For I say to you, that to everyone who has will be given; and from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him

 Now as they heard these things, He spoke another parable, because He was near Jerusalem and because they thought the kingdom of God would appear immediately.  Therefore He said:  "A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return.  So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, 'Do business till I come.'  But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, 'We will not have this man to reign over us.'  And so it was that when he returned, having received the kingdom, he then commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called to him, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading.  Then came the first, saying, 'Master, your mina has earned ten minas.'  And he said to him, 'Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.'  And the second came, saying, 'Master, your mina has earned five minas.'  Likewise he said to him, 'You also will be over five cities.'  Then another came, saying, 'Master, here is your mina, which I have kept put away in a handkerchief.  For I feared you, because you are an austere man.  You collect what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.'  And he said to him, 'Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant.  You knew that I was an austere man, collecting what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow.  Why then did you not put my money in the bank, that at my coming I might have collected it with interest?'  And he said to those who stood by, 'Take the mina from him, and give it to him who has ten minas.'  (But they said to him, 'Master, he has ten minas.')  For I say to you, that to everyone who has will be given; and from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.  But bring here those enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, and slay them before me.'"

- Luke 19:11-27

Yesterday we read that Jesus entered and passed through Jericho, as He is on His way to Jerusalem and His Passion.  Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich.  And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature.  So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that way.  And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him, and said to him, "Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house."  So he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully.  But when they saw it, they all complained, saying, "He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner."  Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold."  And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."

 Now as they heard these things, He spoke another parable, because He was near Jerusalem and because they thought the kingdom of God would appear immediately.  Therefore He said:  "A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return.  So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, 'Do business till I come.'  But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, 'We will not have this man to reign over us.'  And so it was that when he returned, having received the kingdom, he then commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called to him, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading.  Then came the first, saying, 'Master, your mina has earned ten minas.'  And he said to him, 'Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.'  And the second came, saying, 'Master, your mina has earned five minas.'  Likewise he said to him, 'You also will be over five cities.'  Then another came, saying, 'Master, here is your mina, which I have kept put away in a handkerchief.  For I feared you, because you are an austere man.  You collect what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.'  And he said to him, 'Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant.  You knew that I was an austere man, collecting what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow.  Why then did you not put my money in the bank, that at my coming I might have collected it with interest?'  And he said to those who stood by, 'Take the mina from him, and give it to him who has ten minas.'  (But they said to him, 'Master, he has ten minas.')  For I say to you, that to everyone who has will be given; and from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.  But bring here those enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, and slay them before me.'"  This parable parallels the parable of the Talents given in Matthew's Gospel (Matthew 25:14-30).  Here, the setting is Jesus' final journey to Jerusalem, and He's speaking those who expected that the kingdom of God would appear immediately.  Jesus rather subtly prepares them for His rejection at Jerusalem by making the figure of the nobleman a man rejected and hated by the citizens who reject him.  Instead, the nobleman gives his wealth to ten of his servants, so that in the meantime, while in the process of receiving his kingdom, they will trade for him and invest wisely.  At his return, he possesses this kingdom, and he awaits the returns on what he has entrusted to his servants.  One way we could look at the parable is that it teaches us the role of Jesus' servants (members of His Church) who are entrusted with what the wealth He has given in His ministry.  He leaves for a far country and a kingdom for which there is a kind of struggle.  And this is perhaps the time we live in, the age in which we await His return.  Clearly, this kingdom will not manifest immediately nor without difficulty, but that is the business of the nobleman.  In the meantime, the emphasis is on what the servants do with His wealth.  With the parable of the talents, we understand God's gifts to us; our modern use of the word talent is derived from the Greek word talanton as used in the parable, which was a very large sum of money.  But here, the equal minas given to each suggests the wealth and treasure of the Church; that is, the teachings Jesus has given us, His ministry.  Each servant must do what he or she can with this treasure.  Upon his return, out of the single mina given to each, one has made ten, another five.  It seems to suggest the growth of the Church, a gathering of more disciples through the gospel message, as each is given authority over cities in the kingdom.  But there is one who failed to invest or trade, and kept his mina only to himself, wrapped in his own handkerchief.    By doing so, he's failed to be profitable, to gather more.  To deposit the money instead in the bank is a kind of parallel to the Church, to go to those other followers and invest what they are capable of using and multiplying in turn.  The one who has done nothing with his mina seems to be counted among those enemies who rejected the nobleman as ruler over his kingdom.

The equal amount given to each servant seems to tell us that this investment is reflective of Christ's ministry:  it is given to all equally.  What we do with the treasure He's left us is up to us and to our initiative.  The mina is like the gospel message, the commands with which he's left us.  It is a treasure that if we choose to invest it wisely, will pay off great dividends.  Not only that, but it will also generate more of itself; that is, our true trading and commerce with others in investing what we've been given will also gather more for the Kingdom, for the Church, for the Body of Christ, for all those who truly desire to be part of this Kingdom.  Ultimately, in each citizen we also find the face, the Person, of Christ the ruler.  What we're given isn't something we hold only wrapped up in our own little handkerchief, so to speak, and kept to ourselves.  It's something to be invested in all the commerce, the relationships, the works, the choices of our lives.  If we cannot imagine and do not know what we should do with it, the least we can do is take it to the Church itself and find help there, or "investing" in those who will know what to do with it.  There is always someplace to use and exchange the love we've been given, the good gifts of Christ's ministry, the gospel message.  We are in the world in order to live what we treasure, not to hide it away.  And of course, living the gospel comes in as many forms as the choices and decisions we're offered in life.  In this sense, "commerce" becomes the commonality of choices and interactions, our entire way of living in the world, even a personal struggle against what is called "worldly" and for the Kingdom.  This is not frowning on those who lead lives of prayer nor monasticism, for that too is an investment in the life of the Kingdom, an active working to increase what we might call the pool of grace in the world, devoting one's life as fully as possible to the struggle for the Kingdom.  What is condemned in the servant who wraps up the treasure he's given into his handkerchief is the fruitless life that comes of viewing what we're given in simply a worldly sense, something to keep to ourselves like a possession -- rather than that which gains and redeems its value by being given away and used in all our interactions and encounters, even in prayer.  To view the gospel as one more possession is a materialistic way of thinking, without comprehension of the power of life in the treasure invested with us, unaware of the qualities of the Kingdom shown in its possibilities.  Those possibilities include the capacity for growth and multiplication, the quality of life in abundance.  We can see the Kingdom illustrated this way in varied examples, such as the feeding of the five thousand, or in parables such as those of the mustard seed and the leaven.  What Christ looks for is this growth that comes from real trading on the treasure He's given us, and our capacity to understand and use the wealth as we've been taught.  Is it something we have, or something we live?  Thus the judgment is fair:  to each is given the same wealth, and to each is given the same choice as to how we will use it.