Delay And Reckoning
DELAY AND RECKONING
LUKE 19:20-27
In the final analysis, faithfulness will be rewarded and faithlessness punished.
This parable is not another version of the Parable of the Talents told in Matthew 25:14-30. Jesus must not be supposed to have taught each lesson only once and in the same form and context. The differences between the two stories and their teaching should be carefully listed. For example, the unprofitable servant is not cast out in this case.
The reason for this parable is given in 19:11. There was excitement among the Twelve, and Mark’s account of incidents on the journey up to Jerusalem (Mark 10:32-45) reveals the mood of expectation. “The kingdom” was at hand—the kingdom as they disastrously conceived it, with an earthly Messiah dispensing the rewards of victory.
The parable hints first at long delay. The ruler went to “a far country.” The servants of the ruler had one task to perform in his absence. It was a test of fidelity and capacity when he gave each a modest sum, and left them to demonstrate in the arena of trade their fitness to serve in a wider field, and their concern for his work.
Archelaus may, indeed, have done something like this, and, when he returned from Rome in a bitter mood of frustration over Augustus’ refusal of the royal title, he may have meted out just such savage punishment as Luke here records. At any rate, the rough and ready method of examination did reveal to him those who gave and those who grudged their service to the new regime.
The second point which the parable teaches is the inevitability of the day of reckoning. Archelaus inevitably returned. The certainty of God’s judgment day is yet more sure. The servants of the Lord are called to long and arduous service, to dogged day-by-day prosecution of their task, to inventiveness and to endeavor. Faithfulness in the hard trial of Christian living will determine wider opportunity to serve, and every man, before the judgment seat of Christ, will give an account of the service rendered (1 Corinthians 3:12-15; 2 Corinthians 5:10).
Notes 19:23: cf. a traditional saying of Jesus—“show yourselves approved bankers.” 19:26: those who use spiritual opportunities will be given even more; those who fail to do so will lose the ones they had. For the Christian’s attitude while waiting for the Lord’s return see Ephesians 5:16; Colossians 4:5; 2 Timothy 4:1-2.
Prayer
Prepare our souls, O Lord, for that great day.