20 November Were invited to share God’s power [Lk.19:11-28] 11 Because some people thought Jesus approach to Jerusalem meant the kingdom of God was going to appear there immediately, he told a parable. 12 “A nobleman went to a distant land to be invested as a vassal king and, after his investiture, to return. 13 He summoned ten of his servants and gave them ten gold pieces and told them, ‘Conduct business until I come back.’ 14 While he was gone, some of his fellow citizens who despised him sent a delegation with the complaint: ‘We don’t want this one to rule over us.’ 15 Now, when he returned after his investiture, he called for the servants who’d been given money to find out how they’d conducted his business. 16 The first one reported, ‘My lord, I earned ten gold pieces with the one.’ 17 ‘Good!’ he said; ‘you’ve been reliable with a small thing, take charge of ten towns.’ 18 A second said, ‘With your gold piece, my lord, I earned five.’ 19 He said to him, ‘Take charge of five towns.’ 20 Another said, ‘My lord, here is your gold piece. I kept it wrapped in this cloth. 21 Your demands frightened me. I knew you made profits without investing and reaped without sowing.’ 22 ‘You ornery slave! Your own mouth convicts you: you knew I was demanding. 23 Why didn’t you put the money in a bank to earn interest until my return? 24 Take his coin,’ he told the attendants. ‘Give it to the one with ten.’ 25 ‘But he already has ten,’ they said. 26 ‘I say those who have will get more, and the one with nothing will lose even that. 27 As for my foes who didn’t want me as their king, bring them here and execute them.’” 28 After Jesus finished speaking, he continued on the way to Jerusalem. Although Luke introduces this parable as a response to rumors about the kingdom’s imminent arrival [v.11], the parable tells how the kingdom will function, not when it’ll be fully functional. It’s clear from the opening of the story that the nobleman (chosen by some distant, central authority to act as the local king) wants to share his power [vv.12-13]. The rest of the story describes how some accepted a share in his power and some rejected it. Those who accepted the invitation to act like their lord were invited to accept even more of his work and authority [vv.15-19]. One fellow who didn’t want to join his lord in his work was relieved of what he’d found burdensome [vv.20-24a]. Luke then describes the king spelling out the obvious to those who objected to giving more to someone with much: whoever showed deep interest in sharing this mans way of working would be given a greater share of his work, and those who were uninterested would be left to their indifference [vv.24b-26]. The story’s subplot also concludes neatly: those who wanted to keep this man from returning to their small kingdom [v.14] were themselves cut off from it—completely [v.27]. Luke says Jesus then moved on without any comment [v.28], allowing us to wonder if this story helped the disciples to realize that “sharing God’s power” meant sharing the power to bring healing and peace to those who seek it (see 10:5-6.)
Posted on: Tue, 19 Nov 2013 21:52:27 +0000
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