Luke 12

Chapter 12. The Parables of Human Destiny(Part 2)The parables of the Unjust Judge and the 10 Minas present a double picture of human destiny, first in relation to the church of Christ and secondly in relation to the individual believer. The Parable of the Unjust Judge is a picture of the church in her conflict with the adversary, waiting for the coming of the Lord. The Parable of the 10 Minas represents the ministry of Christ’s servants under the dispensation of the Holy Spirit and in view of the coming of Christ.

Section I: the Unjust Judge

Section I—the Unjust JudgeLuk_18:1-8The WidowThere was in a city a certain widow. This widow represents the Church of Christ. While she is the bride of the Lamb, yet the Bridegroom is now absent and she is alone and exposed to the hatred and opposition of her great adversary, the devil. The Adversary We know who this is. From the beginning, the wicked one has sought to destroy the Church of Christ. He is represented in the book of Revelation as a dragon waiting to devour her seed. The Recourse She appeals to God in prayer. Indeed, the specific lesson of the parable as represented in the opening verse is that “they should always pray and not give up” (Luke 18:1). She is represented as one who “[cries] out to [God] day and night” (Luke 18:7). This is our best defense against every form of opposition and trial. This is our best weapon in our warfare of work for God and men. The Church needs to learn afresh the power of collective prayer, united prayer and prayer as a real business that takes hold of God and expects Him to do real things for us. A Picture of God He is here presented in contrast with the unjust judge. We are not to suppose that we need to worry Him by our importunity into granting petitions as this woman worried the indifferent magistrate into listening to her plea. The whole figure here is one of antithesis. The unjust judge is in contrast with God, and the Lord Jesus asks, “Will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly” (Luke 18:7-8). In contrast with the earthly official, He will not keep them waiting but will promptly and gladly respond to their appeal. There is a fine suggestion in the figure of the judge, full of encouragement for our prayers. God is not only a Father loving to help His children; not only a God of mercy and love willing to bless because of His goodness and grace, but we have claims upon Him on the grounds of righteousness as a Judge. We do not come to Him in prayer as mendicants to beg a pittance for which we have no claim, but we approach Him as the counselor at law approaches the judge of the court and pleads the statutes of the commonwealth and the claims of equity and asks for his client judgment not as a charity but as a right. Our great Advocate, the Lord Jesus Christ, has established our rights before the throne of prayer and has presented an equivalent for all that we can ask from heaven; so that in His name we are entitled to ask the largest things, to present our strong reasons, to bring our prevailing plea and to know that God is not only merciful but also “faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). The Cause of Failure Why then, do we not receive more frequent and valuable answers to our prayers? The Lord Himself gives the reason. “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). It is the lack of faith. It is the spirit of unbelief. And so the great lesson of the parable comes in with “they should always pray and not give up” (Luke 18:1). The word “always” does not mean that we are to pray under all circumstances and at all times, but we are to pray through. We are not to stop until we receive our petition. We are not to be discouraged by delay or faint because of the extreme conditions of our case, but we are to “approach the throne of grace with confidence” (Hebrews 4:16) and “always keep on praying” (Ephesians 6:18). The Final Lesson The final lesson of the parable, however, teaches the great thought of future destiny. The real deliverance of the widow is to come when her Bridegroom comes. “When the Son of Man comes” (Luke 18:8)—this is the outlook of the suffering Church and the waiting age. Then all wrongs will be righted. Then the cruel adversary will be found and cast out. Then the bride of the Lamb will shine more glorious than the sun and share through the coming ages the throne and kingdom of her Lord. Is this our blessed hope “as [we] look forward to the day of God and speed its coming” (2 Peter 3:12)?

Section II: the 10 Minas

Section II—the 10 MinasLuk_19:11-27This parable has reference, not to the Church, but to the individual believer in view of the coming of the Master. His Going Away The first reference to our Lord and Savior is the master’s going away. “A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king” (Luke 19:12). Christ has gone into heaven and there is gathering one by one the members of His future kingdom and preparing for that glorious age when He and His people will together reign over earth and heaven. His Commission The second parallel to Christ is the master’s commission to his servants. Christ left His earthly interests in the hands of His servants. While He represents us yonder, we are to represent Him here. We have charge of His affairs and stand for the interests of His kingdom on earth. Enduement for Service Another reference to our Lord is enduement for service. The master gave to each of them a mina. We will notice the difference between the Parable of the 10 Minas and the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30). In the latter case, they received different investments: one five, another two and another one. In this case they all received alike. The talents seem to refer to God’s special gifts to His people, the minas to the one great gift of the Holy Spirit. Our one great equipment for service is the Spirit of Pentecost. Without Him we can do no work for God effectually, either in the home, the church or the closet. He gives the Spirit to each of His servants. The differences among Christian workers are not due to favoritism or partiality on the part of God, but to the different way in which each follower of Christ improves His gift. We all have the same opportunity of claiming and using the divine power and our supernatural equipment for the work committed to our hands. We do not need many gifts but one, and that one is comprehensive of all others. The Holy Spirit is wisdom, power, holiness, faith, love, prayer—everything a Christian worker can require—all comprehended in the one living Presence that comes to abide in the heart that is yielded wholly to Him. Have we received this divine equipment and are we keeping the fire burning and fanning “into flame the gift of God, which is in [us]” (2 Timothy 1:6)? The Use of the Enduement The fourth parallel to Christ is the use and improvement of this enduement. “Put this money to work… until I come back” (Luke 19:13). This word translated “put… to work” means to use. So we are to be active in employing the gifts of the Spirit for the work of God, and as we do so, the gift will grow and our mina will become 10 minas. This appears to be the meaning of the apostle in First Corinthians, “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:7). This profiting is a commercial phrase. We are to use our divine gifts as the businessman uses his capital and his investments. This explains the difference between different Christians. One has been more faithful and diligent in the use of his resources and they have multiplied. George Mueller used to say that after years of experience of God’s faithfulness it was as easy for him to ask and receive thousands as it was to receive pounds. Oh, that it might be true of us as of the early Christians, “Your faith is growing more and more…. bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God” (2 Thessalonians 1:3; Colossians 1:10). The Master’s Return Next, there is the master’s return. At length Christ will come, too. This is the goal of Christian hope and longing desire. He has waited long, but He will come. He is already on the way. The signs of His appearing are on every hand. Oh, how glad the prospect and yet how solemn its significance! The Accounting Like the earthly master, when Christ comes there will be an accounting. His coming means our accountability to God and His reckoning with us for our life work and our eternal reward. This is not the judgment of the Great White Throne, the day of wrath and doom. This is the Judgment Seat of Christ where His own servants are to have passed in review their earthly work, and to receive according to what they have done and be assigned their places in the coming kingdom. This was the great motive of the apostle in all his ministry. He was ever looking forward to that time when he should present his work and receive his crown. And so the servants come before Him with their several accounts. The first two servants have a happy reckoning. They have wisely used the trust committed to them and multiplied their mina, the one tenfold, the other fivefold, and their recompense is first the commendation of their Lord, and secondly a higher trust and a nobler service. The reward is proportioned to the measure of service rendered. For every mina, there is a city in the empire of the skies. The reward is distinguished honor and noble employ. The heaven of the Bible is no luxurious sinecure, but the most glorious activity. The work we have loved to do below will be continued with nobler capacities and larger scope through the ages to come. The philanthropist, the missionary, the benefactor of his fellowmen, the consecrated genius will all have congenial work, but on a higher plane and with unbounded resources and the glorious addition that there will be no night to close the working day and no dark grave to cut short the story. The whole creation will be the empire of our high dominion and the theater of our eternal employ. How inspiring the prospect! How sublime the vision! How uplifting the motive which it gives to us in all our ministries now! We are but apprentices preparing for the manhood of the future and the sovereignty of the ages to come. But there was one servant who had no such object or reward. He simply brought his mina carefully wrapped up in a piece of cloth and carefully preserved but utterly unimproved. He had done nothing with his trust. That was all. But the reason which he gives shows how wrong his heart had been and reveals the secret of all our failures in the sight of God. “I was afraid of you,” he said, “because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow” (Luke 19:21). He had wrong views of his Master. He did not know God. He did not love Him. He did not trust Him, and of course there was no incentive to serve Him. Nothing but the love of Christ can inspire true service, and if we are coming short, it is because we do not know the love of God. What a surprise it must have been to him when he saw at last the glorious recompenses of his fellow-servants. And how he wished, no doubt, that he could live his life once more. How we will wish sometime that we had better understood the generous heart of our great Master and had better used the capital which He had entrusted to our hands! The punishment of this faithless servant was the loss of the blessing he had received. The mina was taken from him and given to the one that had used his trust more wisely. Neglect and unfaithfulness rob us of what we have. If we are not growing, we are retrograding. If we are not revolving on our axles in the busy mechanism of life, we are rusting and preparing for the refuse heap and the clumping cart. There is no intimation of any other judgment upon this unfaithful servant than the rebuke of his master and the loss of his mina. There is a very clear distinction between the unfaithful servant and “those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them” (Luke 19:27). The “enemies” are slain. The faithless servant is deposed. There is the judgment of loss for the unfaithful Christian, but it is very different from the judgment of perdition that awaits the wicked. Both are sad enough, but the latter is irretrievable. The two most solemn lessons which this parable teaches us are:

1. Our power for service must all come from God, and He has given to us all the equipment necessary for His work. The Holy Spirit is our enduement, and He is given to every child of God who will give Him right of way and yield himself to His direction and control. This makes our responsibility for service very great. We cannot plead our incompetency. We cannot excuse ourselves because of our inability. He is not asking us to do more, but to take more from Him.
2. We must remember both our accountability and liberty. Daniel Webster used to say that the most stupendous thought that ever came to him was man’s accountability to God. It seems to us that this thought will be heightened very much when we combine with it the other thought of our personal liberty in view of our accountability to do with our lives as we will. Christ is not continually policing our life and pursuing us with detectives at every step of our way, but He is quietly letting us alone and saying to each one of us, “Put this… to work… until I come back” (Luke 19:13). And each of us is living our life ourselves in view of that great and solemn day. If we want to be selfish, we can. If we allow opportunities to pass by, we may. No lightning stroke will fall upon us. No outward pressure may be brought to bear. We are left to the motives and impulses of our own hearts, and meanwhile the phonograph of the skies is recording silently, constantly, every act and influence of our lives for the day of reckoning. Then will come the review and the recompense or retribution. Oh, how solemn it is to have such liberty and such accountability! God help us to keep it in view. Oh, that each in the day of His coming may say I have fought my way through, I have finished the work Thou didst give me to do.