Matthew 24:45-25:13

Matthew 24:45-51 two servants – one ready and one not ready for the master’s return

This is the first of 2 parables about Jesus’s return and the need to be ready.

Some translations use the word “servant” and some translations use the word “slave.”  In New Testament times, perhaps 20% or more of all the people in the Roman Empire were slaves (Welch and Hall; The British Museum).  Slaves performed professional as well as menial jobs, often side by side with freed people.  They moved freely around their cities and beyond, were allowed to earn money, and could buy their freedom if their master was willing.  Although masters were allowed to abuse their slaves, and some or many did, Roman slavery was not the same as the chattel slavery of the American South.  To help us understand the relatively independent, decision-making roles they played in their society, I will use the translation “servant” in this study.  That will also help us understand that Jesus wants us to be able to see ourselves in these servants.

What happens in this parable?

Who do the two servants stand for?

Jesus is talking to the disciples now, not the Pharisees or chief priests. Matthew is probably expecting his audience to apply the parable to themselves, in which case it applies equally to us and to all Christians in every age. One member of my Bible Study, when asked who the faithful and unfaithful servants stand for, thoughtfully replied, “It [i.e.,both] could be us at different times.”

What is the job of the two servants?

What would it look like when these servants were doing their jobs properly?

Jesus wants us to see ourselves in these images, so translate this to your life.  What would it look like in your life if you are the faithful servant living your life until the master comes?  What would you, the faithful servant, be doing in your life?

What are the things we might become distracted by, that would leave us caught by surprise when the master comes?

Note that this servant is not just distracted, he is wicked: he abuses the other servants.  In verse 51, what happens to that wicked servant?

Jesus is talking to his followers in this parable, and Matthew is telling the story as a caution to his fellow Christians.  Jesus says the wicked servant will be assigned a place with the hypocrites.  Why is that a devastating outcome for a Christian?  Who has Jesus accused of being a hypocrite, and why would Jesus use that term for “followers” of his who do not live the life of a faithful servant?

It was the job of these servants to take care of the household and make sure the other slaves/servants were fed at the proper times.  Each of us has a different “job” as we serve God, based on the unique circumstances of our lives.  What are the “jobs” God wants to see you doing faithfully right now?

Matthew 25:1-13 being ready – a parable of 10 virgins

In the second parable, 10 virgins (i.e., unmarried women) are supposed to be ready so that when the bridegroom arrives (probably with the bride he has gone to get from another city) they can welcome him and accompany him to their new home for a week-long celebration (Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, fn. to 25:1-13, p. 53).  In Jesus’s time, travel was unpredictable and the timing of events was often more uncertain than in our day.  It might not be clear when the bridegroom would have completed all the necessary steps to bring the bride home.  When he was approaching, it was expected that the word would go out ahead of him so that they could be greeted, day or night.  In this case, the bridegroom represents Jesus, so the focus in on him.

The Greek word can mean “virgin” or “unmarried woman” (what in the past was called a “maiden”).  Some translations use the term “bridesmaid.”  Most translations use the term “virgin,” so this study uses that word.

What happens in the parable?

Who do the wise and foolish virgins represent?

What is Jesus’s point in this parable?

Notice that Jesus calls the virgins who weren’t sufficiently prepared “foolish,” whereas he called the unfaithful servant “wicked.”  Are there ways that we might not be “wicked” but could still be foolish (unwise) and therefore not be what Jesus is expecting us to be?

How might we be guilty of being, or in danger of being, unwise in our spiritual lives, even though we are not trying to be wicked?

What does this tell us about faithfulness in living the Christian life?

What happens to those who are not ready when the time comes?

Matthew wants us to hear this parable as applying to all of us.  What does it say to us?

There are aspects of our lives where we can’t wait until the last minute to be ready for Jesus’s coming.  What might be some of those things we need to be doing in advance?

What might be some things we can’t “borrow” – that we need to already have when Jesus comes?

In verse 12, when the foolish women finally show up late to the wedding banquet, the bridegroom says, “I do not know you.”  In the context of the story , this makes sense: the groom, perhaps coming from far away, might not know the friends of the woman he is marrying.  But what does this say to us about our lives?  We would not want Jesus, when we come before him at the end of our lives, to say, “I do not know you.”  What do we need to do about that?  What does it mean to be known by Jesus?

What would you do differently if you lived your life, like the five wise virgins, with a real readiness for the day you will meet God face to face?

As with earlier statements by Jesus, this parable can be applied to being ready for the Second Coming of Christ, but it applies equally well to our deaths, for we shall see him then.  What does this parable say to you about being ready for your inevitable death?

Jesus’s ends by saying, “Stay awake, for you do not know the day or the hour.”  What does it look like to, in a spiritual sense, “Stay awake”?

Take a step back and consider this:

We are always making choices.  Sometimes our choices make us more ready for Jesus, and some do not.  Some choices help us as we seek to know and be known by Jesus, and some do not.

Sometimes we act like we can put off spending time with God or wait until later to do what God wants us to do, and yet still be ready for Jesus when he comes.  That approach might make us unready for the Lord when we die.

But it also has an impact long before we die.

There might be things that God wants to do through us, but if we are not “ready,” he might not be able to open the path for us to serve him or others in that way.  Our choices affect not only the endgame of our lives, but also the plays we make every day.

To what extent is your life focused on being ready for each next thing that Jesus is showing up for in your life?

How can you be more ready for every little thing that he might want to do in you or through you?