But as for these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.’”
The parable ends with a death sentence. The King Himself passes it on people who had told Him they did not want His rule. It raises two hard questions. Who are these enemies? And is this a real sentence, or just part of a story?
Why the Parable Was Spoken
The verse ends a story Jesus told to correct a misunderstanding. The crowd expected the kingdom at once. He spoke instead of a journey away, a long absence, and only then a return with power.
J. N. DarbyThe Lord Himself speaks of going into a far country to get the kingdom. He receives it there, then returns and carries out the judgments He refers to... They were looking for this. They imagined they would get the kingdom with Him in an earthly way straight away, instead of His being rejected as He was... Then, once He has taken account of His servants' service, He says, "But as for these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me." This comes after He has received the kingdom and come back again. He does not judge while He is away... If He were to begin to judge now, He would have to close the time of grace and the gathering in of the church.
Who the Enemies Are
Earlier in the parable the citizens send word that they refuse His rule. Here the King calls them His enemies. One writer shows what lay under that refusal.
William KellyHis citizens (the Jews) did not only despise Him. He came in humiliation, for the deepest purposes of divine love, and they "hated" Him. They sent a message after Him, saying, "We do not want this man to reign over us." It is awful to hear from His lips that these were His "enemies," above all others, who would not have Him reign over them. His heavenly glory was at least as offensive to them as His earthly lowliness. They valued neither the grace that brought Him down nor the glory to which as man He was raised.
The Message Sent After Him
The parable pictures a message dispatched to the nobleman after he has already left. One writer points to Stephen, killed for his witness, as the man who carried it.
W. T. P. WolstonStephen was the man sent up with this message. They refused their Messiah on earth; and when, in heaven, He is by the grace of God presented to them again — in answer to His own prayer for them on the cross — they refused Him again. In Stephen's death they sent this message after Him: "We do not want this man to reign over us."
Not One Nation Only
The refusal did not stay with one nation. It became the attitude of the whole world, and that shapes how His servants serve Him now.
J. G. BellettThe citizens were at that moment the Jewish people, but the hostility of the Jew is now the hostility of the world at large, which has let the Lord Jesus know it will not have Him as king... I am never really in the spirit of service if I do not remember that He is an absent and a rejected Lord.
A Real Sentence, Not a Figure
Some treat the closing line as colour added to a story. One writer answers that it describes something real, and says the mercy of His first visit will not mark His return.
W. W. FeredayThe Visitor from the far country is coming again. The world has not seen the last of Him. But how will He return? Not in lowly grace, on a second errand of mercy, but in kingly power, to take vengeance on all His foes... This is not mere parable language, but the setting out of a dreadful reality. He who is at present proclaimed as Saviour to all is the divinely appointed Judge of the living and the dead.
Enemies and the Idle Servant
The parable ends with two kinds of failure: an unfaithful servant, and citizens who wanted no king. Commentators differ on how close the two are. One keeps them apart:
William KellyThe unfaithful servant is not called an enemy, though no doubt he was no friend of the Son, and was dealt with righteously. But the Lord calls the open adversaries into the scene.
Another puts the unfaithful servant under the same judgment:
Leslie M. GrantThe final judgment will come for the outright enemies of the Lord, who did not want Him to reign over them. They will be slain before Him (v.27). But the unfaithful servant will share in this judgment too, for he had virtually taken the same stand as they.
Summary
- Refusal. One thing marks these enemies: they would not have Him reign. They turned down the grace that brought Him low and the glory that raised Him high.
- Delay. Jesus told the parable to kill the idea of an instant kingdom. He does not judge while He is away. The sentence falls only after He returns holding the kingdom.
- Reach. The refusal began with one nation and became the world's settled answer, so every servant works for a Master this world has cast out.
- Reality. The closing words are not stage dressing. God has appointed the One now offered as Saviour to judge the living and the dead.
- Reckoning. He weighs His servants and sentences His enemies. Commentators differ on where the unfaithful servant falls between the two.