Parable of the Minas
Loudon, March 12
and the smallness of the amount corresponds to what is so carefully emphasized in our parable, viz., the relation of faithfulness in the least to its great recompense (ver. 17)
The story was founded on fact. At the death of Herod the Great, his son Archelaus had (like the nobleman) to undertake a long journey ‘to receive kingly power’ (19:12). He could not be king in Judea until his claims had been ratified by the imperial government in Rome. And there was a deputation of his subjects, like the one in 19:14, which went to Rome to lodge a petition against his claims; the reason in his case was a deserved unpopularity.
Is it a matter for debate whether the coming of the kingdom is present or future? No, for it is clearly both, it different senses: it is present (as in 17:20–21) from the first coming of Jesus onwards; it is yet ‘to appear’ in its fullness (19:11), and will do so only at his second coming.