Welcome to Luke 19 in our certainty of faith series through the Gospel of Luke.
Today’s chapter is when our reading of Jesus’ life starts to speed up and turn toward Jesus’ sacrifice for our salvation.
Once again, this chapter has several stories that include teaching about financial resources. But I want us to look deeper than dollar and cents today to consider the thicker lesson of a heart of stewardship—in everything in our lives.
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Luke 19 begins with the story of Jesus and Zacheuss, a common story touaght o children in Sunday schools in America, so I will lightly summarize it and point out one truth we might want to consider.
Jesus is making his way toward Jerusalem and passes through Jericho, where a short and extremely rich man, Zacchaus, climbs a tree to get a glimpse of this famous religious teacher.
Jesus stops.
He looks up in the tree right at this fianncail exploiter of Jewish people, Zachaas. And he tells Zacheaas—he doesn’t even ask—that Jesus will be ging to his house
And Zachess quickly jumps scurries out of the tree and what I imagine is exaltation and pride, and hosts Jesus—and then he says something quite shocking for a very rich man—
Verse 8
“Look, Lord! (he calls him Lord) Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
Jesus responds,
“Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Zachaaus had built his wealth on exploiting others as a tax collector. And now, his faith in Jesus is marking him as a child of Abraham, who also believed and it was created, marked down, to abraham as righteousness. But it was not just words—zachaccues put his faith where his actions were.
How we steward our lives—finances, how we work with others in our vocations, our homes—it all shows our faith.
Zacchaus was saved not by giving money, but by his fiath that was shown by a changed heart.
This is where we come to our passage today that we will drink in more slowly.
Before I read, take a moment to breathe in and out, setting aside your mental task list, and being fully present to God’s presence as you listen to the Word for a couple minutes.
Come, holy spirit, come, wash us in your word.
As you listen to the passage, focus on the character of each person mentioned.
Luke 19:12:-26
12 He said: “A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return. 13 So he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas.[a] ‘Put this money to work,’ he said, ‘until I come back.’
14 “But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We don’t want this man to be our king.’
15 “He was made king, however, and returned home. Then he sent for the servants to whom he had given the money, in order to find out what they had gained with it.
16 “The first one came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has earned ten more.’
17 “‘Well done, my good servant!’ his master replied. ‘Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.’
18 “The second came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has earned five more.’
19 “His master answered, ‘You take charge of five cities.’
20 “Then another servant came and said, ‘Sir, here is your mina; I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. 21 I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow.’
22 “His master replied, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant! You knew, did you, that I am a hard man, taking out what I did not put in, and reaping what I did not sow? 23 Why then didn’t you put my money on deposit, so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest?’
24 “Then he said to those standing by, ‘Take his mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten minas.’
25 “‘Sir,’ they said, ‘he already has ten!’
26 “He replied, ‘I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what they have will be taken away.
What stood out to you from this passage. Think about that for a moment.
Now, tehre is a LOT going on in this passage and if you would like to unpack it more fully, you can see the link in the show notes for a suggested Bible study, but what I want to point out for our reflection today is the character of the people mentioned in the story.
The first servant, the King called TRUSTWORTHY so he gave that servant charge over ten cities.
The second servant he called GOOD and gave him charge over five cities.
But the last servant was AFRAID and the King called him WICKED. He hid what the king gave him to steward and increase.
Now, I am sure that all of us want to be TRUSTWORTHY with whatever the Lord has given us to steward, before our King, Jesus Christ, returns.
Is there any way the Spirit might be prodding you to be a better steward — to be TRSUTWORTHY— withall God has put in your care? Time? Money? Health? Relationships?
Reflect on that for a moment.
Now the rest of the chapter, we shift into Jesus’ enterance into Jerusalem as he rides in like a King would, and people shout “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!”
And he enters the temple and sees the financial exploitation the people have turned worship into and he drove out the swindlers, who did business in the place where devout non-Jewish worshippers would pray.
jesus taught in the temple daily and the chief prseis and other leaders wanted him killed.
This is where the chapter ends for today.
Now our time in sciuprture today began with a rich man, changing from greed to repentant generousity and ended with Jesus driving out greedy money changers from the temple.
It begins with repentence of exploitation. It ends with judgement of exploitation. And in the middle is a story about stewardship—
Let us be careful in how we steward our lives as ones whose King is coming—and to whom we will give an account.
And let us be careful in how we steward realtionships and our bank accounts—to be people marked by TRUSTWORTHY honesty — in everything.
Now take come time to pray. How might the Spirit be prodding you to steward your resources and relationships in a way that honors your King?
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Let’s pray.
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Now, if you would like to study the book of Luke more deeply than the podcast allows, I encourage you to look at the resources linked in the show notes.
I would like to give a special thanks to Dr. Sandra Glahn for her Latte with Luke Bible study and Brian Vasquez productions, who has made this podcast possible. This episode is sponsored by socialremix.co to SocialRemix.co, a social media generating website that saves you hours of content creation with just a click of a button. For more information, see the Links in the show notes.
God bless you and I pray that you have a well soul.