Today's Devotion

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Tuesday After Easter 7, May 19, 2026 - Luke 19:11-28

In the name of + Jesus. Amen.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Our Lord is drawing “near to Jerusalem.” He is coming to enter the Royal City as the King, as the Son of David. He will ride the donkey like Solomon. He will process into the city amid shouts of salvation and acclamation, like David. And even as our Lord is on the way, excitement is building. For people know that He is indeed the King, and He is coming to claim His kingdom. But what they don’t know is that His throne will be the cross, His crown will be thorns, and His coronation will be His sacrificial death. For this King is not like the kings of old, and this kingdom is “not of this world” (John 18:35).

Indeed, as Luke explains, this expectation that Jesus is on His way to create something as petty and temporary as a worldly kingdom led to the misunderstanding that “the kingdom of God was to appear immediately” in this time and place alone, instead of being a matter of eternity.

So, as He often does to teach about Himself and about the kingdom, our Lord tells a parable. This one is known as the Ten Minas. Now a “mina” was a large unit of money.

In the story, the “nobleman” who is establishing a kingdom, does not do it right away. Rather, he goes “into a far country” in order to “receive for himself a kingdom and then return.” During this interim, the nobleman’s servants are to engage in productive work and good stewardship. For in carrying out their own vocation within the kingdom, they are investing in that which is eternal rather than temporary. They are not only called to “do business,” but to give an account to the nobleman when he returns as king.

In the parable, the nobleman’s servants become rulers of cities serving as lords under the King in the kingdom. The King departs for an undisclosed time, and does not establish the kingdom right away. But he does instruct his servants, whom he wants to be co-regents in his kingdom, to be busy in labor for the coming kingdom. This parable is similar to the Parable of the Talents (Matt 25:14-30). Those who faithfully labor now for the future kingdom will be rewarded in that kingdom. Those who are fearful or lazy, those who despise the King in their hearts, those who oppose the kingdom, will have no place in the kingdom.

And in fact, the last line in the parable is chilling, as our Lord says, speaking in character as the nobleman who is coming into his kingdom: “But as for these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.” St. Luke connects this judgment to our Lord’s passion, as he points out: “When He had said these things, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.”

The kingdom is not what the enemies of Jesus think it is. The kingdom will come both immediately and eternally, brought to fulfillment after our Lord’s death, resurrection, ascension, and return in glory. Meanwhile, let us put our faith in the King who atoned for us at the cross. Let us work joyfully and diligently for King and kingdom, looking toward its fulfillment in eternity!

Amen.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.