Journeys to the Kingdom

 Matthew 25:1-30

Good morning! Today we continue our series in Matthew, looking at the first part of Chapter 25. I have entitled the message “Journeys to the Kingdom,” but perhaps a better title might be “Journeys Illustrating the Kingdom,” as our passage today focuses on two parables that each involve journeys. But before we look at our passage, I think it is helpful to recall the context, which we have explored over the past two weeks in Matthew 24.
 
These two chapters, Matthew 24 and Matthew 25, are known as the Olivet Discourse, because Jesus told them to His disciples while sitting at the Mount of Olives. Jesus begins by telling them that a time will come when the Temple will be destroyed. His disciples ask Him when this will be, and what will be the signs of His coming and of the end of the age.
 
Jesus gives them signs, but also warns them that before He comes, deceivers will come who claim to be Him, and they should be careful not to fall for them. He also tells them that as for the day and hour of when these things will happen, nobody knows except God the Father. He warns them to keep watch, because His coming will be sudden and not when people expect Him. He ends Chapter 24 by warning that some will be like servants put in charge of a master’s household who, thinking they have plenty of time, chooses to live evilly and wildly. This person, Jesus says, will be caught in the midst of his disobedience and “assigned a place with hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

This leads into the first of our two parables in today’s passage:
 
“At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. – Matthew 25:1-5
 
“At that time” refers to the time of Jesus’ return, the time when He comes to reward those who are faithful and assign punishment to those who are not. Now to properly understand this parable, it is helpful to understand the process of getting married at the time this was written.
 
Most towns were small, and a Jewish marriage was a huge event, probably the greatest event that happened in a town. There were three steps to marriage. The first step was the engagement. The engagement consisted of an agreement (usually written) between the father of the future groom and the father of the future bride. Engagements really were not about an agreement between the couple, but between their parents. In this way marriages were “arranged,” but it was common that the future bride and groom already knew each other and liked each other. Loving parents wanted their children to be happy, after all. But they also wanted to make sure that the other family had a good reputation and that the future spouses would be responsible.
 
The second step was betrothal, in which the future bride and groom would come together with family and friends to witness them making binding promises to each other. This step was most like our wedding ceremony today. Once this stage was completed, the couple was officially married, and the union could not be broken without an actual divorce. If the husband died in this stage, the wife was counted as a widow. Note however, that although the couple were married, their marriage was not yet consummated, nor did they live together.
 
During the remainder of the betrothal stage, the groom now had the task of getting his affairs in order so as to be able to bring the bride to his home. This would often involve building an additional room on to his family’s house, or sometimes would involve building or securing a new home. He also had to demonstrate that he could provide for her. This might mean buying land and working it for a harvest, or it might require demonstrating that he could support them both through a trade. Often these abilities were already established so that the wait was just for building or buying a place to live.
 
Once everything was ready, it was time for the third stage, the wedding. Now word has gone out that this is the night. The ten virgins of this parable are not ten brides, but ten attendants to the bride, that is, bridesmaids, much like we have bridesmaids today. They were the bride’s sisters, cousins, and friends, people who were unmarried (presumably because married people didn’t have time for this foolishness 😊).
 
Now the parable tells us it was nighttime, and the women went out with lamps, or more precisely, torches. Nighttime weddings were a common practice, as the groomsmen and the groom would go out with their torches, and the entire wedding party would go around the village in a kind of processional arriving usually at the groom’s or the father of the groom’s home, where they would have a large celebration, one that could last as long as an entire week!
 
Now these torches (also mentioned in John 18:3 when the Romans guard came to Gethsemane to arrest Jesus) consisted of a long pole made of wood with a metal enclosure at the top in which an oil-soaked rag would be placed and lit. After a while, the oil would be burned up, so you would need to bring a container of additional oil to periodically refuel your torch.
 
In our parable, five of the ten women were “foolish” and did not bring any oil. The men were a very long time in coming, so much so that the women all fell asleep. This situation reminds me of several surprise birthday parties I have been a part of where the plan goes awry and the person with the birthday along with his or her escort is much later than the plan had called for. Back in the days before cell phones, this could be a real problem. (Telling this story makes me feel really old.)
 
In any case, let us continue with the parable:
 
“At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’ ‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’ – Matthew 25:6-9
 
So, at last, at midnight, the women are awakened by the call to meet the groom and his party. Now the Greek does not actually say they are “trimming” their lamps (as in cutting back a wick) but more generally that they are getting their torches ready for use. This would likely mean that they are pouring oil on the cloth.
 
If you think the wise women were a little mean not to share, I think you are overreading the parable. The situations in parables are often a bit contrived. One could argue that it was similarly rude for the foolish women to expect the others to fix the mess they had gotten themselves into. It was a no-brainer to bring oil for your lamp. I was struggling to come up with a good analogy for our modern times, but then I remembered that in my first year at Clemson, in 1992, I did not read an invitation carefully to a social function hosted at the home of our department chair and I had Mimi and I come to this function woefully underdressed. It is actually even worse than this because the purpose of the function was to welcome me and another new faculty member (one who dressed quite appropriately) to the department! Hopefully, you can see how inappropriate and rude it would have been of me to ask one of the other faculty to let me borrow his coat!
 
“But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’ But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’ Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour. – Matthew 25:10-13
 
The Greek wording here of “went in with him” describes a formal meeting, like how someone would meet a king, not a casual thing. And so, this seems more like a royal wedding than just a more homely village event. This is important, because it explains the response that the foolish women get at the door when they arrive late. This was also an honor-shame issue. To show up significantly late to a hugely important event, missing the processional entirely, was extremely rude and dishonoring. And so, the response of “I don’t know you” makes a lot of sense in this context. If you are invited to a royal wedding, do not mess things up! Make sure you have everything you need, are on time, etc. By the way, my department chair was quite gracious about our clothing mishap, but Mimi and I both felt extremely uncomfortable the entire time. At least he let us in!
 
So, let us talk about the meaning of the parable. I think it is important to not over-analyze or over symbolize most parables, because that is not their intention. They normally have a single primary point. So, what is the point here? Jesus tells us: be ready! Be ready for Jesus’ return. I would add to this, be ready for your own sudden demise, which will also lead to you having absolutely no more time to prepare.
 
In our leaders’ meeting earlier this week, the idea of being ready came up, and Fred brought up our often-repeated illustration of the proverbial beer truck that takes one or more of us out suddenly. I am not sure how this came to be a beer truck, but it has been a beer truck for many years. Well, after having this conversation, Brian sent out a link to a news article about an actual beer truck that plowed into someone’s house in Charlotte recently. This actually shook me up a bit. I had always assumed that I was safe from beer trucks in my own home! Apparently, that is not the case. Be ready. That beer truck can get you anywhere!
 
Let us talk about the parable further. The five foolish women were invited just like the five wise women to the celebration. They had their torches. But they did not prepare; they weren’t ready.
 
I think in the context of the Jews who were listening to Jesus’ parable, the issue was to accept the gospel! Now the gospel in its fulness was not yet clear to anyone, as Jesus still had to die and rise from the dead. But these events were now less than a week away. It would soon became clear that to have faith in Jesus was necessary to be saved, that Jesus’ death on the cross in fact paid for your sins, sins that you could not erase or atone for on your own, sins that, apart from saving faith in Christ, would lead to a penalty of eternal separation from God. The disciples would soon understand that there was extreme urgency in this, because, just like the foolish women, they could run out of time at any moment!
 
Jesus’ parables were not only for the disciples but for us, and this is exactly the message that it conveys to us. I think the foolish women in our context symbolize people who have grown up maybe in the church, people who have heard about Jesus but have never personally admitted to Jesus that they are sinners, people who have never actually called out to Him to save them from their sins. Some of them may even have prayed an insincere prayer, but they have never really given their lives to Christ. They may be pretending to be “bridesmaids,” dressing for the part, so to speak, they may tell others that they are Christians, and they may even fool other believers, but God knows who is His.
 
The oil in the parable seems to represent saving faith. There is no substitute for it, and when your time is up, you cannot take a portion of someone else’s. Without it, you cannot enter the future eternal wedding party with Jesus, the bridegroom. The oil is what fuels the torch and keeps it lit. Without it, you have only a cloth which will burn up in mere moments. Saving faith likewise “lights” us and keeps us lit. When we give our lives to Christ, He puts new hearts in us, hearts that want to burn for Him. We become a new creation, we are “born again”, and we have the promise of eternal life in Him. Our “oil” will never burn up.
 
Let us go on to the second parable.
 
“Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. – Matthew 25:14-18
 
Journeys back at this time were major undertakings, taking months or even years, and a major businessman had skilled people under him (highly capable servants) who would be expected to keep his estate operational and remain profitable in his absence. The master in this parable is such a person, and he divides up a significant portion of his estate to three servants with the implied instructions (as we will see) to use the money to make more money while he is away.
 
Implied in the parable is a truth that is still true today: it is harder to make a certain percentage profit on a huge sum of money than it is on a smaller sum. There are lots of reasons for this, but in a small-town environment, it would be that purchase prices go up as soon as a known rich person even starts walking down your street. And so, the three men are given differing amounts to invest based on what the owner perceives to be their skill levels.
 
The parable points out that the first two servants go out at once to try to multiply the master’s investment. This shows that they are diligent and working hard to make this happen. In contrast “at once” is not used to describe the third servant, who simply hides the money in a hole. Once this is done, he does not even touch the money.  
 
“After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’ His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ – Matthew 25:19-21
 
We don’t know how long this “long time” was, but I would assume it is on the order of years, not decades. I have even read that making 5% on money back then was really easy to do, kind of like the old 5.25% that you used to get on a savings account. (I feel really old again.) So maybe this first servant made 20-40% per year, just a guess. That would indeed be impressive. The guy is a future Warren Buffett!
 
Note the response of the master: he is very pleased. He calls the servant both good and faithful. The latter word is the Greek pistos which really means faith. It implies that the servant has done what he has done because he has faith in his master. And we see that the master is lavish with praise and rewards the servant richly now that he has returned.
 
“The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’ His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ – Matthew 25:22-23
 
This man also makes the same return on investment as the first man, although he does so with less to invest, so it is probably easier to do so. The master, however, treats him just as positively as the first man. There is an important truth about God being revealed here. Just like the master, God knows his subjects well. For each one, His expectations are adjusted to their abilities. Jesus expresses this in the “challenging” way in Luke 12:
 
From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. – Luke 12:48b
 
But this parable presents this truth in the reverse, “encouraging” way: To those who have been given less, less will be expected.
 
But let’s move on to our third servant. By analogy, even less is expected of him, because he was given only one bag. But he was given something, so something is indeed expected!
 
“Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’ His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest. – Matthew 25:24-27
 
Like many of Jesus’ parables, this one takes an unexpected turn and shocks its listeners. The Master is implied to be reasonable and kind and affirming up to this point in the parable, and it is jarring to suddenly hear from the third servant that the Master is nothing of the sort. It is even more shocking to hear the third servant say so to the Master’s face!
 
Now I think this translation uses a misleading phrase where it says, “gathered where you have not scattered seed.” When we hear “scattered seed” we think of sowing seed. But the verb diaskorpizo in its literal use (as it is used here) means to throw harvested wheat into the air so as to separate the edible seed from the chaff. And so, what the servant is saying here is worse than we might think. This is not a case, perhaps, where a person finds some wheat growing somewhere, say, on unclaimed land, and harvests it even though he didn’t plant it; instead, this is a case where a person sneaks in somewhere where another person has grown the wheat, harvested it, and thrown it into the air, removing the chaff, and steals the wheat from him!
 
What would Jesus’ listeners think of the third servant at the moment he says these things to his master? They would think him disobedient, as he did not do what his master told him to do, and on top of this, extremely rude and insolent, saying these harsh things about his master to try to divert attention from his own misbehavior. It is blame shifting! Yeah, I did not double your money like these other goody two shoes servants, but you are mean and nasty, so there! Would Jesus’ listeners agree with the third servant’s accusations? No! The principal that Jesus taught them about not entertaining an accusation unless brought forth by multiple witnesses was also the practice of the legal system at that time.
 
Now it is possible that the third servant really thought these things of his master. But as the master points out, even if they were true, that does not excuse the servant’s behavior in any way. And if the servant really thought these things, all it reveals is that the servant does not know the master at all. As most of you know, I had a heart attack three years ago and have since been on the scientifically tested diet of cardiologist Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn. I am reminded of how I have posted in social media the story of how this diet has reversed many symptoms of my coronary artery disease, and how, from time to time, a few people have replied that I must be making these things up. I actually received a notification of one such accusation this morning! It was actually pretty funny. The person said I was making these things up as a “mute” point, spelled m-u-t-e. This person’s response actually revealed three things about him: one, that he doesn’t know it’s a “moot” point, m-o-o-t, two, that he doesn’t know at all what a moot point is, and three, that he does not know me at all. Why would I make this up? Social media can be nasty, but I do not want to leave you with the impression that it’s been all bad like this, though. Several people have followed up with a bunch of questions and actually gone on the diet to improve their own health.
 
Now, when the master “admits” that he is not a good man, this does not mean that he is actually bad. There is an implied “if” here. Just because someone does not flat out deny the accusation does not mean that he agrees with it. The master is really saying, “If you thought these things of me, that still does not explain why you didn’t just bring the money to a banker and receive a basic rate of interest.” No, you were just lazy and wicked!
 
“‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ – Matthew 25:28-30
 
So now we see the consequences are, once again, severe. Now how are we supposed to interpret this parable? Is it suggesting that works are necessary for salvation?
 
In a word, No. But works of some kind, do invariably accompany salvation (unless maybe you confess Christ in your final moments before dying). I am reminded of the following passage from James 2:
 
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. – James 2:14-17
 
But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. – James 2:18-19
 
You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone. – James 2:20-24
 
It is an entirely different thing to say that faith without deeds is not really faith than it is to suggest that your deeds save you. Only Christ saves us, and salvation comes through faith.
 
When we truly put our faith in Christ, He changes us so that we are thankful. We love Jesus because of who He is and what He has done. And this should motivate us to want to serve Him in some way. We may feel inadequate, unskilled, unqualified, but like the master in this parable, Jesus does not in any way fault us for that. He wants us to serve Him with what we have, our own abilities and skills and also with His supernatural, spiritual gifting which He promises to every believer.
 
Returning to the parable, the conclusion I draw is that the third servant does not know the Master at all. The parable is more in line with what Jesus says in Matthew 7:
 
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name and in Your name drive out demons and in Your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from Me, you evildoers!’ – Matthew 7:21-23
 
In both parables, I see the message “be ready!” and being ready means, first and foremost, knowing the Lord. Jesus may return, or you may come face to face with that beer truck at any time! We are all sinners, and apart from Christ, we are all dead in our sins. We are all foolish like the women in the first parable, and we are all wicked and lazy like the man in the second. We cannot fix our sin, and we cannot change our nature. But Christ can do all of these things. He has already died for our sin, and He rose from the dead to prove that all that He taught was true. By confessing our sin, we are agreeing with Him that we are lost without Him. By accepting His payment of our sin through faith, we are given the keys to the door that leads to knowing our glorious Savior. To know Him is to love Him, and to love Him is to want to serve Him in whatever way we can.
 
I want to close today with a short video. The speaker, Heather Holleman, is a Christian faculty member, a part of Faculty Commons, not the Clemson chapter, but at another school. I hope that her story encourages you to “double” what you have been given like it encourages me.