Luke chapter 19

vs 21

The motivation for what the servant did was fear, but also a twisted sort of sense of justice. He feared his master, sure. But I think he also thought it was unfair that his master benefited from work that was not his own. Considering his master was a rich noble, it is possible he'd benefited from work not his own his whole life.

vs 22

Uh oh. The master sounds pissed.

vs 23

This is a good point. I mean, putting money in the bank (or equivalent) is not exactly hard work, and the money still would have shown some fruit. He wouldn't have come anywhere near the other two servants, who obviously worked their asses off getting that money to replicate, but he could have at least possibly met inflation head on.

This shows all the more that I think the servant didn't want his master to earn anything off this money.

vs 24-25

You can almost hear the words of the mooks, "But, but, that's not fair!" This is the catch-cry of the loser. My reply has long been to this statement that life, indeed, is not fair. And God, too, apparently is not fair. Now, I say this guardedly, because to say it fully you need to point out that justice and fairness are two separate things. One is about treating people the way they should be treated, and the other is treating all people the same. Sometimes we say 'It's not fair' when we mean 'It's not just' - that's mostly because I think justice as a word is so linked to our flawed legal system that we don't think about it all that much. Instead, especially in Australia, we are hooked on this idea of a 'fair go'. God is actually more than fair. He is gracious. He gives people stuff they don't deserve. He is merciful. He stops people getting what they do deserve. But we don't tend to see it that way. We just see one person with 10 minas get an 11th mina, and we say "But but but, that's not fair!"

vs 26

How much do we struggle with this verse? This is God's mighty economy - that those with lots of God's stuff (whether it me money, faith, time, love) will, if used devotedly, be given yet more of that stuff. Or perhaps even different stuff. But those who have little of God's stuff and do not devote it to him, will end up with precious little of anything.

Take money away for a moment, and look at love (I'm interested in love at the moment because of Donald Miller's book Blue Like Jazz). If you have lots of love for someone, and you devote yourselves to them, are you going to love them more or love them less? Conversely, if you have very little love for someone, and don't work at all on the relationship you have with them, then where is that relationship going to go?

vs 27

I think this includes the guy who buried the mina. Why did people not want this man to be crowned king? Because he was a hard man, because his subjects hated him. They worked hard to stop him from becoming king, but you don't vote for kings. So, since he's a nasty king in the first place, and since they took the gamble of challenging him, now he shows them how nasty he will be.

Now God is not an evil king. But he is a just king. And he certainly deserves to be king. The points of this parable are many - if you serve an unjust king, and he weill reward you for hard work, how much more will a benevolent king reward you? But if you are not devoted to the king, how will he repay your lack of devotion, but to take away what you've got and give it to someone useful? Finally, you cannot rebel against kings and think you will get away with it. That never stops some people. There are always people who are discontented with the system. So they rebel against the authority. And hey, sometimes I think they are right to do so. But God is the ultimate authority. What are you fighting for if not God? Freedom? What is freedom without God? God has already granted everyone freedom to disobey him. They use it to rebel. They get punished. Game over.

vs 28

Pushing towards Jerusalem seems to keep getting mentioned.

vs 29

It's good to be the king - you get to send disciples out to do stuff.

vs 30

This is basically grand theft - livestock. Just imagine Jesus walking into Sydney, saying "go ahead of us and into the town. You'll find a soft-top Lotus convertible. Bright red. (So he can stand up in it as it drives along). Jump in and drive it back here."

You see these two scruffy looking guys eyeing off your Lotus. They jump in and somehow start the car. Ack!