In God's Kingdom a Little Now is a Lot Later
Today Jesus teaches us lessons about shifts in power, successes now and in our future, and how this takes place in another kingdom. The parable from Luke 19:11-27 shows us that "In God's Kingdom a Little Now is a Lot Later." November 7, 2010.
In Tuesday’s midterm elections Republicans gained control in the House, increased the size of their minority in the Senate, and captured several additional state governorships. Yet nearly 90 percent of exit poll respondents said they were worried about the future of our country. We have seen a shift in power. We want someone else in control. But we’re not sure they can fix the problems, either.
Today Jesus teaches us lessons about shifts in power, successes now and in our future, and how this takes place in another kingdom. On this Sunday with the title “Last Judgment,” the gloom and doom would be as frightening to us as the future of health care, social security, and unemployment except that believers see the judgment of God not as damnation but our final deliverance. Let’s study this parable of Jesus in Luke 19 about a king, who represents Jesus himself, and us his servants.
When Jesus says, “A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then return,” he is referring to his own exaltation. His descent into hell announcing to his enemies that he’s alive, his resurrection claiming victory over sin and death and the devil, his ascension into heaven taking the throne of authority over all problems and powers, and his final return on Judgment Day. Before the nobleman left, “He called ten of his servants, and gave them ten minas.” The number ten is significant when used symbolically in the Scriptures because, just like a score of ten on Dancing with the Stars means it was a perfect dance with no mistakes, the number ten can indicate perfection, completion, and total fulfillment. “Ten servants” means that the sum total of all who serve Jesus are recipients of his benevolence; no believer is left out for bad thoughts or getting bad grades or making a mess of life. “Ten minas” means that what Jesus gives believers is complete. It lacks nothing. His gift of grace for us through God’s Word, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper is the total package of what we need to be right with God. “Put this money to work until I come back,” the nobleman instructs his servants. He wants them to do business with what amounted in those days to about three months’ wages, not to put it in a shoebox under the bed. And there’s a deadline: when the boss returns from his trip.
On one side the church sign surprisingly read, “Don’t Keep the Faith,” but it continued on the other side, “Spread It Around.” Jesus has graciously given you his mercy and forgiveness, his attentive listening to prayers, his commands to be generous along with his promises to provide, his words in the Bible, the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper that give you new life. These are not private shoebox-under-the-bed matters to be kept between you and God. “Put them to work,” he says. “Until I return.”
The parable continues with the citizens, who hate the nobleman, sending representatives to follow him with posters and to run negative TV ads that denounce, “We don’t want this man to be our king.” This is Jesus’ condemnation of the Jews in his day – and today – who refuse to believe in Jesus as the Son of God and Savior of the world. To the shame of any such enemies Jesus is exalted as King and he will return on Judgment Day no matter how sincerely they believed otherwise. “As for those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them – bring them here and kill them in front of me.” Notice the connection Jesus makes between daily living today and eternal destiny after Judgment Day. Those who insist on living without Jesus now, refusing him as their king, will continue living without Jesus after Judgment Day.
Next the nobleman, now king back at home, “sent for his servants to whom he had given the money, in order to find out what they had gained with it.” Judgment Day will be a time for our performance review as servants of Jesus, but it won’t be based on the bullet points of a job description or the dollar figures of a sales quota. Jesus doesn’t give us a list of achievements like memorizing so many Bible verses or bowing to the east three times a day or praying the rosary at least more times than we sin. The king had generously given his servants a gift and simply told them to put it to use. No specific outcomes demanded or implied. Just put it to use. And at least two of them did. “Sir, your mina has earned ten more,” reports the first. Do you hear his humble diligence. He doesn’t say, “Look what I did! Look at me! Can I be in charge?” “Sir,” he addresses the king with honor and respect, “your mina has earned.” The credit for the 1000% increase goes to the king for being so generous in the first place. It’s the king who has made this possible, and who deserves the praise. “Well done, my good servant,” the king graciously praises his servant. “Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities,” and the king grants the second servant charge of five cities.
What difference can I make in the world when I’ve just lost my job? How could I ever witness to somebody when I don’t know my Bible as well as I should? Why can’t I be the dad, the friend, the son, the husband I’m supposed to be? We can feel so small – so insignificant – like a little shepherd boy among valiant warriors ready to embattle a giant. And the resources we have can seem so small and insignificant – our talents, our time and availability and opportunity, our energy, our position in life and place among our peers – that they seem like just a little stone in the palm of our hand. Small to us, but not to the God who created the universe out of nothing and brought his Son into the world through a poor virgin. “Not I, but the grace of God,” (1 Corinthians 15:10) servants of Jesus can say with the apostle Paul when our weak sinful flesh tries to convince is we are nothing. So be it. We are nothing on our own, but with Jesus we are everything. The grace of Jesus is our mina, and the grace of Jesus earns the increase and our Savior’s “well done, my good servant,” and heaven’s glory in multiples of power and pleasure our earthbound minds cannot comprehend and Satan’s kingdom dreads. In God’s Kingdom a Little Now is a Lot Later. Put your little to work for Jesus, and I wonder if on Judgment Day you’ll discover that your rule over giants and cities begin long before Jesus returned.
Before the party gets going, however, the king has some unpleasant business to take care of: the servant who hid the mina in a piece of cloth and earned nothing. Five times in one Bible verse the servant blames his own boss, poking his finger in his chest and spitting in his face, “you … you … you … you … you.” The problem wasn’t the king, however, who gave this servant the same mina that he gave the other servants who gained profit. The problem was that this servant didn’t want to work under the conditions laid out by his master. Yes, the master can be strict and even ruthless, and he is known for charging high interest, but the very fact that the servant knew this means that the servant made a fatal, informed decision: I don’t want this man to rule over me. Instead of hearing “well done” this servant hears the king call him “wicked” and he takes his mina away. It’s not the lack of profit that the king detests, but the refusal to work under the king’s conditions. Before we hear the word “wicked” describe us on Judgment Day it’s time to take those gifts of grace out of the shoebox – time to read our Bibles more regularly, pray more fervently, witness more frequently, give more generously, love more selflessly, time to schedule Sunday School and Bible study on Sunday mornings – before it’s too late.
Jesus asks nothing more of you than he has already given you. Look back with joyful hope at the introduction to this important lesson, “Jesus went on to tell them a parable, because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once.” The silly crowds expected Jesus to suppress the Romans once and for all, and declare himself king in Jerusalem. But God’s kingdom isn’t about worldly greatness. Jesus showed that over the next few weeks when, instead of taking up a throne in Jerusalem for himself he took up a cross for us. Instead of wearing a crown of gold and jewels for himself he wore a crown of thorns and blood for us. He became the least to save us from our interests in being so great. He brought us into his saving forgiveness, saving grace, saving mercy and gave us what seem in this world to be such little things.
“Put these to work until I come back.”
There is a shift in power in God’s kingdom, and it happens every time you put your faith to work, every time you put God’s Word to work, every time you put your talents and your prayers and your generosity to work. It may seem like a little, but in God’s kingdom it’s a lot. And it makes a difference.
“Well done, my good servant.” Amen.
Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (www.gracedowntown.org) on November 7, 2010
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