Today’s parable speaks of a king who goes to a faraway place to receive a kingdom despite his subjects protesting him receiving it. Parables are stories in which Jesus uses familiar, earthly realities, to teach truths about the Kingdom of heaven. So in today’s parable, what is the earthly reality which Jesus’ audience would have been familiar with?
When Herod the Great died in 4BC, he left his kingdom to be divided among Antipas, Herod Philip, and Archelaus. Judea had been allotted to Archelaus, which had to be ratified by Rome, since it was under the authority of the Roman Empire. When Archelaus travelled to Rome to have his inheritance confirmed, some Jews also went to Rome to protest to Caesar because they did not want the tyrannical Archelaus to rule over them as king. After repeated complaints against him, and a trial in which he was unsuccessfully defended, Archelaus was ultimately denied his throne.[1]
We might already hear some threads of these historical events in today’s parable. As Archelaus was of noble birth, so too is the key figure in the parable, through whom Jesus is alluding to himself, from the royal line of David. As Archelaus went to a far off country to have himself appointed King, so too does Jesus go to a far off country, ascending into heaven to be exalted at the right hand of the Father as King who reigns with all authority in heaven and on earth.
But first Jesus must die—which is why he is about to go to Jerusalem. Many eagerly expected that Jesus would claim victory there at once. This is because they are thinking in earthly, political sense, hoping for Jesus to liberate them from their oppression under the hated Roman Empire. As Jesus rode in people would cheer “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” as they waved branches Luke 19:38).
So if Jesus is the king and is reigning, why does he not resist arrest? If Jesus is the king and is reigning, why does he not summon a powerful army to overthrow his captors? If Jesus is the king and is reigning, why is he mocked, beaten, abused, and publicly shamed by being nailed on a cross in the most brutal style of execution possible? To human eyes, this Jesus was a dud. They did not want him to rule over them as king. “Crucify him!” they shouted as Jesus stood before Pilate. “Give us Barabbas!” they shouted.
The people had the wrong idea about Jesus’ kingdom. Jesus came to free us from the spiritual oppressors that we cannot see: sin, Satan and hell. The things that we can see—wars and uprisings, great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, suffering and death, and fearful events and great signs from heaven (Luke 21:9-11) are not signs that God is absent from the world, but they are signs that the world is in bondage to decay, coming to its end. They are signs of our need for a Saviour. They are the reality in which we live which is precisely why Jesus needed to reign over sin, death and evil on the Cross, to redeem us by his precious blood, his innocent suffering and death. The world’s only hope for salvation is not in renewables and reducing emissions targets but Jesus Christ who has ransomed us from our bondage to death and hell by his precious blood. There is forgiveness by no other name under heaven (Acts 4:12). The grass withers, the flower falls, but the word of the Lord will remain forever (Isaiah 40:8). The human race needs that word by which they hear of their Saviour, Jesus, who is the way, the truth and the life, even after death.
So before Jesus goes to the distant country, he will give his servants his word. This is what the mina—a coin worth approximately three months wages—represents. The number 10 represents completeness here. So the nobleman doesn’t give his wealth to ten of his servants, as most versions render, but his ten servants. He gave all his wealth to all of his servants, which his servants are to put to work for him before he returns. This is a picture of the God giving the treasure of his word to the church, and in faith, the church teaching and confessing the word before the world until the day Jesus returns to judge the living and the dead.
Teaching, proclaiming and confessing that word is the way God’s gracious rule from heaven will continue on earth, and his people will prevail despite all that happens around them. They will be met with rejection, just as the people stoned the prophets, crucified Christ, and persecuted the apostles and the early church.
If Jesus is king and is reigning, why does this happen? God uses persecution even for his kingdom purposes. Persecution is precisely how the early church grew—imprisoning the disciples only gave cause for them to witness to their jailers. As Jesus’ followers were banished from one place they went to another to proclaim the truth. Persecution will ultimately never silence the church but only grow it.
So when everything around the disciples looks anything but Jesus’ victorious reign, they are to stand firm. God has not abandoned them and will not abandon them. They are to stand firm and confess their faith for this is exactly how the Kingdom of Heaven is at work, as Isaiah says: “…my word that goes out from my mouth will not return to me empty but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11). Therefore they are not to compromise their message for self-preservation, or out of fear of offending others. They are not to dilute God’s word so that they remain friends with the world. They are to stand firm and confess their faith.
Not everyone in the church is called to preach or teach, or be pastors or evangelists, workers of miracles—in fact very few are. But the one thing we are all called to is making a faithful confession. Peter puts it this way: “in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.” (1 Peter 3:15-16).
As people hear and believe, God’s word pays dividends for him and his kingdom grows. This is what is pictured with the servants who invested their mina and it produced a return. Notice it is not the servants who produced the return, but the mina. It is God’s word alone that produces faith.
But one servant, instead of investing the mina he was given, covered it in a piece of cloth. This illustrates how people cover over the word with compromise, for fear of rejection from the world. This servant kept his mina hidden from view. He would rather be comfortable with the world than honour God. He shows where his heart is in relation to God. He does not want the king to rule over him. He shows where his heart is towards his king by blaming the king to justify himself: “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”.
Yet in the parable the king is gracious and generous. Before he goes he entrusts his complete wealth to his servants. He in no way shows himself to be harsh or unreasonable. The accusation, then, is a slander against the king. The servant’s distorted view mirrors the hardened heart of Israel’s leadership who saw Jesus as a threat rather than a gracious King (Luke 20:14-15). And so his master replied, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant!
This warning is first of all to the church, to whom God has entrusted the holy scriptures. We are all called to confess, and not make the word fit the world. We are not to silence the word because of fear of offending others, not cover over the word so that we won’t suffer personal loss. People cannot serve two masters, they will either love one and hate the other, be devoted to one and despise the other. To believe in God is to trust him, and we trust him by submitting to his word. To not trust ourselves to God’s word above anything else is to not fear love and trust God above everything else. It is instead to bend God’s word to please others for their approval. It is the way of God’s people of old, of whom God said: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness…” (Isaiah 5:20). The human way is to paint a picture of God who is a God of love, yes…but not a holy God of truth. The human way is to create a God who is accountable to us, not we to him. In this God of human fashioning, God is a God of gospel but not law who must never be allowed to challenge us or upset us.
Through the character of the noble king, Jesus promises swift judgement to those who cover over the mina and reject its Giver. These are the last words we hear before ‘This is the Gospel of the Lord/Praise be to you, O Christ.’ So where is the gospel in this Gospel reading?
Don’t we want God to bring judgement on the wicked? Don’t we want him to end evil? This will ultimately take place when Jesus comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and whoever wilfully rejects God’s word or is ashamed of it are the wicked who bring judgment upon themselves by their words. The different reactions of the servants to the king and his gift of the minas is seen in Jesus’ teaching when he says: “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven” (Matthew 10:32-33).
Everyone, in our natural condition, have ears closed to God’s word. We all, like Adam and Eve, fall to the Devil’s temptation “Did God really say?” We do not, and cannot, acknowledge Jesus. But it was while we were enemies of God; while we were not worthy, that God, in his love, sent his only Son for the world. He is the Servant King who thought of everyone else more important than himself, giving his very life to reconcile all people to God by his holy and precious blood. In any other political movement, the death of its leader would be failure, but Jesus’ death is precisely how he has secured victory over evil.
Jesus went to a far off land to get a kingdom, succeeded despite opposition, and establishes his rule, not by force, but by changing hearts so that people may enter the Kingdom of God. The only hope for humanity is to hear God’s word! The charter of the church then, is not to compromise the truth of God’s holy word but to be real about it, and trust that God will send his Holy Spirit to work faith where and when he wills. In our confessing the Creed, in our singing the song of Zechariah, in our affirmation of God’s word: “Thanks be to God!” and in our giving a reason for the hope we have to others, Jesus, the King, reigns, creating faith, increasing the return on his minas.
This was God’s plan of old, right back from the Garden of Eden, which he has made reality in the suffering, death, resurrection, ascension and continuing ministry of Christ. It is what Zechariah sang of, and his son John the Baptist proclaimed, calling people to repent for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near in Jesus.
When Christ comes again, he will bring an end to the limited influence of those who persecute him and his church. Through the Cross, Christ has already defeated his enemy the devil and the devil’s powers and authorities of his dominion of darkness. Through his own death, Jesus defeated the wages of sin, death, for you. Through his own death, Christ brought life for the world, and for you. He brings you this life, this victory from the Cross, through his word, through his sacraments, to strengthen you in the one true faith, so that what he promises may be true for you: “Whoever acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my Father in heaven.”
Every time you confess your faith in Jesus, he confesses to his Father in heaven that you are in his keeping, until the day he returns to give all his trustworthy servants authority to reign with him in heavenly glory forever. Amen.
[1] Herod Archelaus king of Judaea https://www.britannica.com/biography/Herod-Archelaus last accessed 11:57am 22 November 2025
Burgess, David (1988) Encyclopaedia of sermon illustrations, St Louis: CPH, page 100
