“I say to you, that to every one who has will be given, but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away from him. But these my enemies, who would not that I should reign over them, bring here, and slay them before me.”
The significance of the situation is now summed up by the King. Those who ‘have', because of their faithful service, will receive more. They will receive abundantly. God is no man's debtor. Those who produce nothing will end up with nothing. Even his blessings will be taken from him. But those who are openly antagonistic will be judged, and judged severely. For the King's enemies who rejected His rule would be finally destroyed. It may be that we are to sense here again Jesus' awareness of what was going to happen to Jerusalem (Luke 13:34-35). Apart from anything else it did not take too much prophetic instinct to recognise that the tension in Palestine could not go on for ever without something eventually sparking off a rebellion large enough to result in the downfall of Jerusalem. For He knew that in one way or another that was what the whole nation was working towards. And the fact that it lay heavy on His heart comes out in His constant repetition of the theme from now on (Luke 19:41-44; Luke 20:15-16; Luke 21:6; Luke 21:20-24; Luke 23:28-31).
However, it also represents the certainly of God's final judgment, of which what happened to Jerusalem would only be the forerunner. It was necessary for those who were planning to kill Him to recognise that their behaviour would not go unpunished. So Jesus' message, as so often, is to act as a spur to those who followed Him in order to serve, while at the same time being a warning to those whose presence was simply due to their antagonism against Him.
19. 28 ‘And when he had thus spoken, he went on before, going up to Jerusalem.'
Having attempted to put right the wrong ideas that His followers had, for Jesus was wary of any incidents that could be caused by too much excitement at this Passover time, Jesus then went on ahead of His followers, pressing on towards Jerusalem. He knew that His hour had come (John 13:1). He was eager to begin His journey to the far country, ready for His final return.