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<\/a>(H\/T<\/a>)<\/p>\nAt church yesterday, my pastor preached from what sounded like the worst parable Jesus ever told.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s called the parable of the ten minas and it\u2019s found in Luke 19.<\/p>\n
Here it is,<\/p>\n
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\u00a0was going to appear at once. He said:\u00a0\u201cA man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return. So he called ten of his servants\u00a0and gave them ten minas.\u00a0\u2018Put this money to work,\u2019 he said, \u2018until I come back.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cBut his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, \u2018We don\u2019t want this man to be our king.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cHe 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first one came and said, \u2018Sir, your mina has earned ten more.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Well done, my good servant!\u2019\u00a0his master replied. \u2018Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThe second came and said, \u2018Sir, your mina has earned five more.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cHis master answered, \u2018You take charge of five cities.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThen another servant came and said, \u2018Sir, here is your mina; I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. 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.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cHis master replied, \u2018I will judge you by your own words,\u00a0you 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? Why then didn\u2019t you put my money on deposit, so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThen he said to those standing by, \u2018Take his mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten minas.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Sir,\u2019 they said, \u2018he already has ten!\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cHe replied, \u2018I 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. But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them\u2014bring them here and kill them in front of me.\u2019\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
If you find yourself reading that and thinking \u201cUm, what?\u201d you\u2019re not alone.<\/p>\n
When I heard it I had to grab the Bible out of the pew in front of me and see for myself that it was actually in there because it\u2019s like Jesus is saying \u201cYou know that whole Sermon on the Mount thing? Yeah, I was totally kidding about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
I was dumbfounded.<\/p>\n
But, of course, if you\u2019re Sarah Palin you\u2019re standing up in church and shouting \u201camen\u201d after hearing this parable. After all, it reads like a divine sanction for the Tea Party.<\/p>\n
God helps those who help themselves.<\/em><\/p>\n
So, reward the rich \u2019cause they deserve it.<\/em><\/p>\n
Screw the poor \u2019cause they deserve it.<\/em><\/p>\n
And make sure you maintain a strong national defense\u2026..by killing all your enemies.<\/em><\/p>\n
Again, basically the opposite of the Sermon of the Mount and virtually everything else Jesus ever said.<\/p>\n
So, what was going on?<\/p>\n
Was Jesus really founding the Tea Party?<\/p>\n
Well, if we treat this parable like we usually treat scripture and rip it completely out of its context for a
completely disingenuous<\/del> \u201cplain reading\u201d of the text based on those nice littlethey create more problems than they\u2019re worth<\/del> section headers, it\u2019s hard to argue that Jesus hasn\u2019t just completely tossed the Sermon on the Mount out the window.<\/p>\nBut, if we have the gall to put in a little bit of effort and pretend that historical and biblical context are important things to consider when reading a 2,000 year old text that was written in a foreign language to a specific audience with a specific world view that was not our own, we\u2019ll see that Jesus hasn\u2019t actually exchanged his tunic and sandals for a suit and American flag lapel pin.<\/p>\n
Along with our habitual refusal to pay any attention to context, the other major problem we suffer from when reading the Bible is our innate tendency to read everything as prescriptive, meaning we assume that what is written on the page is what we\u2019re supposed to do and how things are supposed to be as if the Biblical writers had so sense of irony, sarcasm, satire, or any literary skill whatsoever.<\/p>\n
We can\u2019t be totally blamed for this sort of assumption. After all, the Bible is filled with explicit commands like, well, the Ten Commandments.\u00a0But the Bible is also full of stories of what not<\/em> to do. examples of how not<\/em> to live, and lots and lots of remixing popular or well known stories to teach the opposite<\/em> lesson.<\/p>\n
Such is the case in this particular parable.<\/p>\n
You see, great storyteller though he was, Jesus was not making up this story from scratch.<\/p>\n
You remember King Herod, right? The guy from the nativity story that wasn\u2019t exactly Jesus\u2019 biggest fan? Well, he died. Sorry, I mean SPOILER ALERT\u2026..he died.<\/p>\n
Before he died Herod decided that this son Archelaus would succeed him on the throne. However, in a move of political savvy Archelaus didn\u2019t want to claim the title of \u201cking\u201d without the approval of the king of kings \u2013 Caesar. So, Archelaus decided that he would go to a distant country, I mean Rome, to have himself appointed king and then return.<\/p>\n
(See where this is going?)<\/p>\n
Well, wouldn\u2019t you know it, not everyone was thrilled at the prospect of Archelaus becoming king and so\u2026.wait for it\u2026his future subjects sent a delegation to Rome to tell Caesar, \u201cWe don\u2019t want this man to be king.\u201d<\/p>\n
Surprise surprise, I mean SPOILER ALERT, Caesar made Archelaus king anyway, well almost. Technically he was made ethnarch, a slightly lesser position, but you get the picture.<\/p>\n
Guess what happened to his enemies.<\/p>\n
Do we still need the spoiler alert?<\/p>\n
Ok, fine, SPOILER ALERT\u2026.they were killed.<\/p>\n
Being that he was their ruler, Jesus\u2019 audience was quite familiar with Archelaus\u2019 story, which is why Jesus didn\u2019t need to name drop. It\u2019s just like how today I could say \u201cplanes flying into buildings\u201d and you would have a pretty good idea of what I was talking about.\u00a0But Jesus wasn\u2019t invoking this famous tale in order to lay down the foundation for the Tea Party (or any other American political party). In fact, he was doing the complete opposite.<\/p>\n
In other words, this wasn\u2019t one of those \u201cthis is how things should be\u201d sorts of parables. This was a \u201cthis is not how it is in the kingdom of God\u201d sort of parable.<\/p>\n
We know this because of the stories Luke places right before and right after Jesus\u2019 parable.<\/p>\n
Luke prefaces Jesus parable with the words \u201cwhile they were listening to this.\u201d The \u201cthis\u201d he is referring to is Jesus\u2019 encounter with a guy you might know \u2013 Zacchaeus.<\/p>\n
You remember him, right? Wee little man in a sycamore tree?<\/p>\n
Of course you do, and as you recall Zacchaeus was a tax collector and tax collectors in those days, just like days collectors in these days, weren\u2019t the most popular kids at the party, not just because of the whole collecting taxes thing, but because A) they were colluding with the hated Roman government and B) they collected a little more than taxes from people, sometimes a lot more.<\/p>\n
Well, one day Jesus showed up in Zacchaeus\u2019 neighborhood and did his typical Jesus thing and ate with this outcast sinner.\u00a0And what did Zacchaeus do in response to this act of grace?<\/p>\n
He gave away his possessions and donated his wealth to the poor.<\/p>\n
Basically the opposite of what we would think Jesus was telling us to do in his parable of the ten minas if we only read the parable and paid no attention to the wee little man in the sycamore tree.<\/p>\n
(Fun side note: Jesus declares that salvation has come to Zacchaeus based on what he did, not on a confession of faith\u2026.but that\u2019s a can of worms for another day.)<\/p>\n
In short (no pun intended), Luke is using Zacchaeus\u2019 story to tell us that \u00a0rich who have everything blessing the poor who have nothing is the true mark of discipleship and the way of life in the kingdom of God.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s also using it as the crucial first half of the context for Jesus\u2019 ten minas parable.<\/p>\n
Now for the second half.<\/p>\n
Quick, without googling it do you know what Luke says Jesus did right after telling his story about the rich blessing, pull yourself up from your bootstraps, enemy killing king?\u00a0If you said \u201che rode into Jerusalem riding on a donkey,\u201d then I\u2019m sorry. I mean, you\u2019re right, but I\u2019m sorry that now everybody around you is staring at you for being that weird person talking to themselves.<\/p>\n
Geez, why are you so weird?<\/p>\n
Anyway, Luke follows the parable of the ten minas with an all important \u201cAfter Jesus had said this\u2026\u201d Well, after Jesus had said all those crazy unJesusy things, Jesus got right back to doing Jesusy things again. In this case, riding a donkey into Jerusalem.<\/p>\n
We usually relegate the triumphal entry to Easter and while it definitely belongs there, if we separate it from the parable of the rich blessing, pull yourself up from your bootstraps, enemy killing king we miss the real point of both stories.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re stories about a new kind of king and a new kind of kingdom.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re about flipping reality upside down.<\/p>\n
About changing the old order of things.<\/p>\n
About bringing the kingdom of God to earth just as it is in heaven.<\/p>\n
In many fundamental ways, the world of Jesus\u2019 day wasn\u2019t that unlike our own. Power ruled the day, the rich got richer, the poor got poorer, and you dealt with your enemies by violently wiping them off the map.<\/p>\n
Such was the kingdom of Caesar.<\/p>\n
Jesus preached the kingdom of heaven in which power was found in weakness, wealth was a blessing to be given away, the poor were blessed, and enemies were to be prayed for and loved.\u00a0This is what we hear in the Sermon on the Mount and throughout Jesus\u2019 ministry.<\/p>\n
The old order is passing away. Behold, all things are being made new.<\/p>\n
Everything Jesus said and did revolved around proclaiming and incarnating the kingdom of heaven, which is why our ears should perk up and we should start asking a lot of questions if we read something in the gospels and think it\u2019s instructing us to continue living in the ways of the old order. As St. Augustine would say, if we read scripture and draw a conclusion that is in conflict with love God and love your neighbor, then no matter how great our exegesis might be our conclusion is wrong.<\/p>\n
In the case of the parable of the ten minas, if we think we Jesus has changed his mind about all that blessing the poor and loving your enemies talk, we\u2019re reading it wrong.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s still calling us to incarnate a kingdom that is not of this world. He\u2019s just using a little satire to do it.<\/p>\n
Which means maybe the real lesson of the parable of the ten minas is that we need to be extremely careful about how we read the Bible because a \u201cplain reading\u201d of the text may be the absolute worst reading of the text.<\/p>\n
In fact, it may just lead us to becoming the complete opposite of disciples of Jesus.<\/p>\n
It may lead us to becoming anti-Christ.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Grace and peace,<\/p>\n
Zack Hunt<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(H\/T) At church yesterday, my pastor preached from what sounded like the worst parable Jesus ever told. It\u2019s called the parable of the ten minas and it\u2019s found in Luke 19. Here it is, While they were listening to this, he went on to tell them a parable, because he was near Jerusalem and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3437,"featured_media":11015,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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