Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Luke 19:22

"He saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I am an austere man, taking up that which I laid not down, and reaping that which I did not sow;" — Luke 19:22 (ASV)

Luke’s readers would certainly know about the various forms of heavy Roman taxation. These totaled over one-third of a person’s income and included a poll tax, customs, and various indirect taxes.

Our focus of attention should be on the last of the three examples. This servant allowed his fear of the nobleman’s anger to prevent him from fulfilling his responsibility of putting the money given him to work (v.20). To be sure, its investment was risky. But he had been specifically charged to take the risk of investing the money. In his case conservatism was born of fear and was wrong.