Luke 19:12-14

The Probation.

A man of noble birth goes to ask from the sovereign of the country which he inhabits the government of his province. Before undertaking this journey, which must be a long one, for the sovereign dwells in a distant country, this man, concerned about the future administration of the state after his return, puts to the proof the servants who have till now formed his own household, and whom he proposes afterwards to make his officers. For that purpose, he confides to each of them a sum of money, to be turned to account in his absence. Hereby he will be able to estimate their fidelity and capability, and to assign them in the new state of things a place proportioned to the qualities of which they shall have given proof. Meanwhile the future subjects protest before the sovereign against the elevation of their fellow-citizen. Some features in this picture seem borrowed from the political situation of the Holy Land Josephus relates that on the death of Herod the Great, Archelaus, his son, whom he had appointed his heir, repaired to Rome to request that Augustus would invest him in his father's dominions, but that the Jews, wearied of this dynasty of adventurers, begged the emperor rather to convert their country into a Roman province. This case might the more readily occur to the mind of Jesus, as at that very Jericho where He was speaking there stood the magnificent palace which this Archelaus had built.

The word εὐγενής, of noble birth, evidently refers to the superhuman nature of Jesus. Μακράν is an adverb, as at Luke 15:13. This far distance is the emblem of the long interval which, in the view of Jesus, was to separate His departure from His return.

The expression, to receive a kingdom, includes the installation of Jesus in His heavenly power, as well as the preparation of His Messianic kingdom here below by the sending of the Holy Spirit and His work in the Church.

A mina, among the Hebrews, was worth about £6 sterling. It is not, as in Matthew 25:14, all his goods which the master distributes; the sum, too, is much less considerable; the talents of which Matthew speaks are each worth about £400. The idea is therefore different. In Luke, the money entrusted is simply a means of testing. In Matthew, the matter in question is the administration of the owner's fortune. The sums entrusted, being in Luke the same for all the servants, represent not gifts (χαρίσματα), which are very various, but the grace of salvation common to all believers (pardon and the Holy Spirit). The position of every believer in the future kingdom depends on the use which he makes of that grace here below. It is surprising to hear Jesus call this salvation an ἐλάχιστον, a very little (Luke 19:17). What an idea of future glory is given to us by this saying! The Alex. reading ἐν ᾧ, Luke 19:13, assumes that ἔρχομαι has the meaning of travelling; while with ἕως it would signify to arrive. The first reading implies that the time during which the absence of Jesus lasts is a constant returning, which is perfectly in keeping with the biblical view. “I say unto you, that from this time ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the throne..., and coming in the clouds of heaven,” Matthew 26:64. The ascension is the first step in His return here below. Luke 19:14 describes the resistance of the Jews to the Messianic sovereignty of Jesus, and that during all the time which separates His first from His second coming.