Luke 19:27 (NIV) “But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them–bring them here and kill them in front of me.’”
Some Christians find these words of Jesus uncharacteristically harsh. After all, if you accept the premise that the master in this parable represents Jesus, and he does, then this shows Jesus Himself calling for the deaths of those who reject Him as their king, their Lord. This seems at odds with the image of Jesus that has been commonly taught: a Jesus that is always loving, and that was so meek that He wouldn’t hurt a fly.
But the fact is, behind the “meek and mild” humanity of Jesus lived God the Son, the second person of the Godhead. Jesus had come not just as the Messiah, but as God incarnate, and the leaders of His own people were not only rejecting Him, but were instructing others of the people to reject Him, too, threatening any who wouldn’t comply with expulsion from the synagogue (John 9:22). Their rejection of Jesus would culminate in just a few days with their condemnation of Him on trumped-up charges, and in railroading Him all the way to crucifixion.
In a way, in these words Jesus were foreshadowing the judgment that would fall on Jerusalem within just one generation because of their rejection of Him. This judgment would result in the destruction of Jerusalem, the destruction of the temple, and the scattering of those few who survived to the four winds. That might seem like too harsh a punishment to some, but the crime that incurred that punishment was the Jewish people literally rejecting their own God, the one that they purported to worship at the very temple that would be laid waste and made useless.
There are serious ramifications to rejecting God, eternal ramifications. And Jesus, in this parable, is clearly pointing to those ramifications, warning against them for both those who are remiss in doing the work of the kingdom while Jesus is gone, and for those who reject Jesus outright.
Father, I can see that one thing that we need to guard against is forgetting who Jesus really is. He is not merely a great teacher who founded a religion. He is God in the flesh. Rejecting Him is rejecting You, and rejecting His teachings and commandments is rejecting Your words. And we do so at risk of eternal consequences. Thank You for this reminder. Amen.