Request your free, three-month trial to Tabletalk magazine. You’ll receive the print issue monthly and gain immediate digital access to decades of archives. This trial is risk-free. No credit card required.
Try Tabletalk NowAlready receive Tabletalk magazine every month?
Verify your email address to gain unlimited access.
Luke 19:11–26
“I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away” (v. 26).
Today we return to our study of Luke’s gospel, picking up in 19:11–26 with the parable of the ten minas. This parable has many similarities with the parable of the talents recorded in Matthew 25:14–30. Despite making the same basic point, the two parables have some differences. Jesus probably repeated several of His parables often, perhaps varying the details from time to time.
Luke 19:11 notes that Jesus told the parable of the ten minas when He was near Jerusalem and was addressing an audience who thought that “the kingdom of God was to appear immediately.” The story indicates a delay, at least from a human perspective, in the full realization of the kingdom. In the parable, a nobleman goes to a far country to receive a kingdom, leaving behind ten servants until his return (vv. 12–13). Clearly, this alludes to our Savior’s then-imminent return to the Father to sit at His right hand, whence He will rule and reign over His kingdom until His coming at the end of history to judge the living and the dead (see 1 Cor. 15:20–28).
The nobleman’s ten servants represent all professing Christians. As Jesus ascends to the Father for a time, He gives each servant one mina, a sum equivalent to three to four months’ wages. These servants are to “engage in business” until Christ’s return, meaning that He expects His people to invest their gifts for the good of the kingdom (see Luke 19:13–26). Jesus also refers to “citizens” who hate the noblemen; these are the Jewish authorities who were seeking to destroy our Lord (v. 14).
As noted, the point of the parable is that Jesus expects His people to use the gifts and resources that they have for the sake of the kingdom. We see this as those servants who invested their mina and earned a return receive authority (vv. 16–19). This gives us insight into the nature of heavenly rewards. Those who serve Jesus faithfully with what they have in the present will exercise greater authority in the new heavens and earth than those who have not been so faithful. The servant in the parable who does not invest his resources is judged for his failure. As we will see in our next study, he failed to invest because he had a wrong view of the Lord’s character (vv. 20–26). His failure underscores the main point of the parable, which Dr. R.C. Sproul says is that “the Lord wants us to be profitable servants, servants who tend whatever we receive so that it grows and multiplies for the benefit of the kingdom of God.”
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Jesus expects His people to use what they have—their time, their talents, and their treasures—for the sake of the kingdom of God. Whether we have been blessed with many resources in these areas or only with a few, we must put them to work for God’s kingdom, serving other people in the church, volunteering our time, financially supporting the preaching of the gospel, and so on.
for further study
- Exodus 35:4–36:7
- Ecclesiastes 11:1–4
- 1 Corinthians 12
- 1 Peter 4:10–11
the bible in a year
- Song 1–3
- 2 Corinthians 12