You may have seen the video by Halal Sheikh in YouTube (link) where the Muslim quotes Luke 19:27 as a verse that makes Jesus a bad person. This Muslim preacher was lucky to face a Christian who could not remember quickly that this verse is the last but one verse to complete a parable Jesus was telling His disciples.
If you go quickly to your Bible where Jesus’ words are written in red, you will not doubt that these words were uttered by Jesus. However, it would seem that opponents of Christianity don’t want to accept that Jesus had to speak about reality issues, things that were happening and were to happen in the future. I also note that Jesus is not called a prophet even though He prophesied many things that that come to pass in various generations. On the other hand, Muhammed is called a prophet, yet there is no prophecy that is known to the world that the world awaits to see manifested.
Back to the verse in question. No verse is useless in the entire Bible. I know that some verses were removed in the olden day scripts and today we note that the NIV has some verses removed while other Bible versions have them. My point is that this verse is relevant and therefore had to be included in the Bible.
Unpacking the verse
I will give two opinions on the verse, one of my own and another as taken from the internet
My take is that verse 27 addresses verse 14. If verse 14 were to be removed, the relevance of verse 27 would not be justifiable. The verses are as quoted from New King James Version:
14 But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘we will not have this man to rule over us.’ 27 But bring here those enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, and slay them before me.’
Verse 27 are words of the so called ‘noble man’, who was not Jesus upon His return from his long journey. Jesus is talking about someone and it had to be Jesus talking the outcome of the journey of the noble man. In between these two verses, a complete parable of the Minas is given by Jesus.
A self-proclaimed qualified New Testament scholar from Christianity.stackexchange.com says that there are layers of meaning to this difficult parable (his take is that it is a difficult parable). The scholar goes on to say that this ‘noble man’ is not Jesus but Herod. The scholar says that if you know Herod and Herod Antipas and their history, you will see that this this is an exact prophetic description by our Lord in par t to show that his hearers their poor understanding of how earthly kingdoms and the kingdom of God differ.
Conclusion
Muslims and Christians cannot both be right. There is only one truth and everything very close to the truth is not the truth. If Christians are misled then let them come to the realisation of the truth, if Muslims are misled also, let them come to the truth. This is a personal quest that needs no one else’s interference. Each and every one of the living will account before God of what they did while they were in the flesh and this will be on one-on-one basis. No collective group will answer.
I call for self-introspection of everyone and speaking to God directly is not forbidden in Christianity. Even if you follow another religion, Christian God is ready to hear you immediately you call on Him through the name of Jesus.
Try Him for yourself and dismiss Him individually and not collectively. Be blessed amen.
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