Surprisingly, the nobleman doesn’t deny anything the wicked servant said about him. However, during his public ministry, Jesus often didn’t deny what others accused him of doing or saying. He simply addressed their argument from a different vantage point. In the parable the nobleman is accused of being an austere (G840) man. The Greek word is used only in Luke 19:21-22. It is often used in ancient literature for unripe fruit, pointing to its sour taste, and is, therefore, unpleasant or harsh. What the servant seems to be saying is that the nobleman lives in idleness and derives his living out of the labor of others.[1]
Notice that the wicked servant says the nobleman “takes up what he didn’t lay down”, meaning the nobleman kept for himself what others have stored or lost (cf. Luke 19:10). He went on to say the nobleman reaps what he never sowed, certainly a callous understanding of Luke 19:10 and a perverted view of winning souls for Christ. The implication is that the nobleman was nothing more than a Bedouin prince who neither plowed nor stored goods for the future. He merely took what others had sown and from the substance they had laid up (cf. Judges 6:2-5). What can be said about these things?
Technically, the wicked servant spoke accurately, at least partially so, but he had a poor understanding of the whole truth, perhaps, because of a misplaced patriotism. As I mentioned above, this man saw Jesus as a Bedouin prince, raiding what the Jewish religion had worked to achieve, and taking what he could for his own purposes. After all, isn’t this what Paul seemed to be doing, especially from the vantage point of some believers in Jerusalem (cf. Acts 15:1-2; 21:17-21)? Didn’t he go to the Jew first, preaching in the synagogues across the Empire, taking what Jewish missionaries had labored to achieve and make them disciples of Christ (Acts 19:1, 8-9)? Nevertheless, what this servant didn’t realize or keep in mind was: the Jewish authorities were only the caretakers of the Lord’s vineyard, and it was they who stole what was not theirs (Mark 12:1-11).
Additionally, the wicked servant didn’t have a very good perception of the temperament of the nobleman (Jesus). Jesus really does ask his disciples to deliver more than they have power to do, but that’s the point of all his commands. Paul tells us that he planted and Apollos watered, BUT God gave the increase! (1Corinthians 3:6). The minia that was given the wicked servant in the parable was faith or trust in God. Yet, the man never used what Jesus / God had given him to use to be successful in God’s business. Therefore, all the man was able to see was that Jesus demanded more than a disciple could deliver, because the wicked servant always left God out of his labor.
Jesus (the nobleman in the parable) isn’t harsh (G840), because he actually does labor for what is lost. It is not true that he sits idly by, while his servants do the work. While it is true that the disciples sowed, it is also true that Jesus brought about an increase. The increase isn’t done through magic, just as creation wasn’t the work of magic. Rather, the increase is the result of the work of God. If the man sowed in faith, and watered in faith, the increase would have come, because, in doing these things, the man would have entered into the labor or business of God. God is the one who works out the increase, which no man has power to deliver through his own efforts (1Corinthians 3:6).
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[1] See Barns’ Notes on Luke 19:21.
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