The King Who Defies Expectations - Luke 19:11-28

We're going to be looking at a passage in our series, Journey

to the Cross out of Luke, chapter 19, and kind of help us

Luke 19 · chapter mention

get our mind in the right place for that.

Years ago, when I was teaching full time at Boise Bible

College, the college decided to do a Good Friday service

themselves and with the students and all that.

And I was going to speak of that.

And so we were preparing for the Good Friday service as a family,

getting ready to go there. My son at the time was about 10

years old and my son is was the consummate party animal.

He loves very social, loves people loves, you know, would

get excited about any social opportunity he could.

And so we're going down to the college and he knew a bunch of

these college students and they were really gracious to this

young little 10 year old boy. And so he felt like he was

friends with all these students. So he was super excited to go to

the college for the Good Friday service, except that it was a

Good Friday service, but he didn't understand that as a 10

year old. And so we go to the college, we

go through the whole service, and as most Good Friday services

are, it was a rather solemn, somber type of service focusing

on the cross of Jesus. The service gets over and it's

very solemn, very quiet. And we're walking out of the

Chapel at the college and my 10 year old son looks at me very

distraught, very upset and says, Dad, why didn't you tell me it

was going to be like that? He, he was expecting a

celebration. He was expecting fun with his

friends. He was expecting all sorts of

joy and, you know, laughter and good stuff.

And it's a solemn, serious service.

Dad, why didn't you tell me it was going to be like that?

And I bring that up because we're going to look at a parable

today out of Luke chapter 19 that I think one of the major

Luke 19 · chapter mention

things it does is it forces you and I to check our expectations,

to wrestle with what we're expecting and what we're

expecting Jesus to be, what we're expecting that requires of

us. This parable forces us to think

about our expectations and it's a challenging parable.

It's hard to even totally get our mind around it, maybe

understand everything that Jesus is saying.

And it's going to force us to reflect on, I think, 2 key

questions once we get to the end of it, all right?

And so we are, if you recall, journey to the cross with Jesus.

We've been here from Luke Chapter 9 all the way till now.

Luke 9 · chapter mention

Next week we'll get to Palm Sunday.

But right before that, here we are, Luke 19 and here's what

happens. Luke 19 verse 11.

Luke 19:11

Now while they the crowd of people in the city of Jericho,

while they were listening to these things, Jesus went on to

tell them a parable. And here's the reason why,

because he was near Jerusalem and they were were all expecting

the Kingdom of God to appear immediately.

And Jesus is about to tell this parable and he's going to tell

it for that reason because he's near Jerusalem.

He's almost made, you know, on the final leg of the strip.

And they're expecting the Kingdom of God to appear.

And to a certain degree, they're right.

Correct. When Jesus goes to Jerusalem, is

the Kingdom of God going to appear?

Yes. In fact, all four of the gospels

present Jesus's crucifixion as his coronation day.

Today he's crowned his king, enthroned his king, right?

And so he's on his way to Jerusalem, and the Kingdom of

God is going to appear. Now, in order to hear the

parable he's about to tell them, we, we have to remember exactly

where we're at both in the story of Luke's gospel and where we're

at sort of in the historical setting of the day.

We can't hear this parable rightly without that.

All right, so little bit of back story, Jesus is in the city of

Jericho. He arrived in Jericho with the

previous day, hailed as king by a blind man named Bartimaeus.

Jesus, son of David, son of David, is a royal title.

Jesus, king, son of David, have mercy on me.

And Bartimaeus, who's blind, wants to see, and Jesus heals

him. Jesus then goes and spends the

night at Zacchaeus house. And we know that whole story.

It would have been an easier passage to preach today than the

one we've got, but we assigned ourselves hard passages for this

series. All right.

And so he, he spends the night at Zacchaeus's house.

And now it's the next morning and Jesus is leaving the city of

Jericho. He's about to make the 17 mile

climb up the hill out of Jericho to Jerusalem, where he'll get on

a donkey and ride into Jerusalem in what we call the triumphal

entry. That's where we're at in the

story. And so he's on his way to that

event, leaving the city of Jericho.

Now, where he's at in the city is incredibly important.

And if we don't know the historical background, we can't

hear the parable the way the very first audience heard it.

We're not the original audience of this parable, this crowd in

Jericho in the year 8030. They're, they're the, the

original audience and they knew some things that we probably

don't know. First of all, they knew that

it's been about 20 years since they had a king over the region

of Judah. The Last King was a guy named

Herod Archelaus. That was the Last King, one of

the sons of Herod the Great. And in that context, you just

have to understand how both Herod the Great and his son,

Herod Archelaus, how they became kings in about 40 BC.

Herod the Great, when he was wanting to be king over the

region of Judea, he travelled all the way to Rome, about 1400

miles away, and, you know, pitched his bid to be king to

Caesar. And Caesar appointed Herod the

greatest king. Well, years later when Herod the

Great died, now there's all sorts of unrest in his Kingdom

and various ones of the sons, as among other people are vying for

his Kingdom, and his Kingdom ends up getting split up between

several of his sons, one of whom was Herod Arkelaus.

And this particular Herod brutal guy.

In fact, before he actually got appointed officially king, he

executed 3000 Jews in Jerusalem at Passover because he didn't

like the unrest that had erupted in the wake of his father's

death. And Jesus is on his way to

Jerusalem at Passover. And Herod Arkelaus made the same

trip that his father had, the great had, and he traveled all

the way to Rome after putting down this unrest to put in his

name, put in his bid to become the king over Judea.

Well, here's what happens. He travels to Rome and the Jews

because of what had just happened with him killing so

many Jews. The Jews desperately did not

want this particular man to rule over them as king.

So they sent a delegation of 50 leading men from Jerusalem to

follow him to Rome. And and they countered his bid

with please don't make this Herod king over us.

We don't want him to rule over us.

Caesar decided to go for a compromise.

He made Herod the ruler over them, Herod Archelaus ruler over

them. He just didn't give him the

title king. And he comes back to Judea now

in power and with brutal might, puts down all opponents to his

throne. And he begins to rule for the

next decade over the Jews. Now that whole story is only 20

years old when Jesus tells this parable.

And as you listen to this parable, you cannot help but

hear some of the echoes of Herod's experience.

And what makes it even more compelling is the fact of where

Jesus is standing. He's on his way out of Jericho

to the hill where he's going to climb to Jerusalem.

And right at the base of that hill where that road begins to

make the climb, are three different palaces built by Herod

the Great and remodeled by Herod Arkelaus.

I put some pictures up so we could see just to get an idea.

This is an artist's rendition of one of the palaces, the palace

complexes of the Herods, right where Jesus standing when he

tells this parable. Next picture shows another one.

There were three of these giant palace complexes that had all

been built by the Herod's and had been recently remodeled by

Herod Arcadus, the Last King to rule over them.

Jesus is standing in the shadow of these palaces that are a

reminder of the Herods and a reminder of their power and a

reminder of the brutal way they ruled when Jesus tells this

parable. So with that in mind, let's read

the parable. It says this.

So Jesus, because they're all expecting the Kingdom of God to

appear, tells this parable. And he said a nobleman, somebody

with noble blood, went to a distant country to receive the

Kingdom for himself and then return.

Can you hear the echo of Herod the Great?

Can you hear the echo of Herod Arkelaus?

Everybody standing listening to this parable in the shadow of

these palaces, They would immediately been thrown back 20

years earlier when Herod Arkelaus made the very same trip

and he called ten of his own slaves and gave to each of them

10 Minas and said to them, do business with this money until I

come back. A A Mina was worth about 100

days wages, 4 to 4 1/2 months in our terms wages.

So he gives a Mina to 10 different servants and says

here, I'm trusting you to take care of my Kingdom, do some good

business with this money while I'm gone until I come back.

Verse 14. But his citizens hated him just

like the Jews hated Herod Arkelaus and sent a delegation

after him on his journey saying we don't want this man to be

king over us again. Do you hear the echo of the

story that just happened a couple decades earlier?

Everyone standing there listening to this parables

already starting to to think about the Herods and the Last

King, Herod Arkelaus. We don't want this king to reign

over us. When he returned after receiving

the Kingdom, he ordered that his slaves to whom he had given the

money be summoned so that he would learn how much money they

had made with the business they had conducted.

While he was gone, the first slave appeared and said, Master,

your miner has actually made 10 more miners.

And so the new founded king said to him, well done good servant,

well done good slave. Since you've been faithful in a

little thing, you will have authority over 10 cities.

This is the way the kingdoms of the world work, isn't it?

You do the bidding of the king and he rewards you with

positions of prominence and power and prestige.

That's just what happens. The second one came and said to

him, your mind has made 5 minus. He said to him also you will be

over 5 cities. But then another one came and he

said, master here's your mind aback I kept it tucked away in a

handkerchief in the cabinet while you were gone, for I was

afraid of you because you are a demanding man.

Literally, you're a harsh man, you're a difficult man, and you

take up what you don't deposit and you reap where you don't

sow. Both of those lines.

And we have records in, like Josephus, an early Jewish

writer, that take those same sorts of phrases as not

compliments. To be someone who takes money

that he didn't deposit or to reap what he doesn't sow.

That's not a compliment. And so this man is saying, look,

I I knew how strong you were and how harsh you were, and I knew

that you, you take stuff that doesn't belong to you.

So I just wanted to make sure I didn't make a mistake.

Here's your minor back. How does the king respond?

Well, he said to him, Well then from your own lips I will judge

you, you worthless slave. Now did you know that I'm a

demanding man, taking up what I don't lay down and reaping what

I don't sow? Well, why didn't you at least

put my money in the bank so I could have gotten it back with

interest? I mean, at least then I would

have gotten something for the mine I gave to you, right?

And and then he said to the other slaves who were present,

take the mine away from him who had the one, and give it to the

one who has 10 minus. They said to master he already

has 10 minus. He said, I tell you, everyone

who has more shall be given, but from the one who does not have,

even what he does have shall be taken away.

And then As for these, any enemies of mine who didn't want

me to be king, who came on the delegation and protested my

appointment as king. As for these enemies, all of

them who don't want me to be king, what should happen to

them? Go and slaughter them in my

presence. Sure you want a king.

That's how the story ends. Nice story.

Jesus, right? What are we supposed to do with

that? And when you read this parable,

the very next line after that is a reminder of where we're at.

And he then proceeded to make his way to Jerusalem.

Verse 28. He was going on ahead to

Jerusalem. And remember, they're all

expecting him to become king. What do we do with this parable?

Well, I think the first thing we need to to reflect on out of

this parable is this. It's a parable, as I said, that

forces us to examine our expectations.

And the first kind of expectation that forces us to

examine is what kind of king are you expecting?

Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem to be crowned king.

And they're all excited. All the crowds are excited.

I mean, he entered into Jericho just the day before being hailed

the son of David. And then he honored the title by

healing the blind man. I mean, he, the, the, he's been

making this journey and crowds are following him and he's

healing people and he's teaching and everyone knows it is it's,

it's the game-winning drive. We're on the way.

The Kingdom is coming and Jesus knew exactly what kind of images

of Kingdom pulsed through their hearts.

Not just the crowd's hearts, even some of his own disciples

hearts. Jesus has actually warned his

own disciples 3 times that are recorded in the Gospel of Luke.

What's going to happen when he gets to Jerusalem?

I'm going to get there. They're going to reject me,

they're going to beat me, they're going to kill me.

That's what's going to happen. And we keep getting told and his

disciples don't get it. Why don't they get it?

It's not because they're dumb. It's not because the words

aren't clear. They don't get it because it

doesn't fit their expectations. The paradigm they're working

office is the same paradigm everybody who loves kings and

kingdoms works off of in the Kingdom of man.

How does a king get ahead? How did Herod RK Loose get

ahead? By putting down unrest and

killing 3000 Jewish pilgrims who didn't want him to be king and

then going to Caesar and bidding and making promises so they can

begin positions of power and authority.

That's the way it works in the Kingdom of man.

This is what kings do. They they grant favors to people

who do their bidding. They manipulate and get their

own way with power and abuse of power.

That's the way the kingdoms of man work.

And so Jesus on his way to Jerusalem with this crowd around

him, and they're all so stoked, finally the Kingdom of God is

going to come. And Jesus tells the parable to

say, hold on, hold on, push pause.

What kind of Kingdom are you picturing?

What kind of king do you think I am?

And their expectation for a king and a Kingdom that was in their

mind so nationalistic, all of a sudden Judea and Israel is going

to become the greatest Kingdom on earth.

And the disciples they're asking vying for position, James and

John, can we have the chief seats right and left, Right.

We, we all want that. That's so often the way we too

even think. We still think in terms of the

Kingdom of man, worldly power, domination, destroy your

enemies, brutalize them however we can, get ahead.

That's so often the way we too think, so often what we want.

I mean, think of maybe a superhero movie.

How great of a movie would it be if the superhero shows up in the

climactic scene and gets crushed and smashed by all the bad guys?

The end credits roll, walk out. We don't want that kind of

superhero. Think of a a western where the

the the supposed hero in the story walks into the town and

rides in with his posse and and then they all get shot and

killed and all lay dead. Credits roll and that's the end

of it. It's not what we want.

It's not the way we expect kingdoms to work, right?

The good guys smash the bad guys.

That's just the way the Kingdom of man works.

And the reality is for all of us that when we think about that,

we have that kind of configuration in our mind.

And we want a king who's going to bring the golden age in as we

expected, as we picture it. Whatever kind of king it is,

whatever kind of ruler it is, we're always looking for the guy

to put in power, to use his power to bring the golden age as

we picture it. And that's exactly what the

crowd in Jericho was picturing. For Jesus, the Kingdom of God is

about to come. He's going to ride into

Jerusalem. He's going to obliterate the

Romans. He's going to kick out our

enemies. We'll rise to power and it'll be

us again, and we will be great again.

So that's the way the Kingdom of man works.

That's the way we want it to work.

We don't have another configuration in our mind for

how it works. And yet for Jesus, he's going to

ride into Jerusalem. That's going to look a little

bit different. The original audience hearing

this parable had no idea what was going to happen in

Jerusalem. They didn't know what was going

to happen. They just, they just saw the

miracle powers and they just were pulsing with excitement

that finally, maybe once and for all, we will be freed and we

will be able to be the Kingdom that God wants us to be again.

And they were picturing a king just like all the other kings of

the world, only on their side. That's what they were expecting.

That's what they were looking forward to.

But Jesus is going to ride into Jerusalem and I'll look a whole

lot different. How many of you are familiar

with the Chronicles of Narnia series?

Famous scene in Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe?

We put it up here on the screen and tell me what's happening in

this scene. Aslan the Great Lion has handed

himself over to the White Witch and her evil hordes, and he's

being executed on the stone table, right?

And from the shadows, Susan and Lucy watch as she brings down

the knife and she kills Aslan. And in the story of the Lion,

the Witch and the Wardrobe, this is the way that the the White

Witch and the evil powers are going to be defeated.

This is the only way. Everyone is preparing for

battle. They're all preparing for war.

But Aslan hands himself over and is killed, and that's how the

White Witch is defeated. The Bible has its own sort of

portrayal of the same sort of thing, a picture of the way it

happened for Jesus in the Book of Revelation.

In Revelation chapter 4, John is caught up into the throne room

Revelation 4 · chapter mention

of heaven. He sees God sitting on his

throne, the angels praising God around him, and he's holding a

scroll in his right hand. And the scroll has seven seals

on it. And as we turn the page from

chapter 4 to chapter 5 of the Book of Revelation, there's God

holding this scroll that seems to represent the book of

history. And who can reign over all of

history. And, and no one in all of heaven

or on earth is found that can open the scroll.

There's no king to rule on God's behalf.

And John begins to weep and to cry in Revelation chapter 5.

Revelation 5 · chapter mention

And then Revelation 5, verse five, one of the elders said to

me, said to John, stop weeping. Behold the lion from the tribe

of Judah, the root of David. Again, if you're not familiar

with your Bible, those are Old Testament titles for the

Messiah, the king, the anointed one.

This is a king scene. Who is the king?

The lion from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has

overcome so as to be able to open the scroll in its seven

seals. And then verse 6, as John says.

And then I saw between the throne where the four living

creatures were, and the elders, not a lion, majestic, powerful,

great, conquering. I didn't see a lion.

What did I see? I saw a lamb standing as if

slaughtered. I saw a lamb standing with its

throat cut and blood down its chest slaughtered, having 7

horns and seven eyes which represent the seven spirits of

God sent out into all the earth. And then we jumped down to verse

9 and all the heavenly hosts sang a new song saying worthy

are you to take the scroll as king and rule over all things,

break its seals. Why?

Because you were slaughter and you purchased people for God

with your own blood from every language, tribe, people, and

nation. How did Jesus become worthy to

reign as king? By riding in on a War Horse and

obliterating his enemies like the nobleman in the story.

Is that how he became king? How did he become worthy to open

the scroll? By using power and dominating so

that everyone would hail him as king.

Is that how he became king? He became a lamb slaughtered to

death. That's why he's worthy to reign.

And that's not very kingly stuff.

We don't like our kings to get slaughtered.

We like our kings to be powerful enough to do the slaughtering.

But Jesus rides into Jerusalem after this parable, rides down

the hill, not on a War Horse, as we'll see next week, but on a

donkey, gentle and lowly of heart, and stops on the hill and

looks over Jerusalem and weeps for Jerusalem.

No crushing, no dominating, weeping for them.

And then hands himself over to his enemies, for his enemies to

smash him and crush him. Well, that doesn't feel very

victorious, that doesn't feel very great or awesome, does it?

We don't like those kinds of heroes, do we?

And yet all four gospels proclaim in their own way,

that's how Jesus became king. And Revelation chapter 5 says

Revelation 5 · chapter mention

that's what made him a worthy king.

That's how the Kingdom of God advances that way.

So what kind of king and Kingdom are we expecting when we come to

Jesus, When we step in to align ourselves with Jesus, what kind

of Kingdom do we want and are we looking forward to?

That's the first question. But then there's the follow up

question. And the follow up question is,

so if that's the way the Kingdom of God came, if that's the way

Jesus conquered, then what would it look like to be faithful to

this king? Because kings always reward

faithfulness, don't they? They always reward those who are

faithful to them, just like the noble men in the story.

So what does it look like to be faithful to this particular kind

of king? You know, we, we don't have a

whole lot of confidence in power and weakness, do we?

And yet the cross, Jesus going and being executed is not just

like an optional extra in the story of Christianity.

It's not even just a feature like on the car.

It's like baked into the whole story and all throughout the

gospel, all throughout the the letters of the New Testament,

this is baked in power and weakness, taking up your cross

and following me, laying down your life for the sake of

others. It's woven into the whole story

of what it means to step into the Kingdom and to follow Jesus.

So what does it look like to be faithful to this kind of king?

The kind of king who doesn't destroy his enemies, what loves

them to death? What does it look like to be

faithful to him? But what it means, what it looks

like is it looks like we pattern our life the same way.

Self sacrifice rather than serving ourself, self giving

rather than self getting where we try to get everything our way

and get what we want and make everyone serve us.

It looks like we empty ourselves for the sake of others, just

like Jesus emptied himself for our sake.

That's what it looks like to be faithful and that you see that

all throughout the New Testament.

For example, in all our relationships in the family of

God between our fellow believers.

What's the pattern? The pattern is consider others

more important than yourself. Just as Jesus emptied himself

and went to the cross. Philippians chapter 2 he emptied

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

himself he didn't serve himself he didn't advance himself he

didn't promote himself he didn't have to get his own way.

He poured himself out for others.

What would it look like for you and for me to be the kind of

people who are faithful to this kind of king so that we pour

ourselves out for others? Or you see it in marriage, in

the family, in the New Testament.

Husbands, love your wives. How?

As Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

Husbands love your wives the same way.

Don't serve yourself. Don't expect your wife to cater

to your whims and your wishes, right?

You pour yourself out for her. You lay down your life for her.

You seek her best interest, not what you want, but what's good

for her. You see it with family.

We had all these families on and these kids, right?

What is it going to mean to raise your kids in the Lord?

Well, I'll tell you one of the things it means.

Fathers, don't be harsh with your kids and embitter them.

Again, same context as the one about marriage, right?

Parents, don't snap, don't demean, don't belittle, right?

Be gentle, be self emptying and self giving.

That's what it means to be faithful to this kind of king in

all the little choices, in our own little sphere of influence,

our own little Kingdom if you will, where Jesus has made us a

viceroy of his Kingdom as little kings and Queens on his behalf.

What does it look like to be faithful to Him?

Looks like we walk the same way He walked.

We lay down our life for others like he laid down our life for

us. You even see that in the

teaching of Jesus with regard to difficult people and people who

oppose the way of Jesus. Love your enemies and pray for

those who want to harm you. This is the way of the King.

This is the way of the King. You want to be faithful to King

Jesus? We sang all these songs already

with Thrones and kingdoms and all hail King Jesus.

You want to actually all hail King Jesus?

Then walk the way of the King. Get up tomorrow morning.

Begin the day with a prayer. Lord Jesus, would you show me

and give me the grace to lay down my life for the people you

bring my way today, for my wife, for my husband, for my kids, for

my neighbors, for my coworkers. Teach me to serve others the way

you served me. Begin the day with a prayer.

Lord Jesus, show me where in my own heart the dark powers of

selfishness and self-serving still reside and by yourself

sacrifice change me and to be a self giving self sacrificial

kind of person. What does it look like to be

faithful to King Jesus? Well, it looks like it looks

like we follow one. Who says you want to see the

evidence of my victory? Look at my hands, look at my

feet, look at the the spear scar in my side and do the same.

Do the same. And if you do that, someday

Jesus himself will say to you, Well done, good and faithful

servant, enter into your rest. Thanks for joining us today.

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