'The Challenge of Delay'

 Luke 19:11–27 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR3DbFZaam8

The crowd and the disciples have heard Jesus’ statement that salvation had come to the wealthy tax-collector Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus gives half of his possessions to the poor and is willing to repay fourfold anyone he had cheated. Jesus calls Zacchaeus a ‘son of Abraham’ and declares that the ‘son of man’ had come to seek and to save what was lost (19:10). Now Jesus tells a parable because they were thinking that the kingdom of God was going to come all at once. Jesus was approaching Jerusalem, and they thought the kingdom of God would be established all at once; Jesus would be enthroned and Israel would be liberated from Roman oppression. Jesus tells a parable warning them that the Messiah would be rejected and then go away for a time and his followers were to remain faithful and be useful in the master’s absence until his return (19:11).

In the parable of a man of noble birth goes to a far off country to be appointed king and then return. He calls ten servants and gives them ten minas which they are to put to work until he returns. His subjects hate him and send a delegation after him saying they don’t want him to be there king (Luke 19:12-14). The story would remind them of how Archelaus, the son of Herod the Great, went to Rome be confirmed as his father’s successor. But a delegation of Jewish leaders protested to the emperor: ‘We don’t want this man to be our king’. The emperor Augustus decided to severely limited Archelaus’ powers. Jesus was likely drawing on this incident, though Jesus’ parable ends very differently.

This parable addresses the rebellious subjects but emphasizes the ten servants that were each given a mina. A mina was something like three months wages and the servants were to use it to make a profit while the master was away. The citizens hate the nobleman and they sent a delegation to saying that they don’t want him to rule over them. The nobleman was made king, and he returned home. The king sends for his servants to find out what they had gained with their mina. The first servant gained ten more mina and the master rewarded the servant’s faithfulness in a small matter by putting him in charge of ten cities. A second servant earned five more mina and was put in charge of five cities. Each servant was given one mina and each servant had faithfully put their mina to good use and both were generously rewarded (19:12-19).

Then another servant came, but this one hid the mina away in a cloth because he saw the master as a hard man. The servant described the master as someone who took what he didn’t put in and reaped what others had sowed. The master called the servant ‘wicked’ and said that the servant’s own words condemn him. If the master was a hard man, then the servant should have put the master’s money on deposit, so the master could have collected it with interest (19:20-23). The master tells those standing by to take is mina away and to give it to the servant with ten minas. Although he already had ‘ten mina’ the master said that those who have will be given more, while those who have nothing and what they have will be taken away from them. Then master also called for his enemies who didn’t want him to be king to be brought before him and killed. (19:24-27) The two useful servants were generously rewarded, while the one who hid the mina and criticized his master for being a harsh man had his mina taken away from him.

Luke presents a “delay” between Jesus’ enthronement and his return to reign and rule. Luke makes it clear that Jesus taught there would be an interval between their arriving in Jerusalem, his enthronement as God’s anointed king and his return when servants are rewarded and enemies are judged. The kingdom of God would not come immediately or all at once (19:11; cf. Acts 1:6). They should be aware of the “delay” during which their faithfulness would be tested. Matthew also talks about a delay and that Jesus would return “after a long time” (Matt 25:19). Luke elsewhere talks about faithful servants being “watchful” (12:37) and “ready” (12:38). In this parable Luke’s emphasizes that each servant was given the same investment and were rewarded for their putting it to use between Jesus’ enthronement and Jesus’ return. This parable also addresses Jesus’ rejection by the Jewish leadership of his day which is the reason for the judgment and their exclusion from the kingdom.

Like the delegation of Jews who pleaded with Rome that they didn’t want the son of Herod the Great as king, so to the Jewish religious leadership didn’t what Jesus to be their king. The resurrection evidenced that Jesus was God’s Messiah and in his ascension he was enthroned at the right hand of the throne of God (Rom. 1:4, Heb. 12:2). We live in this time when Jesus is enthroned as the world’s true Lord, which we confess by faith and not be sight. In Luke’s parable of the ‘ten servants’ or the ‘ten mina’ each servant received the same thing. The each received one mina and they were expected to use it to produce more. The master entrusted the servants and they were responsible to put the ‘mina’ to good use in the period between the master’s being made king and the king’s return to reward his servants and to judge his enemies (19:27). The mina is likely the gospel message; Jesus is the crucified and resurrected Messiah who is the ascended Lord of all the earth. We know this by faith and are entrusted to make this message known!  

"Mission Impossible" Luke 19:1-10

Zacchaeus the Tax-collector. Jesus had restored the sight of a blind beggar who cried out to the ‘Son of David’ for mercy. The blind man received mercy, just like the repentant tax-collector in the temple in Jesus’ story who cried out for mercy and went home justified before God. Now Jesus is passing through Jericho and Luke tells us of a wealthy chief tax collector named Zacchaeus (19:1-2). Luke has just told us of a rich ruler who had chosen to hold on to his riches instead of giving his money to the poor and following Jesus. Jesus told the astonished crowd that it was easier to thread a needle with a camel than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Jesus says that this is impossible for man, but that it is possible for God (Luke 18:24-25). This rich chief tax-collector, Zacchaeus, wanted to see who Jesus was. But Zacchaeus was short and couldn’t see over the crowd (19:3-4). Evidently the crowd refused to let Zacchaeus through to see since he was despised for collecting taxes from his fellow Jews on behalf of their Romans. So there is a big crowd there following Jesus and the determined and resourceful Zacchaeus runs on ahead where he climbs a sycamore tree to see Jesus as he was passing by (19:5).

Zacchaeus is an example that what is impossible with man is possible with God (18:27). The Romans sold the task of collecting taxes to the highest bidder and that was Zacchaeus. He would collect as much money as he could and then keep whatever was left over after the Romans took their share. Moreover, Zacchaeus was a chief tax-collector which made him an overseer of tax-collectors and a very wealthy man. Zacchaeus seeks to see Jesus, who had a reputation of befriending tax collectors (7:34). Surely Zacchaeus would have known that the former tax-collector Levi was now a follower of Jesus (5:27-28). Perhaps he would have heard Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the tax-collector as well (18:9-14). Jesus sees Zacchaeus in the tree and says to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down out of that tree, for I must stay at your house today.” So Zacchaeus hurried down and received Jesus gladly.  And when the people saw this, they all grumbled because Jesus was going to go to be the guest of a tax-collector who they considered a sinner (19:8).  Luke tells us that the crowd was appalled that Jesus would stay with a rich sinner like Zacchaeus.

Then, most likely, while they were at Zacchaeus’ house, Zacchaeus stands and tells Jesus, “Look Lord, I give half of my possessions to the poor and if I have cheated anyone of anything, I will restore it fourfold.”   And Jesus said to Zacchaeus, “Today salvation has come to this house, since this man is also is a son of Abraham (19:9-10). God has done the impossible. Salvation has come to this rich man’s house for even this formerly greedy tax-collector is now a repentant and restored child of Abraham. Jesus tells us that Zacchaeus has entered the kingdom and is now rightly related to God. We see Zacchaeus demonstrate his new allegiance by giving half his possessions to the poor and being willing to repay fourfold anyone that he has cheated. Clearly God was working in Zacchaeus’ heart for all we know is that Jesus went to Zacchaeus’ house and as a result of that visit Zacchaeus volunteers to give away half of his possessions and with what remains he was willing to repay those he had cheated fourfold!  The reason for Jesus passing through Jericho was for the Son of Man to seek and to save the lost. (19:10) The good shepherd, Jesus, goes and looks for lost sheep to rescue and this now this repentant and transformed tax-collector is a son of Abraham (15:3–7; Ezk. 34:16).

Again we ask, ‘Can the rich be saved?’ Can a camel go through the needle’s eye (18:25)? Luke makes it clear that the rich Zacchaeus (19:2) whose name literally means ‘righteous’ or ‘clean’ is a restored child of Abraham. Zacchaeus was a collaborator with the ‘enemy’ and so Zacchaeus was neither considered to be ‘clean’ nor a good Jew (19:7). The wealthy are not unlike any other sinful persons. We are all in need of salvation, but their money can easily become an idol and a stumbling block to genuine faith in Christ. Wealth can be a false comfort or security and a source of self-contentment and of feelings of superiority. Yet, by the working of God’s grace Zacchaeus is willing to here and now give half of his possessions to the poor, and repay anyone he had cheated out of anything four times over (19:8). His attitude contrasts with that of the rich ruler, who found it impossible to share his possessions and he walked away from Jesus ‘very sad; for he was a man of great wealth’ (18:23). Jesus welcomes this wealthy ‘sinner’ Zacchaeus and sees him not as a Roman collaborator but as a son of Abraham (19:9). Thus, Zacchaeus becomes clean and lives up to his name. That very day salvation had come to Zacchaeus in the person of Jesus. How different our world would be if more of us in the church could be like Zacchaeus and voluntarily declare, ‘Look, Lord, I give half of all I have to the poor.’

 

“See What I Mean?”

 Luke 18:31-43 

Jesus tells his Twelve hand-selected disciples they were going up to Jerusalem, and everything written by the prophets about the ‘Son of Man’ would be fulfilled. He tells them that the ‘Son of Man’ would be handed over to the Gentiles who would mock, insult, spit on, beat and kill him. Moreover, on the third day he would rise again. Yet, the Twelve did not understand any of what Jesus was saying. The meaning of the ‘Son of Man’ being turned over to Gentiles to be killed was hidden from them. That Jesus would rise on the third day would have made no sense to them since in their thinking the Messiah would defeat the Romans, not be killed by them. Moreover, the resurrection was understood to be on the ‘last day’ and not in the middle of history (John 11:24). We are told the Twelve didn’t understand, it was hidden from them and so they didn’t know what he was talking about (Luke 18:31-34). Ironically, Jesus had told them about his suffering and death twice before, but they still didn’t grasp it! (9:22, 43-45) Remember that Israel had been turned over to their Gentile oppressors (Assyria, Babylon) because of their sin and idolatry. Now Jesus would be handed over to Gentiles to bear God’s wrath, but not for his own sins, but as a substitute for the sins of his people.

Then Luke tells us how Jesus drew near to Jericho. Jericho is where another Jesus, Jesus is Greek for Joshua (Jesus = Joshua), began to take possession of their ‘Promised Land’.  Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem to bring about a ‘New Exodus’ (Luke 9:31). His enthronement on a Roman cross would be followed by his bodily resurrection which would bring about the beginning of the ‘New Creation’.  So as Jesus approaches Jericho he encounters a blind man begging by the side of the road. The blind man hears the crowd and when he asks about it, he is told that “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” The blind man cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Those there rebuke him and tell him to be silent. Their rebuke of the blind man is not unlike the disciples rebuking those who were previously bringing their babies to Jesus (Luke 18:15). Despite the opposition, the blind man cries out again, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Ironically, this blind man sees very clearly that Jesus is the Davidic Messianic King that God had promised David (2 Samuel 7:14). Jesus stops and commands that the blind man be brought to him. When the blind man came near Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man wants to recover his sight so Jesus tells him, “Receive your sight; your faith has made you well.” The blind man, known as Bartimaeus in Mark 10:46, sees Jesus very clearly as the coming Davidic king and has faith enough to ask Jesus to restore his sight. Surely he is contrasted with the Twelve disciples who could not see or comprehend the death and resurrection of Jesus even though Jesus had told them twice before. They were essentially blind to what the prophets have foretold about the ‘Son of Man (See Daniel 7:13-14).

Immediately the man received his sight, followed Jesus and glorified and praised God. The man’s confession shows that Jesus is the ‘Son of David’ and also Daniel’s ‘Son of Man’ (2 Sam 7:12-14, Daniel 7:13-14).  Clearly the disciple’s preconceptions about the Messiah had blinded them to God’s plan for the ‘King of Israel’. By contrast, ‘Blind Bartimaeus’ saw clearly by faith and praised God having experienced the ‘mercy of God’. Just as previously the ‘humble and contrite’ tax-collector who had cried out in the temple received mercy (Luke 18:9-14), now the once ‘blind man’ is apparently healed spiritually. The blind man’s spiritual sight or faith had made him well. The man’s response to the miracles working of Jesus becomes the source of spontaneous praise and all the people also praised God! (Luke 18:35-43). 

Let Them Come to Jesus!

Luke 18:15-17 

Luke alone in his account of this story (see also Mt. 19:13–15; Mk. 10:13–16),  refers to the children as babies. People are bringing their babies to Jesus so that Jesus would place his hands on them and give them his blessings. Luke’s lesson seems to be that the kingdom of God is only for those who are prepared to receive it in humble dependency like a little child (see Luke 18:14). In the previous story a Pharisee is prideful at the temple before God because he sees himself as faithful in tithing and devotedly fasting twice a week. He sees himself as worthy of being blessed by God, but by contrast the despised tax-collector humbles himself, confesses his sinfulness and pleads for God’s mercy. Here the disciples of Jesus think that Jesus has no time for insignificant children. They try to deter people from bringing their infants to Jesus for Jesus to touch them. By contrast Jesus calls for children to come to him and he says to let the children come to him and don’t hinder them. These parents are bringing their children who are incapable coming to Jesus on their own. Here, after a long travel section in which Jesus is headed to Jerusalem (a section unique to Luke 9:51–18:14), Luke makes it clear that Jesus is saying that God’s kingdom is for children and for those who humble themselves like little children. In fact, unless we see ourselves as utterly dependent upon the blessing of God we cannot enter the kingdom. Note also that coming to Jesus is synonymous in this story with receiving the kingdom and entering it (18:16-17).