and they thought that the Kingdom of God
would appear there immediately.
The context of this parable is an explanation for those who were expecting the Kingdom of God to come immediately. The point is that it wouldn't come in fullness until after a period of hostility and the opposition of those who said "We do not want this man to be our king". It described how the faithful should conduct themselves until the Father himself put all of the enemies of Jesus under his feet.
For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death (see First Corinthians 1:25-26).
We are servants of the Jesus, and have been entrusted with his gifts. These are not so much the natural wealth which is often an obstacle to spiritual growth. But they can refer to the natural talents and spiritual gifts that we have been given by God. In the parable we can see that all ten of the servants received ten coins. Along with these they received a command, "Engage in trade". We only see the results (or the lack thereof) from three of these ten. One made ten additional coins, one made five, and one failed to heed the command of the nobleman to trade and made nothing. From the results we see that what the nobleman truly desired to see was faithfulness to his command. It might seem that it was the success or skill of the man who made ten more that caused the nobleman to make him a ruler of ten cities. But it is more likely that these three examples represent a spectrum, not of skill, but of obedience. We may speculate that the man who made ten more went all in whereas the man who made five had a less than full commitment. Perhaps he hesitated or held back some that with which he had been entrusted. Nevertheless, he wasn't punished for this. He was instead rewarded less. And perhaps this was necessary. Perhaps only by going all in did one prepare and enlarge himself in order to make himself fitting for the mission of governing more cities.
The first came forward and said,
'Sir, your gold coin has earned ten additional ones.'
He replied, 'Well done, good servant!
You have been faithful in this very small matter;
take charge of ten cities.'
Then the second came and reported,
'Your gold coin, sir, has earned five more.'
And to this servant too he said,
'You, take charge of five cities.'
Any fidelity to Jesus is rewarded and reciprocated in a way that causes us to increase in virtuous cycle. A little faithfulness is rewarded with an increase of responsibility allowing us to grow and show still greater faithfulness. This is encouraging because even very small acts of faithfulness take on great value. The one thing, however, that must be avoided at all cost is disobedience.
'Sir, here is your gold coin;
I kept it stored away in a handkerchief,
for I was afraid of you, because you are a demanding man;
you take up what you did not lay down
and you harvest what you did not plant.'
This third servant seemed to suspect that his master was out to get him, looking for an excuse or a pretense to condemn him. This incorrect image of the master was the very thing that led to the negative outcome he experienced. The master was looking for the barest and most meager of efforts and would have rewarded them, even simply putting the money in a bank. But the fear of this servant caused him to close down, hide, and fail to act. He saw the master's demand as a threat to himself whereas he might have viewed his command as a guarantee of what was in fact possible and exerted himself accordingly in some measure. Thus his interpretation of his master became something like a self-fulfilling prophecy.
And to those standing by he said,
'Take the gold coin from him
and give it to the servant who has ten.'
Jesus himself has given us our gifts in order that they might be used for the building up of the body of Christ. When we do so we experience the blessings that come when we seek first the Kingdom. But if we sit on our hands, or try to keep his gifts merely for our own amusement, he will look instead for others who will make a more faithful response. But it is not an all or nothing arrangement. Even a little faithful obedience is a powerful force in the spiritual economy. Jesus himself, our coming king, delights to make those who are faithful to him grow in ever increasing spiritual riches.
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