“I’ll be back!” (Said in best Arnold S. voice.) What? Don’t I intimidate you like the Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger? Actually you probably wouldn’t find him very intimidating either. Sure he’s 250 lbs. of muscle but he’s always struck me as a big teddy bear, especially since that movie Kindergarten Cop. But you do realize that he’s coming back, don’t you? Arnold is almost done serving as governor of California and word has it that he’ll go back to making movies. I know. I’m not sure that’s good for moviegoers either. But Schwarzenegger did say: “I’ll be back!” so it pays to be ready.
There is someone else who has promised to come back. He probably was never as muscled as Arnold but nevertheless he is a lot more intimidating than the Terminator. That person is Jesus. Jesus, intimidating? He will be if we don’t take seriously the words of our text this morning. Because Jesus promised to come back we’ll want to get busy with the gospel or be treated like a hostile when he returns.
Our text is the Parable of the Ten Minas. In this parable a man of noble birth went away to be crowned king much as Herod’s son, Archelaus, had done when he went to Rome to secure the throne of Judea. And just as the Jews had sent a delegation to tell Rome they didn’t want Archelaus as their king, so in this parable the local citizens sent a delegation to contest the nobleman’s crowning.
The nobleman in the parable represents Jesus. In fact when he told this parable he was on his way to Jerusalem to die and rise again to be acclaimed king over all. But not everyone wanted Jesus to be their king. Just think of how most of the Pharisees had opposed Jesus at every turn. Keyara and Kirsten, you are not among those who have outright declared: “Jesus, I don’t want you as my king.” Indeed, with your confirmation vows today you’re declaring just the opposite. That’s great but do you really understand what it means to have Jesus as your king? Let’s find out by taking a close look at the rest of the parable.
Before the nobleman went off to be crowned king he gave his ten servants one mina each, that’s about three months wages, and told them to put that money to work while he was gone. The minas could represent the time, talents, and treasures Jesus has given us. Jesus certainly had those things in mind when he told The Parable of the Talents about a week later (Matthew 25:14 ff.). The minas of this parable, however, represent God’s Word, specifically the gospel (compare Luke 19:26 with Luke 8:18). Notice how every servant in the parable received the same amount. Likewise Jesus has entrusted his Word to each Christian in equal measure. Your Bible, Keyara and Kirsten, has as many pages as my Bible. And what are we to do with this treasure? We are to “do business” with it. We are to share it with others when we tell them about Jesus, and we are to diligently study it so that we are motivated and empowered to live a God-pleasing life as a “thank you” to Jesus for his forgiveness.
And don’t think Jesus is like the teacher who gives an assignment but doesn’t bother to see if you completed it. When the nobleman-turned-king came back to this home he called his servants to see what they had done with his money. The king expected results and so does Jesus. Sharing the gospel with others and diligently studying it so that we grow in Christian living isn’t something we are to do only “if we have the time or interest.” No, this is what we are to make time to do for it is our God-given purpose in life.
So how did the servants in the parable fare? The first servant said: “Sir, your mina has earned ten more” (Luke 19:16a). This servant had been wildly successful. He had realized a return of a 1000%! Yet did you hear the humility in the man’s words? He did not say: “Sir, look at what I did with your money,” but “Sir, your mina has earned ten more.” A true believer, therefore, is not only active in sharing and applying the gospel; he acknowledges that every “success” is a result of God’s blessing. This first servant could have been Martin Luther. Thanks to that monk’s faithfulness to the gospel, churches all over the world now proclaim again the truth that we are saved by God’s grace alone through faith alone (a return of a 1000%?). Yet Luther admitted: “I’ve done nothing. The Word did it all.”
But now what are we to think of the second servant who only produced five minas? Had he not been as faithful as the first servant? Some Bible students think so but had he not been faithful, the master would not have given him one city to govern, much less five. The second servant, therefore, may best illustrate the reality that one’s productivity with the gospel is not indicative of one’s faithfulness to the gospel. Take the prophet Isaiah for example. He diligently ministered to the Israelites but said in exasperation: “Who has believed our message?” (Isaiah 53:1a) Still, Jesus considered Isaiah to be a faithful prophet (John 12:41).
Our small congregation can take comfort in this truth. We may not be growing like other churches in our synod but if we are faithfully sharing the gospel and applying it to ourselves, then even if this congregation never becomes a mega church, Jesus will still say: “Well done good and faithful servants.”
But what will happen if we don’t faithfully use the gospel entrusted to us? Let’s meet the one servant in the parable who didn’t use his mina. That servant said: “Sir, here is your mina; I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. 21 I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow” (Luke 19:20, 21). “I didn’t put your mina to work, Sir, because you paralyze me with fear!” This servant’s lame excuse doesn’t even make sense. If the boss tells you to clean the bathrooms, you don’t lean on your mop all afternoon claiming you are too afraid of the boss to do what he asked. No, you clean the bathrooms or you’ll have a reason to be afraid. And so if this servant had really feared his master, he would have put the mina to work even if that only meant depositing it in the bank!
At least the servant hadn’t lost the mina, nor had he run away from his master. That had to count for something! It didn’t. The master made that clear when he said: “Take his mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten minas…I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has,” or as Jesus said in a parallel passage, “even what he thinks he has will be taken from him” (Luke 19:24, 26; 8:18).
In other words just because you own a Bible or should remain a member at St. John’s, Kirsten and Keyara, that’s not proof that you have faith and want Jesus to be your king. The question to ask yourselves is this: “Do I treasure the gospel, or do I see this whole Christianity thing as a burden?” That’s what the wicked servant thought about his master’s mina wasn’t it? He didn’t see how investing his master’s money would benefit him so why bother? As far as he was concerned his master was demanding too much of his time. And so although he didn’t have the guts to throw the mina out and leave his master, he wrapped it up in a handkerchief as if it was gristle he had bitten into at the dinner table!
Is that what we think of the gospel treasure? When we’re urged to be regular in worship, when we’re invited to stay for Bible class, when we’re asked to help hand out flyers for Vacation Bible School do we think of a hundred and two other things we would rather be doing? When pressed do we complain that the pastor and church council are expecting too much from us? But our complaint isn’t really with them though is it? It’s with the King of kings who is giving us these opportunities to invest his gospel treasure. Every time we wrap these opportunities in our flimsy excuses and shelve them, we may as well be shouting: “Jesus, I don’t want you as king!” But as the end of the parable makes clear, Jesus will not remain deaf to such defiance; he will damn the defiant (Luke 19:27).
Christianity is a serious business, Kirsten and Keyara. Do you still want in? I hope so and here’s why. Jesus demands your allegiance because he has already pledged his allegiance to you. He didn’t do this by putting his hand over his heart and mumbling a few words like American schoolchildren do when they pledge allegiance to the U.S. flag. No, Jesus gave you his heart. In fact in just a little while you will, for the first time, receive blood that pumped through that heart of love. Blood that covers your sins. Blood that marks you as God’s children, not Satan’s slaves. Can a king like this be a tyrant? No. Nor was the king in the parable a tyrant in spite of what that wicked servant charged. The king had not entrusted minas to his servants because he wanted them to make him more money while he himself did nothing. No, he entrusted them with that treasure because he wanted them to share in the joy of ruling with him. And that’s what Jesus promises you, Keyara and Kirsten. He says, “Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Rev. 2:10). A crown, not a cross - that’s what’s waiting in heaven for those who now treasure the message of the cross as if it was a crown of gold and rubies.
Yes, Jesus, King Jesus will be back. So get busy with the gospel so that you will enjoy its blessings, or be treated like a hostile. Christianity is a serious business, Kirsten and Keyara. Thank you for reminding us of that with your diligent preparations for this, your Confirmation Day. Memorizing those passages and preparing for the final test may have seemed like a burden. But like the faithful servants in the parable you were investing the treasure Jesus had entrusted to you. Keep doing business with the gospel by sharing it with others and studying it. The reward of grace to follow from your loving king will not disappoint. Amen.
