Luke 19:20Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

The third servant proved completely unproductive, passing his time in inactivity. Consider his words: ‘Master, here is your mina; take it back; I kept it hidden in a cloth.’ A cloth was used to cover the head of our Lord in death (John 20:7), and Lazarus’s face was bound with a cloth in the grave (John 11:44). Thus, this slothful servant accurately states that he concealed the gift in a cloth. By rendering it dormant and unresponsive, he failed to utilize it or gain any benefit from it.

Thus, there are rewards, victories, and crowns awaiting those who have toiled and cherished service, while disgrace awaits those who succumbed to sloth. The individual who concealed his talent in a cloth faced severe judgment. He approached and proclaimed: ‘Look, you have what belongs to you!’

We understand how the Lord's compassionate desire for gain is expressed, as He tirelessly seeks to benefit from His creations. He addresses the slothful servant, who presumes to critique that which he does not comprehend and fails to produce any gain for his master, saying, "With your mouth I will judge you, you wicked slave! You said that I am a hard man, reaping where I did not sow, and gathering where I did not scatter" (Luke 19:22). Thus, you were aware of My 'desire for profit.' It would have been wiser for you to invest My 'treasure' with the bankers, so that I might have received it with interest upon My return. Therefore, we must place the Lord's 'treasure' wisely, and He will evaluate it later—not only with this individual but with each of us.

Since He refers to the Jews, it is noteworthy that only two engaged in profitable transactions: this profit is not of a monetary nature but pertains to the gain from proclaiming the Gospel. There is a distinction between the increase of finances and the harvest of divine instruction. When the Lord poses the question, “Wherefore hast thou not given my silver into circulation?” (Luke 19:23), He is not seeking a return on our wealth, but rather on His own. One of those questioned explains that he concealed the money in the earth; thus, he tainted the intellect, made in God's likeness, by his inclination towards earthly pleasures and buried it in the depths of the flesh. The others, who likened to bankrupt debtors, forfeited what they had been entrusted with, are not acknowledged.

In this spiritual context, the shawl symbolizes a state of laziness and inactivity.

Having clarified His actions to those who were upset with Him, and observing that as they approached Jerusalem, the thoughts of the people and His disciples were increasingly focused on the expectation of His kingdom, the Lord desired to provide His disciples with further instruction. To engage them more deeply, He chose to present this teaching through a parable. In this parable, He aimed to temper their expectations by revealing key insights: that upon reaching Jerusalem, He would face significant challenges to the establishment of His kingdom; thus, He would need to depart from that city and return later to confront the opposition of His adversaries and inaugurate His kingdom.

The motivation behind Jesus Christ sharing the parable of the minas is explained by the Evangelist: at that moment, Jesus was preparing to continue His journey to Jerusalem, which had been interrupted by His visit to Zacchaeus’ home. Many people believed that this would mark His grand entrance into Jerusalem to establish the Messiah's kingdom. The aim of the parable is to convey that prior to the revelation of His kingdom, there will be a period of preparation. Christ will unveil His kingdom in all its glorious splendor, yet His subjects will initially reject Him as their sovereign.

Those who remain steadfastly committed to the King will be rewarded for their faithfulness. However, there will also be those without justification, having squandered their lives in futility. "Sir, here is your mina, which I kept hidden in a cloth, for I feared you, because you are a harsh man: you take what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow." Individuals entrenched in sinful behavior often fail to recognize their transgressions. In the unfortunate circumstances of their lives, marked by moral decay and wretched actions, they are inclined to cast blame on everyone but themselves, including God. “Am I at fault,” such a person might argue, “if God has not provided me the strength to withstand temptation? Am I to blame if I am relentlessly pursued by trials?

As both the common folk and the disciples around Him clung to the misguided belief that the kingdom of God would soon be manifest in a tangible way in Jerusalem, Christ presented a warning parable about a nobleman who “went into a far country to receive a kingdom for himself and return” (Luke 19:12-27). This narrative draws upon a well-known event familiar to the Jews, which recently occurred when Archelaus traveled to Rome after the passing of his father, Herod the Great, to secure his kingship from the emperor. Prior to his journey, he entrusted a mina of silver to his servants, instructing them to make use of it until his return.