(Based on a message preached at First Baptist Church, Chamois, MO on September 3, 2023; not an exact transcription).
Introduction: This is Labor Day Sunday and a lot of folks are taking advantage of this holiday. We’re going to take a look at a passage that deals with what people can do with something they’re given. It’s in Luke’s gospel, chapter 19, so let’s take a look at the text:
Text, Luke 19:11-26, New American Standard Version (NASV): 11 Now while they were listening to these things, Jesus went on to tell a parable, because He was near Jerusalem and they thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately. 12 So He said, “A nobleman went to a distant country to receive a kingdom for himself, and then to return. 13 And he called ten of his own slaves and gave them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Do business with this money until I come back.’ 14 But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to reign over us.’
15 When he returned after receiving the kingdom, he ordered that these slaves, to whom he had given the money, be summoned to him so that he would learn how much they had made by the business they had done. 16 The first slave appeared, saying, ‘Master, your mina has made ten minas more.’ 17 And he said to him, ‘Well done, good slave; since you have been faithful in a very little thing, you are to have authority over ten cities.’ 18 The second one came, saying, ‘Your mina, master, has made five minas.’ 19 And he said to him also, ‘And you are to be over five cities.’ 20 And then another came, saying, ‘Master, here is your mina, which I kept tucked away in a handkerchief; 21 for I was afraid of you, because you are a demanding man; you take up what you did not lay down, and reap what you did not sow.
22 He *said to him, ‘From your own lips I will judge you, you worthless slave. Did you know that I am a demanding man, taking up what I did not lay down, and reaping what I did not sow? 23 And so why did you not put my money in the bank, and when I came back, I would have collected it with interest?’ 24 And then he said to the other slaves who were present, ‘Take the mina away from him and give it to the one who has the ten minas.’ 25 And they said to him, ‘Master, he already has ten minas.’ 26 ‘I tell you that to everyone who has, more shall be given, but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away.”
1 The background for this story
One thing to remember about our Lord’s parables is that there’s usually a real-world flavor or coloring that the audience would recall or maybe relate to. There’s also a germ or grain of spiritual truth in each of these; sometimes clear and other times hidden.
Well, the people living when Jesus walked this earth—or, maybe, their parents—would have known about this background. Now, let me take a moment and set the stage for this story. You’ll recall that the first several verses of this chapter speak of Zacchaeus and his desire to see Jesus. Some of us may remember that old nursery or children’s church song, “Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he . . .” Okay, anyway, I remember my children singing this one and it was good for them to learn it! Old Zach had climbed a tree, because he was a short man, and also because he wanted to see Jesus as the Lord was in the vicinity of Jericho.
Jesus saw Zacchaeus and told him, “I need to stay at your house today!” When Zacchaeus heard that, he probably set a record for tree de-climbing or exiting stage down in order to get to his house. Needless to say, the crowd standing nearby didn’t like it, but Zacchaeus proved he was a changed man. While he’s standing near the Lord (and, maybe near his own house?) he said he would give half of his goods to the poor and restore anything taken by fraud four times over. It’s interesting that there’s no record anyone ever took him up on his offer!
So now Jesus is close to Jerusalem. Jericho was southeast of Jerusalem and quite a bit lower in terms of elevation—Jesus pointed this out when He told of the man who “went down” from Jerusalem to Jericho in the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37 to include context). Luke also said Jesus was “going up to Jerusalem (verse 28)”, which is accurate.
But let’s get back to the text. Jesus gave the crowd a story how a certain nobleman went to a different country to receive a kingdom and then return. Those alive in Jesus’ day, especially those who were about the same age as Joseph and Mary, knew this was a veiled reference to Archelaus, one of the sons of Herod. Herod had ordered the execution of all babies in Bethlehem who were two years old or younger (Matthew 2). Archelaus went to Rome in order to get Caesar to approve his request to obtain a kingdom. There was also a delegation who said, “We don’t want him to reign over us!” Josephus mentions this in his “Antiquities (xvii, 9, 3-4)” per Ellicott’s commentary (https://biblehub.com/commentaries/ellicott/luke/19.htm).
That’s the historical background for this parable so let’s dig a little deeper into the text.
2 The burden for each of the selected servants
While this nobleman, at least in our Lord’s story, was leaving he called ten of his slaves and gave each one of them a sum of money. We’re not told why these particular ten servants or slaves were chosen and others weren’t, or anything else about these men except each of them had a burden to bear for their master.
That burden was to do business with the money he gave each one.
It’s anybody’s guess how much a sum of money back in Bible times would be worth today. There’s a note in my Bible that a “mina (“pound”, King James Version)” would be worth 100 days’ wages. So imagine you have a three- or four-month cash advance, right there in your hand, and you have the freedom to do business with that money. We could say that each “mina” could be worth, oh, let’s say, $15,000 dollars (USD). What would you or I do with all that money?
Well, we know what some of them did; they did business or somehow they were able to make more money. That’s not something everyone can do, and it’s important to remember how hard it was to make an honest living in those days (these days, too, come to think of it). I mean, about all the average Jew could do in those days was farm, fish—remember, at least four of the Apostles were fishermen before they left everything to follow Jesus—or maybe try shop-keeping. Some, like Matthew and Zacchaeus himself, were employees of the Roman government but something tells me these slaves were not exactly candidates for that job. Who knows?
Anyway, time went on, and most of the slaves, apparently, tried to do business or make a profit for their master. Remember, he had not given them any promises or guidelines, just a burden to “do business” with the money he gave them until he got back.
And eventually the king did come back. One of the first things he did, if I read the text correctly, was to call each of the ten slaves in order to get a report of what each had done. After all, this now-king had given them each a large amount of money and it was right for him to have each of his slaves give an account for what they did. Or, didn’t do, as we’ll see in a moment.
Slave number 1.
Jesus lists this slave first because he did the best. I’ll say it again, I admire anybody who can grow, invest, trade, whatever you want to call it and be good at it. My money-handling skills are pretty much I can make money, too . . . to disappear, that is! Seems that no matter how hard you try to save, there’s always, ALWAYS, an unexpected bill or expense that tries to take away a lot of what money anybody has!
Not so with this slave, however. Incredibly, he was able to take that initial advance of, again, let’s say, $15,000 USD and make it grow ten times over! That means, from $15K he wound up with $150K, even though we’re never told just how he did this.
Needless to say, the king was very pleased and gave him a nice promotion: this man would no longer be just a slave; he would have authority over ten cities! I can only imagine the joy this man must have felt when he heard these words.
But there were other slaves to give an account of their activities. Let’s look at the next man:
Slave number 2.
By the way, please don’t think I’m condoning slavery in any way. In the US, that was settled a long time ago and it’s officially prohibited under the U.S. Constitution. This story is simply an acknowledgement or reality of what was going on in Bible times. Again, may I say that Slave #2 was next to give an account of what he had done with his lord’s money.
He wasn’t quite so good as #1 in terms of making a profit or “growing” the king’s money. Slave number 2 was only able to gain five “minas”, so, again basing on the original $15,000 he “only” made five times as much, or “only” $75,000 USD. No, not so good as the first, but still, he did what he could and had a good report. The king also promoted him, giving him authority over five cities. This man, too, must have been relieved and joyful that he did what he could and his king saw fit to reward him as he did.
Remember, kings had absolute authority in those days and the king didn’t have to reward or promote the slaves in any way. It was the king’s money, anyway, wasn’t it? But these two men, and possibly more, took the king’s “burden” to heart and did business with their cash advances.
That is, all except one of them.
Slave number 3, or was it 10?
We’ll probably never know just what this slave was thinking when he received his cash advance. To his credit, he didn’t waste any of it on himself—I’m sure the temptation was there!—but he didn’t do anything with it either.
He wrapped up the money in a “handkerchief” and buried it in the ground.
And left it there.
Notice he didn’t even try to do anything, no business dealings; he didn’t even put the money in the bank so the deposit could gain a little interest. No, he did nothing.
Now he’s called to account for what he did with the money he’d been given. And what does he do? He accuses the king of being demanding, and of being a thief! He accused the king of taking up things he didn’t lay down and reaping (harvests) that he had not sown!
Isn’t that, really, part of how a kingdom is run? Do kings actually go to the fields and plant crops? Seems to me the king has a group of, oh, let me think, what did they call it in those days, ah! Here it is! Slaves! Those are the ones who plant crops and probably reap them, too!
It’s probably safe to say the king was not pleased at this “accounting” of how this slave had used the money (or, didn’t, in this case!) I have no idea what the slave might have been thinking, maybe, “Well, king, you didn’t lose it in bad investments”, or, “see, king, I didn’t waste any of it on myself!” or any such thing. No, the king had given each slave, including this one, a contribution and a command: “DO something with this till I get back!”
That probably wasn’t the response the slave was expecting, and I’m pretty sure he wasn’t expecting the king’s next words, either. Now the king exploded and told the slave exactly what he thought. Even worse, and I’m sure this made everyone listening shiver, the king commanded one or more of the other slaves to take #3’s (or was he #10?) “mina” and give it to the one who had ten of them already!
The narrative of the king and the slaves ends here, but Jesus has something else to say.
3 The briefing for all Christ-followers
First, some try to make this story the same as the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25. This one is different, in that Jesus told this story about the “pounds” or “minas” before He told the story of the talents. He was “on the way” to Jerusalem when He told this one; He told the one about the talents while He and the disciples were already in Jerusalem.
Another thing is that in the talents, each one had abilities; five, two, and one respectively but here each of the ten slaves started off with the same thing. True, each story had successes and failures but that should be a wakeup call for all of us!
We don’t need to fail! And one sure way to fail is to not use the natural talents, acquired skills, education, whatever, for the Lord. I won’t get into how many singers started off by singing in church or choirs but are now maybe too busy to even take off a Sunday and worship the Lord Who gave them their voices in the first place.
No, we all won’t be superstars but let’s remember that our Lord just wants us to put Him first. There’s no need for any of us to waste our time, our talents—even our lives—trying stuff that simply will not work. But as we grow, and as we understand what we can do, I hope and pray each one of us will use these things for our Lord; never just for ourselves.
Let me close with this poem I remember reading a long time ago (author unknown): “Isn’t if funny, that paupers and kings, and clowns that caper in sawdust rings, and common people like you and like me, are builders for eternity? Each is given a book of rules, a shapeless mass, and a bag of tools. Now each must make, ere life is flown, a stumbling block or a stepping stone,”
I hope and pray each one of use will learn, discover, and use what we have to bring glory to our Lord. We hear this phrase used a lot these days, and it’s a good one: “You got this!”
Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Version of the Bible (NASV).
