The Ten Minas
Luke 19.11-27: 11 While they were listening to this, he 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. 12 He said, “A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return. 13 So he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas. ‘Put this money to work,’ he said, ‘until I come back.’
14 “But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We don’t want this man to be our king.’
15 “He was made king, however, and returned home. Then he sent for the servants to whom he had given the money, in order to find out what they had gained with it.
16 “The first one came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has earned ten more.’
17 “‘Well done, my good servant!’ his master replied. ‘Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.’
18 “The second came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has earned five more.’
19 “His master answered, ‘You take care of five cities.’
20 “Then another servant came and said, ‘Sir, here is your mina; I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. 21 I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow.’
22 “His master replied, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant! You knew, did you, that I am a hard man, taking out what I did not put in, and reaping what I did not sow? 23 Why then didn’t you put my money in deposit, so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest?’
24 “Then he said to those standing by, ‘Take his mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten minas.’
25 “‘Sir,’ they said, ‘he already has ten!’
26 “He replied, ‘I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away. 27 But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and kill them in front of me.’”
We find ourselves in this passage at a particularly important turning point in the Gospel of Luke. In Luke 9.51 had begun the long account of Jesus’ long march up to Jerusalem, and Luke mentions this trip regularly in the following chapters. Now, the voyage comes to an end with the parable of the minas. This story is to be seen in the perspective of Jesus’ decisive arrival in the holy city. His entry will be described immediately after, but is already announced in Luke 19.11, which serves as an introduction to the passage.
The reader of the Gospel already knows what kind of reception awaits Jesus in Jerusalem: he is going there to be rejected and put to death. The disciples of Jesus, however, and the people accompanying them, are nourishing very different hopes in regard to this visit. Mark 11.10: 10 “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!” They expect that the establishment of the Messiah’s reign will take place “at once” (gr. parachrema: “that very instant”, “right away”, “immediately”) with the arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem for the holy feast of the Passover.
The reign of the Messiah is in fact near (Luke 22.18; Acts 1.6-7), but Jesus’ arrival in the holy city will not launch the seizure of power that the disciples are expecting with such enthusiasm. On the contrary, it will mark the opening of the final confrontation between the Messiah and his faithless capital—a confrontation that will result in the terrible judgment carried out by the Christ against the Jews who wanted nothing to do with his reign. It is this divine punishment threatening Jerusalem that Jesus sets against the excitement caused by his approaching the city. (The final return of Jesus at the end of human history appears nowhere, either near or far, in the context of the parable.)
Before taking up the lessons taught in the parable, let’s try to determine from the allegorical elements of the story the exact situation that is to be illustrated and the identity of the people at whom Jesus is aiming. It is clear that Jesus depicts himself in the person of the crown prince who goes to a foreign country to have himself appointed king; and it is clear that his departure corresponds to his ascension into heaven. That is the moment when Jesus will receive all power in heaven and on earth and that he will enter into his messianic reign at the right hand of God.
What about the return of the king? The rest of the story tells us that Jesus will come back, invested with royal power, to execute a judgment: he will ask his servants to give account of themselves and then will take vengeance on his enemies. The whole context, both global and immediate, invites us to see in this return, not the last coming of Christ at the end of time, but his coming as judge against Jerusalem in 70 A.D. (Matthew 16.28), an event which looms so large in the Gospels and occupies so much place in the Master’s teaching. Jesus announces here that he will exercise shortly his royal power in Jerusalem, but not in the way that people expected. In all of this section—and, in fact, all through the Gospel—Jesus envisages his kingship above all in relation to his own people.
In this perspective, it becomes easier to identify those whose situation is illustrated respectively by the servants and the countrymen of the king. The image of servants entrusted with the responsibility of management and administration must refer to, as in the other parables about servants and managers (Matthew 24.45-51; 25.14-30; Luke 12.35-48; 17.7-10), the apostles. While waiting for the “return” of their Master, the disciples must carry out faithfully the task that has been assigned to them and that is represented by the money they are to use to make a profit. Their mission is to work and make fruitful that which has been entrusted to them.
The parable itself does not specify what the apostolic task involves. We learn that from other passages (Luke 8.16-18; 12.41-48; Matthew 25.34-40). The apostles are to dispense the teaching of the Master and to exercise in the community of believers a pastoral and fraternal ministry.
The hatred of the countrymen for the king represents the hostility of the Jewish contemporaries of Jesus (especially the religious leaders of Jerusalem) who refuse his messianic kingship. Luke 19.14: 14 “We don’t want this man to be our king.”
Let’s move on to the main scene of the parable: the king settling his accounts upon his return. Having ascended to heaven to be enthroned as king and Messiah, Jesus will come back in his royal power to judge the generation of his Jewish countrymen who had rejected him. Their punishment will be consummated by the Jewish-Roman war of 66-70, during which the Roman armies will kill by the sword hundreds of thousands of Jews (Luke 13.1-3; 19.27; 21.24).
But the return of the Messiah to punish the unfaithful Jewish theocracy will concern the apostles as well. Jesus will put his own house in order first, according to the principle formulated in 1 Peter 4.17: 17 For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?
To the apostles, the parable teaches them the necessity of being faithful in carrying out their specific responsibilities, so they will not be taken by surprise at the hour of judgement. What will they do with the trust their Master has put in them? With they diligently fulfill the duties of their high office or will they be disobedient like the third servant? He did not do the will of his master even though it had been explicitly explained to him (Luke 12.47-48). The apostles must not remain inactive during the time preceding the coming of the Christ against Jerusalem, for at that same time Jesus will demand that they give account of themselves.
This is the hard reality that Jesus sets against the wrong-headed excitement of the disciples. Jesus is going to Jerusalem to obtain the throne that is his by right. His next parable (the Tenants, Luke 20.9-18) will describe how this is to come about.