Monday after the Twenty-Sixth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on November 15, 2021 by under
Scripture: St. Luke 19:11-27 (NKJV)
19:11 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. 12 Therefore He said: “A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. 13 So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Do business till I come.’ 14 But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We will not have this man to reign over us.’
15 “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. 16 Then came the first, saying, ‘Master, your mina has earned ten minas.’ 17 And he said to him, ‘Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.’ 18 And the second came, saying, ‘Master, your mina has earned five minas.’ 19 Likewise he said to him, ‘You also be over five cities.’
20 “Then another came, saying, ‘Master, here is your mina, which I have kept put away in a handkerchief. 21 For I feared you, because you are an austere man. You collect what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.’ 22 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. 23 Why then did you not put my money in the bank, that at my coming I might have collected it with interest?’
24 “And he said to those who stood by, ‘Take the mina from him, and give it to him who has ten minas.’ 25 (But they said to him, ‘Master, he has ten minas.’) 26 ‘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. 27 But bring here those enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, and slay them before me.’”
Devotion
When will the kingdom of God appear? When will Christ return for the final judgment? That is what the Jews wanted to know. But that is the wrong question. God, alone, knows when the final judgment will be, hence our Lord says in Matthew 24, “Of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only” (v. 36). What we should be asking is this: “what does God want me to do while I wait for His return?” Answer: God wants me to faithfully use His gifts.
Like the nobleman in the parable, the Lord Jesus Christ has entrusted Christians with His gifts, and He wants us to use them rather than hide them away. Those gifts are the Lord’s Supper, Baptism, and the Scriptures. He gives us the Lord’s Supper, saying, “Take, eat… This do, as often as you drink it” (1 Cor. 11:24, 25). He gives us Baptism, commanding the Church to baptize all nations (Mat. 28:19). He gives His Word—the Scriptures saying, “If anyone keeps My word he shall never see death” (John 8:51).
The one who faithfully uses God’s gifts is the one who receives the Lord’s Supper in faith, who trusts in the promise of Baptism for the forgiveness of sins, and who believes the Scriptures as the Word of God. This is the man whom Christ will honor at the final judgment. But he who has ridiculed and rejected these gifts, Christ will punish.
Prayer: O God, so rule and govern our hearts and minds by Thy Holy Spirit, that being ever mindful of the end of all things, and the day of Thy just judgment, we may be stirred up to holiness of living here and dwell with Thee forever hereafter; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
