Luke 19:11-27

The Parable of The Receiving of the Kingdom, the Testing Out of The Servants As To Their Suitability For High Position, and The Fate of Rebels (19:11-27). .

We come now to the end of this sixth section of the Gospel. It appropriately ends with the picture of the one who goes away and returns, and the response that he meanwhile expects. That is the theme of the whole section (see introduction to the section), readiness for the coming of the Son of Man. In the parable we have here depicted the one who goes into a far country, who provides ten coins for his servants to trade with, one of which is ‘lost' for the duration, which results in two servants being shown in a good light and the rebuke of the third. In the parallel passage in the Section chiasmus (see introduction to the Section) are the parables of the shepherd who goes into the far wilderness to seek his sheep, the woman who has ten coins, and the parable of the two who are revealed finally in a good light (the father and second son), and the third who is rebuked (the first son).

This present parable is partly based on the actual historical incident when, on the death of Herod the Great, Archelaus, one of his surviving sons, went to Rome seeking to receive the authority to rule over Palestine and the right to rule as king. But because of their dislike for his ways the people sent a deputation to Caesar opposing his appointment. In the event he was appointed as ethnarch, with the promise of kingship if he proved worthy, and was only given authority over part of what he had hoped for. He was not very pleased, and rather foolishly, in view of the fact that he was on probation, behaved abominably. In the end he was deposed and lost all, being replaced by Roman governors. Jesus may well have been reminded of these facts by the sight of the splendid palace and aqueduct that Herod and Archelaus had built in Jericho.

However, this should not affect the interpretation of the parable for the main point of the parable has nothing to do with Archelaus. What happened to him just suggested the idea. The themes of the parable are the departure of the one who was noble to receive his kingship, the opposition of rebels who rejected this king and are subsequently punished on his return, the appointment of servants to look after minor interests in order to test their faithfulness with a view to future governorship (to replace the rebels), the successful appointment and return of the king after a long period, and his final response to the servants whom he has been testing out, of whom one failed, while all of them are called on to give account, being then rewarded with suitable positions.

The parable bears a superficial similarity to a number of others but is sufficiently different not to be simply a reproduction of any one of them, except in so far as any preacher makes use of a good illustration to suit different purposes. The one that is seen as most similar (Matthew 25:14) is in fact based on a totally differentconcept. For in Matthew the parable depicts a man who is concerned that his business interests are well looked after while he is away, and hands them all over to three servants, while Luke's story is to do with a king seeking confirmation of his appointment from his overlord, quelling rebellion and trying out the suitability of certain servants to be governors in his kingdom. Various details are repeated in both simply because they could apply in both cases, but the subtle differences, which are apt in each case, but would have been out of place in the other, rule out the idea that one has been altered up from the other. It is simply that the same storyteller had told two stories based on separate plots, while utilising and fitting in common material. Any other view of them is quite frankly purely based on individual unproven opinion, and as usual all attempts to show otherwise have contradicted each other, with different opinions cancelling each other out. All founder on the fact of the unlikelihood of the early church actually deliberately changing the words of Jesus, especially in view of the number of eyewitnesses around, and on the unlikelihood that if they had done so we would have them in any palatable form today. The distortions of the apocryphal Gospels make quite clear what happened when men actually did begin to play around with the tradition. We are wise therefore to see this parable as standing on its own foundation as a genuine and separate parable of Jesus.

Analysis of the Passage.

a As they heard these things, He added and spoke a parable, because He was near to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the Kingly Rule of God was immediately to appear (Luke 19:11).

b He said therefore, “A certain nobleman went into a far country, to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return” (Luke 19:12).

c He called ten servants of his, and gave them ten minas, and said to them, ‘You trade with this until I come' (Luke 19:13).

d But his citizens hated him, and sent a deputation after him, saying, ‘We will not that this man reign over us' (Luke 19:14).

e And it about that, when he was come back again, having received the kingdom, he commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called to him, that he might know what they had gained by trading (Luke 19:15).

f The first came before him, saying, ‘Lord, your mina has made ten minas more' (Luke 19:16).

g And he said to him, ‘Well done, you good servant. Because you were found faithful in a very little, you have authority over ten cities' (Luke 19:17).

f The second came, saying, ‘Your mina, Lord, has made five minas'. He said to him also, ‘You be also over five cities' (Luke 19:18).

e Another came, saying, ‘Lord, behold, here is your mina, which I kept laid up in a neckcloth, for I feared you, because you are an austere man. You take up what you do not lay down, and you reap what you did not sow' (Luke 19:20).

d He says to him, ‘Out of your own mouth will I judge you, you wicked servant. You knew that I am an austere man, taking up what I laid not down, and reaping what I did not sow, then why did you not give my money into the bank, and I at my coming would have required it with interest?' (Luke 19:22).

c And he said to those who stood by, ‘Take away from him the mina, and give it to him who has ten minas'. And they said to him, ‘Lord, he has ten minas' (Luke 19:24).

b ‘I say to you, that to every one who has will be given, but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away from him' (Luke 19:26).

a ‘But these my enemies, who would not that I should reign over them, bring here, and slay them before me' (Luke 19:27).

Note that in ‘a' the expectation was of the coming of the Kingly Rule of God, and in the parallel the king in the parable exercises a similar kingship by destroying those who had sought to prevent him receiving it. In ‘b' the nobleman goes to receive his kingship, and in the parallel those who ‘have' will be given. In ‘c' ten minas are given to ten servants, and in the parallel there is emphasis on the ten minas connected with the first servant. In ‘d' the king is hated, and in the parallel he is seen as fearful. In ‘e' he calls on his servants to give account of their trading, and in the parallel one has proved faithless and has not traded. In ‘f' one has used his mina and made ten minas, and in the parallel another has used his mina and made five minas. Central in ‘g' are the congratulations and reward for the ten mina success.

The Purpose of the Parable.