We all like comfort food.
It reminds of good times and gives us a warm feeling inside.
Comfort food is like the status quo—it’s what’s familiar to us.
So, why was it a problem when the servant played it safe and keep the “status quo” with his master’s possessions?
In today’s reading, the story of the king returning to claim his kingdom is the story of Christ, now as the Anointed One, the king, returning to Jerusalem.
In short, this is God returning to see how his people have done with the divine mission given to them.
Israel was to be a light to the nations, showing them the way and bringing them into God’s Kingdom.
But, like the servant in the reading, they only maintained the status quo. They hoarded the teaching given to them by Moses.
The Law became exclusive, and instead of bringing people in, Israel used it to keep people away.
In other words, like the servant, they didn’t invest with what they had been given. So, Jesus, the returning king, condemns the Temple and its authorities.
Now, the message of God’s salvation, which had been given to Israel, is given to the church.
But, we have to be careful.
We will also maintain the status quo? Will we also keep God’s message at a standstill by worshipping in languages that people don’t understand, or refusing to invite our neighbors to church?
God has given us a great gift.
He’s made us a part of his family, one of his children.
We, now, are entrusted to invest this love with others making them a part of the Kingdom as well.
The Reading
Therefore he said, “A certain man of noble birth went to a far country to assume a kingdom for himself and to return. And having called ten of his slaves he gave them two minas, and said to them, ‘Engage in trade until I come.’ But his fellow citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to reign over us.’ And it happened that when he returned, having received the kingdom, he ordered that those slaves to whom he had given the money be called to him, in order that he might learn what each had gained in trade. And the first came and said, ‘Lord, your mina earned ten minas.’ And he said to him, ‘Well done, good slave, because you were faithful in the least of things, take authority over ten cities.’ And the second came, saying, ‘Your mina, lord, made five minas.’ And to this one too he said, ‘And you shall be set over five cities.’ And the other came, saying, ‘See, lord, your mina, which I kept put away in a napkin; For I was afraid of you, because you are an exacting man; you take up what you did not lay down, and you reap what you did not sow.’ He says to him, ‘Out of your mouth I will judge you, wicked slave. Did you know that I am an exacting man, taking up what I did not lay down and reaping what I did not sow? Why then did you not put my money on a banker’s table, and then on coming I would have withdrawn it with interest?’ And to those standing attendance he said, ‘Take the mina from him and give it to the one who has ten minas.’ And they said to him, ‘Lord, he has ten minas.’ ‘I tell you that to everyone who has it will be given; and from him who does not have even what he has will be taken away. As for those enemies of mine, however, those not wishing me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.’” And having said these things he journeyed on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. (Luke 19:12-28)