he has ten minas already!’ ²⁶ ‘I tell you that everyone who has will be given more, but from the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. ²⁷ But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to be their king, bring them here and slaughter them in front of me!'”

We have been studying the commands of Christ. But we have found that the commands of Christ that appear in the Gospels are often hidden within other kinds of statements. That is the situation we find ourselves in when looking at today’s text. It is primarily a parable. Jesus doesn’t give any commands within the parable. But there is one character in the parable who does give commands. When we study this parable of the Minas, we learn how to prepare ourselves for the coming Kingdom. We will find commands in this parable, but we must be careful not to make this parable say more than it says. Jesus gave parables to illustrate something that he was teaching. One danger in studying the parables is that we make the parables walk on all fours. In other words, we make them say more than they are meant to say. So, we must look very closely at the context in which we read this parable today to understand its meaning. If we do that, we will discover it has much to say today. As long as we let it say what it meant to say instead of what we think it meant.

The text picks up where we last left off in the story of Zacchaeus in Jericho. The Lord had welcomed Zacchaeus. All the people were surprised that he had done that. And then Jesus begins to teach about the coming Kingdom. But he is addressing a particular problem. Luke says that Jesus proceeded to tell a parable because he was near Jerusalem, and they thought the Kingdom of God would appear immediately. The people who believed that were the crowd following Jesus to Jerusalem. They thought they were following the king to his inauguration. We know now that Jesus was not going to Jerusalem to be crowned as king. He was going to Jerusalem to die on the cross for our salvation. Jesus accepted the title of king but told people that his Kingdom was not of this world. It was not of this age. His Kingdom is coming at another age. It’s coming at the end of the age. So Jesus had to teach the people in the crowd that there would be a long delay between his going to Jerusalem and his being crowned as king of God’s Kingdom. That is what this parable is for. This parable is designed to do two things. It is intended to show believers how to conduct themselves in this present stage of God’s Kingdom. It is also intended to make unbelievers fully aware of what will happen to them when Christ does come as king.

With that in mind, let’s dive into this parable of the ten Minas to see what Jesus is teaching and commanding us. I want us to take several of the characters of this parable and try to understand each one. To do that, I’m going to ask a question for each character.

Who is this nobleman?

Jesus identified the first character of this parable when he said a nobleman went to a distant country. Who is this nobleman? The crowd was very familiar with the idea of a nobleman going to a foreign country to gain a Kingdom. In the city of Jericho, a man named Archelaus had left his palace and proceeded to Rome to be anointed as king in place of his father, who had just died Herod the Great. It is quite possible that Jesus and Zacchaeus were within visual distance of Archelaus’s palace when Jesus said this parable. That means that Jesus’ audience would understand the idea of someone going to Rome to be anointed as king. They knew all about Archelaus. They knew about his steward Philippus. While he was away, Philippus had been left in charge of Archelaus’ fortune. So, several aspects of this parable would resonate with the crowd as they walked through Jericho.

But the crowd also knew that Archelaus was not the nobleman Jesus had in mind in his parable. This noble one was going to be crowned as king. And then he would return and bless the stewards that work for him in his absence. Jesus was talking about himself when he talked about this nobleman. He was going to go to the far country of heaven itself. There, God the Father would grant him the authority to be king over heaven and earth. And then, at some time in the future, our Lord, the king of heaven and earth, would return to earth and take his throne. But Jesus used this parable to warn us that there would be a long period in which he would be away and not yet present on earth.

When I talk about this long period, I usually talk about the Kingdom and its present stage and the Kingdom when it comes to fullness. Often, when Jesus talked about the Kingdom, he spoke of a time in the future when he was going to come as king. But he also said we can receive the Kingdom today. We can accept Jesus as our king today even though he is absent. Everyone had to choose what they would do with this nobleman in the parable. The slaves had to decide whether or not they were going to obey his commands. The citizens had to choose whether or not they were going to accept him as their king. So, the message for all of us today as to who this nobleman is is that it is Jesus. He is God’s coming king. Today’s message for this world is have you accepted God’s coming king? The message for believers today is, are we serving God’s coming king?

Who are these slaves?

The second character in this parable is a group of people identified as slaves. There are 10 of them. Each of these slaves is given a mina, a sum of money. They are given a Mina to invest while their master, the nobleman, is away. This parable is similar to another parable Jesus gave, the Parable of the Talents, But there are some significant differences. One of the major differences is that in the parable of the Minas, each servant is given the same amount. That is significant because the exact amount is given to every believer. But the same amount of what? We are not given the same amount of gifts. We are not given the same amount of natural talent. We are not blessed with the same amount of natural resources. Some of us are poor, and some are rich, like Zacchaeus. What is this commodity that we have that all of us have in common?

There are actually many things that could answer the question: What is the meaning of the mina? One thing it could stand for is time. You and I are given the same amount of time. We don’t all live the same amount of time, but we all have the same amount each day. The Lord has invested with us a 24-hour day, our seven-day week, and a 365-day year.

Another thing that the Mina may stand for is salvation by grace. Each of us who are servants of our Lord has been blessed with salvation by his grace through his death on the cross. None of us has earned this grace. There’s nothing we could do to gain it. It is a gift of God and not of our works so that we have no basis to boast.

Another thing that the Mina may stand for is opportunity. We don’t all have the same gifts, but we have the same opportunity to serve the Lord as everyone else. This is a very satisfying truth. One of us has been given one thing that we don’t deserve. We have been given a chance to show how faithful we are to the one we call our master. The question in the title of today’s sermon is faithful or fearful. Will we live lives that are faithful to Christ, or will we let our fears keep us from serving him?

In the parable, two servants are identified as having been obedient to the Lord — obedient to their Lord and are rewarded accordingly. But one servant is humbled by his Lord because he refused to invest his Lord’s money, disgracing him. This parable is Jesus’ way of teaching us to stay diligent and serve him during this time before he returns. The parable is not designed to teach us that we will be rewarded differently when he returns. The point of the parable is that we should stay faithful. The Lord has allowed us to serve him. We must take advantage of that opportunity.

Who are these citizens?

But let’s go now to the parable’s question of who these citizens are. They are called citizens of the Kingdom in verse 14. It says that his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying we do not want this man to be king over us. They were citizens but they were not acting like citizens. That’s why the Lord changes his name for them in the parable. In verse 27, the Lord calls them his enemies. He says As for these enemies of mine who did not want me to be their king, bring them here and slaughter them in front of me.

Several commentators say that these enemies are the nation of Israel. It is true that the Israelites as a nation rejected their Messiah and crucified him at Calvary. But Jesus is coming back not just as the king of the Jews but as the king of all the kingdoms of the earth. The citizens who are the king’s enemies are all those who refuse to acknowledge his Kingdom. That includes everyone who fails to accept Jesus. When we talk about accepting Jesus, we have to remember that there is no second choice. Only Jesus is going to reign as king over the universe. If we refuse to accept Jesus as our king, we are asking God to destroy us. There’s no other option. There’s no other Kingdom for us to be part of. There’s no neutral territory in God’s eternal Kingdom. Only those who have pledged loyalty to Christ will live forever with him on the new earth. That is why, in this parable, the enemies are slaughtered when the king returns. Jesus tells us that in hell, his enemies will be destroyed body and soul. The apostle Paul calls it permanent destruction. That is the fate of everyone who chooses some other king other than Jesus.

What is Jesus’ command?

Finally, I want to ask what Jesus’ command is here. The nobleman’s command to his slaves was this: ‘Do business with these until I come back.’ Jesus is telling us the same thing. He reminds us that each of us has been given a limited amount of time to show our loyalty to him during this stage of his kingdom. He has blessed us all with the same undeserved gift: salvation by grace. His question for us now is what we are doing with that precious gift. Are we investing it in the lives of others to help bring them into the kingdom? Or are we hiding it away? Each of us has an opportunity to show our appreciation for God’s love by loving others. Are we taking that opportunity?

For further study:

Blanchard, John, and John Blanchard. Luke Comes Alive! Welwyn: Evangelical, 1986. p. 126.

Bliss, George R. Commentary on the Gospel of Luke. Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1884. pp. 279-282.

Bonaventure. Saint Bonaventure As a Biblical Commentator: A Translation and Analysis of His Commentary on Luke Xviii 34-Xix 42. University Press of America 1985. pp. 111-126.

Bond, John, Brooke Foss Westcott, and Fenton John Anthony Hort. The Gospel according to St. Luke: being the Greek text. London: Macmillan and Co, 1890. pp. 140-141.

Byrne Brendan. The Hospitality of God: A Reading of Luke’s Gospel. Liturgical Press 2000. pp. 152-153.

Caird, G B. Saint Luke. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1978. pp. 208-211.

Campbell, Colin, James Donaldson, and James Donaldson. Critical Studies in St Luke’s Gospel Its Demonology and Ebionitism by Colin Campbell, B.d. Minister of the Parish of Dundee; Formerly Scholar and Fellow of Glasgow University; Author of ‘the First Three Gospels in Greek, Arranged in Parallel Columns, Etc.’. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1891. pp. 213-217.

Clark, George W. Notes on the Gospel of Luke, Explanatory and Practical: A Popular Commentary Upon a Critical Basis, Especially Designed for Pastors and Sunday Schools. Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1876. pp. 415-418.

Collins Donald E. The Reign of God Is in Your Midst: Praying the Gospel of Luke. Upper Room Books 1993. p. 178.

Craddock, Fred B. Luke., 2009. pp. 215-223.