We enjoy seeing the side of Jesus which is loving, merciful, forgiving. It is the side we see in parables like the Prodigal Son or the Good Shepherd or the Good Samaritan. It is the Jesus who does not condemn the woman caught in adultery. It is the Jesus who asks His Father to forgive the Roman soldiers who are standing watch at His crucifixion (Lk 23: 34). But there is another side of Jesus, a side which we like to ignore. That other side reminds us that our actions have consequences, and the consequences can be dramatic and extreme. We see that in the parable Jesus tells in today's Gospel (Lk 19: 11-28), a version of the same parable that appears in Matthew's Gospel about the nobleman who went off on a journey (in Luke's version the man is going to obtain a kingship) and gave some of his property to his servants to manage. Two of the servants put the money to work, and double it, but the third simply hides it, apparently afraid that he might lose some of it if he does more. So far the parable tracks what Matthew says, but in Luke's version that we read today there is one additional plot item-- there are some of the nobleman's subjects who "despise" the man who wants to be made king, and send a delegation to the people where the nobleman is going so they can tell the people in the other place that they don't want the man to be king. The idea, I suppose, is that they will stop the nobleman from getting the kingship he seeks by telling those who are deciding how to respond to the nobleman's request that the people in the nobleman's own place don't like him, and they won't like him either if they make him king. Despite this, the nobleman is made king, and comes back to get the accounting from his servants of what they have done with his money. Once he is done with that, though, there is another accounting of sorts with respect to the people who had opposed the nobleman's kingship. The king tells his servants to bring his opponents here "and slay them before me." So much for peace, love, mercy and forgiveness. The king not only wants his opponents to be executed-- he wants to pleasure of seeing them killed in his presence. Yikes! It is worth noting that the king isn't nearly so harsh on the lazy servant who just hid the money he was given to manage. The lazy servant has the coin taken from him, but he isn't killed, or even thrown into the darkness "where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (which is what happens to the lazy servant in Matthew's account of this parable). So what do we learn? We learn that there is an accounting, and that our actions have consequences. And I think we also learn that we can do a lot of things which can be forgiven, but that when we affirmatively oppose God, and God's plans, we're in a very dangerous place. The nobleman's opponents have rejected him as king, and they don't even seem to seek forgiveness. They don't want anything to do with him. I imagine they aren't even willing to acknowledge him as king. So there is no occasion for the king tos how mercy, love, and forgiveness. It is one thing to sin, as we all do and as the lazy servant did. But it is something else entirely to sin so often, and so seriously, that we lose our connection with God, and come to refuse to acknowledge Him as King. Doing that sure didn't go well for the fellow citizens who despised the nobleman in today's parable.