Book: Money and Possessions: The Quest for Contentment
Pages: 4-5
Scripture: Luke 19:11-15
Verse 11
Jesus was near
Jerusalem when He spoke this parable. He
spoke the parable because the people supposed
that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately.
Verses 12-15
Before the nobleman
left, he did three things:
- He called his bondservants.
- He gave his bondservants a trust; in this case, money.
- He said that His bondservants should carry on His business with what He had given them.
When the nobleman
returned, he summoned his bondservants to give an account for what they had
done.
What did we learn by
marking the references to nobleman?
- He left to receive a kingdom.
- He appointed bondservants with authority and with means (in this case, with money).
- He received the kingdom.
- He used authority to summon His bondservants to give account.
The other two groups
of people in this account are the bondservants, whom the nobleman entrusted to
carry on his work, and the citizens who did not want the nobleman to rule over
them.
My observations:
Jesus is speaking to
people who are searching for the kingdom of God. As I meditated, I saw this parable teaching
three principles:
- Stewardship identifies a servant who may or may not know her Master.
- Wise stewardship is one mark of a bondservant who knows her Master.
- The kingdom of God is within us, in our midst (Luke 17:21).
Jesus is the
Nobleman/Master in this parable-- the Nobleman Who is going to receive a
kingdom and --praise God!-- has indeed received His kingdom and is there
preparing a place for us. Thank You,
Lord!
Stewardship identifies a servant who may or may not
know her Master.
While the
Master/Nobleman is away preparing that kingdom for us, we as His
ambassadors/His servants have everything we need for life and godliness (2
Peter 1:3). He has given us all the
riches in Christ (Eph 1:17-18). The mina
in this parable represents not only money but also all our possessions-- both
physical and spiritual, relational and personal, and I would even think that
the mina represents the Holy Spirit in some way. We servants are to do His business with (to
be stewards of) all these riches-in-Christ while He is away.
When the
Master/Nobleman returns, He holds each servant accountable for how she invested
these riches. The Master then shows us
the principle of stewardship and how we can determine if we are servants who
have indeed become a bondservant (Exodus 21:6) or if we are servants who do not
know Who He is:
- One bondservant's return was 100%; another's 50%. Jesus gave them both commendation and authority commensurate to their abilities because they stewarded His riches well. He didn't even comment on the difference in their returns revealing to us that we need not worry about the percentage of our return (how big our ministry is, for example, or if we're homeschooling as well as everyone else, among other comparisons) because we will only start needlessly comparing ourselves among ourselves (2 Cor 10:12); rather, we need to continue to know our Master as we conduct His business so there is a return of some sort as His life works through us. All the Master requires is that we steward His provision so that there is a return. The ones who see Him more clearly, who are getting to know Him for Who He is, will have more of a return. These bondservants have received the revelation that the kingdom of God is within them, in their midst, as they live daily. They see the Master for Who He is, even though He is away, and steward His riches wisely. Wise stewardship is one mark of a bondservant who knows her Master.
- The other servant hid, rather than stewarded, the riches she received. Why? Because she did not know the Master. She could not see Him clearly. In fact, in verse 21, she identifies Him as Someone He is not. So something clouded her vision of the Master. I would suggest that "something" was her own flesh, metaphorically speaking. She had never entered into relationship with the Master and, therefore, did not know Him. She is like the person in 1 Cor 3:13-15. Verse 15 says that this servant suffered loss yet was saved. This servant represents the carnal Christian in God's kingdom, the one who has entered the gate of salvation but not walked the path of discipleship. In 1 Cor 3:16, the question "know ye not that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" is asked. And for the carnal Christian, no, she does not know (or understand) the Spirit of God lives within her, and therefore, she continues to live a carnal life, her flesh clouding the riches she has been given in Christ. She does not abide because she can't see Him for all the "flesh" that is in the way.
Finally, the citizens
of the community are the religious ones (Matthew 7:21, et cetera). They don't want Him to rule over them at
all; they want to do things their way. They've only received the religion of
man, not salvation through Christ, so they have nothing to steward at all even
though they are citizens ("citizens" of the church [with a lower-case
"c"] who do their duty to gain something for themselves).
Linda
Moderator
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TruthHimself/
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