Parables #4: A Gold Coin to Seize – Luke 19

Parables 4: A Gold Coin to Seize – Luke 19

Parable of the gold coins or talents.

Jesus, following the meeting with Zacchaeus, as the crowd listens to him, will add this parable. A parable is a pictorial story that hides a lesson. Jesus repeatedly uses this method to teach.

Reminder: the encounter with Jesus:

Jesus meets Zacchaeus and comes to live in his house. He will leave Zacchaeus declaring: “Salvation has entered this house today because he is also a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost. »

Jesus thereby specifies that a new life was born in Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus sought above all his well-being, to acquire more wealth…even by stealing from his fellow citizens. He was far from God’s plan… But Jesus visited him and his life was transformed. His behaviour changed dramatically. From a thief, he became a man who gave, a man who reconciled with those around him and with God.

To this teaching of salvation, to this visible change, Jesus is going to add a parable, a parable which illustrates what will happen after the time of Easter and in the times to come… so this parable is still valid.

Jesus through this parable will show several sequences of God’s plan and several behaviors towards the very person of God.

Reading Luke 19: 11 -28
In view of all that Jesus accomplished, some believe that Jesus would immediately establish the kingdom of God. Jesus explains with this parable several stages of God’s plan.

It highlights:

Several behaviours in front of God or in front of the Gift of God.
Several very different views on the very person of God
The consequences of the behaviors or visions that one can have of God.
One can then ask the question: How do I receive the gift of God today?

Steps of God’s plan:

The cross and resurrection of Christ were central steps in God’s plan of salvation. John in his Gospel presents this man of high birth to us: “In the beginning was the Word (Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. It was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and nothing that was made was made without him. John tells us that #the Word can transform us#. ##As was the case for Zacchaeus: “He came to his own, and his own did not receive him.” But to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.##»

But Jesus in this parable shows us that this man of high birth, the Messiah designated as King, at that time, will return and take stock! He is Lord!

#God has made a precious gift to men#… Several behaviors are presented in front of the Messiah – the gift of God.

God is not the reason of some who dispute the existence and legitimacy of Jesus Christ. This refusal is expressed in a clear manner. It has been expressed many times in the history of mankind. Some biblical examples: Manasseh, 2 Kings 21, Speech of Paul Romans 1: 20-23
Examples in the news are legion: Wars, violence around us, in families, in society, … in our countries … and sometimes even in our churches: Men and women are filled with all kinds of injustice, wickedness, greed, malice; full of envy, murder, contention, cunning, malignity; they are reporters, backbiters, impious, arrogant, haughty, braggarts, ingenious in evil, rebellious to their parents, devoid of intelligence, loyalty, natural affection, of mercy. … Although the text is the sequel to the Epistle to the Romans … doesn’t that depict the society in which we live?

Distance from God is not and will not be without consequences!

##Our behavior towards the Gift of God:
A consideration and appropriation of the gift of God. The first two seized the gift that God was giving them and this gift bore fruit in their hands… Master’s remark: Well done, good servant; because you have been faithful in a few things, receive…
An encouragement, what they have already received is not taken away from them. More is entrusted to them… For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared beforehand, that we may do them##. » Ephesians 2:8-10

From the parable, a servant given the gift of God, gave it a proper burial, putting in linen… an irresponsible indifference compared with the other two servants…
In the same parable of the talents in the Gospel of Matthew in chapter 25, the servant is said to have buried the talent. Here, he is put in a cloth…it’s a bit the same image, remember, in the tomb, just like how they had put a cloth over Jesus’ face. For this 3rd servant, this gift is dead, has no real value… gives neither joy nor life!

For us, is the gift of God still dead? did Jesus stay buried?

This burial or this indifference can come from our way of seeing God. First of all, there is no real relationship between this servant and God, so God is a complete stranger who we will perhaps put on a human scale… God’s gaze becomes that of the Greeks or the Romans. The servant sees God as one with the same attributes as: thieves, wicked, greedy, slanderers, quarrelsome, avengers, … devoid of goodness, mercy and love

And for us who is our God? how do we know it? What attributes do we know about him?

Is he God, a sovereign, trustworthy God in whom I have faith? A God of blessing, a God of life and not of death? A god of light and not of flight or darkness? A God who takes. A stern God, of regulation? A God who is to be feared?

Or a faithful, just, merciful God, full of goodness and love…slow to anger and rich in goodness…A God who gives peace…”He shall not break the broken reed, Nor quench the wick which is still burning; He will declare justice according to the truth. » Isaiah 42 :3

Indeed if we are in fear, if we do not believe in his work of salvation. Then concerning his free gift, we will be like the 3rd servant who said… “for I was afraid of you because you are a severe man; you take what you did not lay down, and you reap what you did not sow. »

Note: In the parable of the sower, God sows on all terrains…even the most unlikely to bear fruit…God is generous and just…

Another word of Jesus in Matthew 7: 9-11 is “Which of you will give a stone to his son,…”

Jesus again emphasizes the importance of appropriating God’s gift …not just about depositing it in the bank, perhaps with little interest… but really appropriating God’s gift, by not falling into indifference… or chasing the appearance of being called to be children of God…

Jesus concludes: “I tell you, to him who has will be given, but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away. » Potentially, this 3rd servant had something… Let us not forget these words of the Lord which resonate: « Those who say to me: Lord, Lord! not all will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. » Matthew 7: 21

Jesus clarifies what doing the work of God is in John 6: “What must we do to accomplish the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “It is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has sent.” and again “For it is my Father’s will that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

It is not a question here of a loss of salvation but of the judgment of one who has never really known either the grace of God, or God himself,…

Finally, there are those who deliberately did not want Jesus Christ: “For God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not judged, but whoever does not believe is already judged because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. …” John 3:17-20. Jesus underlines here the condemnation of those who do not belong to him, a condemnation to death not only physical but also spiritual – estrangement from God for eternity. Jesus announced it: “The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous, and they will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. » Matthew 13 : 49-50

Following this parable, we can believe that Jesus or Satan. Satan said, you will not die! Jesus affirms that he will return…Let us therefore remain attached to Him and to his word. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” Matthew 24:35

Jesus speaks of his return more explicitly in the Gospel of Matthew: In Matthew 24: Jesus speaks in particular of the carefree life of people when the time of the end is here. Read Matthew 24:36-39

This carelessness and forgetfulness of God, we know them well today. God is left aside, buried, as if shelved… But we will be accountable to God.

We tend to put forward our rights and sometimes we forget to whom and to what we are indebted. Are we not indebted to our spouse, or to our employer? As children to our parents? and finally all of us, to God, our Creator?

This accountability, Jesus emphasizes both in this text of Matthew and in the parable. Will these texts leave us indifferent or will they lead us to live closer to God, to learn to know him always better, always more?

As if to draw our attention even more to the truths that Jesus announced in this parable, we are told that Jesus goes up to Jerusalem and sends two of his disciples saying to them: “Go to the village opposite; when you have entered into it,…Those who were sent went, and found things as Jesus had told them…” So we see in the rest of the story that everything is in the hands of Jesus. What He said comes to pass…are we going to doubt His word? Will we cultivate our relationship with Him? do we have the desire to know him more?

Are we going to appropriate the gift (or gifts) He gives us? Let us free ourselves from our constraints, the Lord wants us at his service,…let us be seized by his grace