Luke 19
Butler11. And as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately
12 appear. He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for
13 himself a kingdom, and to return. And he called his ten servants, and delivered them
14 ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come. But his citizens hated him, and
15 sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us. And it came to pass, that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money, that he
16 might know how much every man had gained by trading. Then came the first, saying,
17. Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds. And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.
18, 19 ies. And the second came, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds. And he
20 said likewise to him, Be thou also over five cities. And another came, saying, Lord,
21 behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin: for I feared thee, because thou art an austere man: thou takest up that thou layedst not down, and reap-
22 est that thou didst not sow. And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up
23 that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow: wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with
24 usury? And he said unto them that stood by, Take from him the pound, and give it to
25, 26 him that hath ten pounds. (And they said unto him, Lord, he hath ten pounds.) For I say unto you, That unto every one which hath shall be given; and from him that hath
27 not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him. But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.
28. And when he had thus spoken, he went before, ascending up to Jerusalem.
THE kingdom of God is a kingdom where all the property belongs to him, and where he is ever at perfect liberty to dispose of everything as he will. And this arrangement is not arbitrary, but gracious. He disposes of all things with reference to the happiness of all. Men insist upon being sovereigns of what has been committed to them. They hold it for themselves and not for him. Then when they lose it they are without consolation. What is worse than their loss, they see a tyrant upon the throne of the universe. As far as their own misery is concerned, this tyranny is a real one. Viewing God as a tyrant, and being ever in bitter conflict with his government, it is the same to them, in respect to their wretchedness, as though God were a tyrant. What torment, what an antepast of future woe do men give unto themselves, when they malign God in their thoughts! On the other hand, they who look upon all their possessions as strictly speaking the possessions of God, and who cherish a perpetual readiness to yield everything at his command, sustain no losses. They do not perhaps get broken into the habit of parting company with loved and familiar things without a pang; but with the pang there is the consolation of knowing that God has taken his own for some sufficient reason, and that a God of boundless goodness still sits upon the throne of the universe. G. B.
11. In the whole bearing of Jesus in and about Jericho there was much to indicate that some great crisis in his history was at hand. It does not surprise us to be told of the disciples’ believing “that the kingdom of God should immediately appear.” It was because he knew that they were so misconceiving the future that lay before him and them, that Jesus addressed to them the parable of the Pounds. He would have them know that so far from any such kingdom as they were dreaming of being about to be set up for him in Jerusalem, he was going through the dark avenue of death to another, to a far country, to receive the kingdom there, and after a long interval to return; and that, so far from their being about to share the honors and rewards of a newly-erected empire, they were to be left without a Head, each man to occupy and to labor till he came again. Another parable, that of the Laborers in the Vineyard, spoken but a day or two before, had a kindred object—was intended to check the too eager and ambitious thirst for the distinctions and recompenses that the apostles imagined were on the eve of being dispensed. H.
This parable was one of many-sided application; it indicated his near departure from the world; the hatred which should reject him; the duty of faithfulness in the use of all that he intrusted to them; the uncertainty of his return; the certainty that, when he did return, there would be a solemn account; the condemnation of the slothful; the reward of all who should serve him well; the utter destruction of those who endeavored to reject his power. F.—It is addressed, in part, to that light-minded multitude who were following Jesus with an expectation that his cause would speedily triumph, and who, when they should find their expectations disappointed, might many of them turn against him and join in the cry, Crucify him. He warns them that his triumph over his enemies, though not speedy, yet should be certain even as it would be terrible; it contains for them a double warning, that they be not offended or prevented from attaching themselves yet closer to him by the things which should befall him at Jerusalem; and that, least of all, they should suffer themselves to be drawn into the ranks of his foes, since these were doomed to an utter destruction. For the disciples also it contains a warning, that this long period which should intervene before his coming again in glory was not to be a period of inactivity, but a time in which they would be required to show all good fidelity to their absent Lord: which fidelity would by him be acknowledged and abundantly rewarded, even as negligence and sloth would meet also their due recompense of reward.
12. In the great Roman Empire, wherein the senate of Rome, and afterward its emperors, though not kings themselves, yet made and unmade kings, such a circumstance as that which serves for the groundwork of this parable can have been of no unfrequent occurrence. T.—A nobleman going into a far country to receive a kingdom. This was done both by Archelaus and by Antipas. And in the case of Archelaus the Jews had actually sent to Augustus a deputation of fifty, to recount his cruelties and oppose his claims, which, though it failed at the time, was subsequently successful. The magnificent palace which Archelaus had built at Jericho would naturally recall these circumstances to the mind of Jesus, and the parable is another striking example of the manner in which he utilized the most ordinary circumstances around him, and made them the bases of his highest teachings. It is also another unsuspected indication of the authenticity and truthfulness of the gospels. F.—13. Occupy. Trade ye till I come. L.
14. It was not over strangers but over his fellow-citizens that the nobleman departed to solicit a dominion—else would there be no meaning in their message, “We will not have this man to reign over us.” So we find him on his return exercising kingly functions among his fellow-citizens—setting his servants over five cities, and over ten—having power of life and death, and executing extreme judgment on those that had refused to admit his authority. The Jews were especially Christ’s fellow—“citizens,” for, according to the flesh, he was of the seed of Abraham and a member of the Jewish polity—and they hated him not merely in his life, and until his departure out of this world, but every persecution of his servants, and all the wrongs which they did to his people because they were his, were all messages of defiance sent after him, “We will not have this man to reign over us.” And Theophylact well observes, how twice this very declaration found formal utterance from their lips—once when they cried to Pilate, “We have no king but Cesar;” and, again, when they said, “Write not, The King of the Jews.” When we give this parable a wider range, and find the full accomplishment of all it contains, not at the destruction of Jerusalem, but at the day of judgment—and it is equally capable of the narrower and the wider interpretation—then these rebellious citizens will no longer be merely the Jews, but all such evil men as by word or deed openly deny their relation and subjection to Jesus as their Lord and King.
15. How remarkable is this still ministry, these occupations of peace in which the servants of the future king should be engaged, and that, too, while a rebellion was going on! Their part was, with the still and silent occupation of their talent to lay the rudiments of that kingdom, and so to prepare the world for its outbreaking—which outbreaking should yet not actually come to pass till the King returned in his glory. T.
20. Laid up in a napkin. The Jews had a custom which they called possession by a napkin or linen cloth, which is, that when they buy or sell anything, they use a piece of cloth which they call sudar, the word used in this passage; this the parties lay hold of to ratify and confirm the bargain. Upon which custom, as connected with these words, Dr. Gill observes, that this man made no use of his sudar, or napkin, in buying or selling; he traded not at all; he wrapped up his money in it, and both lay useless. Burder.—23. Into the bank. The talent gathereth nothing in the napkin, unless it be rust and canker, but travelling in the bank, besides the good it doth as it passeth to and fro, it ever returneth home with increase. Sanderson.—25. The surprised interpellation of the people, “Lord, he hath ten pounds,” is an interesting proof of the intense and absorbing interest with which they listened to these parables. F.—27. This slaying of the king’s enemies in his presence is not to be mitigated or explained away, as though it belonged merely to the outer shell of the parable. The words set forth his unmitigated wrath against his enemies, which shall be revealed in that day when grace shall have come to an end, and judgment without mercy will have begun. All this found its nearest fulfilment in the overthrow of Jerusalem, and in the terrible calamities which went before and followed it: that was, without doubt, a coming of Christ to judgment; but it will find its full accomplishment when the wickedness of an apostate world, having come to a single head, shall in that single head receive its final doom—in the final destruction of Antichrist and his armies. T.
Section 117.—The Anointing by Mary.
Bethany.