in the future. Some of the Jews of Jesus’s time thought that this eschatological event was about to occur in the near future—that God’s kingdom was about to be inaugurated. This hope was probably seen in terms of a political victory over the Romans after which God would begin his glorious reign. In response to this expectation of an early coming of the kingdom Jesus relates the parable of the pounds, designed to inform his hearers that the coming of the kingdom is definitely not imminent, and to