C, Last Sunday of Church Year Proper 29 - Luke 19:11-27 "Faithful Banking: Repentance and Forgiveness"

Jesus telling the parable of the ten minas.  A mina was about three months’ wages for a labourer, weighed out in precious metal.   

Luke’s Gospel Jesus tells the parable in the home of Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector, after calling him down from a sycamore tree so he could stay at his house.  Because Zacchaeus was a “chief” of tax collectors, he was in charge of gathering taxes from Jews across a city or district.  He likely had other collectors working under him.  Not only was he a chief tax collector, he was rich,  but Zacchaeus was also a Jew.

Tax collectors were not liked by the Jews, because being tax farmers of fortune for Rome, they were seen to be traitors by their fellow Jews.  Roman authorities would have set quotas over areas that the collectors would have to fill. When Rome came calling for the quota, regardless of what you collected, it had to be paid in full. If you hadn’t collected enough, the difference would come out of your pocket.   So, you can understand that if this responsibility was placed upon you to fill the quota, adding extra would be in your best interest, so as not to be bankrupted by not collecting enough tax. 

But if you were the one paying the tax, seeing extra tax possibly banked by your local tax collector who then passes on his quota to the chief tax collector, who also has added an extra increment to his collection, the whole system would seem to stink from double-crossing scandalous pocket-lining crooks.  Therefore, a Jew collecting revenue for their Roman oppressors was viewed by the Jews as sinful and corrupt.  They were banking in badness, and it made these tax collectors rich.

Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector and he was rich.  Yet when Jesus went to pass by the tree Zacchaeus climbed up to see him, Jesus looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” (Luke 19:5 ESV) When the pharisees and scribes saw Jesus go and stay with Zacchaeus at his house it is reported, “when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” (Luke 19:7 ESV)

However, Zacchaeus, a little man in stature, stood and confesses before the Lord that he was giving half his goods to the poor and repaying anyone he defrauded fourfold.  Since he was a chief tax collector, this could have been anyone who was cheated by other tax collectors under him too. 

It’s interesting to note that Zacchaeus’ name, a Hebrew name, comes from a Hebrew word meaning pure or to be made pure, to be transparent or clean, or made such!  Notice Zacchaeus didn’t seek to justify himself or his wealth, which one might understand him doing, since if not banking enough taxes for the Romans, he would have had to find it himself.

Regardless of whether he was an “honest tax collector” or being made clean in his interaction with Jesus, Jesus says, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.” (Luke 19:9 ESV)

This then is the lens through which we can understand Jesus’ parable before us today, the last Sunday in the church year that calls each of us to see on whom or what we’re banking, knowing Jesus is returning when we die or in a special earth-ending event.

That’s why we hear Jesus tell the parable, “Because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately.” (Luke 19:11 ESV)

Therefore, Jesus says, “A nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return. Calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Engage in business until I come.’ But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to reign over us.’” (Luke 19:12–14 ESV)

The parable begins with the nobleman, his servants, and citizens who hated him.  In the house of Zacchaeus this is the chief tax collector, his collectors under him, and the Jews from whom they collected tax.  But Jesus calls him a nobleman now having been made pure, or being transparent through his confession to become a banker of honesty and truth.

Jesus here also speaks of himself having been sent by God the Father to receive a kingdom through the cross and then return to the right hand of the Father.  However, the Jews did not understand this and only those who received the Holy Spirit would understand and believe this after the fact.

Like Zacchaeus, whose name means pure and transparent, Jesus is the chief tax collector.  However, a monetary tax is not the commodity in which Jesus banks.  Jesus banks on repentance and forgiveness with sinners.  Jesus is the chief collector of human sin so he can bank it at the cross for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. 

The citizens in the parable are the Jewish pharisees and scribes, or anyone who does not see their own sin and refuses to repent or forgive those who have sinned against them.  Therefore, the parable is for us too.  Jesus is the chief collector, and he has collectors from those who operate under his authority.  But it’s not a collection of tax, rather it’s a collection of sin through repentance and forgiveness. Therefore, Jesus opposes those who are not banking on and building his kingdom through the call to repentance from sin and the faithful forgiveness of sin.

Jeremiah speaks of Jesus when he says, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.” (Jeremiah 23:5–6 ESV)

And of the shepherds who don’t bank in the righteous branch he says, “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” “You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 23:1–2 ESV)

In the parable, Jesus says of those citizens who refuse to bank in his righteousness of repentance and forgiveness, “But as for these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.” (Luke 19:27 ESV)

This is a warning to all pastors and parishioners who don’t bank on Jesus, the righteous branch, and his commodities of receiving the call to repent and the freedom of giving the forgiveness of sin.  

Paul, another type of Zacchaeus, a pharisee who was made transparent and pure by Jesus Christ, says to the church in Colossae, “we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:9–14 ESV)

Jesus the chief collector of sin banks on you receiving redemption, that is repentance and the forgiveness of sin.  Jesus is the banker of light and seeks to remove the darkness from within you. In his kingdom of light, your inheritance is light, the gift of being made pure through receiving repentance and faithfully forgiving sin.

How much has Jesus invested in you?  He wants to lodge with you today, to purify and cleanse you like Zacchaeus!  He calls you to engage in business with what he has given you.  Are you allowing the Holy Spirit to bring a return through repentance and forgiveness, tenfold, fivefold, or even a percentage above what you’ve been given?   

Like Zacchaeus, are you rich in the reception of repentance, transparent in truth, and faithful in forgiving others?  Or are you holding and hiding what God has given you?  If so, Jesus questions you through the parable, “Why then did you not put my money in the bank, and at my coming I might have collected it with interest?” Luke 19:23 (ESV)

God is calling us to be collectors under the chief tax collector, fulfilling his will on earth that he has fulfilled in heaven.  That is, he wants you to forgive others as he has forgiven you.  This is truly banking on Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of sins, a peaceful life today, and the joy of salvation on the last day. 

Banking on receiving repentance and faithfully forgiving continues the collection and nullification of sin, and it’s the only way one can have true peace in the Lord, now and forever, Amen.

Dear Heavenly Father, send the Holy Spirit to break our stony hearts so we welcome and receive your rewards of repentance and free faithful forgiveness.  When we don’t bank on these with each other, help us flee to the foot of the cross and demand of the Holy Spirit a heart to forgive as the Lord Jesus has forgiven us. Amen.