The Story Of An Absentee King Series

I wish I could say I was shocked when I saw the story… A Libyan branch of ISIS claims to have beheaded 21 men. A caption across the bottom of the video screen read, “The people of the cross, followers of the hostile Egyptian church” As many as thirteen of the men were from one small farming community off the Nile River and 150 miles south of Cairo. A local priest said you could hear screams coming from every house and every street throughout the small town. The men were captured about a month ago, their hands tied behind their back with plastic ties, they were cursed at, beaten and kidnapped. A little more than a week ago, they were dressed in orange jumpsuits, made to kneel, and then tragically beheaded. ISIS, or the Islamic State, is a brutal extremist militant group that has seized much of Iraq and currently rules an area larger than the United Kingdom.

And they have also expanded quickly over war-stricken Libya, in Northern Africa. The Coptic Church numbers some 8.5 million people in Egypt and many of the poorest Egyptians have traveled to Libya in the last 4/5 years in search of work. We need to pray for government leaders across the world and in our nation to deal with this crisis. We need men and women of courage to rise up and to everything within their power to protect innocent lives. And we need to pray for these believers to have the courage to continue to follow Christ in the midst of such adversity. Now, ISIS is fueled by a specific vision of the end… a vision of violence and a return to way things were in the legal environment of the 7th century. And they believe they are written into God’s script as a central character in the end times. They ultimately wish to bring about the apocalypse. Jesus had very different views on the end times. Instead of waging violence on innocent people, Jesus called on His followers to invest their lives in kindness and love toward one another.

So Jesus tells a story, a parable, of an Absentee King. Jesus told versions of the same story in several places as recorded in the gospels.

For example, the Gospel of Mark has shorter version of it: On screen: “It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake.” (Mark 13:34)

Today’s Scripture

“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. 12 He said therefore, “A nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return. 13 Calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Engage in business until I come.’ 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, having received the kingdom, he ordered these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him, that he might know what they had gained by doing business. 16 The first came before him, saying, ‘Lord, your mina has made ten minas more.’ 17 And he said to him, ‘Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.’ 18 And the second came, saying, ‘Lord, your mina has made five minas.’ 19 And he said to him, ‘And you are to be over five cities.’ 20 Then another came, saying, ‘Lord, here is your mina, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief; 21 for 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.’ 22 He said to him, ‘I will condemn you with your own words, you wicked servant! You knew that I was a severe man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow? 23 Why then did you not put my money in the bank, and at my coming I might have collected it with interest?’ 24 And he said to those who stood by, ‘Take the mina from him, and give it to the one who has the ten minas.’ 25 And they said to him, ‘Lord, he has ten minas!’ 26 ‘I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 27 But as for these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.’” (Luke 19:11-27)