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 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, on His way toward Jerusalem with His disciples.  Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich.  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.' "  My study bible has a long note on this parable, which is similar to one found in Matthew 25:14-30.  In Matthew's version, Jesus uses "talents" to illustrate the parable, which were a Greek currency.  Here, Jesus uses the "mina" which was a Hebrew unit of currency.  Both the "talent" and the "mina" were equivalent to a certain weight of precious metal, gold or silver.  In the ancient world, by Christ's time, both were used to measure the value of something for exchange.  It is from the "talent" used in the parable as reported by Matthew that we get our modern understanding of the word talent as a gift or innate ability given by Creator.  Here in Luke's version we note that each begins with the same sum; illustrating that God does not show partiality.

"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.'"   This wicked servant bears responsibility for ignoring his talent.  My study bible says that idleness is as much a rejection of God as is outright wickedness.  To put away the talent in a handkerchief is to waste it:  a handkerchief is used for "waste products" of the body such as sweat, blood, spittle, or food when eating.   There is another meaning to this also.  In the parable of the Talents, the wicked and lazy servant buried his talent in the ground.  The word used for "handkerchief" here can also the head cloth, in which the dead were wrapped for burial.  So there is an association here with using God-given gifts for "earthly" pursuits.  The bankers, my study bible says, represent other faithful people to whom the servant could have turned to help to use his gifts wisely.  This help is also available in the treasury of the Church, its saints, its teachings, the Scriptures old and new.  That the citizens hated this ruler, and sought to overthrow him, symbolizing Christ who is about to enter Jerusalem at the beginning of what we know as Holy Week, and will be rejected by the nation.

So, the question is here, what do we do with the gifts we're given by God?  Each one of us, the parable seems to say, is gifted -- or rather, invested -- with something by God.  God invests in us God's wealth of gifts to give:  intelligence, or talent, athletic ability, strength, physical health, our looks, a capacity to hear and appreciate beautiful music, or poetry, or even a gift to sit in a church and appreciate the beauty that is there in the sermons, carols, hymns, liturgy, icons, worship services, or even in the silence where we may find our own prayers to God.  All of these things are capacities which we do not create ourselves, but with which God gifts us.  If we look at the parable in the way that it is given, we may come to conclude that, in fact, God invests these things in us.  Each of us has something that we bring to the table, so to speak, precisely because God has invested these things in us.  There are times when our capacity for love of a spiritual life enables us also to make the best of what we might nominally call a "bad" thing, but which in the hands of the capacity for revering and finding God and the Spirit's work in our lives, become a good thing.  It is up to us also to find these hidden gifts in all circumstances, for they are also gifts of God.  A child with Down's syndrome comes to be revealed as an extraordinarily loving member of a family, tying others together in the beauty of that love, for example.  An elderly parent or grandparent becomes a focal point of care, encouraging through the lens of our faith not only a shared responsibility but an expression of love and revelation of the capacity for meeting a challenge with sacrifice and ingenuity, a cause of joy in the fulfillment of giving a gift of life and peace through infirmity.  We do not know where all of these gifts lie hidden in the fields of life, for they are ours to discover through the use of the gifts with which God graces us, and most especially that is true of the gift of faith.  Faith may reveal all kinds of hidden treasures and profits we may make through any and all things, so we perhaps might call faith the greatest gift of all.  When times becomes difficult, it might present us with a scenario in which it is especially hard to be appreciative of blessings.  At this time, as possibly at no other, it is the great gift of faith for which we are truly grateful, and from which we seek -- for His sake -- to multiply profit for the kingdom of God.  Faith is indeed a gift, a talent, we need to use in order to multiply, and not to bury or squander our capacity for things not worthy of such a great price.