My younger son is autistic, which can make church a unique experience at times. If the speaker during the service says, “Let’s read Psalms 23,” he will groan out loud—so people can hear around us. (For the record, it’s “The book of Psalms,” but an individual psalm should just be called “Psalm 23.”)
If the font or spacing is strange on a slide, I’ll hear about it during the service—out loud. This evening at church, he said out loud that he didn’t like the way the ampersand looked on a slide—during the Communion part of the service! Obviously these are areas we are working on improving.
Tonight at bedtime though I was reminded that we all need each other, and experienced one example of the ways people with a different view of the world can enrich us. I was reading the Bible passage for the day as I always do. It was the parable about the 10 Minas from Luke 19.
Here’s the parable, which is worth reading again:
Luke 19:12–26 (Berean Standard Bible)
12 So He said, “A man of noble birth went to a distant country to lay claim to his kingship and then return. 13 Beforehand, he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas. ‘Conduct business with this until I return,’ he said.
14 But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We do not want this man to rule over us.’
15 When he returned from procuring his kingship, he summoned the servants to whom he had given the money, to find out what each one had earned.
16 The first servant came forward and said, ‘Master, your mina has produced ten more minas.’
17 His master replied, ‘Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very small matter, you shall have authority over ten cities.’
18 The second servant came and said, ‘Master, your mina has made five minas.’
19 And to this one he said, ‘You shall have authority over five cities.’
20 Then another servant came and said, ‘Master, here is your mina, which I have laid away in a piece of cloth. 21 For I was afraid of you, because you are a harsh man. You withdraw what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow.’
22 His master replied, ‘You wicked servant, I will judge you by your own words. So you knew that I am a harsh man, withdrawing what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow? 23 Why then did you not deposit my money in the bank, and upon my return I could have collected it with interest?’
24 Then he told those standing by, ‘Take the mina from him and give it to the one who has ten minas.’
At this point, my younger son abruptly interrupted me and said, “You mean the one who has 11.”
Confused, I replied, “What do you mean?”
Then he said, “He started with 1 mina, then it says he earned 10 more. So he should have had 11. Are you saying that I shouldn’t be so literal because this is a parable and not a math problem?”
And then I realized that I had never read this parable correctly before, and I don’t remember ever reading or hearing it preached this way either. Maybe you have and I’m just a slow learner, but I’ve never noticed that “he should have had 11.”
Yet it actually says “the one who has 10.” I always assumed that the master just took all the minas back, including the 10 that were earned. Wrong!
Actually, the servants only gave back the one mina the master had originally given them. The master let the servants keep the extra ones they had earned, probably to be managed longer. The master had the right to take back all the minas but didn’t!
Once you see this detail, the manager seems generous, not cruel:
25 ‘Master,’ they said, ‘he already has ten!’
26 He replied, ‘I tell you that everyone who has will be given more; but the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.
I always thought this was an abrupt and rude ending to the parable. In reality, the master isn’t being harsh at all, because he only took back the one mina that was his to begin with!
The one mina that got taken away from the unfaithful servant was the same as the one mina each that got taken from all the servants. It was the one mina each that rightfully belonged to the master all along. The master in the parable isn’t capricious and wrathful; he’s only being fair, even generous and kind!
Thanks to my younger son’s very exacting view of the world, I learned a valuable new insight I would have never had otherwise. What “minas” has the Lord given you? Are you growing the gifts He has entrusted to you?
Image: Boys Walking Reflected (IMG_3812)
This post is dedicated to the public domain (CC0 1.0) as of January 8, 2025. No use restrictions. Soli Deo gloria
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