Luke 18:31 Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. 32 He will be delivered over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him and spit on him; 33 they will flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.”
Luke 19:11 While they were listening to this, he went on to tell them a parable, because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once. 12 He said: “A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return. 13 So he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas (about three months wages). ‘Put this money to work,’ he said, ‘until I come back.’ 14 “But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We don’t want this man to be our king.’ 15 “He was made king, however, and returned home. Then he sent for the servants to whom he had given the money, in order to find out what they had gained with it. 16 “The first one came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has earned ten more.’ 17 “‘Well done, my good servant!’ his master replied. ‘Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.’ 18 “The second came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has earned five more.’ 19 “His master answered, ‘You take charge of five cities.’ 20 “Then another servant came and said, ‘Sir, here is your mina; I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. 21 I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow.’ 22 “His master replied, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant! You knew, did you, that I am a hard man, taking out what I did not put in, and reaping what I did not sow? 23 Why then didn’t you put my money on deposit, so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest?’ 24 “Then he said to those standing by, ‘Take his mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten minas.’ 25 “‘Sir,’ they said, ‘he already has ten!’ 26 “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. 27 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.’”
The parable of the ten minas is Jesus describing how his disciples can expect his kingdom on earth to be established. He had already tried to warn them directly in Luke 18:31-33, but they couldn’t understand. So he attempts to reinforce the message by this time using a parable.
Verse 11 informs us Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem and near the city. Immediately following this passage is Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem before he is crucified. The people expected God’s kingdom to appear at once and they expected it to appear in Jerusalem, as informed by Old Testament passages such as Zechariah 14. Jesus uses this parable to set their expectations straight, but pay careful attention to what he says and doesn’t say.
He doesn’t say their expectations are wrong, he says their timing is wrong. That is crucial.
The point of the parable hinges on three main ideas:
First, Jesus as king will be rejected by the Jewish leadership. As a consequence, Jesus kingdom will not visibly arrive on the earth just yet.
In the meantime, Jesus encourages his disciples to be diligent using the resources they have to improve and extend the deposit he has made in their lives.
Notice, they have been put in charge of what Jesus describes as in v. 17 “a very small matter”. Jesus is telling us he isn’t going to judge us based upon how much we have, or even how much we produce, but in being faithful in making improvements upon whatever we have been given to work with. So if you start off with one disciple, and wind up with ten God will reward you very generously. But no one here and now is going to be writing any books about you. But God will reward us greatly out of proportion with what little we are able to produce here in this age.
Also notice the servant that produced nothing. He suffers negative consequences after the king returns to establish his kingdom. There will be eternal negative ramifications in the coming kingdom of heaven that go beyond being condemned to hell. Being a lazy, unproductive disciple will cost you in the still yet future coming kingdom of God to the earth.
At his return to the earth (eg. Luke 21:27; Acts 1:9-12; Revelation 19:11-21), Jesus will serve as king over all the nations and will judge his enemies by having them slaughtered. This is consistent with what we read in Revelation 19 concerning the return of Jesus. He will also reward his disciples by assigning them responsibilities that go far beyond what they were given to do in the interval between his two comings.
Immediately following this parable in v. 28-44 is the triumphal entry. This event can be considered a dress rehearsal for the second coming of Jesus described in the Old Testament in several passages. In these verses it is made clear that he is approaching Jerusalem this final time from the Mount of Olives, which would have him entering the city from the East in what is known as The Golden Gate. This sequence of events was likely both carefully planned by Jesus and orchestrated by God, as we see in v. 30-32. In addition to what we have written in Zechariah 14, we have what is written in Ezekiel:
Ezekiel 43:1 Then the man brought me to the gate facing east, 2 and I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. His voice was like the roar of rushing waters, and the land was radiant with his glory. 3 The vision I saw was like the vision I had seen when he[a] came to destroy the city and like the visions I had seen by the Kebar River, and I fell facedown. 4 The glory of the LORD entered the temple through the gate facing east.
Ezekiel 44:1 Then the man brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, the one facing east, and it was shut. 2 The LORD said to me, “This gate is to remain shut. It must not be opened; no one may enter through it. It is to remain shut because the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered through it. 3 The prince himself is the only one who may sit inside the gateway to eat in the presence of the LORD. He is to enter by way of the portico of the gateway and go out the same way.”
Ezekiel 46:12 “‘When the prince provides a freewill offering to the LORD—whether a burnt offering or fellowship offerings—the gate facing east is to be opened for him. He shall offer his burnt offering or his fellowship offerings as he does on the Sabbath day. Then he shall go out, and after he has gone out, the gate will be shut.
Interestingly enough, the Eastern Gate is the only gate giving access to the temple mount that is indeed sealed shut. It was sealed shut with sixteen feet of cement by the Muslim Sultan Suleiman in 1540.
These verses instruct us that God will finally re-establish his permanent place on the earth at the historic most holy place on the temple mount by approaching it from the East, where the Mount of Olives is located. The final act of Luke 19, the cleansing of the temple, also prophetically illustrates Jesus’ objective at his final coming to cleanse Jerusalem and then the entire earth of all corrupt ungodliness.
The final act of Luke 19, the cleansing of the temple, also prophetically illustrates Jesus’ objective at his final coming to cleanse Jerusalem and then the entire earth of all corrupt ungodliness.