The story of the 10 pounds

A nobleman was going away to become ruler. While he was gone, he entrusts money to his slaves. He evaluates their effort when he is back, and he holds them accountable.

He doesn’t have patience for excuses. Everyone started with something. Now what do they have to show for it?

Let us not waste opportunity to use the gifts we have.

Jesus just said in v10 that his purpose was to seek out and save the lost. We imitate him.

So the bigger message in the story seems to be similar to not putting our light under a basket. Be transformed, be a witness, produce fruit, invest for more gain… Is it reasonable to say all those are the same message?

The people who hated him and didn’t want him to rule (v14) were slaughtered in his presence (v27) — what to make of that? There are consequences to being actively opposed to the authority?

In the hierarchy, best is to use what we’re given to produce more.
Second is to be paralyzed with fear and lack of confidence.
Last is to oppose. Def don’t want to be on the other side of that wrath.

That’s the image of God I think that gets most misrepresented and misunderstood: how to balance the love that God is with the destruction and judgement that God sanctions