Luke 19:22 Commentary and Bible Study

The response of the king is most interesting. He judges this last servant ‘out of [his] own mouth’, according to his own words, his own declared attitude, and does not try to correct it. He might have said, ‘Look at these other two servants. They have traded with their pound and increased it; you could have done the same.’ That would have been an argument which in effect said, you have failed to take advantage of the grace of God. But instead the king chooses a stronger argument which cannot be refuted, and argument that draws attention to his failure to live up to even his own standards. He finds fault with the indolent servant even on the basis of what he has said. Although there is much wrong with his assessment of his master as austere, he accepts that for the moment. ‘Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow.’ ‘Did you even act consistently with that mean-spirited and unworthy view of me that you claim to hold? If you thought that was what I was like, then you should have taken a completely different course of action.’ The Lord’s judgment on us in the final day will leave us nowhere to hide. There is layer upon layer of lies in our response to God, and on the last day nothing will be left uncovered. This man had been concealing what he knew was wrong with his handling of the pound. It wasn’t an honest answer that he gave the king, and the king sees straight through his deceit. ‘The please of slothful professors, when they come to be examined, will be found more to their shame than to their justification’ (Matthew Hentry).‘If you really though I was such a man, you would have done very differently.’ In the setting of the parable, the logical thing for this servant to have done would have been to find some way of increasing his master’s pound. It was obvious that the master looked for some return on what he had given, and would not be content simply to receive back what he had provided in the first place. He suggests that the money could have been deposited in the bank where it would earn interest, and the pound given back to him with interest on the day of reckoning when he returned. It he was really such a hard man as this servant made out, something should have been done to prepare for his return. But no, the pound had been put completely out of use. That was sure to anger an austere man who takes up what he has not laid down, and reaps what he has not sown. Such a man is never going to be content to receive back his pound without any increase. Matthew Henry comments that the man complained that his master reaped where he had not sown, but points out that his master had sown, in that he had deposited the pound with this servant. That pound was the seed, and the soil was the good will of the servant that ought to have improved it.