Latest / The Bible Study Podcast / #953 - Luke 19:11-27 – 10 Minas

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#953 - Luke 19:11-27 – 10 Minas · The Bible Study Podcast

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  Speaker 1: Life Audio The Bible Study Podcast, Episode nine and fifty three. Today,
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  Speaker 1: The Bible Study Podcast continues the study of the Gospel
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  Speaker 1: of Luke as we carry on with more of Chapter nineteen.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bible Study Podcast. I'm your host, Chris Kristensen.
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  Speaker 1: We're going to continue on with the story of the
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  Speaker 1: ten Minas, but first a word from this sponsor, starting
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  Speaker 1: in verse eleven, the Parable of the ten Minas. While
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  Speaker 1: they were listening to this, I'm going to pause there
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  Speaker 1: for a second because this that we've got here is
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  Speaker 1: the story of Zachias. And so Jesus goes to Zachias's house,
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  Speaker 1: and Zachiah says he's going to change, and then Jesus says,
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  Speaker 1: Salvation has come to this house for this man to
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  Speaker 1: is a son of Abraham, for the son of Man
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  Speaker 1: came to seek and to save the lost. And then
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  Speaker 1: we get While they were listening to this, he went
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  Speaker 1: on to tell them parable because he was near Jerusalem
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  Speaker 1: and the people thought the Kingdom of God was going
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  Speaker 1: to appear at once. He said, a man of noble
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  Speaker 1: birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed
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  Speaker 1: king and then to return. So he called ten of
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  Speaker 1: his servants and gave them ten minas. Put this to work,
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  Speaker 1: he said, until I come back. But his subjects hated
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  Speaker 1: him and sent a delegation after him to say, we
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  Speaker 1: don't want this man to be our king. He was
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  Speaker 1: made king, however, and returned home. Then he sent for
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  Speaker 1: the servants to whom he had given the money, in
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  Speaker 1: order to find out what they had gained with it.
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  Speaker 1: The first one came and said, Sir, yrmina has earned
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  Speaker 1: ten more. Well done, my good servant. His master replied,
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  Speaker 1: because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter,
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  Speaker 1: take charge of ten cities. The second came and said, Sir,
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  Speaker 1: your mina has earned five more. His master answered, you
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  Speaker 1: take charge of five cities. Then another servant came and said, Sir,
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  Speaker 1: here is your mina. I have kept it laid away
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  Speaker 1: in a piece of cloth. I was afraid of you
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  Speaker 1: because you are a hard man. You take out what
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  Speaker 1: you do not put in, and reap what you do
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  Speaker 1: not sew. His master replied, I will judge you by
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  Speaker 1: your own words, you wicked servant. You knew, did you
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  Speaker 1: that I am a hard man, taking out what I
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  Speaker 1: did not put in and reaping what I did not sew.
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  Speaker 1: Why then didn't you put my money on deposit so
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  Speaker 1: that when I came back I could have collected it
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  Speaker 1: with interest. Then he said to those standing by, take
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  Speaker 1: his mina away from him and give it to the
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  Speaker 1: one who has ten minas. Sir, They said, he already
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  Speaker 1: has ten. He replied, I tell you that to everyone
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  Speaker 1: who has more will be given, But as for the
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  Speaker 1: one who has nothing, even what they have will be
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  Speaker 1: taken away. But those enemies of mine who did not
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  Speaker 1: want me to be king over them, bring them here
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  Speaker 1: and kill them in front of me. We should say
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  Speaker 1: that amina is about three months wage, and so it's
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  Speaker 1: a lot of money. The story of the Menas is
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  Speaker 1: similar to the parable of the Talents, but with some
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  Speaker 1: other different things that going on. And the things that
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  Speaker 1: are notably different is that there's a story about this
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  Speaker 1: guy who wants to become king, this noble who wants
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  Speaker 1: to become king, who heads off to a different country
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  Speaker 1: to become king. It becomes king even though people don't
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  Speaker 1: want him and tell the other country not to make
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  Speaker 1: him king, and then he has them all killed at
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  Speaker 1: the end. That's certainly very different. One of the biggest
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  Speaker 1: noticeable differences from the story of the parable of the Talents.
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  Speaker 1: What does this have to do with Zichius and what
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  Speaker 1: was going on there, or what does it have to
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  Speaker 1: do with him going to Jerusalem and people expect him
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  Speaker 1: coming as king, expect that the Kingdom of God is
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  Speaker 1: going to happen right away. That is a really good
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  Speaker 1: question because it's not obvious. But that's what Luke tells us.
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  Speaker 1: Luke tells us while this is the keyst thing was
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  Speaker 1: going on. He tells them this parable. And the reason
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  Speaker 1: he tells us. I love it when Luke does this
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  Speaker 1: is because he's getting near Jerusalem, and people thought the
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  Speaker 1: Kingdom of God was going to appear at once. And
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  Speaker 1: when we say they thought the Kingdom of God was
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  Speaker 1: going to appear at once, they don't mean what we
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  Speaker 1: would mean these days. They thought that Jesus was going
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  Speaker 1: to start in our earthly kingdom. They thought he was
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  Speaker 1: going to kick out the Romans. And that is important
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  Speaker 1: because the very next section here is going to be
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  Speaker 1: Jesus comes to Jerusalem as king. And so we have
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  Speaker 1: Palm Sunday story here in Luke nineteen. We are winding
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  Speaker 1: down this story. We're in the last week here, Holy Week.
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  Speaker 1: We're about to be and because of this story, we
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  Speaker 1: you know that when people were proclaiming Jesus as king,
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  Speaker 1: they had different expectations. They were expecting him to be
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  Speaker 1: an earthly king. Okay, so that's one thread that's going
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  Speaker 1: on here, is why he tells the story. But what
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  Speaker 1: does this story have to do with that? We certainly
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  Speaker 1: have the person who is going to go make himself king.
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  Speaker 1: So in this case, this isn't something that would be
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  Speaker 1: unheard of for the Jewish people because King Herod the
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  Speaker 1: Great and really not so great, but that is what
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  Speaker 1: they called him. King Herod the Great was made king
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  Speaker 1: in the area, was made king in Judah by the Romans.
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  Speaker 1: So he went away and came back as king, and
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  Speaker 1: he wasn't Jewish, and so there were certainly some who
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  Speaker 1: would have not wanted him to be king. As this
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  Speaker 1: person heads away, people don't want him to be king,
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  Speaker 1: and possibly they don't want him to be king because
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  Speaker 1: he's a hard man, right. He's not very forgiving, as
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  Speaker 1: we see with both the servant who gives him back
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  Speaker 1: his money as well as the people who try and
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  Speaker 1: bad mouth them and get him not to be king,
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  Speaker 1: who he has killed in front of him. This is
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  Speaker 1: someone you don't want to get on the wrong side of,
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  Speaker 1: like Harry the Greats. I wonder if the people who
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  Speaker 1: heard this story would think of Herod when they heard
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  Speaker 1: this story. Possibly, But the heart of the story is
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  Speaker 1: that the king comes to ten different servants. Now we'll
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  Speaker 1: only hear the results of three of them, but he
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  Speaker 1: goes to ten servants and gives them ten minas, and
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  Speaker 1: apparently based on what we see at the end, he
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  Speaker 1: gives one mina to each servant and amina is three
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  Speaker 1: months wages, So a lot of money to most of us,
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  Speaker 1: but apparently not to this guy who's going to become king,
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  Speaker 1: because he can hand out basically thirty months wages just
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  Speaker 1: so easily. But the first one comes back and he says,
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  Speaker 1: here's ten minas. So I took the money you gave me,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm giving you a one thousand percent return ten
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  Speaker 1: times the money you gave me. Here you go, and
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  Speaker 1: he is told, well done, and I'm going to put
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  Speaker 1: you in charge of ten cities. Remember, this guy has
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  Speaker 1: become king. This guy has more authority and more power
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  Speaker 1: and more riches at his disposal than he did before.
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  Speaker 1: And he rewards this guy for being a faithful servant,
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  Speaker 1: and certainly we are called to be faithful servants. So
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  Speaker 1: we can get that clue in here right away, and
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  Speaker 1: the idea of if you're faithful with little, you be
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  Speaker 1: given more. You can take on more responsibility as you mature,
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  Speaker 1: as you handle the things you've got. Now, this guy
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  Speaker 1: did a great job. If you went to your financial
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  Speaker 1: advisor and every time you gave him money he was
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  Speaker 1: able to give you ten times return, that would be
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  Speaker 1: a very popular financial advisor who probably wouldn't need to
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  Speaker 1: he a financial advisor because he could do that with
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  Speaker 1: his own money. But the second guy, he does great too.
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  Speaker 1: He gets five times his return, so that's terrific, and
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  Speaker 1: is put in charge of five cities. But that third guy,
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  Speaker 1: and again we don't know half of the other seven,
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  Speaker 1: he was afraid. He was afraid to do anything with this.
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  Speaker 1: He was afraid he was gonna lose it, and so
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  Speaker 1: he kept it. He hit it away, and he returns
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  Speaker 1: it to his master, who takes it away from him
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  Speaker 1: and gives it to the guy with ten who doesn't
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  Speaker 1: need it anymore. He's in charge of ten cities. And
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  Speaker 1: we get that cryptic thing. You knew that I was
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  Speaker 1: a hard man you should have at least earned interest
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  Speaker 1: on it, you know, earned five percent or whatever, instead
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  Speaker 1: of five hundred percent like the other guy, or one
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  Speaker 1: thousand percent like the first guy. You should have at
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  Speaker 1: least earned interest on it. So I'm gonna take it
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  Speaker 1: away from you now. I get in business this idea
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  Speaker 1: of to those who have much more or will be given.
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  Speaker 1: If you have people who work for you who are
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  Speaker 1: really good at what they do, you give them more work,
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  Speaker 1: you give them more responsibility, you give them more and
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  Speaker 1: more of the company to take care of, because you're
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  Speaker 1: going to do well when that happens. But it seems
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  Speaker 1: odd that we're talking about this in a context where
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  Speaker 1: we are sort of assuming that this has something to
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  Speaker 1: do with our faith. Now, there's another version of this
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  Speaker 1: story that's not quite the same, about the ten, five
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  Speaker 1: and one talent that are given to people. It's easy
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  Speaker 1: for us to say when we hear that particular version
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  Speaker 1: of the story the three servants, one who's given ten
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  Speaker 1: talents won five talents and one one talent, and a
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  Speaker 1: talent is a year's worth of gold. But the word
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  Speaker 1: talent in English derives from that particular parable, and it's
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  Speaker 1: easier in that one for us to go off on
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  Speaker 1: that this is the talents that we're given, that we
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  Speaker 1: shouldn't hide our t talents, but we should use them
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  Speaker 1: and go that direction. But this is meanas right. We
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  Speaker 1: can't go that direction of just saying that talks about talents.
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  Speaker 1: But there is the idea here that we've been given things,
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  Speaker 1: whether it be gifts and talents, or whether it be resources, financial,
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  Speaker 1: or whatever it is that we have in our life,
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  Speaker 1: that we've been given them, and we are expected to
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  Speaker 1: do something with them. Not to be so afraid of
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  Speaker 1: failure that we don't try. That is certainly a good
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  Speaker 1: lesson for life if that's what Jesus is talking about here.
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  Speaker 1: The thing that's not clear, though, is why is he
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  Speaker 1: telling them this story. Luke says it's because he's going
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  Speaker 1: to Jerusalem and people expect that he's going to become king.
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  Speaker 1: And this is one that had me a little stumped.
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  Speaker 1: So I did some research to see what other commentators
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  Speaker 1: say about this, and I like what I'm reading. It's
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  Speaker 1: some of them that the idea is with him going
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  Speaker 1: to Jerusalem, he knows that the King of God is
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  Speaker 1: not going to come like they think, and not going
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  Speaker 1: to come right now everything gets solved right now, but
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  Speaker 1: there's going to be delay, like the person who's going
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  Speaker 1: away and giving these servants the meanas, and that we
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  Speaker 1: will be judged on what we do in the meantime
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  Speaker 1: in that process with what we've been given. Now. I
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  Speaker 1: liked the version of the ten, five and one talent
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  Speaker 1: because we know that not everybody has given equal talents,
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  Speaker 1: not everyone's given equal money, not everyone's given equal and
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  Speaker 1: this version everyone is. But we still see the inequality
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  Speaker 1: that some people can do better. And that's not an issue.
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  Speaker 1: It isn't that the person who got back five was
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  Speaker 1: scolded by his master for not getting ten. He was
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  Speaker 1: rewarded for what he did. He was a good and
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  Speaker 1: faithful servant. Us know, but you're not as good as
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  Speaker 1: this servant. We will be responsible for what we do
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  Speaker 1: with what we're given, and I think that's the one
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  Speaker 1: thing that we can take out of this story. And
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  Speaker 1: with that, we're going to end this episode of the
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  Speaker 1: Bible Study Podcast. Come back next time and we'll do
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  Speaker 1: Palm Sunday. If you have any questions, send an email
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  Speaker 1: to Chris two x at gmail dot com, or, better yet,
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  Speaker 1: leave a comment on this episode at the Bible Study
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  Speaker 1: podcast dot com and as always, thanks so much for listening.
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  Speaker 1: I want to take just a second to thank the
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  Speaker 1: team at Life Audio for their partnership with us on
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  Speaker 1: this podcast. If you go to lifeaudio dot com, you'll
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