In Luke 19:11-27, Jesus tells a story known as the Parable of the Pound, or the Parable of the ten Minas.  A very similar parable can be found in Matthew 25:14-30 and is known as the Parable of the talents.  In the Parable of the Pound, a noble man goes to a distant land to be crowned king.  Before he leaves, he gives ten servants ten minas or pounds and told them to put the money to work while he was gone.  His subjects sent a delegation after him trying to stop him from being crowned king, but he was crowned anyway.  Upon his return after being crowned, each servant is called upon to show how they used the King’s money.  The first servant shows he earned ten minas and the King rewards him by giving him ten cities to rule over. Another servant shows he earned five minas and he too is rewarded with five cities to rule.  But then a servant who was afraid of the king and felt the king was a hard man who reaped harvests he did not plant presented the original minas the king had given him.  He had not invested it, but held it in safe keeping.  This angered the king and he took it away and gave it to the one that earned ten pounds.   The king then ordered all those that despised him becoming king and didn’t share his intentions of growing the kingdom should be killed before him.

This parable is about Jesus going away to prepare his kingdom for us.  Jesus wants us to understand the kingdom will come.  However in the time before, we must use his teachings and the abilities given to us to continue teaching Christ’s work.  God has given each of us talents and abilities to build his kingdom and those that believe in Jesus and honor him by using their abilities to continue Jesus’ work, will be rewarded.  Those that don’t believe in Jesus and squander or underutilize their abilities for the good of God will be judged and destroyed when Jesus returns. 

Prior to this parable being told, Jesus had just entered Jericho and he just shocked his followers by being a guest at Zacchaeus’ (a crooked tax collector) house.  People could not understand how Jesus could be a guest with such a “sinner.”  Jesus was explaining that any man that comes to seek and to save what is lost would find salvation. 

Jesus went on to tell this parable as they were getting close to Jerusalem and people still believed the messiah would be a ruling King and that the kingdom would come at once.  Jesus wanted to convey that the kingdom would not be immediate, and that because of this, many would reject him as the messiah.  However this parable tells the people what they should be doing from the time he leaves them to the time he returns; they should be using their abilities to grow closer to God and to continue Christ’s work so the kingdom may grow.

This parable shows us; those that wisely use what God has given us for the glory of God, will be rewarded with more.  The others will be punished as they do not share God’s interest in the kingdom, they don’t trust in God’s intentions, and they are only concerned with themselves instead of caring about others.  

In verse 11, people were expecting the messiah to restore the kingdom of Israel.  This thought is further confirmed in Acts 1:6 when they specifically ask Jesus if the kingdom of Israel is about to be restore.  In Acts 1:7-8, Jesus explains that we are not to know when the time of the kingdom will come.  So it was important that Jesus use this parable to let us know what we are suppose to do while waiting for this kingdom.

Verse 17 shows the servants that used the money to make more money was rewarded.   This same teaching can be found in Luke 16:10-12 (in the parable of the shrewd manager), where Jesus states:

“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.  So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?  And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?”

Not only did Jesus use other parables and teachings, he also showed his teachings are tied into the Old Testament.  When Jesus told in verse 22 how the master judged by the servants own words, he was using words that were understood by those familiar with the Old Testament.  Similar words were use in Job 15:6 “Your own mouth condemns you, not mine; your own lips testify against you.” and in 2 Samuel 1:16 “For David has said to him ‘your blood be on your own head. Your mouth testified against you when you said, ‘I killed the Lord anointed…’”.  Comparing the words in this parable to the words in the Old Testament confirms that Jesus is strengthening the word of God, not replacing it.

In comparing this parable with the Ten Talents in Matthew 25:14-30, the biggest differences were the use of minas or pounds in Luke versus the use of talents in Matthew.  At first we read the word talent and think it meant our personal talents, but it really is another form of money in this context. (Though there is no wrong in using the personal talents in the place of currency) A minas or pound was worth about three months salary in the Jesus’ time, where a talent was worth much more, maybe several years’ salary.  The other main difference is in the Parable of the pound, each of the ten servants was given equal amounts to invest.  In the parable of the talents, the servants were given different amounts to signify that God will not give us more than we can really handle.  However both parables teach that we must continue Jesus’ work within our abilities until his return.

(Read the parable with some cute visuals from the Brick Testament)