The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: S. Luke
Ver. 11. — And as they heard these things. Christ had made frequent mention of His kingdom, and had promised it to His followers. The Apostles hoped, therefore, that it would be brought to pass now, as He was going to Jerusalem, and that they as His friends would share in it, and reign with Him among the first. The fame and glory of Christ, which had shone forth with so much brightness and from His recent miracles, and especially, the stupendous conversion of Zacchaeus, increased this hope, from which, as Jesus was entering Jerusalem a little after, the Apostles set Him upon an ass, and cried to the same multitude, as if He were the Messiah and the King, about to be inaugurated in Jerusalem, “Blessed is the kingdom of our father David which cometh” — “Blessed be the King who cometh in the name of the Lord.” Ver. 38. Christ, therefore, to disabuse them of this opinion, spoke the following parable. He signified that He must first be put to death by the Jews, and rule by faith throughout the whole world.
Ver. 12. — He said therefore, A certain nobleman. Syriac, “The son of a great stock.” This nobleman is Christ in His human nature. For as S. Basil says in the Catena, Christ is noble not only in His Godhead, but also in His human nature, for He is of the seed of David, according to that which Daniel saw and heard. “ He gave to Him power, and honour, and a kingdom.” Eusebius adds, on this, “ He does not call Himself a king as yet, because in His first coming He did not discharge the duties of a king.” For although this kingdom was due to Christ from the beginning, because of His Hypostatical Union with the Word, yet He willed to merit it only by His passion and death on the Cross, and not to enter upon the possession of it till after His resurrection, according to the words in chap, xxiv. 26. Christ therefore went into a far country when, on the fortieth day from His death and resurrection, He went up into heaven, where He entered upon His kingdom, that He might thus be the King of the whole world ; and rule alike upon earth and in heaven. So Theophylact, Titus, Euthymius, and others. Christ therefore shall return from heaven to earth on the day of judgment, firstly, to show His kingdom visibly to all men ; secondly, to take final judgment, as well on His elect as on the reprobate, and those who are unbelieving and disobedient ; thirdly, to bring His elect into His heavenly kingdom, and make them partakers of His glory, as the Angels on His ascension declared to the Apostles, Acts i. 11. Christ shall then return, that He may unite the kingdom of earth to the kingdom of heaven, and show Himself the Lord of earth and heaven, and remove His faithful from earth to His kingdom in heaven.
Ver. 13. — And he called, &c. That you may increase my gain and your own. “ Ten,” that is all his servants, for he gave to each man a mna as appears from what follows. Christ would have us continually traffic with the “mnas,” that is His talents, gifts, graces, which He has given us, that we may assiduously increase our gain of works and merits. He forbids us therefore to be idle ; so that our whole life ought not to be one of ease, but of continual trading in spiritual gain, which, says S. Gregory to Dominicus (lib. 1 Ep . 39), “ we truly carry on, if by our lives and words we bring profit to the souls of our neighbours ; if by preaching the joys of heaven we strengthen the feeble in the love of things heavenly ; if we bow down the bold and haughty by inflexibly proclaiming the punishments of Gehenna : if we spare no man for Truth’s sake : if, given up to heavenly friendships, we fear no human enmity.” He adds, “ But I fear the burthen of my weakness for this work. I see Him when He has received His kingdom, returning and bringing me to account, and with what heart shall I endure His presence, to whom, in return for the work I have undertaken, I bring no gain of souls, or almost none?” This he says. As much more humble, so much greater.
Ver. 14. — But his citizens hated him , and sent . The Syriac, “The sons of his state:” The scribes and Jews, that is, hated Jesus, because He taxed them with their vices, and they sent an embassage after Him, saying, “we will not have this man (Jesus, who was poor, of small account, and the son of a carpenter) to rule over us.” This was fulfilled after the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven when they sent Saul to Damascus to take all who believed in Christ, and root out His faith, name, and kingdom. The same took place when the same men shut up S. Peter and the Apostles in prison, and scourged them, and when they stoned S. Stephen, and slew S. James, and persecuted the rest of the Christians, and still persecute them.
Ver. 15. — And it came to pass . The Syriac and Arabic, “And when He had received the kingdom and returned.” “ This part of the parable,” says Euthymius, “is about the second advent, when He shall return with great power and glory, and sit upon the throne of His glory, for He shall then take account and render to every man according to his work.” So S. Augustine, Theophylact, Bede, and others. I have explained the rest, Matt xxv. 19.
Ver. 16. — Thy pound hath , &c. As one seed of wheat sown in a field, by its power sucks up juice from the earth, and converts it into itself, and produces ten, nay, thirty and sixty seeds and grains of wheat. The Arabic has, “Thy mna has gained ten.” He did not say, “ I have gained,” but, “ thy mna,” because, granted that the freedom and co-operation of our wills concur to a good work, still, the whole working is of divine grace, and not of our will, for the work only has it from our will that it is free ; but it has it from grace, that it is supernatural, pleasing to God, and meritorious.
Ver. 17. — And he said unto him , Well . That is, for one mna thou shalt receive a thousand and a thousand, nay the government of one Province or Decapolis, ten cities or more. That is, for a little labour and care on earth thou shalt receive great, nay, the very greatest ineffable rewards in heaven, and shalt especially precede those on whom thou hast expended the gifts of God on earth, and whom thou hast converted to Christ or hast moved to His faith and goodness. S. Ambrose gives the reason : “ As the angels are preferred to be first, so are they also who have merited the life of angels.”
And Bede more concisely : “ Be it so that thou receivest power over ten cities, that is, thou shalt have more abundant happiness and honour in the heavens, and shalt be glorified above, for all and by all to whom thou hast been a fellow-worker in their salvation. For even after the judgment there will be an order of dignity, and fitting mutual honour among the blessed.” Hence the words of the Apostle, 1 Thess. ii. 19.
Ver. 18. — And the second came, saying. Here is shown the use of free will, and how much is effected by its strenuous co-operation with grace. For the first servant by this means gained ten mnas from one, but this one, by less diligence and labour from one, gained only five.
Ver. 19. — And he said, &c. “ According to the measure of each one’s diligence,” says Euthymius, “ are honour and reward measured out to him.”
Ver. 20. — And another came , saying . Lord, behold, here is thy pound. “ I give it back to thee, whole, but without gain or increase.” “ To tie up money in a napkin,” says Bede, “ is to hide our gifts under the idleness of a lifeless torpor.”
Ver. 27. — But those mine enemies (the Jews, His citizens, who would not have Him to reign over them) bring them hither — to my Tribunal, in the valley of Jehosaphat and Jerusalem — and kill them before Me? In the Greek, “ Kill them before my face.” Our Lord alludes to those victorious kings who slew and destroyed their conquered rebels. By this destruction Christ signifies the extreme judgment of the Jews and His other enemies, and their own condemnation to eternal death in Gehenna, and that a living and vital death, where they will be perpetually tormented by death-dealing flames, and yet will never die. Our Lord alludes to Titus, who slaughtered the conquered Jews. He describes precisely to the letter the condemnation of the Jews, and the Gehenna which He has appointed for them when He shall return from heaven to judge and condemn them and the reprobate.
Ver. 28. — And when He had thus spoken. He went. From Jericho and the house of Zacchaeus, going up to Jerusalem, that He might here begin to fulfil His own words as to His Passion, Cross, Death, consequent Resurrection, Kingdom, Glory, and Judgment. He preceded the Apostles in this journey, which they abhorred, as their Leader and Captain, to show them that He could go cheerfully to death, nay even as if He were about to provoke death to a conflict : for He was about, through death, to go to a far distant country, namely to heaven, to possess a celestial and eternal kingdom.