Daily Reading Reflection: Luke 19:11-27

“He replied, ‘I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what they have will be taken away.  But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and kill them in front of me.’” Luke 19: 26-27 (NIV)
   
I tried to explain another version of this parable to a friend once. I think I did a bad job because they asked me questions about it that I didn't know how to answer. In this story, which is meant to tell us something about the kingdom of heaven, a ruler goes away for a while before his time of coronation. When he leaves on this journey, he gives some money to ten subjects. When he returns he brings the ten subjects in and they speak to him about what they did with what he gave them. One says he increased the money tenfold. One increased it by five times. The ruler is pleased with both of their actions. Then he comes to a servant who was so afraid of losing what he had that he held on to the money he was given so he could return it. The ruler is outraged and demands to know why this subject did nothing with the money he was given and takes it away from him to give to the more productive subject. Then he turns around and orders the end of all those who opposed his rule.

Jesus told a lot of stories and I think people pick certain ones because they make us feel good or we like the message. I find this one to be challenging but I have a few thoughts about this. 

The first thought is always that this is a story about sharing what we have as opposed to holding on to it for ourselves. If you are the kind of person who is perfectly happy to live your own life, not put any burdens on anyone else, but also not share your life or gifts with anyone else then this should make you deeply uncomfortable. The story says use what you have to do something otherwise you are wasting what you've been given. Make friends, build relationships, have intimate moments, work towards improving the world, take care of creation, all of these are things which invest what we've been given and help it to grown. Otherwise you are wasting that gift God has entrusted you with. He doesn't want it back for himself, he wants to see it put to use.

As a person who is quite happy to be alone, that is challenging for me. I can easily be the tenth servant, not prepared to do anything with what I've been gifted. This story is a call to me to look outside myself and see where I can put what the Father has gifted me with to good use.