Luke 19:11 Commentary and Bible Study

(Synoptics: Luke 19:11-27)Traditionally called The Parable of the Ten Pounds, this has also been called The Parable of the Educated Fool, and in more recent times, The Investment Parable. It is very similar to The Parable of the Talents, recorded in Matthew 25, but given at a different time, at a different place, with a slightly different application, and yet they are almost parallel. If therefore one seems to be a little obscure, we have the help of the other. You cannot understand this parable, simple as it is, unless you look at the tenth verse of this chapter: ‘For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost’, the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Son of Man, he himself, the Saviour of the world, is come to earth from heaven in order to set up a mission, a spiritual mission for the salvation of lost souls, a mission for the forgiveness and the conversion of lost men and women, cut off from God, whose souls are eternally condemned because of sin. He comes to save by giving his own life as an atonement for us, suffering and dying for the sins of those who seek him. It is in that context that this remarkable parable is given, because the eleventh verse says, ‘and as they heard these things, he added’ something. The Greek said he laid something else besides what he had said already. It doesn't mean he just happened to go on to talk about something else. He laid something beside it. Our Authorised Version translators have done very well: ‘he added’ something; he expanded on what he had said; he proceeded further with the same subject. That's the key to understanding this remarkable story. ‘I have come’, he virtually says, ‘to make a way of salvation. My primary purpose is not to make life better on earth for people, but to make it possible for their souls to go to heaven, and for them to come to know me and the Father in this present life; to be transformed into people who walk with their Creator and know him and are blessed by him. ‘As they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear.’ The Lord Jesus Christ was passing from Jericho to Jerusalem; he is almost at the end of his earthly ministry. Very soon he will be taken and he will allow himself to be taken. He could so easily have resisted it, but it was his plan, his purpose. He will be taken and he will be tried so grotesquely, unfairly and wrongly, and then eventually he will be crucified on the cross of Calvary, all part of the divine plan so that he could there represent us. God the Father would pour out upon his Son all the punishment due to those who would be redeemed by him and forgiven by him, and he would bear away our sin on our behalf. That's the divine plan of salvation. He is now approaching the end of his earthly ministry, and he tells this parable partly to correct the misunderstanding of so many of the people, even of his followers, who thought that because of his divine power and the things that he could do, he would immediately be for Israel an earthly deliverer and Messiah. They were under the false impression that when the kingdom of God came, it would make them a dominant empire, and every Hebrew would be a prince and have authority in this world, lifted up to tremendous spectacular glory and wealth, prosperity and control of the nations. They thought that when Messiah came, he would make their lives better. The Lord Jesus Christ was passing from Jericho to Jerusalem. He is almost at the end of his earthly ministry. Very soon he will allow himself to be taken. He could so easily have resisted it, but it was his plan, his purpose. He will be tried so grotesquely, unfairly and wrongly, and then eventually he will be crucified on the cross of Calvary, all part of the divine plan so that he there could represent us. And he tells this parable partly to correct the misunderstanding of so many, even of his followers, who quite thought that because of his divine power and the things that he could do, he would surely be for Israel an earthly deliverer and Messiah. They thought in such human, such physical terms that their deliverance would be an earthly political deliverance. They didn't understand that he had come to suffer and to die. They would understand so much more after he was crucified and after he had risen from the dead. This parable has a kind of fuse attached to it. As Christ gave it, the fuse was lit. The parable would be in the minds of the people, and after the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was given, they would grasp the meaning of the parable so much better.