In Luke 19:15 the story zooms into the future with the return of the nobleman and an accounting of the disbursed funds "that he might know how much every man had gained by trading." Three people's stories are told. In Luke 19 we see that the nobleman "called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, 'Do business till I come'" (Luke 19:13). Look at the procedure we see in the stories. As we read these two parables we learn we can grow a life, develop gifts and talents and accomplish significance.Ī key lesson of these parables is that God expects us to gain a measurable increase in our lives. What we do along the way determines the finish, and a lot of life is learning to make the best of what we've been given. Then there are the many of us in the great middle class of life-given a little better than average start.īut it's how we finish that's important. Others who start with great wealth and advantage squander it and often quickly burn out in a sad and tragic loss. Some who start with very little use their resources and amass great fortune and accomplishment. Some are born to greater advantage than others. We are given a life on this earth with a certain number of years to live it out. That seems to be the essence of these two parables. When I read these two parables, I have to put myself in the picture as someone who has been given something by God to preserve, promote and return. It's balancing out the necessary with the not-so-necessary that's critical. Some possessions are necessary to our well-being, while others are not so necessary-but often consume our money and our time. How we live and use the talents and minas-the gifts, aptitudes, abilities, means and opportunities we're given in this life-is critical. Our life now is meant to prepare us for our part in the coming Kingdom of God.
These parables reveal that this physical life serves as preparation, a training ground, for something far greater than this life. At the end of the day Christ is more interested in what we do with our spiritual "minas" and "talents" than anything else. The money, talent or mina, is only the vehicle He uses to teach a far greater lesson. And here is a primary lesson: Christ speaks in these two parables about money, but He is really talking about something far more important-the elements of spiritual character.
The lesson is that God gives us something of considerable value and expects good stewardship and a return on what He has given. In Luke's account 10 servants are each given one mina, and in Matthew's three servants are given five, two and one talent respectively.īoth terms here, talents and minas, referred to substantial sums of money in the culture of that day. In each case we have a story of servants being given a sum of money, and at the return of their master (Jesus Christ) an accounting is required. We find this parable in Luke 19:11-27, with a similar parable of the talents recorded in Matthew 25:14-30. So to prepare them-and His followers through the ages-for that reality, He began a parable about a nobleman traveling far away "to receive for himself a kingdom and to return." In this story Christ is the nobleman, and the "kingdom" is the Kingdom of God over which He will reign at His return to the earth. Jesus knew it wasn't going to appear at that time. The parable of the minasĪs Jesus approached Jerusalem just days before His death, He sensed the crowds were expecting the imminent appearance of the promised Kingdom of God. And that's where these two crucial parables come in. We have to start each day with that understanding. We are here to prepare for life in the age to come. In these two parables we see the key to understanding what our lives in Christ should be all about. We can see this in two major parables He gave as instruction to us to examine our stewardship of the life we've been given, both physical and spiritual. Thank God we have an opportunity each day to start over, learn a lesson, get back on our feet and try again!īut what does this have to do with the parables of Jesus Christ?Ī lot, actually. We've all heard the saying, "Today is the first day of the rest of your life." This saying, though trite and overused, is actually quite true. Life-changing resolutions can begin on any day of the year. One day God will ask each of us this question. Yet every day is a good suitable time to take stock of life and ask ourselves how we are doing with what we've been given. As I write this article it's the first week of January, the beginning of a new Western calendar year when many people resolve to take an inventory of their life and try to do better with their priorities, planning and possessions over the next year.
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