Biblion Bible Commentary
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The Ten Minas
Luke 19:11-27
11 As they heard these things, he went on and told a parable, because he was near Jerusalem, and they supposed that God’s Kingdom would be revealed immediately. · WEB
Told because they expected the kingdom to arrive that week — a parable about an absence, and what to do during it.
He went on and told a parable, because he was near Jerusalem, and they supposed that God's Kingdom would be revealed immediately Luke 19:11.
The reason is stated, which makes the parable easy to misread if it is missed. They are a few miles from the city and expecting the kingdom within days. What they are given is a story about a long absence.
"A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return" Luke 19:12.
The detail was contemporary. Client kings of that region did travel to Rome to have their titles confirmed, and delegations were sent after them to object — which is exactly what happens in the next verse: "his citizens hated him, and sent an envoy after him, saying, 'We don't want this man to reign over us'" Luke 19:14.
That subplot is this parable's own, and it is not decoration. Told days before he enters the city, it says what the week will contain.
"He called ten servants of his and gave them ten mina coins, and told them, 'Conduct business until I come'" Luke 19:13.
The treatment of the servants and their accounting is given in Matthew's account Matthew 25:14–30, where three men receive different sums by ability. Here all ten receive the same, and the difference in the returns is entirely theirs. A mina was a modest sum — about three months' wages — so nobody is being trusted with a fortune.
"Because you were found faithful with very little, you shall have authority over ten cities" Luke 19:17. The reward has no proportion to the deposit, and it is not money. The man who traded three months' wages is given cities.
"Lord, behold, your mina, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief, for I feared you, because you are an exacting man" Luke 19:20–21.
The third servant's defense is a description of the master, and it is unrecognizable from what the other two have just experienced. His theology produced the fear, the fear produced the handkerchief, and nothing was risked or lost.
"Out of your own mouth I will judge you... Then why didn't you deposit my money in the bank?" Luke 19:22–23. He is answered on his own terms. Even his account of the master should have produced interest, so the excuse fails by its own reasoning.
"But bring those enemies of mine who didn't want me to reign over me here, and kill them before me" Luke 19:27.
The parable ends on the subplot rather than the servants, and it ends harshly. It is the language of a returning king settling with a delegation that petitioned against him, and it stands as a plain statement that the reign being described is real and that refusing it is not a neutral act.
What the crowd wanted was a kingdom revealed immediately. What they are told is that the king goes away first, that the interval is for work rather than waiting, and that his return settles two accounts — one with servants and one with subjects.
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