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.  "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 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.  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.  The text explains to us the attitude and expectations of those with Jesus.  They believe in the contemporary understanding of what the Messiah would do, and surely Jerusalem was the place for the Messiah to enter as king.  So, their expectations of are an immediate manifestation of the kingdom of God, and the worldly reign of the Christ over Israel.

"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 be over five cities.'"  Jesus, of course, tells this parable about Himself as the nobleman, who went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and was initially rejected by those over whom He would rule.  This is a parable about the time when He will be away, before He returns to the fullness of His kingdom at the Second Coming.  In Matthew's Gospel, this parable is told using a unit of money called a talent.  Both the talent and the mina were measures of weight, to which value was attached as weight of gold or silver, and later coins.   Our modern English understanding of the word "talent" comes from the interpretation of this parable.  Although a talent was worth far more than a mina, the understanding is the same.  The minas represent talents or gifts given by God.  They represent the goodness which God has bestowed on each person.  That would include the qualities we may possess from character, skill, intelligence, capability -- and more specifically, our capacity for spiritual gifts.   My study bible says that the amount each receives is based on that person's abilities (Romans 12:4-7).  It adds that God does not show partiality in the ultimate reward, for all are invited to share the same joy.   It is interesting that the master who returns tells those who have traded, "Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over . . ." because this parallels Jesus' saying when He spoke of choosing between God and mammon.  After telling the parable of the Unjust Steward, Jesus told the Pharisees, "He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.  Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?" (see this reading).  If we think of talents, gifts, and capabilities as wealth, then we understand what it is to be faithful in little; that is, how we choose to live our lives in accordance with the Lord's teachings, regardless of what area of life we're talking about or what we are doing.  In this case, what was given to each was put to use, traded, even invested in something.  

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 wicked servant, my study bible says, could not evade responsibility for ignoring his talent (or mina) as idleness is as much a rejection of God as outright wickedness.  The bank represents the body of the Church, where others can help to bring out and make the most of whatever it is we may contribute.   As there is help available at this bank, there is no excuse.  To keep the money put away in a handkerchief seems to indicate a careless way to keep the money, and one heedless of its value.  The handkerchief is of course for personal use for wiping perspiration away or cleaning one's nose.  But another use for this particular piece of cloth is as a head binding for a corpse (John 11:44, 20:7).  Either way seems to indicate an ignorance of the things of God, and a devaluing of them.  Moreover, this suggests the burial of the talents as told in this story in Matthew's Gospel; a pursuit of the purely earthly.

How do we use what we have for the purposes of the Kingdom?  How do we glorify God by the lives we lead?  What do we consider wealth?  We first of all should consider what it is to be faithful, and remind ourselves of this saying of Jesus, asking what it means to be "faithful in a very little."  Jesus is perhaps contrasting the things of this world (those which are very little) with the greater things of heaven.  We must consider that whatever we have -- our bodies, our gifts and skills and talents, our intelligence, all that we have -- are gifts of God, including spiritual gifts.  To be faithful in this word in the Gospel is to be trustworthy, reliable, loyal, a kind of fullness of faith.  Its root is the Greek word for trust.  So, it seems to me, to invest our lives in the faith of Christ is to entrust whatever skills and talents we have to the Lord's direction.  The man who put away his money in a handkerchief, or a face-covering for a corpse, invested or entrusted his gifts to that which is dead and has no life, something used for that which is cast off or cast away.  But when we give ourselves and our lives to faith, we are entrusting ourselves in what is, in fact, eternal and timeless.  To be faithful in a little, then, is to invest ourselves in something that pays off in the long run, that rewards us with timeless gifts.  In guiding the ruler who came to Him to ask about eternal life, Jesus teaches him, "You still lack one thing.  Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me"  (see this reading).  The point is that whatever it is we truly invest ourselves in will determine what we reap, the "treasure in heaven" we possess or not.  In that sense, if the rich ruler had considered giving his money to the poor, this would have been an investment that gained him treasure in heaven.   There are all kinds of things in which we can invest ourselves in life and in this world.  There are a million ways to follow fashion, to entrust ourselves to one ideology or abstract philosophy or another.  There is the pursuit of worldly wealth -- of any sort -- as our number one goal or achievement.  But whatever it is we gain, we should consider this image of the handkerchief which is also used as a shroud for the head of a corpse.  In what do we invest that is of immeasurable value?  How do we live our lives as an investment in the faith of Christ?   Our choices become guided by whatever it is that we put our heart and soul into.  As Jesus puts it in naming the first and greatest commandment, it's what we choose to love with all our heart and soul and mind (see Matthew 22:35-40).  This then guides our relationships to everything else:  what we choose to do in life, how we choose to treat or love others, what we do with all that is available to us, personal wealth or talent or skill or character capacity.  So think about where you invest what you have.  What do you really put your trust in? What is it that is worthy of this precious thing that is your life, or your soul?  What direction do you want to guide you through all things and choices?  Where do you invest yourself?  Moreover and beyond, who exactly is most worthy of that trust?