Episode Transcript
[00:00:24] Speaker A: Hello.
[00:00:24] Speaker B: I'm Josh.
[00:00:25] Speaker C: And I'm Gabriel.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: And today on reading the Gospel, we are reading about the parable of the ten minas.
This parable is found in Luke, chapter 19, verses eleven through 27. Follow along with us as we read.
[00:00:43] Speaker C: As they heard these things, he proceeded to tell a parable because he was near to Jerusalem. And because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. And he said, therefore, a nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return, calling ten of his servants. He gave them ten and said to them, engage in business until I come.
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 having received the kingdom.
He ordered his servants, to whom he.
[00:01:33] Speaker D: Had given the money to be called.
[00:01:35] Speaker C: To him that he might know what they had gained by doing business.
The first came before him saying, lord, your minae has made ten minas more.
And he said to him, well done, good servant.
[00:01:53] Speaker D: Because you have been faithful in a very little.
[00:01:55] Speaker C: You shall have authority over ten cities.
[00:01:58] Speaker A: And the second came saying, lord, your mina has made five. And he said to him, and you are to be over five cities. Then another came saying, lord, here is your mina, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief. For I was afraid of you. Because you are a severe man. You take what you do not deposit and reap what you did not sow. He said to him, I will condemn you with your own words, you wicked servant. You knew that I was a severe man. Taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow. Why then did you not put my money in the bank? And at my coming, I might have collected it with interest? And he said to those who stood.
[00:02:44] Speaker B: By, take the Mina from him and.
[00:02:47] Speaker A: Give it to the one who has ten Minas. And they said to him, lord, he has ten Minas.
I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given. But from the one who has not even what he has will be taken away. But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them. Bring them here and slaughter them before me.
[00:03:14] Speaker B: This parable is reminiscent of another parable that we're going to be getting to later.
[00:03:21] Speaker A: A parable of the ten talents. There's some similarities, but there are differences here. There are significant differences here.
[00:03:28] Speaker B: So we have Jesus.
[00:03:30] Speaker A: He's coming towards Jerusalem. The crowd around him, the people around.
[00:03:34] Speaker B: Him are thinking that the kingdom of God is near.
[00:03:38] Speaker A: It's coming immediately. And so this is his response.
What is a Minas.
[00:03:45] Speaker D: A mina is an amount of money.
[00:03:49] Speaker C: Equivalent in those times to the wage.
[00:03:52] Speaker D: Of working for 100 days.
So in regard to a talent, especially a silver talented 60 minus or one.
[00:04:02] Speaker C: Talent, so this is a small amount of a talent.
[00:04:06] Speaker B: And so he calls these ten servants.
[00:04:09] Speaker A: And he gives them ten minus one for each servant. And in this parable, he tells them to engage in business until he comes.
[00:04:20] Speaker B: So he's giving them explicit instruction to use this.
[00:04:26] Speaker C: And he emphasizes, until I come.
[00:04:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:29] Speaker B: Now, where's he going?
[00:04:32] Speaker D: He's going to another place to receive a kingdom.
[00:04:35] Speaker A: How long do you expect that takes?
[00:04:38] Speaker C: A long time.
[00:04:40] Speaker D: If you are a king and if.
[00:04:42] Speaker C: They like you, you are going to.
[00:04:44] Speaker D: Be king there for life, like David.
[00:04:46] Speaker C: And Solomon and so on.
[00:04:49] Speaker D: But it seems that they didn't like him. And based on verse 14, 1414 as well as 27, they rejected him. And when we connect to verse 27.
[00:05:04] Speaker C: We understand that this noble man is Jesus Christ.
[00:05:08] Speaker D: And Jesus Christ was intended to receive the kingdom, but in a different way than the apostles expected. Yeah, the apostles expected an earthly kingdom of Jesus Christ, that they will get a position as close as possible to him. Remember the story of those disciples and their mom coming to Jesus. Please set my kids one on your right side, one on the other side.
And they didn't understand the nature of this kingdom.
[00:05:43] Speaker C: Of course.
[00:05:44] Speaker D: Jesus Christ was supposed to be the king of the people of Israel, as he was throughout the Old Testament.
[00:05:53] Speaker C: Had they received him, the end of.
[00:05:56] Speaker D: The parable would have been completely different.
[00:06:00] Speaker B: And so here we have these servants.
[00:06:03] Speaker A: And they're doing different things.
[00:06:05] Speaker B: Just so. The one servant, he goes out and.
[00:06:09] Speaker A: He takes his mina and he makes it into ten minas. That's a really good return rate.
[00:06:16] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:06:17] Speaker D: Thousand percent.
[00:06:18] Speaker B: And he's rewarded by that. He is told, I'm going to give.
[00:06:23] Speaker A: You ten cities to rule over.
[00:06:26] Speaker B: Then someone else comes with five.
He's made five minas, and this nobleman.
[00:06:33] Speaker A: Gives him five cities.
Then we get to this other. It says, lord, here's your mina, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief, for I was afraid of you because you were a severe man. You take what you did not deposit, reap what you did not sow. And he said to him, I condemn you with your own words, you wicked servant. You knew that I was a severe man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not. So why did you not put the money in the bank? And I might have a collection with interest.
His mina is taken and given to the man who has ten.
[00:07:08] Speaker B: Now, this doesn't seem fair.
He's got ten, he's got a lot.
[00:07:14] Speaker A: Why can't you get more?
[00:07:16] Speaker C: The main difference between the other nine, hopefully all nine have invested their minus.
[00:07:23] Speaker D: And this one is nothing in the amount of return.
[00:07:31] Speaker C: The main difference is how they saw the nobleman, the master, and based on.
[00:07:40] Speaker D: The view of his character and based on the relationship with him, the faithfulness for investing and making money for someone else. Those servants realize that they are just stewards or managers. They are called to manage something that belongs to someone else.
And the other nine, they are happy to invest, they are happy to work for the master. That means they had a positive view of the master. This one had a negative view of the master. And they said, you are a severe man. You do this and that, and this is what I was afraid of you.
[00:08:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:22] Speaker C: It is love versus fear.
[00:08:26] Speaker D: And that made them act differently. And that is the main difference.
[00:08:31] Speaker B: I think there's also another aspect that I see. You find people who they're not willing.
[00:08:39] Speaker A: To work when they don't get a.
[00:08:40] Speaker B: Reward, and the master just told them to do this.
[00:08:46] Speaker A: He didn't say, I'm going to give.
[00:08:47] Speaker B: You lots of rewards when I get back.
[00:08:49] Speaker A: You're working for me, I'm giving you this money, you're making me a profit.
[00:08:54] Speaker B: And they don't want to do that.
[00:08:57] Speaker A: If they're going to do it. They want to get the reward themselves.
[00:09:00] Speaker B: And when we look at the whole basis of this, he says, engage in.
[00:09:08] Speaker A: Business until I come. And we liken this to Jesus.
What work is Jesus asking us to do? What business should we be engaging in?
[00:09:19] Speaker C: So he entrusted us with some universal.
[00:09:23] Speaker D: Gifts, like life and time, the capacity to establish relationships, to see, to hear.
[00:09:31] Speaker C: To smell, to enjoy life, our bodies.
[00:09:35] Speaker D: Exactly.
But in addition to this, God entrusted us with some special gifts. And maybe as related to this parable is the gift of truth that was given to the people of Israel.
[00:09:50] Speaker C: And that truth was encoded in the sanctuary service, the way a person was.
[00:09:56] Speaker D: Supposed to bring a sacrifice, and the way the sacrifice was being done at a sanctuary all the way until the day of atonement, represents the steps that.
[00:10:13] Speaker C: We are making towards God, reconciling us.
[00:10:15] Speaker D: With God and removing our sins. So this truth was given to them. And because they had this mission to.
[00:10:24] Speaker C: Take care of something that belongs to.
[00:10:26] Speaker D: God, to fulfill this mission faithfully, I think that is the main purpose of the parable.
[00:10:33] Speaker A: And I would take your thought a little further.
[00:10:39] Speaker B: The reason why God put the sanctuary.
[00:10:42] Speaker A: System in place made the children of Israel his people, was not that so that they would improve themselves.
[00:10:50] Speaker B: It's so that they would be a.
[00:10:52] Speaker A: Witness to the nations around.
[00:10:55] Speaker C: A light of the world.
[00:10:56] Speaker B: Yeah. Then the world would come.
Jerusalem was put at the crossroads of the society. Then between Egypt and Lydia and Babylon.
[00:11:05] Speaker A: All these nations would come through there. They would see and desire it themselves. And so witnessing and sharing with others is part of our business. It was part of their business that they failed.
[00:11:21] Speaker B: And when they.
I don't know if they ever got it right. For the most part, their focus was.
[00:11:29] Speaker A: On themselves, not on others. Their focus was on building up and.
[00:11:34] Speaker B: Improving and being the best people they.
[00:11:38] Speaker A: Could be, not on drawing others in.
[00:11:43] Speaker D: Even if the first part is necessary, that will not nullify the second part.
[00:11:50] Speaker C: They're supposed to be a light for the whole world.
[00:11:53] Speaker D: The same way all nearby leaders came to Jerusalem to talk to Solomon and.
[00:12:02] Speaker C: To listen to him.
[00:12:04] Speaker D: And Solomon was supposed to take them to the temple to explain them how God is dealing with us, especially with our sins. And what is God's final plan for us? That should have been the norm.
[00:12:17] Speaker C: That should have been the daily life.
[00:12:19] Speaker D: For the people of Israel who would faithfully fulfill their mission. Yeah.
[00:12:24] Speaker B: And this is true in other areas as well. Just like in caring for our bodies.
[00:12:30] Speaker A: In caring for our bodies, we can.
[00:12:32] Speaker B: Be a witness to those around us. When we don't drink alcohol, smoke, when we take care of our bodies, when we eat healthy, when we live lives that aren't the norm and we do things that aren't normal, this can stand out.
[00:12:50] Speaker A: And, you know, we can go around.
[00:12:52] Speaker B: The meme on the Internet is, how.
[00:12:56] Speaker A: Do you know a vegan?
Because they tell you.
[00:13:00] Speaker B: How do you know someone's a vegan? Because they tell you so.
[00:13:03] Speaker A: We don't need to tell people, but.
[00:13:04] Speaker B: People can see by our lifestyle and ask what's different.
[00:13:10] Speaker A: So in everything we do, whether it's our body, whether it's our actions, whether.
[00:13:16] Speaker B: It'S our beliefs, our work, everything is.
[00:13:21] Speaker A: Engaging in business, in God's business.
[00:13:24] Speaker C: And the key word in this parable is faithfulness.
[00:13:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:29] Speaker D: The master doesn't make, doesn't have any problem with a guy who made five.
[00:13:35] Speaker C: Minus or ten minus. His main problem was with a guy.
[00:13:39] Speaker D: Who was not faithful at all.
We have different capacities.
We may have different responsibilities in life. We might be called to live in different places, but what is required from us is faithfulness.
[00:13:55] Speaker B: Yeah. And I mean, even in the end.
[00:13:57] Speaker A: At 22, he says, why didn't you put the money in the bank?
[00:14:01] Speaker B: You know, today our banks, the interest.
[00:14:04] Speaker A: In our banks, earn less money than inflation.
[00:14:09] Speaker B: But God was okay, you know?
[00:14:10] Speaker A: Just do something. Do something with it. Even if it doesn't return much.
[00:14:15] Speaker B: Do something.
[00:14:15] Speaker D: Be faithful.
[00:14:16] Speaker A: Let's pray.
[00:14:18] Speaker B: Father God, may we be faithful in our lives.
[00:14:23] Speaker A: May we be faithful to you to what you've had asked us to do. May we engage in business until you come. That when you come back, we can present before you a life that is devoted to following you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen.
