Luke 19.11-27
A sermon preached in Geraldton Anglican Cathedral 26th September 2021
We have a big task ahead of us: to put a new roof on this cathedral. Today I will ask you to help. The Gospel I am preaching on is Jesus’ Parable of the Pounds. I call it the Parable of the Three Entrepreneurs. It says something about Christians and giving.
Let me start by asking you what you think about tithing. A lot of Christians swear by it. They give a tenth of their income to God’s work, or their church, or the poor, or to missions. Whether its ten percent before or after tax is not clear, but it is still a pretty solid whack, and takes a lot of commitment. But let me tell you why I don’t go along with tithing.
Of course, I don’t mind if people tithe. It is a wonderful thing for a church when people do. The Jews worked on the basis that if a community had ten families you could have a synagogue. Ten families tithing could support another family to do the work.
But tithing is a Jewish thing, an Old Testament law. That doesn’t make it bad, of course, but it is interesting that nowhere in the New Testament are we told to tithe. Tithing in the Old Testament was their tax. It was paid not only to look after the Temple and the priests, but to fund the priests and Levites who made up the public service, and do a bit for the poor. What we pay to the tax office they paid as a tithe. Christians in the New Testament are never told to tithe their income, just to pay whatever taxes are demanded by the government. So, to ask whether Christians should pay their tithe before or after tax is the wrong question. Should your tax be included in the tithe would be a better question. In countries like Germany the tax you pay to the government includes what is paid to the church.
I say this to make it clear we are not going to get our answer about Christians and giving from the idea of tithing; we must look somewhere else. The Parable of the Three Entrepreneurs points us in the right direction.
Jesus … proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately.
Luke 19.11
For two years Jesus had been announcing the kingdom of God. People sensed that things were coming to a head. The crowds who followed him, saw the determined look on his face as he strode towards Jerusalem, felt the excitement of the multitude, and thought he would use his miracle powers to take over the government, and establish the kingdom of God. They thought the kingdom of God would appear immediately.
“No,” said Jesus. The kingdom of God will not appear immediately.
He said therefore, “A nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return.
He told this parable the Sunday before he died. He had spent the previous day in Jericho at the house of Zacchaeus the tax collector. They resumed their journey early in the morning and had just turned west to begin the steep climb to Jerusalem. On their right they could see the beautiful winter palace of King Archelaus. You can still see its ruins today. The parable speaks of a nobleman who went into a far country to receive a kingdom. Everyone knew that was Archelaus, the son of King Herod the Great, the failed ruler of Judaea and Samaria, whom the Romans eventually deposed and sent into exile. Jesus was likening himself to a no-hoper. People would have listened!
King Herod died when Jesus was a toddler, and a dispute began over who would be the new king. Herod’s will named Archelaus, but before he could take the throne he had to travel to Rome where Caesar would read the will and hear the claims of his brothers. The Jews also sent a delegation, because they were fed up with the Herods and wanted self-rule. There was much hasty packing of bags and getting the first ship, and trying to reach Rome first.
When the boats left, Israel was left in a confusing situation, because no one knew who was going to come home as king. People had to decide who they would back, and only then could they decide what to do in the meantime. Where they found themselves then—wondering which horse they would put their money on—is where we find ourselves today. Jesus has disappeared leaving only a promise that he will return as king. Most people don’t give that much chance of that ever happening, and are backing other scenarios of the future. Most people in this country think that God doesn’t have much to do with anything: history is on a purposeless meander, and death is probably the end. So, they are going all out to suck as much out of the sauce-bottle of life as they can, while they can. The problem is, even if death is the end, you never know when it will come.
I visited an angry widow. She and her husband had lived a good life and saved for their retirement. At last it came and they left on their dream holiday. At the end of the first week he dropped dead. What made it worse was the people next door who drank and smoked and did most things that offended her; they seemed to be living to a ripe age. So, you slave away getting ready for a cushy retirement, and fall off your perch one week in, or you say “Blow that for a joke, I’m going to spend up and enjoy myself now,” and find you’ve got thirty years of retirement in front of you without two dollars to rub together. It all appears to be a bit of a gamble.
But there need be no uncertainty if you pay attention to what Jesus said and did. He announced the kingdom of God and backed it up by hundreds of miracles, and his death was followed by resurrection. He knew what he was talking about. If he said he would come back as king, he will. What should we be doing in this time before he comes? That is the question.
Calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Engage in business until I come.’
Engage in business! That’s what we are meant to do—but what does that mean? Each slave got one mna, so in this parable Jesus is not thinking about the differences in what we are given, like the Parable of the Talents, but simply with the fact that we are all given gifts. Some people think Jesus is talking about spiritual gifts, others that he means our natural abilities, others that we should take him literally—he means our money—some say he means the gospel, or the Holy Spirit – but Jesus leaves it vague.
Why? Because he didn’t want to tie it down to any one thing. He wants us to use our brains to work it out. A mna was enough to buy a hectare or two of land. So, we are all given enough to get on and do something worthwhile. “What may I regard as a tradable sum which I can employ in useful service to make some profit for my king?” This is the question we should be asking.
Then we see it can refer to our spiritual gifts, and our natural abilities, and our money, and our minds, and our education, and our opportunities, and our time, and the gospel, and the Holy Spirit, and our home, and our car, and, and, and … When you have a moment sit down with a pencil and paper and do a personal audit: “What am I worth?” Not just in dollars, but everything you have and are that has value. For most of us that may not add up to a fortune, but it may be more than we think; it’s certainly enough to get on and do something.
Calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Engage in business until I come.’
Jesus had no doubts that he would return. When General Douglas Macarthur was forced to withdraw from the Philippines in March 1942 he declared, “I will return.” With the Pearl Harbour fleet destroyed and the whole Pacific overrun by the Japanese it seemed like wishful thinking; still he had moved his army to Australia, and he lived to make good on his promise. Incredible that Jesus spoke of his return when he knew he would be dead within the week.
So, when he returns, what will be the first thing he does—according to this parable? Every true Christian wants to live under the lordship of Christ. So, it follows that when the king returns the first thing he will ask is, “Did you do what I told you?”
But that’s not what the parable says.
When the king returned, having received the kingdom, the king said to call in these servants to whom he had given the money, so he could know what they had earned by their trading.
Jesus’ first question will not be “Did you do what I told you?” but “What did you do with what I gave you?”
In other words, he means us to use our wits to decide what to do, and he will be very interested when he returns to see what we’ve done. Two of the servants went to work and were commended, the third did nothing and got a blast.
So, I want to emphasize this point: Jesus doesn’t tell us all the details about how he wants us to serve him; he doesn’t treat us like slaves who have to be told what to do. Rather, he gives us a general idea of what he is doing, and the things that matter to him. “I do not call you slaves,” Jesus said to his disciples. “For a slave does not know what his master is doing. I call you my friends.” A man confides in his friends his hopes and what he wants to achieve. Jesus treats us like friends and wants us to take a good look at our resources and make up our mind about what we will do to make them work for him.
Understand this, and it will affect how you see yourself in relation to your service of God. Who am I? Yes, I am a slave of Jesus Christ! But many slaves in the ancient world were given great responsibility. They taught the citizens’ children, operated businesses for their masters, ran great farming properties. At one point a slave ran the empire.
In this parable it is clear that Jesus wants us to be that sort of slave. This is what we call “stewardship”, an old word which means a manager. He makes you like a manager of a branch of his kingdom-building operation. And since we are also God’s sons and daughters, the truth is he makes you a manager of the local branch of “God the Father and Sons—or Daughters.” And if we can widen the application of this to our local church, he makes us a local branch of “God the Father and Sons.” It should be a fun time, when he comes again, telling him all the things you’ve done, and seeing what it all adds up to.
The first came before him, saying, ‘Lord, your mina has made ten minas more.’ And he said to him, ‘Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.’ And the second came, saying, ‘Lord, your mina has made five minas.’ And he said to him, ‘And you are to be over five cities.’
Don’t make the mistake of thinking heaven will be sitting around listening to music. God’s new creation will be a place of activity and responsibility. We may not know what form it will take, but Jesus tells us that responsibility in the coming kingdom will be given to those who learn to exercise responsibility here. We are in training.
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 did 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?’
It was no fun for the chap that got the rocket. He’s no unbeliever in this parable. He is not slaughtered—this is what Archelaus did when he returned—but he has to hear some hard things. He believed as strongly as the others that the king would return. He was just too much of a coward to take risks – so he wrapped his money up and buried it, “and there you are Lord, you have your money back safe and sound.” It sounds very spiritual, but the Lord was angry, and this chap missed out on his reward. Everything God gives us is for us to use. It may seem spiritual to be waiting for the Lord’s guidance, but if it means we do nothing, it is not spiritual at all. Can you imagine buying a business and putting a manager in, and then he phones you up every five minutes: “What do I do here? What do I say now?” And he never makes a decision for himself. You would soon replace him. God has made us in his own image, and one of the things this means is being creative and making decisions. God plans that one day we will help to manage the universe. We are meant to be learning now how to do that.
So, in God’s kingdom we are more like managers and investors than taxpayers. You may or may not wish to tithe your income; that is your decision. For some it will be too much, for others too little. But if it left you thinking you had now discharged your duty to God and could do as you liked with the rest, it would not be the Christian life, not the life of faith, not the life of walking in the Spirit. All you have and all you are is given you as a trust to manage for your Master. God wants you to look after your family, and pay your tax, and care for the needy, and a thousand other things. And he intends that you have some enjoyment of the fruits of your labour. Being a manager is a tough call!
What about the church? If you are a kingdom person you want to see the kingdom of God going forward—in your own community, in this country, and in the world. The first year I went to South Africa we had a visit from a young Australian man. He said he had been moved by a preacher who said Christians should support their own church, but also think about a Christian project somewhere else in Australia, and something overseas. The chap who visited us said, since he knew us, and we had just started in South Africa, that he wanted to support our work. I didn’t take him very seriously, but the following year he came back with thirty other Australians, our bishop being one of them. That was forty years ago, and he is still supporting George Whitefield College.
And the local church? If it is not serving the Lord Jesus, if it is not about the work of the kingdom, I doubt you should support it at all. But if it is—if it is enabling you and others to do the work of God in your community in ways that you as a lone individual cannot do—then in relation to your management of your affairs for God, you will want to give it time and prayer and money. There are mosques going up all over the world funded by Arab oil. There are sporting stadiums paid for by governments and your taxes. The work of our church is supported by nothing other than the generosity of God’s people. The Lord Jesus has placed his work in our hands.