Luke 19:11-27 Put Your Mina to Work
Good morning! We are returning once again to the Gospel of Luke with the nineteenth chapter, verses 11-27, and that’s on page 878 in the pew Bibles.
We are going to pick up right on the heels of Jesus’ statement that we looked at last time, “the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
The people who heard Jesus say this knew that this was a declaration that He was in fact the Messiah because the title, “Son of Man,” was a Messianic one.
Jesus was on the doorstep of Jerusalem just before Passover. The crowd was already charged as every year on Passover families would leave an empty seat for Elijah and somebody would get up from the table an open the door to see if Elijah was there. Elijah was to be the precursor to Messiah coming, and so every year at Passover the anticipation was intense.
Jesus knew all this, and He knew that the people around Him wanted Him to finally publicly take the title of Messiah and so usher in His kingdom right before their eyes. So He told this parable. Let’s look at it together.
11 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.’ ”
Let’s pray.
Now just for some historical context, Jesus’ original audience would have been familiar with the concept of a nobleman going to a far off country to receive a kingdom.
Do you remember King Herod?
When Herod the Great died in 4BC, he left Judea to his son Archelaus, who had to go all the way to Rome to have his inheritance approved by the Empire. Not wanting Archelaus to be their ruler, the Jews sent fifty men to argue their case before Caesar Augustus, who did ratify the inheritance but did not give Archelaus the title, “king.”
The journey from Judea to Rome was a long one, but here in our text, Jesus was a six hour walk to Jerusalem, to the capitol, the center of the religious universe. He was clearly Messiah, the time was clearly now to crown Him king so He could kick out Rome and restore the kingdom to Israel.
But in this parable Jesus says, “No, I have to go away to receive my kingship and when I return I will establish my kingdom.” And until that time His followers were to fulfill the responsibilities that He gave them. On His return He would reward the faithful according to their service to Him, and His enemies would be judged before Him.
So this parable may sound familiar to you. In Matthew 25:14-30 Jesus gave the parable of the talents where a man goes on a journey and before he left entrusted different sums of money, called talents, to his servants to put to work while he was away.
These parables are very similar but their lessons are different. In the parable of the talents each servant is given a different sum of money according to their ability, in Luke, in the parable of the minas, each of the servants are given the same amount.
Without giving away the end of the story, in Matthew, the talents represent different spiritual gifts and abilities given to different people for different uses but in Luke minas are all the same. This is significant.
Unlike in Matthew’s Gospel where it was just the master and the servants, there are three different groups of people in the parable of the minas: the nobleman, the servants, and the citizens.
Christ resembles the nobleman, who, undertaking a long journey for the sake of obtaining a kingdom has entrusted His money to the management of His servants.
There are ten servants who were given minas but we are only given the accounting of three of them at the return of the nobleman. I don’t think that this is a mistake or an oversight, I think that the unnamed seven servants are significant as well.
There is also a group of citizens that do not wish to be ruled by the nobleman, they hated him and sent a delegation saying that they didn’t want him to reign over them, just like the Jews and Archelaus.
These are the same people that just a week from this event would be shouting, “Crucify, we have no king but Caesar, crucify!”
But they aren’t the only ones. Even today there are far too many folks that reject the rule of Christ in their lives. There are parts of the world where our brothers and sisters are still being persecuted and even martyred for their faith in Jesus Christ by those who will not submit to Jesus as Savior nor Lord.
Matthew Henry wrote, “Whoever will not be ruled by the grace of Christ will inevitably be ruined by the wrath of Christ.”
And this makes what the nobleman asked of his servants so important.
Look at verse 12.
“A nobleman went off into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return. Calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Engage in business until I come.’” Some translations say “occupy until I come” which sounds cooler but this translation makes it easier to understand.
Skip down to verse 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. The first came before him, saying, ‘Lord, your mina has made ten minas more.’ 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.’ And the second came, saying, ‘Lord, your mina has made five minas.’ And he said to him, ‘And you are to be over five cities.’ Then another came, saying, ‘Lord, here is your mina, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief; for I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man. You take what you did not deposit, and you reap what you did not sow.’ He said to him, ‘I will condemn you with your own words, you wicked servant! You knew I was a severe man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow? Why then did you not put my money in the bank, and at my coming I might have collected it with interest?’ And he said to those who stood by, ‘Take the mina from him and give it to the one who has ten minas.’ And they said to him, ‘Lord, he has ten minas!’ 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.”
If the talents in Matthew 25 represent spiritual gifts which were distributed differently to different servants at different amounts what then is the mina that was given equally to each one but yielded different results?
If I might quote Jesus again from Matthew’s Gospel from chapter 28…
“All authority on heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
What each servant of the Lord Jesus has been entrusted with equally is the Gospel, the Good News, that though we are all sinners and condemned to death Jesus took our place, took our punishment on the cross and cancelled the debt that we owed to God by rising from the dead.
This parable show us that preaching the gospel is not just the work of the elite, you don’t have to be a pastor to be a preacher, you don’t have to be a professional missionary to be a witness. Like I said last week, “Evangelism is just one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.”
The third servant refused to do the work of sharing the gospel, he had the gospel but he buried it, he kept it safe out of fear.
Make no mistake, there is risk involved, just as there is in any investment. The first two servants took the risk and put the minas to work to make more minas and they were rewarded for it.
I love that both of them said, “Lord, your mina made ten more, or five more.”
Your mina, not my effort, my charisma, my intelligence. Your mina made more.
And there were also seven more unnamed servants who only the Lord knows and only the Lord knows their story.
There are countless faithful servants of the Lord who will not publish books or preach to crowds of thousands but daily, faithfully show up and share the gospel of salvation through faith in Jesus by their words and their actions.
Warren Wiersbe wrote, “We are living today in the period between Luke 19:14 and 15 when our Master is absent but will return according to His promise. We have been given a task to perform, and we must be faithful until He comes. What will the King say to us when He returns? Will His words mean reward, rebuke, or possibly retribution? ‘Moreover it is required in stewards, that they be found faithful.’”
That’s all we are, stewards entrusted with the gospel. So take the risk and put our minas to work.
Amen.
