Kingdom Parables: The kingdom of heaven is like Non-fiction Published by Grow Barefoot ©2014 Kathi Woodall All rights reserved. This work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, without express written permission of the publisher. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Holman CSB®, and HCSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers. ®
Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version . Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. Produced in the United States of America.
Table of Contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 3 Forgiveness...The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant ..................................................... 4 Grace...The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard ....................................................... 8 Choice...The Parable of the Wedding Banquet ............................................................. 12 Be Ready...The Parable of the Ten Virgins ................................................................... 16 Invest...The Parable of the Talents ............................................................................... 20 Endnotes ....................................................................................................................... 24
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Introduction Five remaining kingdom parables One of my favorite topics covered in “Everything We Need: God's Path to Know Him Better” is the kingdom of heaven. It was also the hardest topic to write…by far. Words like struggled and wrestled don’t begin to describe the days spent writing the two chapters dedicated to the kingdom of heaven. But you see, John the Baptist and Jesus Christ both began their preaching ministries with the same words, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matthew 3:2 and Matthew 4:17, respectively). They both began that way…seems significant, doesn’t it? Jesus also said in Matthew 13:11 that “the secrets of the kingdom of heaven have been given for you to know, but it has not been given to them.” “Given for you” – His followers; “not been given to them” – those who don’t follow Him. He gave the knowledge in parables in order to make this happen. I’m His follower. I want to know Him better. I want to know His kingdom. Despite how hard it might have been, I struggled through the seven parables given in Matthew 13 and wrote about them in the book. Those seven parables took a lot of book space – two whole chapters. The problem was that five more parables are scattered throughout the remaining pages of Matthew. Did I dare dedicate a third chapter to this already extensive section? I decided no, that would be too much. It would outweigh the scope of the book. Those five remaining parables have nagged at me though. Now that the book is done and available to you, I find myself going back to them. What treasures of truth hide in their words? I want to KNOW. So for the next few lessons, that’s where we’re going to go.
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Forgiveness...The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant Matthew 18:21-35 How many times do we have to forgive someone who has wronged or offended us? Not seven, but seventy times seven (490) times. That’s a lot of forgiveness; that’s the context that begins this kingdom parable.
Nine of the twelve kingdom parables begin with a man performing some action. In all of them, the man symbolizes God. He is the one performing the action. This parable depicts Him as the king. Fitting, isn’t it? The king intends to settle accounts with His servants. One servant owes Him 10,000 talents. A talent was a unit of money, not a gift or ability as we use the word today. It’s really hard to know exactly how much money this amount represents in today’s culture and standards. As close as I can figure, based on the average wages for a common worker, this amount is about 160,000 years worth of salary. Yeah, go back and read that again because I did type it correctly. Even if I’m off a little bit in my calculations, it’s easy to see this was an insurmountable debt. The servant was never going to be able to pay it. The king decreed that not only would He sell the man’s possessions to pay the debt, but He would even sell the man, his wife, and his children. I’m going to make an assumption here that even if all items and family members brought the highest price possible, the total still wouldn’t come close to the amount owed. 160,000 years worth of salary is a debt no servant would ever be able to pay. The servant begged forgiveness of the debt. Compassion moved the king; He forgave the debt at His own sacrifice. The insurmountable debt forgiven, the servant left the presence of the king and met up with a fellow servant. This new guy owed the servant a hundred denarii. A denarii is a much smaller amount of money. Using our same conversion system as earlier, one
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denarii was about one day’s wages for a common worker. One hundred denarii equaled about fourteen weeks’ worth of pay – not a small amount, but not insurmountable either. Even though a smaller debt, the second servant still couldn’t repay the first servant. He likewise begged for time to pay the debt. Compassion didn’t move the servant like it did the king. The servant ordered the second servant thrown into prison. When the king heard about the servant’s hard heart, compassion no longer moved Him. Anger did. The king turned the servant over to the jailers to torture him until he could pay back all he owed.
Forgiveness It’s not hard to see that this parable teaches the kingdom of heaven is a kingdom of forgiveness. God forgives an insurmountable sin debt in our lives; our natural response should be to forgive the more minor – even if still significant – sin debts people owe us. I thought this parable was going to be pretty straightforward but more intrigue hides in the details. I tell you, some of these details rocked my world.
Why two different penalties? The king originally demanded all the first servant’s possessions and family members be sold to pay the insurmountable debt. The first servant imprisoned the second servant until he could pay the minor debt. Possessions sold or imprisonment – why use two different penalties in the story? The King’s demand to sell the possessions and family members shows us that no matter how much we give, work, sell, or sacrifice, we will never be able to pay the debt we owe. Although the King gives the chance for repayment, it will never be enough. We can never pay the price. The first servant’s imprisonment of the second servant shows the extent of his hard heart – an extent we don’t want in our own life. The first servant didn’t even provide an opportunity to sell items in order to pay the debt. The amount was manageable; perhaps the second servant could have sold enough belongings to pay it. But the first servant jumped straight to condemnation. Those of us whom God has forgiven much must offer opportunity for reconciliation to those who wrong us. We don’t really grasp how much God forgives in our own lives if we can’t extend even a little of it to others.
Why did the servant choke the second servant? Did you note that little detail? The first servant encountered the second servant and began to choke him before he even expressed his demand for repayment. Again, this shows the servant’s heart – no compassion, no forgiveness. I think there’s more here, though.
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When formulating this story, Jesus could have used any method of attack yet He chose choking. Jesus used choking as an example in one other place in the New Testament and it happens to be another kingdom parable – the parable of the sower in Matthew 13. My complete take on that parable is in the book, “Everything We Need: God's Path to Know Him Better.” But for here, “the worries of this age and the seduction of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful” (Matthew 13:22). That gives us a clue as to the concerns of the servant. He was worried about life and deceived by wealth so he attacked the second servant to get more. He didn’t realize worry keeps us from trusting God and money deceives us so we trust it instead of God.
Why did the King allow the servant to be tortured? This next part blew my mind a little. A commenter asked me after reading part one of this series, “If God were the King why would he have the man tortured?” I admitted that I struggled with this as well, especially since he had already forgiven the servant’s debt. The first servant imprisoned the second servant while the King turned the first servant over to the jailers. We may think this is the same thing but I found a significant difference when I looked at the original words. The imprisonment imposed on the second servant meant that he was under guard. He was watched. However, the king permitted the jailers to torture the first servant after his lack of forgiveness to his fellow servant. The torturers (Greek: basanistēs) were “those who elicit the truth by the use of the rack.”1 Ouch. This servant had the truth in him; but he had to stretch on the rack to have that truth pulled out of him. Yes, God does allow us to struggle sometimes. He allows persecution, problems, and pain – He allows torture. But one reason He does so is to pull the truth out of us; He wants to make it real in our life. I don’t want Him to have to use those methods for my life, though. My truth is that the King has forgiven much in my life – an insurmountable debt that I could have never paid. How much easier to let that truth flow out of me as I forgive those who wrong me than to have to be stretched until I painfully admit to it?
What debt did the servant owe? The king allowed the torture until the first servant “could pay everything that was owed” (Matthew 18:34). Here’s my question – what did he owe? What did he have to pay back? The king forgave the debt; he cancelled it. Friend, when God forgives our sin debt, it’s gone. Nothing’s going to bring it back. (There’s a whole chapter on that in the book as well.) The king even says, “I canceled all that debt…” The details of the Greek verb tense here indicate the cancellation was a done fact without regard to time frame. 2 Yet, Jesus ended the story by saying the servant had to pay back all he owed. So what did he owe? I don’t think this debt had anything to do with talents or denarii. It’s the same debt I owe today, as do you if you’re a follower of Jesus Christ. I owe Him my life
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– a life defined by His truth willingly poured out to those around me. A life defined by my extension of His compassion in acknowledged gratefulness for the sacrifice He made on my behalf.
Questions for personal reflection or group discussion Join the discussion online at http://ow.ly/CrSVf The primary focus for this parable is forgiveness. If you could assign a monetary value to the sin debt you owed, how much would it be? Should that amount influence how much you are willing to forgive others who have hurt you? Does it affect your ability to forgive others? Do you sense the Holy Spirit prompting you to forgive someone specific in your own life? If so, what steps could you take to make that happen? As a follower of Jesus, your sins are forgiven – your sin debt is paid in full. Describe a situation where God might still allow a follower to be “tortured” or have the truth pulled from him through hard circumstances. How does this contribute to your spiritual growth?
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Grace...The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard Matthew 20:1-16
The Story Jesus began, “the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard” (Matthew 20:1). Similar to last week and several of the parables I discuss in the book, this parable begins with a key male character performing an action. These key male characters represent God in all of the kingdom parables. God is looking for workers for His vineyard – His kingdom within the world.
He found some workers at the beginning of the day. He added to His workforce four more times throughout the day – 9:00am, noon, 3:00pm, and 5:00pm. By the end of the day, He had five different groups of workers who had all performed different amounts of work. The workday wrapped up at 6:00pm. The landowner told his manager to give each man their wages. He had agreed to pay a denarius to each of the workers from the beginning of the day. The other four groups had only agreed to work; they hadn’t made a financial agreement at the time the landowner called them. The manager paid the latest workers first and worked his way backwards through the day until he paid the earliest workers last. Imagine the disdain the earliest workers felt as the manager paid each man the same amount regardless of the time of day they began working. The earliest workers began complaining, “These last men put in one hour, and you made them equal to us who bore the burden of the day and the burning heat!” (Matthew 20:12).
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The landowner points out to the grumbling workers that he is free to pay any worker any amount he chooses. Should they really complain that he chooses to be generous? In a biblical parable, each detail of the story is significant. Each element symbolizes an aspect of the greater message Christ was teaching. For example, as I began, the landowner represents God and the vineyard represents His kingdom within the world.
What’s a wage? In the parable, the landowner and workers agree to a wage of one denarius for a day’s work. This was a fair, normal amount. Here’s the significant part…the word for wages isn’t only a paycheck. Throughout Scripture, it also includes the idea of a reward. A reward awaits those whom God calls to work in His kingdom. Its first use in the Old Testament even tells us exactly what our reward is – and it’s not streets of gold, a mansion, or even eternal life. “The word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: ‘Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward’” (Genesis 15:2). Fellow worker in God’s kingdom, God is our reward - our very great reward.
What work? Required work may seem out of place for entry into the kingdom. After all, the gift of salvation is free. Nothing we can do earns us a spot in the kingdom; it is only by God’s grace. So, why did the men work? I could say something about the intrinsic value of a job well done. Or, the landowner found the men being idle while Scripture contains a lot of verses about working hard. Something else is the greater point here, though. All men received the same reward regardless of the amount of work they did. In essence, they received the reward for answering the call when the landowner came to them. They were willing to follow Him; He granted them the agreed upon wage. Jesus said in another place, “This is the work of God – that you believe in the One He has sent” (John 6:29). That’s all God requires – our belief in Jesus as His Son whom He sent to pay our sin debt through His death.
What’s a day? The landowner called workers to the vineyard at five different times throughout the day. Some people see this as symbolic of people who come to Christ at different ages. Some accept Him as young children, some in their teens, some as adults, and some even in the last few moments of their life. Regardless of the age you accept Christ as your Savior, your reward is the same – eternity in His presence. This could be; it’s true and it’s consistent with the rest of Scripture. I have another idea, though.
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The day may be symbolic of the whole age of humanity – from the time of Adam until the end of Christ’s future millennial reign. If so, each time the landowner called more workers would have to represent a different period of time in which God reached out to us. As it turns out, five different time periods happen to exist. 1. Adam and Eve in the garden, prior to their initial sin. They walked in open relationship with God as sin didn’t yet separate them from His presence. (Adam and Eve are the only examples.) 2. From Adam and Eve’s fall until the time of Moses. Immediately after the first sin, God made the first promise to send a Savior. (Examples – Seth, Noah, Abraham, Jacob) 3. From Moses until the time of Christ. God gave us the Law to reveal sin and our inadequacy in living a sinless life on our own. (Examples – Joshua, David, Isaiah) 4. From Christ’s first coming until His second coming. God revealed Himself through the Son who was the Word made flesh. (Examples – disciples, Paul, Martin Luther, you, me) 5. From Christ’s second coming until the end of His millennial reign. Jesus will dwell on earth with us as He rules over His kingdom for 1,000 years. (Examples – people yet to be born during that time period) One common thing saves believers during each time period. Salvation comes by faith as we believe God and what He has revealed as of that point in time. For Adam, Abraham, David, Paul, you, me, and believers still yet to be born, the reward is eternity in the presence of God. That’s not something to grumble about!
Overall point Whereas the previous parable focused on forgiveness, this parable is all about grace. Grace given at five times during the day as men are given opportunity to work; grace given during five time periods of history as we are given opportunity to enter relationship with Him. “So the last will be first, and the first last” (Matthew 20:16). God doesn’t reward as man might expect. In His grace, He gives generously to all who follow Him. “This is the essence of God’s grace, when He rewards and blesses man according to His will and pleasure, not necessarily according to what men deserve. … God deals with us according to who He is, not according to who we are” (Guzik).3
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Questions for personal reflection or group discussion Join the discussion online at http://ow.ly/CrTfm The primary focus of this parable is grace. What does it say about God’s grace that He makes salvation available to all people of all time? In the parable, the early workers grumbled at receiving the same wage as those who came later. What is an appropriate response to God’s equal gift of grace for all people? Only faith in the work of Christ is necessary for our salvation. What is the appropriate view of kingdom work? Why should we do it? Forget mansions and streets of gold. What is the true reward of our relationship with Jesus? Does this change your focus and view of eternity? If so, how?
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Choice...The Parable of the Wedding Banquet Matthew 22:1-14 Oh my goodness, these kingdom parables wear me out! That’s part of the point though; Jesus wanted us to take time to consider them – meditate on them – before applying them in our lives. When it comes to parables, a quick, flippant interpretation usually misses the intricacy and depth of Jesus’ intended message.
The Wedding Banquet “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son” (Matthew 22:2). If you’ve been following along in this series, you probably already know that parables are physical stories used by Jesus to illustrate spiritual truths. As such, each physical element within the story represents a certain aspect of the spiritual lesson. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we discern the correlations and then assess the overall lesson of the story in order to understand the parables. Almost all of the kingdom parables begin with a man performing an action – each time the referenced man represents God the Father. In this parable, Jesus calls Him the King; seems appropriate. The King prepared a wedding banquet for his son so it’s pretty easy to figure out that the son represents Jesus, the only Son of God. The King sent His servants to announce to the invitees that the banquet was ready. Guzik quotes William Barclay as he explains that the ancient custom was to invite guests to a significant event, such as a wedding, but to not include the date or
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time of the event. Then, when all the preparations were complete, the host would announce that the time for the event had come.4
Who are the servants and guests? The servants appear in many of Jesus’ parables; they refer to the Old Testament prophets. We probably see this symbolism most easily in the parable Jesus told just previous to this one, the parable of the tenants in Matthew 21:33-46. The prophets served God by proclaiming His truth to the people – whether they wanted to hear it or not. The invitees are the Jewish people. The Old Testament is full of stories of God calling to His people through the prophets. Repeatedly, they rejected Him. The previous parable of the tenants – which refers to God as a landowner – reveals that God even sent His Son to the people but they killed Him. In this parable, though, the Son is alive and celebrating His marriage to His bride. Since the invitees ignored both of the King’s calls, the King became enraged, had the people destroyed, and burned their city. Similar to some of the kingdom parables in Matthew 13, this parable includes some future prophecy hidden in its details. This is the first such detail as the Roman leader Titus – the army used by God to bring about His plan – burned the city of Jerusalem, including the Holy Temple. After the burning of the city – so sometime after 70 AD – God sent out His servants once again. Or, should I say, will send out His servants once again.
Who are the new guests? Let me begin by saying who they’re not. The new guests aren’t the church. Some people think the church replaced the Jewish believers because they rejected Jesus. I don’t agree with this. God still has the same plan for the Jews that He had since the beginning. He also has always had a plan for the church, even during the days of the Old Testament before the church came to be. God doesn’t change His covenants. This parable doesn’t mention an important participant in this marriage banquet…the bride. What’s a wedding without a bride? Maybe it omits her because Scripture hasn’t really revealed her yet; maybe it leaves her out because this time it’s not all about her. But I’m sure she was there! Or, will be there. Future tense. The church is the bride of Christ (Ephesians 5:25-33); that’s a second reason the new guests can’t be the church. Revelation 19:7-9 confirms that a group is invited to the wedding supper of Christ other than His bride. “‘Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.’ (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.) Then the angel said to me, ‘Write: ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of
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the Lamb!’’” Notice all three mentions; the Lamb (Jesus), the bride (church), and the invitees (believers from outside the church era). So who are these last minute invitees? We’ve already determined the invitees are the Jewish people from outside the time of the church; I don’t see any reason to change that here. However, this must be a future group of Jewish people since the King invites them after the burning of the city. Also, according to Kelley, the King has already chosen the bride.5 As it turns out, Daniel prophesied a still future specific seven-year period for the Jewish people. Sometimes referred to as Daniel’s 70 th week, it will serve to bring righteousness to the people, fulfill all prophecy, and some other key criteria. During the seven years, many Jewish people will recognize Jesus was their prophesied Messiah. Those future believers are our last minute guests.
What about the man with the wrong clothes? New clothing symbolizes salvation throughout the pages of Scripture. We are helpless to clothe ourselves on our own, leaving us painfully aware of our nakedness. (Remember Adam and Eve?) Yet God provides a covering of righteousness for us; “he has clothed me with garments of salvation and wrapped me in a robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10). Salvation came for the people of the Old Testament because of faith in God and His promised redemptive work through His Son. The same will hold true during this future seven-year period. The man in the parable was invited but he still didn’t put his faith in God. Sadly, hell awaits him.
The Overall Point “For many are invited, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). The invitation goes out to all; only a few come. It’s all a matter of choice.
Questions for personal reflection or group discussion Join the discussion online at http://ow.ly/CrTyz The focus of the parable of the wedding banquet is choice. What significance does free will and choice have in our relationship with Jesus? God has had a plan for the Jewish people since the beginning. They might have messed up a few times along the way but God’s plan of blessing still holds true because God doesn’t change. What does this say about God’s plan for you if you happen to mess up? God chose you; you chose Him. How does this correspond with a wedding proposal between a man and a woman?
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God has invited you to the marriage ceremony. Will you wear the appropriate attire? In other words, are you clothed in Jesus’ righteousness? Have you accepted Him as your Savior? If so, are you willing to share your story? If not, maybe today is the day of salvation for you.
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Be Ready...The Parable of the Ten Virgins Matthew 25:1-13 We are part of the kingdom of heaven but do we really know anything about it? Jesus taught frequently about the kingdom but He did so through encoded parables. He did this for some “because looking they do not see, and hearing they do not listen or understand.” The eyes of others, however, “are blessed because they do see, and [their] ears because they do hear” (Matthew 13:13, 16). I want to be one of the blessed who sees and hears the messages of His parables! If you haven’t read the lesson on the parable of the wedding banquet, I encourage you to do so before finishing this lesson. The imagery in this parable of the ten virgins is the same as the parable of the wedding banquet.
The Parable of the Ten Virgins Matthew records this story in Matthew 25:1-13. Just prior, throughout Matthew 24, Jesus described the events of the end times in detail. That context is important to remember as we read the first line of this parable. “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom” (Matthew 25:1 NIV). All of the kingdom parables begin with wording similar to this. With this parable, though, the verb tense shifts from present tense to future tense. This shift is also seen in the opening “At that time” as it says in the New International Version. At that time – the time of the tribulation that Jesus just spoke about – the kingdom of heaven will be like… Like what?
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Some aspect of this parable is going to reveal something about the kingdom of heaven that will be different at that time than it is now.
Set the stage Some translations use the word bridesmaids instead of virgins; either way, they are a group of women who wait with the bride until her groom comes and then walk in the processional from the bride’s home to the wedding banquet. They carried lamps – although a better understanding would be torches – to help light the way for the procession. In Jesus’ story, the bridegroom came so late during the night that the bridesmaids fell asleep. When they awoke, their torches had burned out. Five of them were prepared with more oil to relight their torch but five were unprepared. The prepared women didn’t have enough to also share with those who were unprepared so the unprepared women had to go find more oil. By the time they had done so, it was too late. The groom had already come for his bride, the procession to the wedding banquet was finished, and the banquet door locked.
Who are the ten virgins? This is when I’m hoping you’ve already read my thoughts on the parable of the wedding banquet. Just like there, this wedding-themed parable doesn’t mention the bride. Like we also saw there, the unmentioned bride is symbolic of the church. The bridegroom, of course, is Jesus Himself. The bridesmaids have to symbolize a group of people who are invited to the wedding of the Lamb but aren’t the bride or the bridegroom. Again, just as in the parable of the wedding banquet, this would have to apply to believers outside the timeline of the church – either before or after. John the Baptist referred to himself as the friend – the attendant, if you will – of the bridegroom in John 3:29. He is one, like our bridesmaids, who listened for the voice of the coming groom and rejoiced upon hearing it. The bridesmaids of our parable perform that same job and, like John the Baptist, are believers from outside the church era. If you’re a number person like me, you may wonder why Jesus specified ten bridesmaids. Why not three, seven, or eleven? I’ve found that when Scripture specifically includes a number, it’s significant. Otherwise, Jesus could have said, “the kingdom of heaven will be like virgins who took their lamps.” The number ten in the Bible signifies a portion that represents a whole. For example, the Ten Commandments are a portion of the law but are used to represent the whole law. We give a tithe (tenth) as an offering to represent a portion of our whole possessions used to serve God. In this parable, the ten virgins are a portion representing the whole group of believers who come to Christ during the tribulation.
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What’s the deal with the oil? Oil symbolizes the Holy Spirit throughout Scripture. All ten bridesmaids began with oil; unfortunately, some ran out. If the Holy Spirit seals us at the time of salvation – He can’t leave us once we’ve placed faith in Christ as our Savior – then how did some of the women run out? Here’s where we have to remember that this parable began with the future tense. The Holy Spirit seals members of the church – the bride of Christ. Scripture doesn’t make that promise to believers outside of the timeline of the church. For example, the Spirit came upon King Saul in the Old Testament but He also left again (1 Samuel 16). If you’re familiar with Daniel’s 70 Weeks (Daniel 9:24-27), you know the last week hasn’t yet occurred. God reserved it for a future time also known as the tribulation – a seven year period immediately prior to the Second Coming of Christ. I believe one reason God gave Daniel the prophecy of the seventy weeks was to link the way things worked in the Old Testament and the way they will work during the Tribulation. The time of the church divides the two time periods. So, in other words, the Spirit may no longer permanently seal believers who accept Christ during the tribulation. A person may have the Spirit at one point – they have oil in their lamp – but then later, they may not – they run out of oil.
So what’s the point? Jesus sums up the point at the end of His parable. “Therefore be alert, because you don’t know either the day or the hour” (Matthew 25:13). Be ready because when the Bridegroom comes, it’s too late. This parable may speak directly to believers at that time – the time of the tribulation – but we can learn from it as well. Even though those who accept Christ now rest in the security of their salvation, time will eventually run out for the church as well. We also don’t know when the rapture will occur and the tribulation will start. We can’t know how long we can safely put off accepting Christ as our Savior before it’s too late. Prepare now; be ready now. Don’t wait and also find out that you put it off too long. Please visit this website link to read more about what it means to accept Christ: http://ow.ly/CrLeR.
Questions for personal reflection or group discussion Join the discussion online at http://ow.ly/CrTEx This lesson began with a review of Matthew 13:13, 16 regarding eyes that see and ears that hear. Please read it again with the context of Matthew 13:11-17. How has your understanding of this passage changed during this in-depth study of the parables?
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The wedding banquet of the Lamb with His bride is a very real, future event. Will you be there? If so, what will be your role? How have these two wedding parables changed your understanding of that event? Some of the bridesmaids had run out of oil by the time the bridegroom came. This symbolizes a loss of relationship with the Holy Spirit. How might they have maintained that relationship? For those saved during the time of the church – before the beginning of Daniel’s 70th week – the Holy Spirit seals us permanently. Even still, should we also grow and maintain our relationship with Him? How might we do that? The focus of the parable of the ten virgins is to be ready. If you’re reading this in the church age, are you ready for the rapture of the church? If you’re reading this during Daniel’s 70th week, are you ready for the Second Coming of Jesus the Messiah? Time will eventually run out.
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Invest...The Parable of the Talents Matthew 25:14-30 We’ve reached the last of the kingdom parables; they’ve given us much to consider. We find ourselves at the final one – the parable of the talents found in Matthew 25:14-30. And here we go…
Like many of the previous ones, this final kingdom parable begins with a man performing an action. The past stories have taught us the man is God. In this story, the man is getting ready for a journey. Based on the word used, the journey will be extensive.6 The man isn’t going to the lake for the weekend; he’s traveling abroad for a long period of time. Like the parable of the ten virgins, this parable uses the future tense. Matthew 24-25 set a time context of the period right before Jesus’ second coming. This still future, seven year time period is the tribulation or Daniel’s 70th Week. This parable will teach us something that will be different then than it is now, even if its lesson is good advice for us now as well.
What’s a talent? A biblical talent was a unit of weight or, as in this case, a unit of money. It wasn’t a gift or ability as we use the word today. We talked about them in the parable of the unmerciful servant. The talents in that parable represented an insurmountable debt; the king forgave the debt because of grace. The talents here don’t represent a debt but rather an opportunity to invest. Accountants record income and expenses, debts and investments. If the parable of the unmerciful servant taught us about the debt, this parable teaches us about the investment.
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God gave us grace; we need to invest it in others.
Why the different amounts? The man in the parable gave varying amounts of talents to his servants; God gave to each man “according to his ability.” Does that mean God gives each person a different amount of grace? The point isn’t that God gave them different amounts but rather He gave them what they needed. He gave according to what their ability required. Even the man who received only one talent received a considerable amount of money. Again, comparisons are hard across millennia and cultures, but the amount was pretty close to sixteen years worth of salary for a common worker. I don’t know about you, but my husband earns a pretty common salary and we’ve never given anyone sixteen years worth! We couldn’t begin to give such a gift; to us, it would be impossible. Yet, God’s supply of grace is limitless.
What do we do with grace? The first two servants doubled the talents given to them. For our spiritual application, they put grace to work by investing it. They found that when they invested the grace given to them into the lives of others, it returned doubled. But the third servant didn’t share the grace he had been given. He hid it in the ground. Perhaps he was afraid of losing it or afraid of someone taking it. Perhaps he was afraid that if he gave it away then there wouldn’t be enough for him as well. But remember, God’s grace is a limitless supply. It’s ok to give it away and invest it in others because God ALWAYS has more.
Why didn’t he share? The third servant justified his action by saying, “Master, I know you. You’re a difficult man, reaping where you haven’t sown and gathering where you haven’t scattered seed. So I was afraid and went off and hid your talent in the ground. Look, you have what is yours” (Matthew 25:24-25). To understand this response, we have to look back at the parable of the tares in Matthew 13. This is one I wrote about extensively in “Everything We Need.” In short, God and Satan both planted seed in the world; God planted good seed which grew into sons of the kingdom whereas Satan planted weeds (tares, specifically) who “are the sons of the evil one” (Matthew 13:38). Only two options – we’re either one or the other. But I follow that path in the book so I’ll leave it alone here. Regardless of who planted the seed, God sends his angels to harvest all of them in the end. In other words, God will harvest where He didn’t plant seed. Their outcome isn't good.
©2014 Kathi Woodall
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What’s the outcome? God gives the third servant’s unused talent to the first servant. The first servant had the ability to understand and multiply the value of the gift of grace. Perhaps his gift of grace had already forgiven much in his own life. Regardless of the reason, “everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have more than enough.” For the third servant, though, “who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him” (Matthew 25:29). God gave him grace but he never invested it. So God gave it someone else. In the parable of the tares, the two different plants have two different outcomes. The good plants enter into the kingdom of God but the harvesters burn the tares. Pretty easy to figure out the symbolism there, isn’t it? Same thing happens here. The first two servants recognize what God gave them and invest it for a greater return in the kingdom. The third servant, however, doesn’t even deposit the grace. The result is the same weeping and gnashing of teeth in hell that we’ve seen in many of these parables.
How is this different during the tribulation? This is a hard one because I can’t predict the future. Right now, though, when you accept Jesus’ gift of salvation – once God’s grace pours out in your life – nothing can change it. Salvation is sealed. For these two tribulation parables, however, the characters start with something but lose it. In the parable of the ten virgins, the unprepared bridesmaids started with oil – symbolic of the Holy Spirit – but they ran out and couldn’t enter the wedding banquet. Likewise, in this parable, God gives grace to the servant but because he does nothing with it, God takes it away again. As I explained earlier, I believe this is at least part of why God gave us the seventy weeks of Daniel – to show that the last week will link to the first 69. It will be a different time than the era of the church in which we now live. But you know what – we don’t have to wait until the tribulation to invest grace in the lives of those around us. We need to do it now. Extend the grace God gave you into the lives of others before all hell breaks loose on planet Earth. So ends the kingdom parables. And you know, I didn’t plan this, but “Everything We Need” ends with this same message. God gave us grace; our natural response must be to extend it to others.
Questions for personal reflection or group discussion Join the discussion online at http://ow.ly/CrTKJ The focus of the parable of the talents is to invest in others. How does this focus correspond with the Great Commission found in Matthew 28:19-20? ©2014 Kathi Woodall
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These last two kingdom parables from Matthew 25 are in the future tense. They are set in the context of the tribulation. In your own words, why is this significant? What might be different at that time than it is now? Even the smallest bit of God’s grace is sufficient for all our needs. Why might we hold onto it rather than extend it to others? What is our return if we do extend it to others. God forgave our insurmountable sin debt. For that reason, He asks us to invest in the lives of others. How are you investing spiritually in the lives of others? What are some practical steps you might take to begin or increase doing so?
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Endnotes 1
Greek Lexicon: G930 (NIV)." Blue Letter Bible. Accessed 13 Jan, 2014. http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G930&t=KJV 2
"Matthew 18 (King James Version)." Blue Letter Bible. Accessed 13 Jan, 2014. http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Mat&c=18&p=0&rl=0&ss=0&t=KJV 3
Guzik, D. "Text Commentaries: David Guzik (Blue Letter Bible: Matthew)." Blue Letter Bible. Last Modified 7 Jul, 2006. http://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/guzik_david/StudyGuide_Mat/Mat_20.cfm 4
Ibid., Matthew 22.
5
Kelley, J. “The Parable of the Wedding Banquet.” Gracethrufaith. Last Modified 19 May, 2012. http://gracethrufaith.com/topical-studies/parables/the-parable-of-the-wedding-banquet/ 6
"Greek Lexicon :: G589 (KJV)." Blue Letter Bible. Accessed 13 Jan, 2014. http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G589&t=KJV
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