The Parables: Surprising Stories About The King And His Kingdom #2 The Talents Luke 19:11-27

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1 The Parables: Surprising Stories About The King And His Kingdom #2 The Talents Luke 19:11-27 Introduction: An Oft-Misunderstood Parable Is this a parable about working hard for Jesus so that we produce as much as possible before He comes back again? Does Jesus want us to be successful in our work for Him? What might the context of this parable, both in Luke s gospel and its cultural context, help us to understand about Jesus kingdom? I. The Context In Luke Really Matters (Luke 19:11 and Luke 19:28ff.) A. Luke is clear that the context matters - the parable comes near the very end of Jesus life when opposition and expectations are both strong. He is drawing near to Jerusalem and the Triumphal Entry is the next thing to come in the gospel of Luke. Luke tells us specifically that Jesus speaks this parable because His disciples supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. (vs. 11) (Matthew has a similar parable but there are enough differences that I believe they reflect different parables Jesus told. It is reasonable to believe that Jesus told similar stories multiple times, as a traveling preacher does even in our own day. B. Jesus came into a world full of longing and expectations. In particular, many of the Jews longed for the day when the Messiah would come and drive out the hated Roman occupiers and at least one of Jesus disciples is identified as part of the zealot party who wanted to drive out the Romans by force. C. We need to quit reading this parable in the light of Western capitalism and the influence of Industrial age efficiency. The Bible regularly focuses us on faithfulness rather than productiveness, and this parable reflects that. This is a parable designed to correct the expectations of God s people and to help them know how to live in the light of what is coming. D. So Many People Have Read This Parable As Jesus Expecting Us To Do Great Work For Him And Be Successful But does the parable really teach that? Let s look at it carefully II. Understanding The Parable

2 1. Notice why the Nobleman went away, and remember what was going on as Jesus told this parable. A nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom (vs. 12) Jesus tells this parable as He is reaching the end of His life, He is wanting to explain how to live after He has gone. He is the True King but the Kingdom has an already/not yet dimension that all of His followers must understand and live in. His followers are thinking now is the time for the Kingdom to come and Jesus agrees, but what this will look like will not be what His followers expect or want! His followers expect the Kingdom coming to bring success and end the Roman occupation and oppression. But Jesus is teaching that people hate His kingdom and are going to seek to block it from coming to fruition and those that want to follow Him will need to do so in the midst of a hostile world and an absent King! 2. The nobleman gives each of the ten servants a great deal of money, about 100 days wages. It is a free and quite generous gift. And I think we often read this parable without stopping to think about how this detail reveals the nature of the gospel it is a great and generous gift. But all gifts bring responsibility as the story will reveal. Do you see all you have as a kingdom resource? Your time, your money, your story, and even your pain? 3. The nobleman promises his servants that He will be successful and return as king, and in the meantime they are to engage in business until (en ho in Greek) He returns (vs. 13.) But NT scholar Kenneth Bailey explains that this Greek phrase en ho, translated as until in most Bibles, is crucial to the proper interpretation of this parable. The phrase can mean until but it literally means in which and can also legitimately be translated because. If we translate it as until then what the master is saying is You don t have much time, make as much money as you can while I m gone because I expect you to turn a profit. Yet when the master returns he does not commend the servants for being successful, he commends them for being faithful! (vs. 17)

3 I believe it should be translated as Engage in trade in a way in which (you know) I am coming back (or because I am coming back. ) Translated this way fits the context of the parable better. The focus is not on making as much money as you can because Jesus is coming back soon the focus is on the way in which we work, work in the confidence that I am going to be crowned and will return. (Illustration: The change in missions approaches when the church began to focus more on the timing of Christ s return in early 20 th century there was a shift from caring holistically for people to just trying to save as many souls as quick as possible.) What you believe about the future promise of the kingdom has everything to do with how you live now! This parable is teaching us how to live in the already/not yet it is not about trying to work as hard as we can until Jesus comes back. What the Nobleman commends is faithfulness not fruitfulness! How does that change the way we think about how we then should live? It allows us to ask What kind of business matters for the kingdom? One of the great Biblical teachings rediscovered at the time of the Reformation was that all kinds of work matters to God and His kingdom. God calls us to serve Him and work for His kingdom in all areas of life because we know He is coming back to bring redemption far as the curse is found (Isaac Watts great line in Joy To The World ) At the end of Paul s great chapter on the resurrection of the body, teaching that God is going to redeem His creation rather than wipe it away, he concludes that because of this future hope the work we do now, is not in vain! This is so much different than the teaching that our attitude toward this world should be Don t polish the brass on a sinking ship! David Livingston gave his life to mapping the interior of Africa rather than just organizing preaching campaigns to save souls.

4 It also encourages us to seek to be faithful rather than successful this takes off a lot of false pressure that many Christians labor under. And this is the way the Bible regularly speaks of our work in the kingdom. As Paul tells the Corinthians, he planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God gave the growth! Can God call you to a place where you won t be successful? And notice that faithfulness brings more responsibility not a vacation and great riches. 4. The citizens hate the nobleman, and so they send a delegation to tell the authorities we don t want this guy to be king! Jesus is picturing the situation of the disciples at this stage of his ministry. He is about to leave them but has promised to return. And making the promise even more difficult is the hatred and opposition to Jesus. How can the nobleman be so confident? How can Jesus be so confident? Some of the disciples must be thinking that Jesus is not adequately taking into consideration the powerful enemies he has made. In the politically unstable world into which Jesus speaks this parable, the logical thing would be for the servants to bury the money in the ground and see who will prevail, the nobleman or his enemies. The last thing you want to do is bet all of your money on the losing side by publicly identifying with an absent wannabe king. What these servants do with the money is actually their answer to the question, Will you publicly identify with me and my kingdom, even while I am gone and you are surrounded by my enemies? What we do with finite things (like our time and our money) has a way of exposing our true priorities and our true loves. And that is exactly what happens here. What they do with their money exposes what they think about the Nobleman. Kingdoms concern issues of allegiance and loyalties. It is not enough to just think Jesus is great will you be identified with Him and His cause when enemies and opposition abound?

5 The opposition to Jesus in this world is real, and has often been a matter of life and death. Christians in the West are largely clueless about the ebb and flow of Christian influence in the world through the years. A must-read book is The Lost History Of Christianity: The Thousand Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle-East, Africa, and Asia, and How It Died. (by Philip Jenkins) Did you hear catch the end of that? and How It Died Jenkins writes, During the later Middle Ages, mass defections and persecutions across Asia and the Middle East uprooted what were then some of the world s most numerous Christian communities, churches that possessed a vibrant lineal and cultural connection to the earliest Jesus movement of Syria and Palenstine Repeatedly through its history, the church s tree has been pruned and cut back, often savagely For most of its history, Christianity was a tricontinental religion, with powerful representation in Europe, Africa, and Asia, and this was true into the 14 th century. Christianity became predominantly European not because this continent had any obvious affinity for that faith, but by default: Europe was the continent where it was not destroyed. Matters could have easily developed very differently Iraq was through the late Middle Ages at least as much a cultural and spiritual heartland of Christianity as was France or Germany, or even Ireland. The point is, God promises that His church will endure, but He makes no specific promises about the church in America, or the West, or anywhere else. Don t be naïve opposition to Jesus is everywhere, both overt and more subtle. It can come in the form of pastors and professors, parents and friends. But if there is one thing Jesus is clearly teaching here it is that He calls us to follow Him, and to publicly identify with Him even when He seems absent and enemies abound. Illustration: The Lutheran Church in Latvia. Bailey tells how when interviewing candidates for the ministry, the most important question is When were you baptized? Before or after communism? If the answer is before, that says a lot. If the answer is after then there will be lots more questions about why you want to be a minister. Are we publicly identified with the gospel of the bloody cross and the empty tomb? Why not?

6 II. The Return Of The King How we spend ourselves, our money, our reputations, our time, our gifts etc. is always an indication of which kingdom we are living for. Following Jesus means putting all of our eggs in one basket with no backup plan. We are good at trying to keep our options open but as Luther explained, Faith is a living daring hope. The first two servants are commended for faithfulness, not success. And they are given more responsibility not a golden parachute and a rich retirement! Whether you see this as good or bad has a lot to say abut whose kingdom you are living for The key question is why would you follow Jesus in the midst of a hostile world and a seemingly absent King? The answer has everything to do with who you understand Him to be! The third servant fails to serve the master because he has a distorted view of who the master is. The servant offers a lame excuse. The master does not agree with his characterization, but says, even if that were true, you should have invested my money. (Jews were forbidden to make interest so the master is saying If I m really a criminal, robbing people where I did not sow, then why would I care if you broke the law to make interest? ) It s Not Fair! (vs. 25) Jesus says it is vital that we use the gifts He has given us for Him and His kingdom. We say unfair, but that is because we believe we are owners rather than stewards. The nobleman is incredibly generous and the question is, do you follow Him because you love Him or because you are afraid of Him and what He might do to you? It is very possible to follow Jesus out of fear rather than love, but eventually what you do with the gifts that He has given you will reveal your true love and priorities.

7 III. But What About The Ending Of This Parable? Slaughtering his enemies??? (vs. 27) Notice, the parable does not show that the sentence is carried out. It ends, like many of the parables, open-ended? The question is put to all of us will we side with the True King or His enemies? But as the story in Luke goes on in the next several chapters we find this astonishing revelation THE KING WE ARE CALLED TO ALIGN OURSELVES WITH IS THE KING WHO DIES IN THE PLACE OF HIS ENEMIES! And He is coming again! Rather than urging us to follow Jesus out of fear of being punished otherwise, Luke reveals the reason to love Him even more! His grace goes so far beyond the gifts He has given us. His grace extends to Him dying for our misusing of those gifts! All of our hearts tell us that God is a hard man who treats us unfairly, but those accusations dissolve at the foot of the cross. We are called to align ourselves with the One who identifies with us first! The only thing that can truly melt our hearts and suspicion is to see His love poured out on the bloody cross and embrace the hope of the empty tomb!