Matthew 25:14-30

14 “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone. 15 He gave five bags of silver to one, two bags of silver to another, and one bag of silver to the last—dividing it in proportion to their abilities. He then left on his trip.

16 The servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and earned five more. 17 The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more. 18 But the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master’s money.

19 After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money. 20 The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of silver came forward with five more and said, ‘Master, you gave me five bags of silver to invest, and I have earned five more.’

21 The master was full of praise. ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’

22 The servant who had received the two bags of silver came forward and said, ‘Master, you gave me two bags of silver to invest, and I have earned two more.’

23 The master said, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’

24 Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, ‘Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate. 25 I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back.’

26 But the master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy servant! If you knew I harvested crops I didn’t plant and gathered crops I didn’t cultivate, 27 why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it.’

28 Then he ordered, ‘Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one with the ten bags of silver. 29 To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. 30 Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”

 

Comments

This builds on the parable from yesterday. Read by itself, the previous parable seems to advocate sitting around doing nothing. But that is not what faithful waiting looks like. Here we begin to see that faithful waiting means being productive, making use of the talents and resources given to us to expand the kingdom. We remain servants, so what is added does not belong to us anymore than what we were given to begin with. And we still don’t know exactly what form this work takes, what sort of productivity counts as faithful waiting. Like the parable from yesterday, we have to be careful reading too much into this economic analogy. Jesus is not advocating his followers become Wall St. sharks. But we are to be at least as prodigious at what we are called to do. Faithful waiting, anointed waiting, is marked by hard work.

The New Living Translation (NLT)Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Matthew 25:1-13

1 “Then the Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten bridesmaids who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. 3 The five who were foolish didn’t take enough olive oil for their lamps, 4 but the other five were wise enough to take along extra oil. 5 When the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

6 At midnight they were roused by the shout, ‘Look, the bridegroom is coming! Come out and meet him!’

7 All the bridesmaids got up and prepared their lamps. 8 Then the five foolish ones asked the others, ‘Please give us some of your oil because our lamps are going out.’

9 But the others replied, ‘We don’t have enough for all of us. Go to a shop and buy some for yourselves.’

10 But while they were gone to buy oil, the bridegroom came. Then those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was locked. 11 Later, when the other five bridesmaids returned, they stood outside, calling, ‘Lord! Lord! Open the door for us!’

12 But he called back, ‘Believe me, I don’t know you!’

13 So you, too, must keep watch! For you do not know the day or hour of my return.

Comments

This parable reiterates what Jesus has been saying since chapter 23. Instead of looking for signs and engaging in religious manipulation, Jesus’ followers are to wait for his coming. Waiting for Jesus is a fundamental activity of his followers, waiting should inform all our thought and action. But we don’t just wait in the dark. We wait with our lamps lit, burning bright with the oil of the Holy Spirit. We will see tomorrow and Wednesday what else we are to be doing during the waiting, but the first and foremost thing is always waiting for Jesus with our lights shining – illuminating Jesus to the world. Spend some time today thinking about what it means to be in a posture of waiting on Jesus and how the Spirit empowers that waiting. Feel free to share your thoughts here.

The New Living Translation (NLT)Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.