The Jesus we meet is on the road. He is traveling. He has been traveling since chapter 9. In chapter 9, he said he was going to be killed, and he told his disciples to take up their cross daily and follow him. (EJ, 33.7) And from chapters 9 to 19, Jesus has been journeying to Jerusalem. This is eleven chapters of remarks along the way. You think you spend a long time on the road for your commute. Most of Luke’s gospel is travelling. Along the way, Jesus has called people to follow him, but they are following him to Jerusalem, and following him to his death. Jesus keeps saying this again and again. Jerusalem is the place of his exodus, the place of primary ignition, blast off, then lift off. He journeys to Jerusalem so that he can return to his Father.
And then just outside of Jericho, Jesus stops and says this. The paragraph that starts half way down the Essential Jesus page 57
Then he took the twelve aside and said to them, “Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished. For he will be handed over to people from other nations, and be ridiculed and insulted and spat upon. They will flog him, then kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.” Yet they did not grasp any of these things; this saying remained hidden from them and they did not understand what was said.
The disciples have rightly understood that Jesus is the Christ, the long awaited Messiah, the King of the Universe. They do not yet understand that the Messiah must be murdered. No matter how many times Jesus tells them, the penny doesn’t drop. Only after Jesus rises again, do they begin to understand. Nevertheless, the disciples can’t say, ‘Hey Jesus, you never told us! You never said you had to die!’ For Jesus has told them again and again.
The passage we heard read was probably first given close to Jericho. Jesus has just walked through Jericho. He’s eaten at Zacchaeus’ home, a notorious sinner. But Zacchaeus the sinner found salvation. The lost has been found when Zacchaeus meets Jesus. And Zacchaeus moves from greed to generosity. But Jesus’ coming to Jericho has caused a stir for other reasons, because Jericho is the city just outside of Jerusalem. Look with me at the last paragraph on Essential Jesus page 58:
While they were still listening, Jesus went on to tell them a parable, because he was close to Jerusalem and the people were thinking that the kingdom of God was just about to appear.
Jerusalem is the city of King David. Jesus has another 30 kilometres to walk. And people gathered around, wondering, "Maybe we’re watching the ‘Return of the King’? Maybe it’s all about to happen now? Maybe the Kingdom of God is right now going to appear on earth. The Romans will get the boot, and once again, Jerusalem will be the centre of the world, with Kings and Queens seeking audience with the son of David. This is not the pax Romana, but peace on God’s terms, on our terms, a peace that will last forever."
Well, Jesus is about to disabuse them of that notion. For Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world. He will be going away to receive his kingdom. And then he will come back. And so we read the parable of the minas. Look again with me, page 58, bottom paragraph, half way through:
He [Jesus] said, “A certain nobleman went to a distant land to receive kingly authority and then return. He called ten of his servants, gave them ten minas and said to them, ‘Do business with these while I am gone’.
The historical setting helps us understand this parable. This is not just a general parable about individual initiative, reward for hard work, and personal responsibility, although all these themes are there. It is about Jesus Christ, and his kingdom, and how his kingdom will come in.
At this time, client Kings, vassals like Herod, would go to far off Rome to receive their royal power from Caesar. And Jesus is likening himself to them. The first thing Jesus is teaching us is he will receive a kingdom. For Jesus is the certain nobleman who goes away to receive kingly authority. And he is about to go away, not in his death, for sinful men cannot get rid of Jesus by killing him. It is by his ascension, after his death and resurrection, that Jesus goes away. The ascension is Jesus’ exodus. By ascending, Jesus will go to the distant land of heaven, to receive his kingly authority.
Jesus is now away. Send up the Space Shuttle to find him, and it won’t. Jesus is beyond our physical apprehension. Jesus Christ is now exalted to the right hand of God as Prince and Saviour (Acts 2:33, 5:31). There he remains, seated, until his Father makes all his enemies a footstool for his feet (Acts 2:34-35, quoting Psalm 110:1), until the time comes for God to restore everything (Acts 3:21).
In this parable, Jesus is telling his disciples yet again, 'Do not expect glory when we come to Jerusalem. Now is not the time of glory, but humiliation and suffering.' The accent is on servant in servant king, or on the lamb who was slain rather than the lion of the tribe of Judah. Jesus brings out the opposition he will face in the next part of the parable. Essential Jesus, page 59 at the very top.
However, his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to reign over us’.
There are vested interests ranged against Jesus receiving Kingship. The old Kings don’t want the new King. So the citizens hated him.
And this is a warning about what’s going to happen to Christ in Jerusalem. Jerusalem might roll out the red carpet, spread their cloaks and cry out, ‘Blessed be the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest’ (EJ page 60). But crowds can be changed and manipulated. Their energy can be redirected. And a week later a just as enthusiastic crowd will cry out ‘Take him away. Release Barabbas to us, Crucify him, crucify him’ (EJ 70.3, 70.6).
Notice how personal the rejection is. We do not want this man to reign over us.
How about you? What do you think of your king, the Lord Jesus Christ? Are you like the citizens in this story? They hate Jesus. Do you not like Jesus having this kingly authority over you, to stick his nose into your affairs, to tell you what to do? It’s no good saying to Jesus, ‘it’s not personal’. No offence, I just want to be my own King. Jesus Christ takes offence. It is all very personal. And so he says after he receives his kingly power: Page 59, 7/10ths down the page.
But as for those enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and execute them before me.”
When he comes in his powerful glory, gentle Jesus meek and mild will watch as his very personal vengeance is executed upon his enemies. Is that your Jesus? The one who orders and watches the deaths of his enemies. For he is not just the lamb who was slain. He is also the lion of the tribe of Judah, the one of whom Scripture says:
Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?" (Revelation 6:15-17 NIV)
That is the Jesus with whom each of us has to do.
In the parable Jesus continues. The nobleman does receive the kingdom.
Yet he did receive his kingly authority, and when he returned he had those servants to whom he had given money summoned before him, so that he could find out what profit they had made in business.
And so now Jesus turns his attention away from his enemies and to his disciples. They are the servants given a task during their Lord’s absence. And the Lord calls his servants to give an account.
And I guess this is where most of us fit in the story. We aren’t his enemies – at least, I hope we aren’t. And if you are, can I urge you to become his servant. But if you are longing for his appearing, you are his servant. But his servants aren’t meant to sit in the waiting room, reading the paper or New Idea. We’ve been given his treasure and a commission. We each one are called to invest and do business with our master’s deposit while we wait.
We still will stand before the judgment seat of Christ, to receive recompense for that which we have done in the body, whether good or bad.
The first one came and said, ‘Lord, your single mina has earned ten minas’. He said to him, ‘Well done, good servant. Because you have been faithful with a small thing, take authority over ten of my cities.’ The second came saying, ‘Lord, your single mina has made five minas’. And to this one also he said, ‘Take authority over five of my cities.’
The first two servants of the ten come forward to render their accounts. We get a snap shot of the success of the servants. One had a thousand percent success, another 500 percent. The percentages are different in Matthew’s Gospel, but you get the idea. Each servant has been fruitful to the extent of his abilities. He hasn’t sat on his mina, but he has put it to work. And each is rewarded for his fruitfulness. And indeed, the one with 10 minas gets an extra.
And friends, the servants of Jesus Christ are fruitful. They do bear fruit. They cannot help it. Whether it’s tenfold or twofold, Christians bear fruit. As a tree is known by it’s fruits, so are the disciples of Jesus Christ. Some of you are tenfold servants, some are five, and some are two. And that’s OK. For God has made us different, and will reward us differently, each according to what he has done, according to his previous gifting of us. This is a great encouragement for us. The Christian’s effort in serving Christ is always rewarded, and that reward is fitting and fitted to the gifting God has given us.
My dear friends, now is the time for work. Make hay while the sun shines. Strike while the iron is hot. Carpe Diem… Seize the day. Today is the day to take the opportunities the Lord Jesus Christ gives us.
And what is the fruit which we will bear? Souls. People. Good works directed towards precious people made in the image of God and for whom Jesus Christ died. Friends, Christian ministry is about people: loving them, serving them, feeding them, clothing them, evangelizing them, discipling them, rejoicing with them, weeping with them, teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training them, encouraging, exhorting, and loving them as ourselves, which shows our love for the God we cannot see. So Jesus’ words are an encouragement in the task. There are eternal rewards for our labour. So always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord, knowing that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.
But there is a melancholy, a tragic character in the parable Jesus tells. The enemies are out and out evil. They provoke our hostility. They are baddies in black hats. But there is one of the ten wearing a white hat, a goodie, that really is not a goodie. He is a tragic figure, like a Saul or a Judas, one whose paths none of us wish to tread.
Another one came saying, ‘Look, Lord, here is the single mina, which I kept stored away in a handkerchief. I was afraid of you, because you are a strict man, taking what you did not deposit and reaping what you did not sow.’
The master had said, ‘Do business with these while I am gone’. And most of the 10 had done business. They had put the mina to work. They made a profit. But there was one who was out and out disobedient. He didn’t invest it, he didn’t work it. He tells us he was afraid. And maybe that was true. In the version of the parable that Matthew gives, the master calls the servant ‘lazy’. The point was, he did nothing. He didn’t lose it, but neither did he obey the master. What’s worse, he imputes harshness to the master. But wisdom and kindness can be seen in the master’s action. To the one capable of bringing forth tenfold, ten cities are given. To the one capable of bring forth fivefold, five cities are given. The high achiever is not underutilized. The faithful plodder is not overstretched. Responsibility and ability are perfectly married.
Moreover, it is not true to say the master has not sown nor reaped. He has put up the capital and pays the keep of the servant. So there is ingratitude in the servant’s words. So the master replies with harsh words to this unfair accusation.
He replied, ‘You wicked servant! By the words of your own mouth I will judge you. You knew, did you, that I was a strict man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow? Why then did you not give my money to a bank? At least then, on my return, I could have collected it with some interest.’ And he said to those present, 'Take the mina from him and give it to the one who has ten minas.’
The servant’s failure to act was a moral failing. He was called wicked. And the excuses he has offered will not cut it, because he didn’t act consistently with it.
I don’t think Jesus is talking primarily about money, although we might see that one application of the parable is what we do with money. Jesus isn’t saying that the successful businessman has the right to take the meagre capital of the scared investment portfolio manager. Nor is this parable the Liberal party parable, and the parable of the workers in the vineyard is the Labor party parable, so that there is something in the bible for every political persuasion.
Primarily, this parable is about the gospel. The nobleman’s deposit represents the gospel. Jesus has given each of his servants the same gospel. Each has received the same mina – the news that Jesus is king, that he died for our sin, that he rose again for our justification, and that by faith in Christ the filth of our sin is washed from us, and we are received clean and holy and acceptable before him.
We are called to use our God-given talents to promote the gospel, further the gospel, work towards this great enterprise and cause, the Lordship of Jesus Christ. On page 74 of the Essential Jesus, the last page of Luke’s Gospel, we read these words, third paragraph from the bottom, half way through.
Then he [Jesus] opened their minds to understand the Scriptures and said: 'This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be announced in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are my witnesses of these things, and so I will send to you the promise of my Father. You yourselves stay here in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.' Then he led them out to Bethany. He raised his hands and blessed them, and as he was blessing them, he departed from them and was taken up to heaven.’
This is the cutting edge of the parable. Jesus was soon going to be airlifted to another world – off to a far away country. And Jesus’ disciples would soon get a job: to declare to the world that Jesus is the Christ who died and rose for the forgiveness of sins. And stuffing this news, this gospel, into your hanky as if it were something to be ashamed of, is simply unacceptable to the Lord Jesus. This is a powerful gospel that is meant to be put to work in the world, and invested. The gospel is our business, which we are seeking to invest and promote and receive a return on in lives submitting to Jesus and saved from eternal judgment.
So the command I think is this: speak of Jesus and his salvation, as you have ability and opportunity. And labour for Jesus Christ. Make this your one great over-riding cause in life -- more important even than wife, children, family, friends, job – as important as those things undoubtedly are. But the important things find their correct balance and proportion in the light of Christ’s overarching lordship.
Let’s pray.