“Too close to home?”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Wednesday, June 14, 2023

Luke 19:11-27 (Forward, p. 47) CEV p. 1088

Now, here is something mighty odd. With today’s passage Jesus’ original audience would have had considerably more difficulty in knowing how to interpret and apply it than we do. We, of course, interpret it in light of our usual rendering of the Parable of the Talents, but Jesus’ original audience probably would not have had this luxury.

You see, the setting for this lesson featuring the ten servants is one that they knew all too well. Numerous claimants to the throne of various parts of Palestine had done just what Jesus describes ‘a certain nobleman’ as having done, namely, having scurried over to Rome to press their claim to the kingdom. Herod the Great had done just that, and so too had his sons Herod Antipas and Archelaus.

Now, the one that would have immediately come to mind for Jesus’ hearers was the latter fellow, Archelaus. And yes, a delegation of 50 men from Judaea had been sent over to oppose this move, and for good reason. Archelaus was a thoroughly bad and cruel monarch and shortly after coming to the throne had massacred some 3,000 of his subjects. Indeed, Caesar has sent over an envoy, Varus, to investigate the troubles, and so it was important to Archelaus to get over to press his claims before word got out. And while history doesn’t record what happened to that hapless delegation when Archelaus returned, it does record that he certainly did ‘dispatch’ many others who did oppose him—or, had the potential to do so. Furthermore, just in the nearer distance from where Jesus was speaking was the splendid white marble palace that Archelaus had built for himself. So, obviously, Jesus’ words would have struck home all the more forcibly given their immediate setting.

And so, this remembrance of what was rather recent history would have undoubtedly coloured the thinking of those who heard Jesus’ words on this occasion. We normally think, as per the Parable of the Talents, that the king, the nobleman, represents none other than God. “But whoa’, Jesus’ hearers would have said, ‘that cannot be. You cannot even say Archelaus and God in the same breath. God is not like him, not at all.’

But, of course, that was not Jesus’ point. He was merely pointing out that with any situation where authority has been delegated there must needs come a time of reckoning, a time of accountability. That, He is saying, is just as true with spiritual matters as with material ones.

What Jesus then proposes in this little story is most astounding. He only mentions what responsibilities three of the ten servants have been given, but these responsibilities are immense. Each of the three men is entrusted with ten mina, which of which was worth 100 drachmas, that is, 100 times the usual daily wage for a labourer. (At $15 per hour for an eight-hour day, the ten mina came to a whopping $120,000). And, each of them is given free rein, full control, as to what they did with the money. They can use it entirely as they see fit, but obviously the nobleman was hoping for some sort of return on the money, an increase.

The first two servants did just that and earned him a tidy profit. But the third servant, thinking that his master was a hard and unreasonably demanding man, merely wrapped it in a piece of cloth, and ‘sat’ on the money, as it were. He certainly didn’t invest it with the money changers, as he might well have, and gained a profit that way. In fact, he didn’t even resort to the time-honoured, approved expedient of burying it in the ground. He did nothing.

Jesus uses this story, in a sense ignoring most of the immediate context, to say that expecting faithfulness in one’s appointed task is quite reasonable and natural. It applies to earthly ‘bosses’ certainly about worldly matters, material matters, but even more to us and God in terms of spiritual matters.

Indeed, elsewhere Jesus applies this principle to the official spiritual leadership of Israel (see Luke 20: 9-19) and finds it lacking. And, what happens is that the responsibility and gifts are then shifted to someone who will prove himself or herself to be faithful. And, lest we think ourselves immune from such a charge and obligation, it can apply to us who are Christians, erstwhile followers and disciples of Christ, just as much as to the Jews Jesus was addressing. And so, we have to be careful that His condemnation of them does not press a bit ‘too close to home’ in applying to us as well. So, let us then strive to be faithful in making use of and exercising whatever tasks and gifts God has given us. Amen.

Forward notes: “For I was afraid of you, because you are a harsh man; you take what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow” (verse 21).

“This parable of the ten pounds is tough. What’s the lesson, the takeaway?

“Option 1: Conquest and capitalism are bad. This seems to fit with Jesus’s overall message but how do the different stewardships come in? And am I supposed to take away the opposite of the story’s forceful conclusion?

“Option 2: God has given each of us resources to invest and make the most of, but that implies the nobleman represents God (and the nobleman is terrible!)

“On June 12, we looked at the story in Matthew where Jesus, rather than leaving his followers behind with money while he travels far seeking power, sends his followers out to the villages (expressly with nothing) and gives them his own divine power to heal and bless. Perhaps the central takeaway from these parables is that the old economy is passing away and Jesus is ushering in a new kind of kingdom.”

MOVING FORWARD: “Reread the passage from Luke. What are its key takeaways for you?”

A concluding note: Jesus is saying nothing here about capitalism or conquest. The situation where He sent out His followers was concerning a short-term, limited time mission trip, one where urgency and immediacy was the name of the game. He was saying nothing at all about whether material possessions were legitimate or not. Rather, Jesus is saying here that just as an awful man like Archelaus is justified in expecting faithfulness on the part of his staff, how much more will God, who entrusts us, His servants, with treasures and responsibilities far outweighing anything that Archelaus’ servants were. And so, we, all the more, will be held accountable.