Mina, Romana, and Americana

The mina was 1/60 of a talent. If a talent was worth 15 years' wages, the mina was 3 months' wages.

This Lukan parable resonates with the one about the talents in Matthew. That one celebrated 100% profit. This one celebrates
1,000% and 500% returns on investment.

But there's more. It also promises death to anyone who opposes the current dispensation.

Empire has been not changed. Its idea of peace has always been peace based on victory in war. Peace based on silencing dissent. Then it was Pax Romana. Today, it is Pax Americana.

Most of Jesus's audience would have known the history behind the parable. Herod Archelaus, Herod the Great's Son, went to Rome to get Caesar's blessing. His enemies went there as well to raise their opposition. Archelaus gets the Empire's blessing and promptly has his enemies killed. Just like the nobleman who became king in the parable.

Jesus was a child when all these happened. His exposure to the evils of greed, lust for power, and systemic violence began early. The same applies to the children in Marawi, in Palestine, in many parts of our world where so many are treated as sub-human, as commodity, as illegals, or as animals.

When Jesus said, God's reign is for children, he envisioned a world that was the complete opposite of Empire.