{"id":135,"date":"2010-02-09T23:59:44","date_gmt":"2010-02-10T06:59:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.masterofthehouse.org\/?p=135"},"modified":"2017-01-08T15:27:36","modified_gmt":"2017-01-08T22:27:36","slug":"parable-of-the-minas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/considerations\/parable-of-the-minas\/","title":{"rendered":"Parable of the Minas"},"content":{"rendered":"

“And another came, saying, Lord, behold, here is your mina, which I have kept in a handkerchief.\u00a0 For I feared you, because you are a harsh man. You take up what you did not lay down, and you reap what you did not sow.<\/span>
\n And he said to him, I will judge you out of your own mouth, wicked servant! You knew that I was a harsh man, taking up what I had not laid down and reaping what I did not sow.\u00a0 And why did you not give my silver on the bank table, and coming I might have exacted it with interest? “<\/span>
\n <\/em>Luk 19:20-23<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

I would imagine the parable of the minas, or talents, is familiar to most.\u00a0 One gained ten minas, and another gained five.\u00a0 They used what their master had provided in order to gain more.\u00a0 What has eluded me for quite a while, however, was the servant who kept his mina wrapped in a handkerchief.\u00a0 In particular, his reference to his own fear because he knew his master was a harsh man: “You take up what you did not lay down, and you reap what you did not sow<\/span><\/em>“.\u00a0 For the longest time I tried to figure out how that applied to Jesus.\u00a0 How was it He could be considered the “harsh man”.\u00a0 As very much God, He does take up what He lays down, and He does reap what He did indeed sow.
\n I had laid it aside as one of those apsects of our Lord that I just would not get.\u00a0 Then recently it struck me what the master had said to that servant: “I will judge you out of your own mouth, wicked servant! You knew that I was a harsh man, taking up what I had not laid down and reaping what I did not sow<\/span><\/em>“.\u00a0 The master was not comparable to Christ for what he was … He was comparable for what that servant thought he was.\u00a0 That servant feared because he thought his master did not have the authority to operate in the commercial areas the servant was to operate in.<\/p>\n

Though the scripture I have quoted uses the word “minas”, I find “talents” has a dual meaning that speaks louder to me.\u00a0 I consider the talents God has invested in me, even as He has invested in everyone.<\/p>\n

“When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive and gave gifts to men.”<\/em><\/span>
\n Eph 4:8b MKJV<\/span><\/p>\n

To serve only as an illustration of the point, let’s say the talent was a gift of healing.\u00a0 There are those of us who have felt that inner draw to an injured or sick person, wanting to reach out to them and ask God for their recovery … and more often than not deciding against that “impulse” (what I would many times label it) because we worried it might not work and we would then look very stupid.\u00a0 That was our fearful servant, thinking our Master didn’t have the authority to bring success to our request.\u00a0 If I were to make that withdrawal my ongoing practice, then stand before our Lord in similar fashion as the servant with the mina for those times, He might then say: “You did not think I had the authority to heal, so you hid your talent.\u00a0 Yet you’ll go to a doctor for healing, so why didn’t you study medicine?\u00a0 Or donate to the research teams, or volunteer in the hospital?\u00a0 At least then some would have received of My healing.<\/em>“<\/p>\n

It’s frightening, yet comforting at the same time, to consider.\u00a0 Our Lord, akin to that master, does not ask for large, perfect faith … just faith.\u00a0 One gained ten minas, another gained five, and at the very least interest would have been acceptable.\u00a0 It leads me to consider what God has given me, and if I utilize His gifts at some level – rather than not at all.<\/p>\n

“And whoever shall give to one of these little ones a cup of cold water to drink, only in the name of a disciple, truly I say to you, He shall in no way lose his reward.”
\n <\/em>Mat 10:42\u00a0 MKJV<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“And another came, saying, Lord, behold, here is your mina, which I have kept in a handkerchief.\u00a0 For I feared you, because you are a harsh man. You take up what you did not lay down, and you reap what you did not sow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[52,53,54,55,56],"class_list":{"0":"post-135","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-considerations","7":"tag-gifts","8":"tag-harsh","9":"tag-master","10":"tag-servants","11":"tag-talents","12":"entry","13":"override"},"acf":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Master of the House","author_link":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/author\/master-of-the-house\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}