Our Gospel lesson (Luke 19: 11-28) is not one of our most familiar or intuitively obvious of Jesus' parables.

Jesus is in Jericho, at the home of Zacchaeus, the short tax collector in the tree. He is there with friends of Zacchaeus and Jesus' own disciples, with probably some spies of the Jewish leaders lurking about outside the windows. He has just announced that salvation has come to the household of Zacchaeus, because he has repented and turned to this traveling Messiah for forgiveness. Jesus has just said (19: 10) "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save those who are lost".

Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem, to bear on Himself the sins of the world. Crowds of people were hanging on his words. But His disciples misunderstand his purpose for being on earth, again. They know He is on his way to Jerusalem, they believe He is the Messiah who will empower the Jews and throw out the hated Romans forever. They think that their three-year trek with this itinerant preacher is about to pay off -- bigtime. The Messianic Kingdom of God is about to appear at once. But Jesus, in His typical style, corrects them, teaches them with a story. I'd like to retell this story to you. Jesus told it primarily from the viewpoint the nobleman who was appointed King. That was His viewpoint. Jesus was the King in the story. I'd like to retell the story from the viewpoint of one of the ten servants, telling it to Americans today.

"I was blessed to be one of the many servants of the most wonderful of aristocrats. I know, I know, you Americans prize your freedom so highly that it's hard to imagine appreciating being a servant. But for this man, being a servant was better than being free in my culture. For this man, so kind, so giving, that it was better than being free. He was so trustworthy, and so compassionate. He was a nobleman of princely birth, and when He came to be 30 years old, He knew it was time to be crowned King. We all assumed that He would simply crown Himself King. It was His right to do so.

But He said "no." While he could have simply crowned Himself King and no one could have challenged his right, he knew that the proper way to the throne was to take a dangerous trip to a distant country and be crowned by the emperor his father. Then he would return to us.

We didn't want him to leave. And we wanted to go with him if he left. We knew that he had enemies in this country, evil men who wanted to make themselves rulers of the land. It never made any earthly sense why these evil men despised him so, but they spent their lives lying about him and undermining his reputation. They even wanted to kill him. Assassination was always a threat, especially on his trip to the emperor.

But before he left he called 10 of us together and gave each of us a gift of about $10,000 from his special kingdom treasury. Now don't get me wrong. This wasn't our meal money to use while he was gone. He left us plenty of other cash and food to live on while he was gone. He was generous to a fault. As I said, living as his servant was better than being free. He gave us great freedom, but nurtured us like a good father nurtures a child. He gave us this special $10,000 each, especially earmarked from his kingdom treasury, and told us to invest it for him, to actively do business with that money.

His trip away was long, years, much longer than we thought it would be when he left. We worried about his return at times, but were confident that he would return as he said. Of the 10 of us, we each invested his generous gift in different ways, all except for one who put it in a safety deposit box and left it there. All the rest of us had varying returns on our investment. A few put theirs into just the right thing at just the right time, and got huge returns on their gift. But all of us were amazed at how our gifts multiplied for our master. Some doubled, some tripled, some earned 5 and 10 fold.

But the other servant forgot how kind and loving our noble master was, even though we tried to remind him. He first put it into a safety deposit box, saying that he would decide later where to invest it. But he didn't. He assumed that when our master returned he would punish anyone who had invested badly, so he simply socked it away, not even looking for any safe interest.

While our master was away, we spoke highly of him. We encouraged others to remember how wonderful and giving he was. He had given gifts to many, not just us 10. He had even given gifts to his enemies. We continued to praise his name before the people, and many of them became his friends and followers too. Many saw the specialness of his gifts and wanted to invest along with us. But there was always a nasty, violent group who threatened us. They said: "He'll never return. He wasn't supposed to be king. Kings don't act like him. He's dead. We saw to that."

But they were wrong. Our master did return. And when he returned home he was fully the king, co-emperor with his father. He came in great power, with thousands of soldiers at his beck and call. And those who were most surprised were his enemies. You see, they thought they really had killed him. There were authoritative reports of his death. But he lived on, miraculously. They ignored the authoritative reports of his miraculous survival. They ignored their opportunities to change their minds and embrace him as their king. They insisted on fighting against his kingship to the bitter end, when he had no other legal choice but to pronounce a death penalty against them.

Our master came with such glory that we servants thought he would be too busy to even remember us. But we were wrong. Ever the compassionate lord and master, he called us together and asked about our gifts and our investments. In each case he amazed us again with his generosity. You see, our gifts and investments had been a loving test, to help determine how he would reward us at his return. Our fellow servant who feared our lord and simply put his gift in a safety deposit box felt our master's wrath and disappointment. If only he had shown only a little faithfulness and gotten back even 10% on a safe investment, our king would have been pleased. For those whose investment had doubled, he put them in charge of two large cities. We who had been simple servants were now mayors and responsible over the cities of his kingdom, some over two, some five, some ten cities. We hadn't earned these posts. We didn't deserve them. Only because of his gifts were we able to show our faithfulness to him and receive his faithfulness back to us. Here ends the retelling of the parable.

Our Lord Jesus Christ has been made king. He rode into Jerusalem at the beginning of his dangerous journey as a humble king, and his first throne became the cross. Through that cross he did seek and save the lost servants of this world, you and me and all who follow him. He did go away to be appointed king over the Kingdom of God, but before he went he gave each of us generous gifts from his special kingdom treasury: His word and his sacraments. While words and water and bread and wine don't look all that special, these gifts bring us forgiveness and new life. These gifts were not purchased with silver or gold, but with his holy and precious blood, and innocent suffering and death (Small Catechism). He has told each of us to invest those gifts, to share them with others, to tell of his loving kingship. Our sinful nature often looks at these gifts as insufficient to earn any interest. But they are powerful, they will grow when they are planted. Our temptation is rarely to reject him and become his enemy. But our temptation is to forget his love and acceptance, to ignore the wondrous gifts he has given to us. When we squirrel them away into a safety deposit box, when his word stays on our bookshelves and coffee tables but not in our ears, eyes and hearts, then we forget how much he loves and cares for us. When we forget our Baptisms or neglect the Lord's Supper, we minimize the life-giving power that his gifts can have when invested in others. But when we ponder his Word, remember our Baptisms and touch his body and blood, his gifts to us grow and grow Our loving Lord is returning, is coming again in power and might. We can lift up our heads and look forward to his return. At that time he will look at how we have invested his gifts, and he will reward us for faithfulness. We never earn those rewards. The grace of his love and word and forgiveness are always his gifts to us. Our great King showers blessings on us, earthly and eternal because of his marvelous love.

The grace and peace, and gifts of Word and Sacrament from our Lord Jesus Christ be with us always. Amen.