by Dave Wilkinson

Luke 19:11-27

October 14, 2001

President Franklin Roosevelt sometimes grew weary of long lines at White house receptions. He complained that no one paid any real attention to what was said. So one day he tried an experiment. To each person who passed down the line and shook his hand he murmured, "I murdered my grandmother this morning." The guests responded with phrases like "Marvelous!" "Keep up the good work!" "We're proud of you!" "God bless you sir!"

It was not until near the end of the line, while greeting the Ambassador from Bolivia, that his words were actually heard. Always the diplomat, the Ambassador leaned over and whispered: "I'm sure she had it coming!"

I suspect that most of us are like the other guests, We think we know what's going to be said--even when we read the Bible--so we don't bother to really listen.

What is your image of Jesus Christ? Is he always gentle? If that's what you think you are going to hear, how do you respond to this parable?

Luke 19:11-27

This parable fulfills two important functions.

First, it clarifies the time of the appearance of the kingdom of God. As Jesus approaches Jerusalem with His disciples, the rumors begin to build. "He plans to overthrow Rome!" "He is going to establish the throne of David!" "The kingdom of God has arrived!"

Luke says that Jesus tells this parable to silence these dangerous rumors. Yes, He will establish His kingdom. But first He has to go away to a far country. Then, eventually, He will return and settle accounts with those He has left behind.

Now this is the second and, for us, more important purpose of this parable. In this parable we learn what Jesus expects of us.

Many of the parables of Jesus, perhaps our favorite parables, deal with the tremendous grace of God--the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, the prodigal son--all summed up by Jesus in Luke 10:10: "For the son of man came to seek and save the lost."

We'll look at these great parables. That is the gospel. But Jesus immediately follows these great statements of loving seeking with a parable statement of what He expects from those who have been found. It is significant that this parable comes right after the finding of the tax collector Zacchaeus.

Jesus speaks of three very different groups of people--faithful servants, unfaithful servants, and rebellious citizens. The returning King responds to each group in distinctly different ways.

Let's look first at the action of the rebellious citizens in verse 14: "But his citizens hated him and sent an embassy after him saying 'We do not want this man to rule over us.'"

This parable is unique in that this is the only parable where Jesus refers to an actual, historic event. When King Herod the Great died in 4 BC, he divided his kingdom among three sons: Herod Antipas, Herod Philip and Archelaus. Of course this division had to be ratified by Rome -- Rome was in charge. So Archelaus went to Rome to ask Emperor Augustus to allow him to become King of Judea.

The citizens of Judea, however, hated Archelaus. He had shown himself to be a greedy and bloodthirsty man -- kind of like his father without the greatness. The Jews sent an embassy of fifty men to Rome to tell Augustus that they did not want Archelaus to rule over them -- just like the parable. (It is interesting that Jesus tells this parable in Jericho and Jericho is where this Archelaus lives.) As it turned out, Augustus confirmed Archelaus in some of his authority. But he denied him the title of "King" until he proved himself worthy-- which he never did. Rome finally appointed governors like Pontius Pilate.

But at first, when Archelaus came back to Judea, he rewarded his faithful supporters and punished those who had opposed him--just like the parable.

Of course Jesus is not comparing Himself to a wicked ruler. Not only is Jesus much kinder and more benevolent, but His rule is much more legally constituted than the power of any human. Jesus did not acquire His kingdom by force or trickery. He is the Son of David and the Son of God. Having finished His work on earth, He returned to His Father to receive His kingdom. The Bible says that one day He shall return to establish that kingdom and rule as King of Kings.

Now whether you are an atheist, a skeptic or practice some brand of non-Christian religion doesn't change that reality. Jesus tells us through this parable: "Right now you are free to debate and argue. But when the final curtain is closed, I am Lord."

If you only hear one thing from a sermon all year, hear this. It's foundational. Jesus is not King because we have elected Him King. He is not made Lord by the fact that we chose to believe in Him. The church is not a democracy in which Jesus governs by the consent of the governed. Jesus is Lord because--that is who He is.

But there are people then and now, who do not want Jesus to reign over them. He does reign, but He reigns against their will. Jesus was rejected by the rulers of Israel who cried out: "We have not king but Caesar. Now they didn't like Caesar, but they knew that in the long-run, Caesar would be less a threat to "business as usual" than King Jesus.

And to one degree or another this may be your condition today when it comes to Jesus Christ. You go through the entire worship process. You look religious. But at heart you are unwilling to live under the Lordship discipline of Jesus Christ. This may be an active rebellion in which you proclaim yourself as Lord of your own life. Or is may be a more subtle rebellion in which we claim His Lordship but by our deeds say: "We do not want you to rule over us."

This is what one friend of mine calls "Practical Atheism" in which we say that God lives but live as though He doesn't. We see this "practical atheism" by the way we relate to other people, the way we set our priorities, the way we spend our money, and the places we find security and self-worth. Jesus asks: "Why do you call Me Lord and not do the things I tell you to do?" In this parable, and in other places He tells us that submitting to His Lordship is literally a matter of life and death.

But let us move beyond the fate of the rebellious citizens to our own future. For in the framework of this parable, we are the servants. Our Master has gone away. But He has given us a gift to invest--a job to do. We do not know when our Lord will return. But we know that when He does, He will settle accounts.

You see, this parable is not about salvation. It's about service that grows out of salvation. And in this parable we can discern five facts about our service.

First, we are given our responsibility. "Do business until I come." Each servant has the same amount of money and is ordered to put it to work. The nobleman doesn't promise his servants anything. He simply tells them to get moving.

Second, we are called to do our job faithfully. While we are not given the exact number of servants who were faithful to their master, we can assume that nine out of ten were faithful. Each took his or her gift and went out to "do business" and multiply it.

Third, we are to work in anticipation of the Lord's return. The servants could have excused themselves by saying "Who knows whether our master will reach his destination or make it back home? Or how do we know that he will receive the kingdom he is seeking? We might find ourselves supporting the wrong side" .. like some members of the Taliban who are having second thoughts. But we know that Jesus is King and that He is coming again so we have no excuse.

Fourth, and this is very important, we are to accept our Lord's valuing of our task. A minna wasn't a lot of money. Our opportunities for spreading the gospel may not seem very big to some. But it is the task we are given with the assurance that our Lord values it.

And fifth, we are to accept our Lord's evaluation of us. We might excuse ourselves by saying "I'm not very good at this job." But that's your evaluation--not God's. He has called you as a participant in His ministry of reconciliation and has assured you that His strength is made perfect in your weakness.

Earl Palmer, formerly of the First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley says of this passage: "I am excited about the source of motivation Jesus portrays in this parable. We are motivated to work at our talent because we know the high expectation of God.

"Have you ever thought that the best motivation in all life is when a great expectation has been put on you? You'll work harder for that. And notice how the reward in the parable accentuates that. When the workers do well, what are they given? More work. More expectation.

"It's like the young men who turn out for spring practice in football," Palmer continues. "They work their heads off; hoping the coaches will notice them struggling through scrimmages, struggling through the calisthenics programs. They're working to see that they get their hundred yard dashes as fast as they can. Now why do they do that?

"Think about this. It seems so incongruous but that's the way this parable works too. They work so hard in spring practice so they'll hopefully be able to work harder in the fall. In other words, everyone at spring practice is working very hard hoping that every Saturday this fall they won't be standing on the sidelines. They'll be out on the field working even harder--where scores and NCAA records are being kept.

"That's the sort of motivational logic of a person who turns out for something tough like Olympic athletes or the space program. It's the motivation of those who get involved in music. It is the motivation of the doctor, the engineer, the attorney, the teacher. It is learning something difficult in training, so you can work even harder in the world "where scores are being kept."

Our life in this world is, in a very real sense, spring training for heaven. That's what the parable says. Here we constantly demonstrate our fitness for greater responsibilities to come. And when Jesus comes again, He will reckon with us, His servants to see how faithful we have been.

But note something interesting here. It's not: "Well done, good and faithful servant! You've been faithful in a few things and now you get a vacation." It's "Well done, good and faithful servant! You've been faithful in a few things. I'm going to make you responsible for many things."

This gives us a clue as to what heaven's going to be like. Heaven's going to be more and better and more creative activity than you've ever dreamed of in this life.

That's heaven. It's a heaven that fits who we are. Leisure time is only valuable because of work. Otherwise it's life-draining. We can see this in some retired people. Right after retirement it's "I'll sit in the hammock and watch the world go by." But that doesn't satisfy for long. Soon it's "What can I do to make a difference?"

You know the idea of sitting around heaven playing the harp for eternity has never appealed to me. I doubt that it does much for you either. Well, we're not going to sit around with harps.

We will admire Christ but it will not be a passive admiration. We're going to be placed in a city with responsibility for the healing of the nations. It's a tremendous vision in Revelation. And even here our Lord gives us clues: "Well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a few things. I'm going to make you ruler over ten cities. I'm going to give you responsibility way beyond what you have. Enter into the fulfillment of your Master."

However, there is one servant in the parable who has not been faithful--who takes his minna and wraps it in a napkin. He defends his inaction to his master by saying: "I was afraid of you for you are an exacting man; you take up what you did not lay down and reap what you did not sow."

Now the returning king dies not necessarily agree with the servant's words, but he uses them to indict: "If you really believed these things, then you should have worked harder! Your words are not a reason. They are an excuse."

Evangelist Billy Sunday used to define an excuse as "The skin of a reason stuffed with a lie." People who are good at excuses are seldom good at anything else. We see this in the unfaithful servant.

What did the servant lose by being unfaithful? He lost his opportunity. The master returned and the period of testing was over. The servant has no further opportunity to invest the money and earn dividends.

And if this parable teaches us anything, it teaches this: The future is today. What we do with today determines what will be done for us tomorrow.

The servant loses his reward. The king now has many cities to share but the unfaithful servant does not get one. What an indictment! This man cannot be trusted with any additional work. He has not been faithful over a few things so his master cannot make him ruler over many things.

But note that this servant is not judged because he has done something wild or wasteful. He didn't take the minna and blow it in a drunken spree. He simply fails to do anything creative and responsible with what had been given him.

As a result, he loses his opportunity and his reward. And he also loses the very thing he was trying to protect. The minna in the napkin. It is taken away from him and handed to the servant who has already received the ten cities.

Verse 25 records the reaction of the people. It may be our reaction too. "Lord, he has ten minnas and some cities. That's not fair." But the biblical principle is that what we do not use, we lose. And what we gain gains us more. So the money is taken from him and given to the man who has proved that he can make good use of it.

"From each according to his ability to each according to his need" may be good Marxist doctrine. But it is not the way life works. Rather, it is "From each according to his or her accomplishments, to each according to his or her accomplishments." We're not talking about salvation here. That's by God's grace through faith. But we are talking about our future service.

We see this in a personal sense. A person gains the stamina to run by running. We gain the ability to work by working. The business that successfully opens doors, is given the privilege of opening more doors.

This is also true for us as individual believers and as a congregation. We use our gifts and we make progress or we run the risk of losing what we have. It's very difficult to stand still. Muscles that aren't used get weaker and weaker. Churches that don't evangelize tend to fossilize. We cannot take what we have and wrap it in a napkin or we may wake up some day to find it gone. Instead, our Lord tells us to put it on the table and do business.

That's what we are doing as a congregation. We're stretching. That's what Jesus calls each of us to do.

The future is uncertain. September 11 has affected us all. But we can't stay where we are. So let's push forward. If we go down, Let's go down standing up. Remembering that Jesus does not call us to be successful, but He certainly calls us to be faithful. And that faithfulness includes attempting some things as a church that actually require faith and not just good management.

Spring training will come to an end. Jesus our King is going to return. And when He does, He will ask to see what we have attempted as individual believers and as a church body.

What will we have to show Him?