We first saw the blind man’s faith and his actions of faith. We also saw why Jesus treated Jews and Gentiles differently and allowed the healed blind man to follow Him. Secondly, we also saw the faith of Zaccheus the chief tax collector and his behavior due to faith. We saw how happy he was when Jesus forgave his sins, but with an action that was possible to put him on the verge of bankruptcy. Third, from the parable of the ten slaves, we see a principle of the kingdom of heaven: to the one who gives much, much will be required, but not unreasonably much, and to everyone who has, more will be given; to those who do not have, even to him all will be taken away. This parable is a criterion for judgment of everyone when Jesus returns. When He returns, there will be judgment from the great white throne. Those who believe in Him will be judged including this criterion. Those who do not believe in Him will be put in the lake of fire.
1. Healing the blind man in Jericho
“As Jesus was approaching Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the road begging. Now hearing a crowd going by, he began to inquire what this was. They told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. And he called out, saying, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Those who led the way were sternly telling him to be quiet; but he kept crying out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” And Jesus stopped and commanded that he be brought to Him; and when he came near, He questioned him, “What do you want Me to do for you?” And he said, “Lord, I want to regain my sight!” And Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and began following Him, glorifying God; and when all the people saw it, they gave praise to God.”(Luke 18:35-43)
First of all, we saw that the blind man had a good amount of faith. His faith was manifested in his behavior, and he was humble because he called out, saying, “…have mercy on me!” His faith can also be seen from the fact that Jesus said, “Your faith has saved you.” Jesus had mercy on him, healed his blindness, and he could see immediately! In other places in the Gospels, we can see that Jesus would use different miracles to heal the blind man (for example, see John 9:1-7). He also followed Jesus and gave glory to God. Because it was in Jericho, the blind man should be a Jew, so Jesus allowed the healed blind man to follow Him. But for the Gentiles living in the Decapolis, we have shared before, “And He (Jesus) did not let him, but He said to him, “Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you.” And he went away and began to proclaim in Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.”(Mark 5:19-20) Why did Jesus deal with it in such a different way? Because Jesus said, “…I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matthew 15:24) So we see that He did indeed do this.
2. Zaccheus, the chief tax collector of Jericho
“He entered Jericho and was passing through. And there was a man called by the name of Zaccheus; he was a chief tax collector and he was rich. Zaccheus was trying to see who Jesus was, and was unable because of the crowd, for he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for He was about to pass through that way. When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, “Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” And he hurried and came down and received Him gladly. When they saw it, they all began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.””(Luke 19:1-10)
Tax collectors were hated by the Jews at that time, but we have seen the faith of Zaccheus, the chief tax collector, and what he did afterwards can prove this. His action out of faith was shown by his climbing a sycamore tree. Jesus looked up and saw him and went to stay in his house. What we can ask is: did Jesus just look up, or were there some other reasons? In the book of Ruth, we see that God used coincidence to accomplish His will. It should be noted that whether it is coincidence or God’s will, we cannot equate it. God often use coincidences to accomplish His goal, but not all coincidences come from God. Here, I believe that judging from the consistency of the Bible, Jesus simply obeyed the will of God because He was like this throughout his life. As the scripture says, “…I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. …”(John 14:31) “I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.”(John 5:30)
You see how happy Zacchaeus was that Jesus forgave his sins and allowed salvation to come to him. His faith was demonstrated in his actions, which probably put him on the verge of bankruptcy, because he said, “half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.”(Luke 19:8) What he did obviously exceeds the tithe. Here we can also see that he was a sinner who defrauded others in the past. In the era of the New Testament, it is necessary to give willingly, like the widow’s two small coins, not like the Pharisees who only obeyed the Law. If giving willingly, even if they could not reach tithe because of their own needs, such contribution is also received well by God. God will not accept a tithe that is forced but only in compliance with the Law.
Jesus made it very clear, “…Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Luke 19:9-10) We know, by faith are men made heirs, “…so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.”(Romans 4:16) “…For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: “through Isaac your descendants will be named.””(Romans 9:6-7) “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.”(Romans 2:28-29)
3. The parable of the ten slaves
“While they were listening to these things, Jesus went on to tell a parable, because He was near Jerusalem, and they supposed that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately. So He said, “A nobleman went to a distant country to receive a kingdom for himself, and then return. And he called ten of his slaves, and gave them ten minas and said to them, ‘Do business with this until I come back.’ But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to reign over us.’ When he returned, after receiving the kingdom, he ordered that these slaves, to whom he had given the money, be called to him so that he might know what business they had done. The first appeared, saying, ‘Master, your mina has made ten minas more.’ And he said to him, ‘Well done, good slave, because you have been faithful in a very little thing, you are to be in authority over ten cities.’ The second came, saying, ‘Your mina, master, has made five minas.’ And he said to him also, ‘And you are to be over five cities.’ Another came, saying, ‘Master, here is your mina, which I kept put away in a handkerchief; for I was afraid of you, because you are an exacting man; you take up what you did not lay down and reap what you did not sow.’ He said to him, ‘By your own words I will judge you, you worthless 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? Then why did you not put my money in the bank, and having come, I would have collected it with interest?’ Then he said to the bystanders, ‘Take the mina away from him and give it to the one who has the ten minas.’ And they said to him, ‘Master, he has ten minas already.’ I tell you that to everyone who has, more shall be given, but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. But these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them in my presence.””(Luke 19:11-27)
This is the same principle as what is said in the Gospel of Matthew, “For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey. …Now after a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. “The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have gained five more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ …“And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.’ …Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.’ “For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”(Matthew 25:14-30) This time, each person was given money according to his ability. However, we can see the more was given to the one, the more would that one be asked for.
In the Gospel of Luke, it says clearly that this is what happened near Jerusalem. Everyone was given the same one mina. The slave who had 10 minas is rewarded with the authority over ten cities. For the one with the one mina, even the one mina will be taken away, and given to him who already has ten. The concept of “the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away” is demonstrated clearly by the slave who had only one mina. The master was not just an exacting person. This can be seen by how he rewarded the person who had ten minas. But that slave only saw that side. Even so, he would not hand over the money to the bank, so that he could at least get his principal and interest back. He was really a wicked, lazy slave. No wonder his master wanted to condemn him with his mouth. By this way, he was really weeping and gnashing of teeth. In another scripture it says, “Again I (Jesus) say to you: Many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the people of this nation will be Go out into darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”(Matthew 8:11-12)
Jesus made it very clear that this parable was given because “…they supposed that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately.”(Luke 19:11) So He was talking about a criterion for the judgment of everyone when He comes again. First of all, what we see is a principle of the kingdom of heaven. To the one who has given much, much will be required, but not to ask for much unreasonably. It is like the verse, “I tell you that to everyone who has, more shall be given, but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away.”(Luke 19:26) As for the enemies who deny Jesus as Lord, their names will not be in the book of life. In the great white judgment of Revelation, “…if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”(Revelation 20:15) We do not want to be those who weep and gnash the teeth. We want to be justified by faith, knowing that hearing is not as good as doing the word (see James 1:22-24), and have deeds of faith.
(Verses refer to those in NASB unless otherwise specified.)
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