Matthew 25:1-13: “Late, Late, So Late!”

“Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour,” Jesus, Matthew 25:13.

“No light: so late! and dark and chill the night!  O, let us in, that we may find the light! Too late, too late: ye cannot enter now. Have we not heard the bridgegroom is so sweet? O, let us in, tho' late, to kiss his feet!   No, no, too late! ye cannot enter now."  (Alfred, Lord Tennyson 1809-1892, “Late, Late So Late”, second stanza)

 As we move into chapter 25, Jesus is teaching His disciples to be personally ready for His coming. While many Bible scholars affirm that this parable was given specifically for the Jewish people, as were other recent parables (Matthew 21:33-39; 22:2-14), there is application for believers of all ethnicities from all times (see Mark 13:37). 

“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him,’(vv. 1-6).

We need to approach this passage with both some cultural and literary understandings.  The Ryrie Study Bible offers these cultural notes on this parable: “There were two phases to Jewish weddings.  First, the bridegroom went to the bride’s home to obtain his bride and observe certain religious ceremonies.   Then he took his bride to his own home for a resumption of the festivities.”   

We also must remember that it is a parable and not an allegory.  An allegory is a literary device where multiple objects, persons and actions all have meaning that lie outside the narrative itself; whereas a parable presents a story to teach one primary point. 

The one primary point Jesus is making in this parable is to live prepared, for we “know neither the day nor the hour,” (v.13).   Jesus is not teaching that 50% of professed believers will lose their salvation. But Jesus does teach that there will be pretenders in the church.   His being delayed (v. 5) will expose any pretenders, just as the wicked servant was also exposed (see Matthew 24:48-49).     

 

“ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you,’ (vv.7-12).

We cannot present ourselves as ready based on another’s righteousness.  Neither can readiness be purchased or accumulated through religious works.  It is a matter of the heart and having a right relationship with Christ Himself.  In very some similar teaching, Jesus says “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness,’” (Matthew 7:22-23).

Jesus says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me,” (Revelation 3:20).   Frequently heaven is compared to a wedding feast (Isaiah 25:6-9; Matthew 22:2; Revelation 19:7-9).   Now, the door to the wedding feast is open.   But there will come a time when Jesus will lock the door from His side.  And it will be too late to enter.   So stay awake, be properly clothed, serve others and trim your lamp.  “So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober,” (1 Thessalonians 5:6).

Matthew 24:45-51: “How Then Shall We Live?”

“Who then is the faithful and wise servant…?” Jesus in Matthew 24:45

"Is that all there is? If that's all there is to life, then let's break out the booze and have a ball."   

(late singer Peggy Lee, as quoted by Cal Thomas in his article, “Death of an Atheist” Dec 20, 2011)

"The Grand Doctrines of eternal truth are frequently treated as venerable non-entities, and have no effect whatever upon the conduct of those who profess to receive them, because they do not realize them as matters of fact... It is shocking to reflect that a change in the weather has more effect on some men's lives than the dread alternative of heaven or hell.  A woman's glance affects them more than the eye of God.”

(Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Preaching at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, London, 5 March 1876)

How Then Shall We Live? is the title of a classic book written by Francis Schaeffer first published in 1976.  As we study this passage about the inevitable return of Christ, the title of Schaeffer’s book presents a timely and contextual question: “How then shall we live?”  In answering that question Jesus contrasts two servants.

“Who then is the faithful and wise servant, Jesus asks, whom his master has set over his household, to give them food at the proper time?” (v. 45) The one who continues working while his master is away.  Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes!   Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions.” (vv. 45-47).  (Jesus will expand on this imagery in chapter 25 with the parable of the talents.)

The faithful and wise servant is not only “awake” (v. 42) and “ready” (v. 44) but he is serving others.   He is not using his authority to rule over others but is working diligently at the task his master gave him.    Jesus affirms this value by saying elsewhere, “the greatest among you shall be your slave,” (Matthew 20:26; 23:11). 

But “if that wicked servant, who shows no allegiance at all to his master, says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know,” (vv. 48-50). Amos 5:18 seems to speak directly to the lackadaisical attitude and hard heart of the wicked servant:  “Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD!  Why would you have the day of the LORD?  It is darkness, and not light.”

In Matthew 23, Jesus exposes and condemns the hypocrites and pronounces a sentence of hell upon them (see 23:15, 33).  It will be no less for the wicked servant.  The master “will cut him in pieces and assigned a place with the hypocrites.  In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth,” (vv. 51).  This phrase is used elsewhere by Matthew to speak of condemnation in judgment (see 8:12, 13:42, 13:50, 22:13, 25:30). 

The Thessalonians’ sin was that they stopped “feeding the household of God” and coasted, waiting for the return of the Lord.   Paul corrected that misbehavior with a second letter, exhorting them to not “walk in idleness,” not be “busybodies,” and have “nothing to do with” those who do (2 Thessalonians 3:12, 14). 

Our Lord may return early (see vv. 42-44) or He may be delayed, (v. 48).   Therefore, let us “shepherd the flock of God among us” (1 Peter 5:2), stay alert, be ready and found working, for He “will come on a day when we do not expect him and at an hour we do not know,” (v. 50).  This is how we should then live.     

Matthew 24:42-44: “Lash up and Stow”

Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming,” Jesus, Matthew 24:42

“Lash up and stow; the boss may come today.”  (Frank Wild to his men every morning on Elephant Island, near Antarctica, in the summer of 1916, while they waited for Sir Ernest Shackleton to return with a rescue party and a bigger boat after a failed expedition.) 

When I was a young Christian someone taught me a Bible study tool.  When I find a “therefore,” I should immediately ask, “What is the therefore there for?”   In this passage, the therefore (v. 42, 44) is there to remind us that Christ will come when we do not expect Him.   He will interrupt the daily lives of people.  They will be eating, drinking, marrying, working at the mill or laboring in the fields (see vv. 38-40). 

“Therefore,” we should “stay awake, for [we] do not know on what day [our] Lord is coming,” (v. 42).  Jesus continues:  “if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into,” (v. 43).

The New Testament compares Christ’s return with a thief in the night: (Luke 12: 35-40; 1 Thessalonians 5:2; 2 Peter 3:10, Revelation 3:3; 16:15).  Not that Christ is a thief but that He comes unannounced like a thief.  At His first coming, John the Baptist proclaimed Christ’s imminent arrival, telling  “[I am] the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight...” (Luke 3:4).  But there will be no heralder at His next coming, for He will come like a thief in the night.

Several years ago our house was broken into while we slept and the thief stole several of our electronics.  We had no idea the thief was coming.   Yet had I known the thief’s arrival was that night, I would have secured our garage door, turned on lights, and I would have stayed awake to chase away the thief.  But we did not stay awake, we missed the signs and we were not ready.  The thief came anyway.

The average 21^st century western Christian is not ready for the Son of Man to return, even though He is coming at an hour [we] do not expect (v. 44).   We pursue the idol of materialism as if the Lord will never return;  Americans spend more on pet food and bubble gum than we do on missions.  Most of us are more concerned about the return on our investments than the return of our Lord.     

Shackleton’s men were cut off from the outside world; even Shackleton had no way of communicating with them. Those were the days before helicopters and satellite technology.  Every day the men would climb to the highest point near camp on that remote and cold island.  They studied the horizon, watchful for any sign of their master.   Then on August 30, 1916, a boat appeared on the horizon.   Shackleton had returned!  He rescued every man he left on that island 4 months earlier.   Not one had perished.  

Shackleton returning for his men.

"Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ,” (1 Peter 1:13).

 

Lash up and stow.  The Master may come today.  Stay awake. Be ready.

Matthew 24:36-41: “I Wish We’d All Been Ready”

“No one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only,” Jesus, Matthew 24:37

"1948.5 plus 51.4 equals 1999.9--around September of the year 1999. Now, we are not date-setters! Of that day and hour knoweth no man…(Matthew 24:36). But wait! Don't say, `No one can know the APPROXIMATE time when Christ will return,' for Jesus also said in verse 33 that we will know when it is near, even at the doors" (Jack Van Impe, Perhaps Today magazine, January-February 1993).

“It is ridiculous quibbling divorced from the context to say that though the day and hour remain unknown, we ascertain the year or month.”  (D. A. Carson, Expositor’s Bible Commentary, p. 508)

“A man and wife asleep in bed, she hears a noise and turns her head, he's gone, I wish we'd all be ready;  Two men walking up a hill, one disappears and one's left standing still, I wish we'd all been ready.   There's no time to change your mind, the Son has come and you've been left behind.”  (Larry Norman, “I Wish We’d All Been Ready”, 1969)

                                                        

I believe that the place to start with this passage is actually away from Matthew’s gospel.  Let’s turn to Philippians 2:6-8.   Who (Jesus), though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  

Most cults exploit the idea that Jesus did not know the day and hour of His return and thus they deny His deity.   But the entire witness of Scripture states differently.   For example, the Word was God (John 1:1) and the Word became flesh (John 1:14).   Jesus emptied Himself into a human body and laid aside many privileges of deity, including omniscience. 

Jesus also claimed to be the “I am” in John 8:58, the same title God gave Himself in Exodus 3:14.  Jesus also forgave sin (see Matthew 9:2-6) raised the dead (Luke 8:54-55; John 11:43-44) and raised Himself (John 2:19-22).   Jesus received worship and did not rebuke those who worshiped Him (see Matthew 28:17, John 20:28).   Jesus made claims and performed acts that only God could do.  We must interpret Matthew 24:36 in light of all of Scripture and not vice versa.   

Jesus continues: “As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.  … in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man,” (vv. 27-29). 

When Christ returns, faith in God will be minimal.  People will not interpret the signs of His return.  They will neglect Biblical teaching and will persecute believers (24:9).  Life will be marked by eating, and drinking and marrying, as it was when Noah entered the ark.   And if some people do believe God exists, they will believe He is a god of only love and tolerance, while ignoring His holiness.  They will have no category for the judgment of God and the return of Christ.

Recently I was sharing my faith with a young man from Spain.  I told him that I love my children and I love my wife but my greatest love is for Jesus Christ.  He replied, “I have no category for that; I do not understand.” Likewise, when Christ returns, He will interrupt an ignorant and unaware world, one without any category for the return of Christ.  

“Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left.  Two women will be grinding at the mill, one will be taken and one left,” (vv.40-41).   Although many Christians believe this references the rapture, most scholars believe these verses teach that the one taken is taken away to judgment, as in the parable of the weeds (see Matthew 13:30).

 Sometimes our favorite musicians are better artists than theologians.   However, I believe Larry Norman expressed the heart of this passage, and the next 56 verses, very well:  Be ready.   For we do not know the day nor the hour of His return.  How tragic it will be if we look back after the Second Coming and lament, “I wish we’d all been ready.”