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So a few years ago, I decided to toss away any assumptions that I knew what it meant to follow Jesus. More than happy to tell you how I got there, but that’s a long story for another time. What did I do? I decided to read Luke's Gospel carefully, like a curious unbeliever. I didn't skip over the confusing parts, I didn’t assume I already understood Jesus.
One of the things that dawned on me, with growing unease, was that Christ paints a picture of three ways to live:
- Those who reject Him outright.
- Those who follow him wholeheartedly.
- And those appear to trust Christ but are not actually living in full obedience to his word.
I really didn’t want to be in that group, but unless God literally - not just theoretically - changed my heart, I knew I could not love God and people in the way his word commanded. I began to pray with new desperation for God to change me, to really change me. The certainty I once had in my capacity to live as a follower of Christ was gone. But at the same time my certainty in Christ’s power to help me, increased.
Luke begins his gospel in chapter 1 verse 4 with the desire that his reader, the most excellent Theophilus, would have certainty concerning the things he had already been taught. This was my experience as I paid careful attention to Luke’s narrative. I became more certain of who Jesus is and what it means to truly trust him.
Everything Luke writes is worth meditating on, but tonight - you’ll be relieved to hear - we are only going to look at this one story in chapter 19.
It’s a parable Jesus told when he knew his followers were about to face great uncertainty. He knew he was about to die and that they assumed he was about to sit on the throne in Jerusalem and make all their dreams come true. Jesus did not want them trying to piece together their own meaning from the events that happened. And it’s the same for us today. Jesus wants his words, rather than our own musings, to be our guide for making sense of an often confusing world.
The parable of the ten minas is Christ’s gift to strengthen his soon-to-be very confused followers.
Let’s look at the context of the parable in
V11 As they heard these things, he proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately.
The Jewish nation anticipated a powerful Messiah. As David delivered Israel from the Philistines, his descendent would rescue them from Rome. The Kingdom he established would be characterized by peace, justice, and righteousness, with Israel ruling over the nations of the world. Psalm 2 and Isaiah 11 are just a couple of places that reflect this expectation.
Now when we get to the time of Jesus, those who followed him around Israel, fully expected him to bring in the powerful Kingdom of God when he got to Jerusalem. Both his intimate disciples and the crowds assumed this. In Luke 9:45 and chapter 18:34 when Jesus predicts his upcoming death, his close friends have no idea what he is talking about. In chapter 19:37, when the crowds are screaming for Jesus as he rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, Luke tells us they are shouting because of all the powerful stuff they’d seen him do. They are expecting more mighty power from him in the capital city. Later in Luke 24:19-21 when Jesus talks to a couple of his followers on the road to Emmaus, they explain how they are really sad because the man they knew as Jesus of Nazareth, who was mighty in word and deed, whom they assumed was about to restore Israel, just got killed!
Now although we sitting here on this side of the cross, know that the kingdom of God was not about to appear immediately as Jesus entered Jerusalem…
…we are not immune to the same desires that fuelled those expectations of Jesus’ first followers, are we? Don’t you want to see the Jesus use his power to instantly fix all the mess? If not in the big cosmic sense of his second return, don’t we sometimes expect him to do immediate tidy ups of our own lives, families, and churches? And when he doesn’t, and when things keep on being difficult, don’t we feel confused? Aren’t we tempted to be sad when we look around us and it seems like Satan is the one having a victory party?
This world is filled with distractions that the enemy will use to make us doubt Christ's loving eternal, yet still invisible reign. But our kind King knows this. He wants us to be certain of three key truths. These certainties will help us live in light of His eternal kingdom, rather than being overcome by the difficulties of this temporary world.
I’ve tried to help us remember these three certain truths by summarizing them under 3 R’s:
- Return:
- Resistance:
- Reward/Retribution:
Yes, I did sneak a 4th one in there, but we’ll put it under the 3rd point.
1. RETURN: The certainty of the King’s return
19V12 He said therefore, “A nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return.
In the parable Jesus depicts Himself as a nobleman who travels to a distant land to become king, and then return.
Here's what we can take from this:
There is no doubt that Jesus is the ultimate king. Though we may not see Him visibly ruling this world now, His eventual return as king is certain. While Satan still has power to deceive and destroy in this current age, by his death and resurrection Jesus has decisvely beaten him. In John 12:31. "Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out.”
Colossians 2:15 "He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame”. Jesus wants us to remember that His authority currently is, and one day will be seen to be, absolute and without rival. He will return and put all enemies under his feet, as we read 1 Corinthians 15.
Now, let’s imagine for a moment that we didn’t have certainty of Christ’s victorious return. Perhaps an example from history might help. During the American War of Independence, when the colonists of North America decided they were fed up being ruled by Britain, there was an American military officer called Benedict Arnold. Arnold initially fought for the Americans, but he later wavered and switched sides to support the British. This, unfortunately for him, didn’t work out so well. Britain lost the war, and he was forever remembered as a traitor.
Benedict Arnold was uncertain whether his side would win the ultimate victory, and so when things got hard, he gave up and switched. Being sure of victory is crucial for perseverance during conflict. Jesus wants us to be certain of his ultimate victory, so we will not waver in our loyalty to him, no matter how grim things get.
Ok so…
Still on point 1, we’re up to verse 13. Jesus describes what the nobleman did before leaving.
Imagine Prince William calling his British servants together before he heads off to Australia on a long trip and says, ‘Here’s a 10 000 pounds. While I’m gone use it do business and make a profit’. He doesn’t just hand out the money and say ‘have fun!’ No, he says ‘Engage in business until I return’. A mina is 3 months wages, say around 15-20k in AUDollars.
‘Engage in business’ is not about passively holding onto the money. The Greek word implies active, careful engagement. It's about using that money wisely, investing it, making it grow.
This image also highlights the certainty of Christ's return. Just as no nobleman would leave his servants in charge of his estate without intending to return to reap the rewards of their efforts, Jesus would not entrust His followers with what belongs to him, if He did not plan to return and claim his own.
Jesus is about to physically depart from his disciples. What does he leave with them in his absence? Well throughout Luke’s narrative he has been telling his followers to actively and carefully engage with something that belongs to him… what….. ? His Word. 6:46-49, 8:21, 11:28, 13:24-27
Think about it: Jesus leaves us with His Word. He warns in Luke 8:18, 'Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they think they have will be taken from them.’ Can you hear the echoes of this parable in that warning?
Engaging productively with the Word, isn't primarily or only about speaking the gospel. Its about listening to Jesus and obeying him. Sometimes that will mean speaking, sometimes that will mean keeping our mouths shut. If listening to Jesus in order to obey him feels like a slow way of growing the kingdom, we should remember Jesus illustrates the Kingdom in Luke's gospel by comparing it to a mustard seed – it will seem insignificant at first. As He goes to the cross, it will appear to His followers that God's Kingdom is defeated before it even begins.
And Gospel fruitfulness in our lives never deviates from the pattern of the cross. It begins, and continues, with death to self. Humbling ourselves to admit we wrong and God is right. Confessing our hidden practices to one another, crucifying our habits of blame and self-justification. These actions will feel like death and they don't look like anything is being done for the kingdom, but as we embrace Christs commands in the ways that are most personally uncomfortable, we will die, and his kingdom will grow in our hearts.
Jesus said in Luke 6:45: A good person produces good out of the good stored up in his heart. An evil person produces evil out of the evil stored up in his heart, for his mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart. Without God’s love in us, we’ll just be making noise - as Paul says 1 Corinthians 13. We can’t let the needs around us distract us from setting our hearts on Christ. Like Martha in Luke 12, we can easily lose sight of what is the most important thing. Sitting still and listening to what Jesus has to say to us, can be really uncomfortable. But it’s only as his words abide in us, that we will produce fruit that lasts. Living for visible activity is tempting, but when the King returns, He won't reward anything we've done out of own strength for our own glory.
2. RESISTANCE:
The second truth Jesus wants his followers to remember, is the certainty of resistance.
v14 But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to reign over us.’
In the parable we can understand “his citizens” to mean Jesus’ own countrymen, the Jewish leaders. John 1:11 says, He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
Even though Jesus so throughoughly fulfilled old testament prophecy, the Jewish officals rejected him. Ultimately they hated him because they expected the Christ, when he came, to elevate them even further than they had elevated themselves. But instead, Jesus brought them down.
His real power and authority exposed them as frauds, like the Wizard of Oz.
Jesus’ genuine love and kindness highlighted their hypocrisy.
His wisdom silenced their trick questions and shamed their educational institutions.
It’s no wonder they feared and hated him.
But in a broader human sense, the promised Messiah came to rule not just Israel, but all of humanity, all nations belong to him (Psalm 2:8). Jesus is King of the Human Race. And we all, at one time, perhaps even now, treat the rule of King Jesus with suspicion. In our hearts we hate the idea of his absolute authority over every single area of our lives… because … why? Perhaps deep down we fear him to be a selfish ruler? We fear that he might abuse our trust and hurt us? If we have those fears, that’s only natural. We’ve all grown up in a broken world where every other man we have ever seen with our eyes has failed to reflect God’s image to us. That’s exactly why we need to get to know Jesus - the full, perfect image of God - through his word. Because if we choose not to accept him as King then the consequences are severe.
In the parable, the nobleman is returning as King, regardless of what the citizens want. To reject his rule completely lacks sense. When Christ returns, those who do not want him to rule over them in peace and justice and righteousness, will get what they want. They will not get to live under his reign as verse 27 so tragically portrays. No resistance to his reign will be permitted to continue.
But if we choose now not to resist Jesus, how does the certainty that many will hate his reign, comfort and strengthen us during His absence?
If the world’s natural inclination is to fear and reject Jesus as King, it will also fear and reject His true servants.
By actively engaging in business for the hated nobleman, the servants are making themselves easy targets. Just as Jesus faced opposition, so too will those who represent him to a hostile world.
Jesus desires His followers to anticipate this hatred. So that when it occurs, we will not be confused or shaken, but rather rejoice that we’ve been counted worthy to suffer for his name.
3. REWARD/RETRIBUTION:
So we’re up to the third truth that Jesus wants his followers be certain of. We’re now looking at the first part v15-19
Imagine the nobleman returning as King. He calls in his hard-working servants, reviews their reports, and then sends them off to enjoy themselves – retirement in a luxurious seaside villa, perhaps. Wouldn't that be a nice outcome?
However, the King doesn't seem to reward them with leisure. Instead, He invites them to share in His rule. Isn’t that just giving them even more work? But this misunderstands the relationship he has with his servants. The King didn’t need the profits. What he wanted was them; he wants to share his rule. The mina thing was a test. This King wants to have servants by his side, to rule with him. He willingly shares his authority with those he knows he can trust. And the servants, by the time the King returns, have learnt that working for him is far more satisfying than lying on a beach. The last thing they want, is be to be sent away from serving their King.
How does knowing certainty of our future reward, help us remain steadfast right now?
My son is fond of telling me about the company called NVIDIA. Apparently they were an small business that made computer graphics processing chips. But those chips have now became the basis of what runs of our AI. Today NVIDIA is probably worth more than Microsoft or Google. So if you had invested $15000 in NDVIA stocks back in 2015, they would now be worth $1.4 million today. If you had some way of knowing back 2015 with absolute certainty that NVIDIA stocks were going to deliver a gauranteed 400% return within the next ten years, you’d have been silly not to invest every cent in them. And if others, who didn’t know what you knew, laughed at you for taking such a risk, you would have have happily ignored them.
People might make fun of us for risking everything on Jesus. But his promises, unlike the stock market, will never fail. Venture all you have on the words of Christ, and you will not regret it.
But there is another servant, isn’t there, who is not rewarded. What are we to make of him? We are up to verse 20-26, and we’re under the retribution part of the 3rd point. This servant has kept his master’s money hidden away and it has produced nothing. His excuse is (see verse 21):
I was afraid of you because you are a severe man, you take what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow.
It’s helpful to reflect on this and try to understand what is really going on here, so that we might be spared from making the same mistake.
This servant, having disobeyed his master's command, seeks to justify his disobedience by blaming the master. He accuses the King of having a harsh and unapproachable character, claiming that fear prevented him from fulfilling his duties. In essence, the servant feels the King is unworthy of his obedience, much like a student might feel justified in ignoring a tyrannical teacher.
This servant wrongly assumes the King is a mean and stingy ruler…
But the parable reveals the opposite. The King generously rewards faithfulness with multiple cities, each potentially worth billions of dollars.
This servant's fear of his master's supposed stinginess is unfounded and misguided
So if his fear is not based on reality, where does it come from?
It comes from an ancient lie. In the garden of Eden, Satan speaking through the serpant, questioned God’s generousity, ‘Did God really say you can’t eat from any tree in the garden?’ Even though the woman knew this wasn't entirely true, she entertained a seed of doubt.
As she began to have doubts about God’s goodness - his willingness to abundantly provide for her every need - she starts to imagine what she could gain for herself. Why wait helplessly for God to provide, when she could simply take it on her own?
When Eve believes the lie that God is not an abundant giver, she becomes a taker. She takes what was not hers to take. Sound familiar?
The servant in the parable accuses his generous master of taking what was not his to take. So in verse 22, the master rightly says, ‘I will condemn you with your own words, you wicked servant!. You see, the servant has projected his own sin onto his innocent master. The wicked servant took was not his - the mina - and misused it.
He accuses his master of robbing others, when he himself is the one who has done the robbing. He took from his master the profit the master should have received had he been obedient v23 The wicked servant took what was not his to take, and yet accuses his master of this exact crime.
Are we ever tempted to accuse God of robbery? Of taking what is not his to take? Perhaps when our lives don’t work the way we want God to make them work, when he doesn’t give us what we think ought to be ours, and we imagine he is withholding from us that which is not his to withhold. That he is keeping something from us that really should be ours. Taking from us what is not his.
When we suffer in this world, and we forget to remind ourselves of God’s good character revealed in his word, it’s easy to start believing the lie that God is a stealer. When we are weak and geographically or emotionally isolated from loving brothers and sisters, we are especially vulnerable - Satan, the roaring lion is ready to devour us with his lies, tempting us to stop waiting for God, and start taking for ourselves.
But how do we remember God’s goodness when we feel crushed by trials and disappointments? There is only one way. And that’s by remembering the one who was crushed for us, the one who willingly became isolated from God’s good presence so we would never have to be. He was cut off, so we could be brought in.
Our God is not a stingy taker. He is not a king who uses his people for his own gain. He gives and gives and gives. “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” Sickness, persecution, rejection can never separate us from the love of God in Christ. God didn’t toss us his spare change, he gave us the most precious thing he had. He gave us himself. When we have Christ, when we have his love in our undeserving hearts, all the other things we thought we needed in this life take on less significance.
And you know what, Christ does actually take what is not his to take. Shortly after he told this parable, he entered Jerusalem. And he took our sins. Although innocent and undeserving of God’s judgement, he bore our sins in his body on the cross. He took the punishment that was not his, but ours.
He was condemned with the condemnation that we deserve, so we might be forever
set free ….. set free from the fear of not only God’s judgement, but also any lingering suspicion that he might not be worthy of our full and complete trust.
If we belong to him, we will certainly face rejection for the sake of his name. But he is certain to return and certain to reward us. Hear his word, hold fast to it, and bear fruit with patience. He is coming soon.
