Christ’s Judgment On The Den of Robbers, Pt 6
Matthew 25:1-30
25 “Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. 3 Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, 4 but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. 5 But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.
6 “And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’ 7 Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. 8 And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ 9 But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ 10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.
11 “Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ 12 But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’
13 “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.
14 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. 15 And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. 16 Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. 17 And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. 18 But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. 19 After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.
20 “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ 21 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ 22 He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ 23 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’
24 “Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’
26 “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. 27 So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.
29 ‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Introduction
For the past several weeks we have been going through a long passage where Jesus has been speaking to the disciples on the Mount of Olives, explaining to them about the world-shaking events that will bring the Old Covenant world to an end, culminating with the destruction of the temple, a place Jesus condemned as The Den of Robbers, and the center of a world that will be in direct opposition to His church for the next forty years.
In the previous passage, Jesus would not give them a specific date on the calendar, but told them it would happen within their generation. He then tells his disciples a series of three parables that illustrate their role in this time period of what turned out to be 40 years.
We will look at these parables today and see what they meant for the disciples in their day and what all of this means for us.
The Parable of the Ten Virgins (v. 1-13)
In the first parable, at the end of chapter 24, Jesus told the disciples about a slave who was put in charge of a household, and he did not expect his master to return and so he was lazy and abusive, and when the master returned, that slave was sawn in two and cast into hell. Now, Jesus is telling them a parable of a great wedding feast, where the bridesmaids are waiting to meet the bridegroom.
And Jesus makes a distinction between half of them, half were wise and brought oil in their lamps, and five were foolish and brought none. The bridegroom shows up at midnight, and the foolish virgins had no oil and had to leave to go buy some. By the time they get back, the door is shut. They beg him to open the door saying “Lord, Lord” but he says “I do not know you.” And Jesus concludes, watch, therefore, for you do not know when I am coming.
There are a few things we have to take note of here. Jesus is consciously making allusions to things He said in the Sermon on the Mount way back in chapter 7. In that sermon, Jesus makes a distinction between the wise and the foolish. And your actions are what reveal whether you are wise or are a fool, not merely thoughts you have inside your noggin. You are either building your house on sand or on rock. Here, you either expect the bridegroom to show up by what you do (bring enough oil to last the night) or you do not expect him to show up (and don’t bring enough oil). What you actually do reveals what you believe.
There is also the allusion to the door. The gate. In Matthew 7, Jesus tells that wicked generation of Israel that the way to destruction for them was wide and broad, and the gate was huge, but the way to salvation was narrow and the gate was small. Here the foolish virgins return and they find that doorway now closed to them and not opening up.
Finally, in both Matthew 7 and in this parable there is the plea of "Lord, Lord" and the answer of “I never knew you.” In this parable, Jesus is telling His apostles that they will be locked out with the rest of unbelieving Israel if His delay in coming results in their apostasy. It is interesting that oil and fire are both symbols all throughout the Bible of the Spirit. And the Spirit falls upon them on Pentecost in tongues of fire. Jesus is telling them to not quench the Spirit, do not fall away into unbelief because the temple still stands. It is coming down. Trust me.
The parable of the Talents (v. 15-30)
Next, Jesus tells His disciples a third and final parable about an extremely rich man traveling to a far country. And he hands out wealth to his slaves to manage. We do not know what the measurement “talent” is, but it is about 130 pounds. Assuming it was silver, a talent was about 20 years’ worth of wages. In other words, a man could work six days a week for 20 years, and if he only ever saved all of it, he’d have accumulated a single talent. This was a significant sum of money. Think of a talent as one million dollars in today’s money. So this man gives five talents to one slave, two to another, and one to another. The man with the five talents used that wealth to produce more wealth, and he turned the five into ten. The man with the two talents did the same and turned two into four. The man with one went and hid it. The first slave was rewarded with rule over many things, as was the second slave, but the third was condemned. He could have invested it with bankers to at least gain a tiny bit of interest, but instead, he hid it, presumably thinking the master would never actually return to collect. The result is the talent is taken from him and given to the first slave. And Jesus caps it off saying whoever has, more will be given, and he who does not have, it will be taken away. In this context, that means those who are faithful and produce fruit will receive even more opportunities to produce fruit, but those who are unfaithful and refuse to produce fruit will lose even the opportunity they had to be fruitful. Jesus tells them that the third slave will be thrown into the outer darkness.
Jesus is telling the apostles and the apostles alone these parables. He is giving them three lessons about His delay in coming. This is extremely important because these are the men (along with Paul) who lead the church during this 40-year period. These are the men who wrote the entire New Testament. And one of the main themes of the New Testament is DO NOT GO BACK TO JUDAISM. We have to understand Christianity is not a new religion that was created by Jesus. Christianity is the same faith that Adam and Noah and Abraham had. Christianity is just the latest and last covenant God made with His people. Faithful old covenant believers slid right into the New Covenant seamlessly. Judaism is the new religion. Refusing to believe the Son of God when He showed up to preach directly to you, and then refusing to believe His Apostles when they preached His resurrection and still holding to an Old Covenant no longer in operation and no longer valid is the new religion. It isn’t just Bible minus Jesus. The entire Bible is about Jesus, so if you get that wrong, you get the whole Bible wrong not just part of it. And in these days, where the temple that Jesus said would be destroyed has not yet been destroyed, where most of the church is made up of Jews whose families and friends are constantly pleading with them to reject this false messiah who has not returned like He said He would, the temptation to revert back to Judaism had to be incredibly intense. That is why the apostles pleading with God’s people to persevere is all over the New Testament. And that is why the most scathing rebukes in the New Testament are reserved for those who want to return back to Judaism in one form or another.
This is the reason Jesus spends so much time, with three separate parables, preparing His disciples to wait a long time for His return. They are going to have to wait. People are going to be faced with intense pressure to return to Judaism. He is telling them to wait, to do the work He has set before them, to have oil in their lamps, and do not bury the great treasure I am entrusting you with. The pressure to fall away, even for the apostles, will be intense. Have faith that I will vindicate you.
Conclusion
The situation we are in is very similar. No, Jesus has not prophesied a particular event in our lifetimes that we need to be ready for. But we are in a day where the pressure to reject faith in Christ is likewise similar. In the generation of our grandparents, being a Christian was generally viewed as a positive thing. “You go to church? Oh, that’s great! You are probably a decent person who cares about his neighbors and who is very trustworthy.” In the generation of our parents, it became a neutral thing. “You go to church? Okay, cool. I actually belong to the Lions Club and the Rotary.” Today being a Christian is seen as an increasingly negative thing. “You go to church? You’re not one of those religious freaks who believes in a sky daddy, are you? Because I believe in science.”
The pressure is intense all around us to slide away from faith in Jesus. To let our lamps go out. To bury our talent and forget about it. It is more advantageous in your career to not publicly be a Christian and to accommodate your faith to your career rather than the other way around. It is more advantageous to you socially to not publicly be a Christian. Many more people will like you if you are not some religious nut job. Many young Christians have rejected the faith of their upbringing. The term for them is “exvangelicals.” It has become popular for them to upload videos online they call “de-conversion stories.” Most of them are predictably ridiculous “I grew up in an extremely abusive religious household. My parents would not let me read Harry Potter or sleep with my boyfriend.” But the fact remains, that our culture is intensely hostile to sincere Christian faith and the pressure is on us to just not be quite so zealous, you can make an exception here this one time, right? Just moderate your beliefs a little. Just put the pride flag on your desk. Just put your pronouns in your email signature. Just do this little thing and that little thing and things will go so much easier.
But Jesus wants us to persevere. He wants us to remain faithful to Him. These people can only revolt against the world He built for so long. They are not only at war with the Christian faith but with reality itself. There is only so long Wile-e Coyote has before he looks down and gravity gets him. Things are getting messier and messier, as you would expect a world in total rebellion to the Triune God would be. Our job is to persevere. Our job is to remain unshakeable in our faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. And what happens in these parables with the ones who persevere. In all three Jesus gives examples: the slaves who are faithful are given more to rule over and the virgins who are faithful are let into the feast. He will reward your faithfulness. So your job and charge is this: to hold fast to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and let nothing get between you and your Lord. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.