Look At The Difference!

Luke 19:11-27 Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)

¹¹ While they were listening to this, Yeshua went on to tell a parable, because he was near Yerushalayim, and the people supposed that the Kingdom of God was about to appear at any moment. ¹² Therefore he said, “A nobleman went to a country far away to have himself crowned king and then return. ¹³ Calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten manim [a maneh is about three months’ wages] and said to them, ‘Do business with this while I’m away.’ ¹⁴ But his countrymen hated him, and they sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We don’t want this man to rule over us.’

¹⁵ “However, he returned, having been made king, and sent for the servants to whom he had given the money, to find out what each one had earned in his business dealings. ¹⁶ The first one came in and said, ‘Sir, your maneh has earned ten more manim.’ ¹⁷ ‘Excellent!’ he said to him. ‘You are a good servant. Because you have been trustworthy in a small matter, I am putting you in charge of ten towns.’ ¹⁸ The second one came and said, ‘Sir, your maneh has earned five more manim; ¹⁹ and to this one he said, ‘You be in charge of five towns.’

²⁰ “Then another one came and said, ‘Sir, here is your maneh. I kept it hidden in a piece of cloth, ²¹ because I was afraid of you — you take out what you didn’t put in, and you harvest what you didn’t plant.’ ²² To him the master said, ‘You wicked servant! I will judge you by your own words! So you knew, did you, that I was a severe man, taking out what I didn’t put in and harvesting what I didn’t plant? ²³ Then why didn’t you put my money in the bank? Then, when I returned, I would have gotten it back with interest!’ ²⁴ To those standing by, he said, ‘Take the maneh from him and give it to the one with ten manim.’ ²⁵ They said to him, ‘Sir, he already has ten manim!’ ²⁶ But the master answered, ‘I tell you, everyone who has something will be given more; but from anyone who has nothing, even what he does have will be taken away. ²⁷ However, as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to be their king, bring them here and execute them in my presence!’”

Every interpretation I read aligns Jesus with the severe rich man whose people hate him and don’t want him to rule over him. I just don’t buy it!

If I use that interpretation, then the Jesus telling this story bears very little similarity to the Jesus who has told all the other stories. Context falls apart.

I think the clue to unravel the story is in the introduction: “While they were listening to this, Yeshua went on to tell a parable, because he was near Yerushalayim, and the people supposed that the Kingdom of God was about to appear at any moment.” There is also the fact that just before this comes the story of the short tax collector, Zakkai, who climbed a tree so he could see Jesus, and Jesus looked up at him and invited himself to Zakkai’s house. When Jesus was criticized for going to a sinner’s house, Zakkai said to the Lord, “Here, Lord, I am giving half of all I own to the poor; and if I have cheated anyone, I will pay him back four times as much.” ⁹ Yeshua said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, inasmuch as this man too is a son of Avraham. ¹⁰ For the Son of Man came to seek and save what was lost.”

It only makes sense that the comparison Jesus is making here is between Zakkai (who has made a living collecting what he did not earn, but who is so sorry about it that he gives everyone he’s cheated four times the amount that he extorted from them) and the rich man with the scared servants.

Zakkai doesn’t care whether or not “the Kingdom of God is about to appear at any moment,” he’s just delighted that Jesus is going to his house, and the only way that he can see to protect Jesus from the bad opinion of the people who accuse him of going to eat with a sinner, is for Zakkai himself to stop being a sinner! So he has a complete change of heart, spelling out exactly how he will make amends, and Jesus is in turn delighted with Zakkai. Only then comes the story of the rich man who goes off to some other country to “acquire a kingdom for himself” (yes, that’s what the Greek says!) Everybody hates this guy, and his servants are afraid of him because he destroys what he did not establish and reaps what he did not sow. In other words, he’s a conqueror and an oppressor…  and doesn’t that sound like Rome?

So, isn’t it much more likely that Jesus is contrasting the clean, open, delighted, and generous nature of the relationship between him and Zakkai— which doesn’t depend on any kind of coercion or quid pro quo— with the searing toxicity of the relationship between the rich man (who’s been made king over unwilling subjects) and his anxious servants? I mean, just look at the difference!

Jesus is showing them how Rome works: how Rome governs. The people in authority over his listeners got that authority granted to them from “a distant country”. They are people who ‘remove what they never established, and reap what they never sowed.’ They live by quid pro quo…”Do this for me and I’ll do something for you.” They are treacherous, unreliable, and scary. They force you into taking risks on their behalf, and punish you if your gamble doesn’t pay off. You can’t even refuse to take risks on their behalf, like the poor servant tried to do who put the maneh aside in a napkin. You are stuck, and you don’t dare even to complain, because if you do, you will be dragged before the puppet king and slaughtered.

I can’t even imagine how anyone could equate Jesus with that rich man, and come up with a story in which the realm of God can be earned through such manipulative and pecuniary means. Excuse me?

No!

Jesus says, “Look at Zakkai! He was excited, enthusiastic, and filled with generosity. He saw me being criticized for going to his house, and he didn’t like that. Why didn’t he like that? Because he felt affection for me! Because he delighted in me! So, look what he did!— he gave away half of all he owned to the poor, and he paid back all the people he cheated, four times over! That’s what the Kingdom of God looks like! It isn’t something that you have to wait for; it’s not the kind of Kingdom where you can finagle and scheme your way into power! It’s right here and right now, in Zakkai’s house; the house of a man who changed his mind!”

I can’t think of anything more “sinful” than to try and make The Realm of God into a dog-eat-dog corporate power structure in which we have to take terrible risks “doing business” on God’s behalf in return for some kind of payoff!

Are we really going to believe that if God isn’t satisfied with the return on his ‘investment’ then we will have to pay the price?

How could we ever even think that the Sphere of Heaven is a place where those who have much get even more, and those who have nothing get even that taken away from them?

How could we ever imagine that Love works like that?  Oh, but we do—

and it breaks my heart, every time.