The Conversation

Luke 19:11-27
While they were listening to these things, Jesus went on to tell a parable, because He was near Jerusalem, and they supposed that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately.

So He said to them, "A nobleman went to a distant country to receive a kingdom for himself, and then return. And he called ten of his slaves, and gave them ten minas and said to them, 'Do business with this until I come back.' But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, 'We do not want this man to reign over us.' When he returned, after receiving the kingdom, he ordered that these slaves, to whom he had given the money, be called to him so that he might know what business they had done. The first appeared, saying, 'Master, your mina has made ten minas more.' And he said to him, 'Well done, good slave, because you have been faithful in a very little thing, you are to be in authority over ten cities.' The second came saying, 'Your mina, master, has made five minas.' And he said to him also, 'And you are to be over five cities.' Another came, saying, 'Master, here is your mina, which I kept put away in a handkerchief; for I was afraid of you, because you are an exacting man; you take up what you did not lay down, and reap what you did not sow.' He said to him, 'By your own words will I judge you, you worthless slave. Did you know that I am an exacting man, taking up what I did not lay down, and reaping what I did not sow? Then why did you not put my money in the bank, and having come, I would have collected it with interest?' Then he said to the bystanders, 'Take the mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten minas.' And they said to him, 'Master, he has ten minas already.' I tell you that to everyone who has, more shall be given, but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. But these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them in my presence."

I've read over this parable many times, and gotten the general idea that we ought be be fruitful as we wait for Jesus' return. However, upon closer inspection, there are a couple of other key points that are relevant, especially to me personally.

First, notice how much leeway the nobleman gives his slaves. It's his money, but he essentially hands it over and lets them make choices about how to best invest and use it without any oversight or interference from him. How often do I refuse to move, especially in my physical life, unless I first see the hand of God going before me. Where is the initiative, the humble pressing forward even as I may not be certain of God's purposes? This point is further underscored when we look at the servant who didn't invest wisely, who rightly points out that the nobleman "reaps what he did not sow." It's a curious statement, especially since the nobleman did in fact make the initial investment by giving each servant a sum of money. It's not the money that he didn't sow, it's the creative thought and prudent judgment of the investor that he's referring to. The nobleman, and Jesus by extension, expects his servants to employ all of their abilities to bring profit (obviously not necessarily monetary profit when we unpack the parable).

Second, notice what it is that holds the worthless servant back from being a good servant. It's not a rebellious attitude - we see how the nobleman deals with those type of people at the end of the passage. It's not ignorance or stupidity - the servant is actually pretty perceptive when it comes to the character of the nobleman, and at any rate, it wouldn't have taken very much savvy to put the money in a bank. No, the servant himself tells us "for I was afraid of you," showing us that this failure was a result of fear. He could see all the harsh qualities of the nobleman, but none of the benevolent or fair qualities. Likewise he saw all of the risks of investment, but was blind to the rewards.

Finally, note what happened to the one mina. It was given to the slave with the best investment returns! God loves each of us, but is no fool. We have a responsibility to work well with what He's given us, and if we choose not to, God is perfectly willing to take our charge and give it to another who is more faithful. God is an equal opportunity God - the nobleman did give each slave the same amount of money. God does not guarantee however, an equality of results. That is, at least to some extent, our responsibility. And God is not shy to judge and reward us based on how well we've shouldered that responsibility.

We would do well to remember that we are made in God's image; that the same God who formed Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther, Abraham Lincoln and Billy Graham also formed us. We would also be wise to remember that, while God certainly fashions people differently for various offices, the vast majority of responsibility for who we are and who we will be falls squarely at our own feet.

Can we all just note that, relative to my neck and body, my head is HUGE in this picture. Also can we note that the auto photo fixer is really just a way to make me look old - hello gray hair!(the original is the top one). Incidentally, this is me doing my best "I'm angry with the show '24'" look - yes this is me angry. I sincerely hope I'm more frightening than this in real life when angry or else my dreams of saving the world from bad guys are in real jeopardy.

For more pics of my vacations, click the link below as I have them all online at Shutterfly.com:

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Here's Jac and I on our Bermuda cruise during formal night... 

Here's Jac's dad, brother and sister with us on the Alaska cruise... 

Heb 9:14 "How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!"

My pastor in a sermon last week related a moving story about a dying man he'd spent time with in the hospital during his final days. In those days, the dying man spent a fair amount of time telling my pastor stories, many of them about his days in WWII. He was in a tank brigade under General Patton, and remained there for the duration of the war, going all over Northern Africa and Europe.

At first, the man was really struggling to keep it together. His buddies were dying all around him and he was constantly afraid that the next bullet had his name on it. This went on for a while, till one day he and his buddies were sitting around a fire talking about how scared they were and it hit them: They were going to die! They were not going to make it out alive, and as such were basically dead men already. Having made his peace with the fact that he was basically a dead man walking, the man began taking more dangerous assignments, like driving the gasoline truck. His "courage" couldn't have been greater. He saw the tracers flying through the air all around him and he didn't give them a second thought. It just didn't matter anymore. He was already dead, it was just a matter of timing.

Obviously the man didn't die in the war, since he was sitting in his hospital bed many years later recounting this story to my pastor. But I think there's a key lesson here for me and others like me that the author of Hebrews also hits upon.

How is it that we "die to sin"? I certainly don't feel dead to sin. In fact, Paul and I should shout and beat our chests together as we lament our complete inability to consistently execute on that which we know is right.

What if we looked at OUR life like that? I'm capitalizing OUR life because I want to be clear that most of the time when we say that, we're implying some type of ownership and stake in how it all goes down. Jesus says "He who loses his life for my sake shall find it." Maybe this is a case where we daily consider ourselves dead to ourselves - as in the case the of the man in the war, only the mission matters. There's something freeing about not worrying about staying alive.

At the end of the day, fear is usually about risk. Whether it's the risk of getting caught, getting hurt, or just getting embarrassed. When you're dead, there is no more risk. When there's no more risk, there is no more fear. I would like to call out how incredibly difficult this is, and the tension that Jesus presents here. He is AGONIZING in the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:44) because it takes a tremendous amount of effort to die to self and submit to the will of God. (Ray, you're going to have to comment on this as it might be a little misleading, because I feel like it might not actually be consistent with the nature of Jesus to be agonizing about his death. Perhaps he's agonizing about being separated from the Father by the sins that he is about to bear...thoughts??) Either way, I bring it up because I don't want to trivialize how difficult this can be sometimes.

Bringing this back to the passage from Hebrews, I believe that this hits upon the same point. We must be single-minded in our focus "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." We cannot let our past failures deter us or hinder us. Our Lord has called us for a specific purpose, gifted each one to build up the body of Christ, and paid the price for our failures and manifests his strengths in our weaknesses.

I was going to end my post there, but this truth is so great that it would be a shame for my feeble literary skills to get in the way of the point, so I'm going to paint a couple of simple illustrations to make it clear:

Illustration #1 (this one's a bit personal):
You've got a great job, making all kinds of money, people are really excited about your potential and future with the company. IT DOESN'T MATTER! There is no pressure to live up to the hype! As long as you're seeking the will of God consistently through consistent prayer, fasting, and reading the Word, you operate on His will. Not that of peers, bosses, or even yourself. You're dead to that. You've got a mission and you're following marching orders. If that means staying with the company, you'll happily do that. If that means leaving the company, you're happy to do that - but it's not a risk either way! It's only a risk if you're "living" this life!

Ray tackles a large issue in his treatment of the slaughter of the Midianites, and I agree with his key premises as follows:

A. What we can or can't believe about God is irrelevant - He is what He reveals He is, and asks for no assent from us as created beings
B. God hates sin
C. God hates those who cause others to sin - nice work here, by the way, bringing the scriptures together
D. God is justified in punishing sin

I think the biggest gap here in trying to understand God’s dealing with the Midianites lies in trying to understand how it is that sometimes God chooses to be merciful and sometimes he doesn’t. This question often manifests itself as a perceived disconnect between the God of the OT v God of the NT. This is where the passage becomes difficult, and also where I think it becomes very important to articulate what we know and what we cannot know.

First of all, we must all agree that God is not capable of injustice. Sin MUST be punished for justice to be satisfied. I would also contend that justice is two-fold: Justice on Earth and Justice in Eternity. The easier one to deal with from a biblical perspective is justice in eternity. Either we accept Jesus as the sacrifice and propitiation of our sins, or we don’t. Either we accept and embrace the Gospel, or we don’t. It’s relatively cut and dried. Heaven or hell, Jesus or Not Jesus.

On the other hand, justice and punishment in the temporal world is much less clear. I’m sure we all can note someone who is willfully sinning and hasn’t been struck with a divine punishment. Does God need to do something to them in order for justice to be satisfied, or is the eternal component of justice sufficient? Or, alternatively, is Death the ultimate arbiter of temporal justice, reckoning the deeds of men settled with respect to life on this earth (“The wages of sin is death”). Or alternatively, are the natural consequences of sin (bitterness, unhappiness, etc) the earthly punishment for sin ("...they received in themselves the due punishment for their sin...)?

Furthermore, even if God chooses to inflict divine punishment on sinners in this earthly realm, He deals with sin in different ways. In the case of the Midianites, he wipes them out. In the case of the Ninevites, he invites them to repent. In the case of David, he gives him multiple choices for punishment (one of which being that God actually kills other people), in the case of Moses, he is not able to enter the Promised Land.

My conclusion is that God is not a being that we can define with formulae. As Piper rightly notes, we can only know what He reveals to us about Him, and I would contend that He has not revealed to us his "Decision Framework", if you will, for how he chooses to deal with sin within the space of our physical life. We can categorically assert that he is justified in executing punishment, but we will always be able to question why God dealt with a given situation with immediate vengeance/justice rather than some other way, such as mercy or forebearance since many methods are clearly within His purvey. And He will alway be able to ask "Who are you, oh man, to question Me?"