NOTES for Luk 19:12-28
Experience shows that this parable is very difficult even for established Christians. The image of the king, as described in the parable, clearly points, according to the messianic biblical symbolism already familiar to us, to the Most High Judge, and the situation itself is very much like the Last Judgment. But this image itself can evoke nothing but rejection, revulsion, and animal fear: cruel, unloved by the people, greedy... and he confirms all this by his own words and deeds. But is this really so? What is this image in reality, who is its true prototype, and if it is only an image, on whose consciousness is it imprinted?
Let us pay attention to the words: "By your own mouth I will judge you, wicked servant." We must dwell on this for a long time in order to read correctly the words that follow: "You knew that I was a harsh man, taking what I did not deposit, and reaping what I did not sow." When we read these words at an ordinary pace, we usually see in them only confirmation of what we already see: that this king is greedy, that his people do not love him, that he orders those who disagree with him to be killed before his face. All of this fits into one image and hardens in the mind, while the words "by your own mouth" remain truly unnoticed. But if we listen to them, the picture instantly changes radically. This is only one negligent servant's idea of the king, and an idea that did not help him do anything good.
People will say to us: what, then, about the idea held by all the "citizens" who sent an embassy and did not want to have such a king? But that too is only their idea. And finally: but he himself says, "slay them before me." Yet let us think: perhaps this is only an indication of the well-known words of the psalm: The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet (Ps. 109:1), or of the words of another psalm: "I have set My King on Zion, My holy mountain; I will declare the decree: the Lord said to Me, You are My Son; today I have begotten You; ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance and the ends of the earth for Your possession; You shall strike them with a rod of iron; You shall shatter them like a potter's vessel" (Ps. 2:6-9)? Then this is indeed only an indication of the day of Judgment.
In fact, there is a very important point here. What often undermines our faith, what makes us suffer in confusion and doubt? Often we see people who, it would appear, should know God better than anyone saying something that sounds like complete nonsense to us. And this troubles us. But we must not forget that this is only their idea about Him, although at times it appears to us, as when reading this parable, to correspond so obviously to reality. Finally, let us note that we never learn the idea about the king held by some of the people mentioned in the parable. The idea held by the people who simply took the money and earned more. What do they think about the king? We do not know.