Day 312 (Matthew 25) - Year 4
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Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for The Bible Recap.

As Jesus gets closer and closer to his death, he takes the time to coach his followers on what it means to wait well. Because they and the rest of the church will be waiting for his return for quite some time. We still are, in fact. When we're waiting for something, that process can produce a lot of different emotions in us. Maybe you grow especially impatient and frustrated. That usually happens when you're really excited about what you're waiting for. On the other hand, if you're not looking forward to it, maybe you're filled with dread or maybe you forget altogether that it's going to happen.

Jesus knows humanity, and he knows that we're more likely to treat his return like the thing we're not super excited about. First of all, we don't have any concept of what we're entering into, so it's more common to be scared of something like that because it feels like a bit of an unknown. Second, it's easier to want things we are familiar with, like kids and husbands and vacations to Croatia, and those things take up our mental and emotional energy instead. In today's reading, Jesus encourages us to wait well, then he tells us why that's important.

He starts out with the parable of the ten virgins, which is a cult who steward our time wisely while we wait. They all have lamps, but only half of them get oil. They just don't think about the future. They live in the moment. It slipped their minds that there was anything they might need to prepare for. This reminds me of what Jesus has been saying so frequently for the past few days. Stay awake. Don't be lulled to sleep by the world and its priorities.

Especially early on in Christianity, there were people who even took this literally. They would stay awake through the night watching for his return. But as with lots of things Jesus says, this seems to be more of a spiritual command.

Don't zone out and just be carried along by the world and its culture, especially because God and his kingdom often run contrary to those things. By the way, in scripture, oil often represents the Holy Spirit. So if we want to boil this parable down to one clear point, it would be this. The only way to be prepared for the return of Christ, our bridegroom, is to have the Holy Spirit. At this point in the story, the Holy Spirit hasn't started to dwell inside believers yet. That will happen after Jesus dies, resurrects, and ascends to heaven.

So Jesus is preparing them to understand that better when it happens, since he won't be there physically to explain it.

Then he continues his dissertation on waiting with the parable of the talents, which is a call to steward our gifts wisely while we wait. Jesus talks about a master who gives his servants talents to use while he's away. One thing that can be confusing here is that we think of talents as our natural giftings and abilities. But the word talent here is a financial term. It was roughly 15 to 20 years wages. So one talent would be about $300,000 to $400,000.

Verse 15 helps clarify this for us. It says he gave them specific amounts of talents based on their abilities. So the talents aren't the abilities, they're the funds given based on how these servants were already gifted. Two servants invest the money well, but servant number three has a different approach. He doesn't trust the master's heart and actions, and mistrust almost always leads to fear and hiding, which is exactly what servant number three does with the money. He buries it.

Not only does he miss out on the master's joy, but when the master gives his talents to the others, he loses the very thing he was trying to protect. Servant number three accuses the master of being a hard and unfair man, but that's not what we see in the text. Quite the opposite, in fact. The master invites his servants into his joy.

When you're trying to serve a God you don't know or trust, you will misinterpret his motives and miss out on his joy. Ultimately, we're responsible for how we use the time and money and gifts God has entrusted us with. The more we have, the more we are responsible for. And the more we trust our Father's heart, the more we will use what he's given us in ways that both please him and bless us.

Jesus talks about this when he unpacks some of the details about the final judgment. He says the flocks will be brought before God and he'll separate the sheep from the goats. The sheep are God's kids and the goats are those who aren't. The sheep go on the right and the goats go on the left. By the way, the Sanhedrin were a group of Jewish rulers who were sort of like America's Supreme Court, for lack of a better example. And I've heard that when they presided over a case, there was a scribe who sat on the right and a scribe who sat on the left.

The scribe on the left would write convictions and punishments. And the scribe on the right would write acquittals and blessings. The side of favor is always the right side. I know those of you who are left-handed probably hate some of this stuff. I'm sorry I can't change the story for you. All I can say is God loves you and made you just the way you are, and some of my favorite people are left-handed.

The goats go to the eternal fire prepared for the forces of darkness, including Satan and his angels. If the whole thing about Satan having angels is a new idea to you, here's a bit of info that might help. Angels are a type of being God created to be his messengers and assistants in the spirit realm. But just like mankind fell, some of the angels fell as well, at least a third of them. And of that third, the

the highest-ranking angel was named Lucifer. We generally refer to him as Satan, but that's more of a title than a name. It means accuser. So the lead accuser and his fallen angels will be punished in eternal fire. Despite what you may see in the movies, Satan doesn't rule over hell. He's being punished there, just like the goats. And as for the sheep, we go into the kingdom of eternal life with God.

In verse 34, Jesus gives us a really beautiful picture. He says, What? Oh man, this is definitely my God shot for today. How beautiful is that invitation? And he's been preparing it for so long.

This invitation reminds me of the master inviting his servants into his joy. Those who trusted the master's heart got it. They stewarded their time and money and gifts well. And Jesus says the same of the servants of God. They've shared with the poor and hungry. They visited the sick and imprisoned. The servants of the master in the parable and the servants of God are both working for their master's benefit. But the master gives them his blessings as a result.

The blessings of God are ones our Father has been preparing for us for a long time. I don't know if or how it's possible for God to wait, given that He's outside of time, but in whatever sense that's possible, God seems eager to share His blessings with us. Count me in. He's where the joy is.

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