Luke 19:13-15 13And calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Do business until I come.’ 14But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to reign over us.’
The plot of the parable now develops with a commissioning service. The nobleman calls then servants and gives each a deposit of seed money with which to do business and earn more. A mina was worth about three months’ wages. The servants needed to take this amount and do something with it so that it would earn more. Many businesses today are begun with a loan. The same principle is true in this situation. One needs money to make money and to get the ball rolling. Until I come would sound familiar to the early Christians who read this Gospel and recall in their thinking Jesus’ second coming.
At this point, the parable appears to be a simple teaching about stewardship while we await Jesus’ return, but verse 14 provides a twist in the plot. This verse introduces the conflict and tension in the story. A delegation of citizens from the nobleman’s country did not want him to rule over them. They did not accept his birth and rightful reign. This verse is a clear reference to how some of the Jews did not accept Jesus. They rejected him as their Messiah, like what was mentioned in 13:34.
Two separate plot lines now develop: the ten servants who need to start businesses and make a return on the nobleman’s investment, and the group of citizens who reject him altogether. The story focuses on the first plot until verse 27. These two storylines are the same situation we experience today. Jesus has commissioned his followers to take the seed of the kingdom and plant it, water it, and let it grow in this world to produce an abundant harvest of souls. Yet, there are people today, just like the Jews of the first century, who reject the sovereignty of Jesus. They treat him as only an ancient wandering preacher of the first century. Or worse, they hate him by hating his followers. Those who were listening to Jesus would have to make a choice by the time this story ended.
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