Matins Devotion: June 3, 2025

Luke 19:11-28

As is often the case with Christ’s parables, the parable of the ten minas has two different audiences. It’s a parable told against the first century unbelievers and it’s a parable told for us as Christians.

So the Pharisees and Chief Priests want to put Jesus to death because they want to keep the glory and honor God gave them but that they see as their own. They want their precious temple with animal sacrifices and they hate the Lamb of God for coming to take those away. They see Jesus as unfit to be their King because they see Him as a hard man, taking what He did not deposit and reaping where He didn’t sow. Very well then, the little they have will be taken away from them. Their temple will be destroyed, the nation made no more. The honor and esteem they have will be burned into ashes. And the men they saw as worthless fools for following Jesus, they will gain everything. They will inherit the kingdom. Through them, God will build the house that will bring salvation to the nations.

And so it is for us. If you see your Lord as a hard man who has no right to tell you what to speak with your lips or do with your body or think with your mind or cherish with your heart, then you will lose everything. If you refuse to use the gifts, the talents, the wealth, the strength, the intelligence God has given you to serve the church, then God will eventually take all of those away. On the Day of Judgment, you will see all of the treasures you stored up in defiance of Christ removed from your hands.

But if you believe in Christ, if you see your Lord as a merciful God who has all power and authority over you, then what you have will become even greater. If you used your wealth to spread the Gospel, you will see Jesus clothe you in the even greater treasure of His kingdom. If you used your gifts, your strength to care for the least of Christ’s brothers, your Lord will bless you to see those gifts grow in His kingdom, both in the kingdom to come, but perhaps even as Christ rules you here on earth. You are saved by grace through faith alone. Your works do not save you. But they will follow you into the kingdom. And in that kingdom you will rejoice to watch as the Lord who gave you much gives you even more.