The Sin of Treating God as if He Were a Bad Man (Luke 19:20-23)

Then the other servant came and said, ‘Sir, here is your gold coin; I kept it stored away in a handkerchief, for I was afraid of you, because you are a demanding person; you take up what you did not lay down and you harvest what you did not plant.’ He said to him, ‘With your own words I shall condemn you, you wicked servant.’
Luke 19:20-22 NABRE

The Parable of the Ten Gold Coins (or the Returning King) appears in Luke 19:11–27. In this story, a nobleman gives his servants money to invest while he goes away to receive a kingdom. When he returns, he rewards the faithful servants who used the money wisely and punishes the one who did nothing with it. He also judges those who rejected his rule.

Like many of Jesus’ parables, this one raises important questions. What do the coins represent? Is the nobleman meant to be Jesus? And perhaps most intriguingly: Why is the wicked servant condemned, and what do we make of his fearful excuse?

The traditional—and correct—interpretation is that the returning king represents Jesus Christ. After his Resurrection, he ascended into heaven to receive kingship from his Father and will return at the end of time to judge the living and the dead. In the meantime, his followers (his “servants”) are entrusted with the Gospel and called to share it with others—symbolized by putting the coin to work. When Jesus returns, he will judge each of us by whether we have been faithful and fruitful with the grace (the “coin”) we were given.

The wicked servant is clearly condemned because he failed to use what was entrusted to him. But his reasoning, and the king’s response to it, deserve closer attention.

He says,

Sir, here is your gold coin; I kept it stored away in a handkerchief, for I was afraid of you, because you are a demanding person; you take up what you did not lay down and you harvest what you did not plant.

Scripture speaks of a holy “fear of the Lord,” which is good and “the beginning of wisdom.” But the servant shows something else: sinful fear, the kind that drives us away from God rather than toward him. We first see this in Genesis, just after the fall:

Then the Lord God called to the man and said, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid.”
Genesis 3:9–10 NABRE

This kind of fear does not trust in God’s goodness. The wicked servant calls the king “demanding,” and explains: “You take up what you did not lay down and harvest what you did not plant.” But this is not true of God. Everything good comes from him—he lays down and plants all things. To see only his demands and not his generosity is to misjudge him, to treat God as though he were harsh or unfair.

Now look at the king’s reply:

With your own words I shall condemn you, you wicked servant. You knew I was a demanding person, taking up what I did not lay down and harvesting what I did not plant; why did you not put my money in a bank? Then on my return I would have collected it with interest.

Even by the servant’s own (false) logic, he should have at least done the bare minimum—putting the coin in the bank to earn interest. Spiritually, this might mean sharing the Gospel with those who are already receptive, or bearing witness through simple faithfulness to the commandments, rather than doing nothing at all.

God may be demanding, but he is also good. Scripture calls him “a consuming fire,” but it also proclaims him merciful, kind, and faithful. Because he is powerful and just, we should fear him. But because he is good, we should also love him. Both fear and love should lead us to obey him.

If we fear God more than we love him—or if we don’t yet love him at all—we should reflect on his goodness and ask him to show it to us more deeply. And even if we can only manage small acts of obedience, we should offer them in faith. God is generous; he will take even our weak efforts and reward them far beyond what they deserve. But if we do nothing at all—if we offer no signs of love or faith, only dead works—then we will face judgment, and have no excuse. And in that case, the Lord’s verdict will be just and right.