Keep Watch

Matthew 25: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matt+25&version=NIV

            I made the case briefly on Saturday that Jesus’ horizon had changed at the end of Matthew 24, that is, He shifted His focus from the nearer, more immediate event of the destruction of Jerusalem to the further, more remote event of the end of the age. That argument is bolstered in chapter 25, in which Jesus tells three parables. In the first, He warns about the hiddenness of that Day, in the second He calls for preparation for that Day, and in the third He describes the work His people should be engaged in until that Day.

            Jesus’ explicit point in the parable of the 10 virgins is, “Keep watch.” Permit me just a comment on the religious culture we live in. If you’ve ever paid attention to the Christian television or publishing industries, you’ve heard preachers or seen books that tell you that the end times are near. They’re all about watching the signs and making events in our day and age match events or prophecies in the Bible. There are so many problems with that approach I don’t know where to start! We could just start with the issue of horizons I talked about yesterday; these ‘teachers’ want to force the horizon of the text to today. The problem is that ancient prophecy had to mean something in the day of and for the first hearers. It makes no sense that a prophet would utter a word that wasn’t going to mean something for 2,500 years and that anyone would remember it if they didn’t understand its importance in their own day.

            Anyhow, the point of the parable of the 10 virgins is that if they had known the hour the bridegroom was coming, they wouldn’t have been unprepared—but they can’t know the hour! They needed to be awake and watching the whole night. Jesus’ command, “Keep watch,” does not mean looking for signs and trying to figure out the whats and the whens of God’s hidden counsel. It means stay awake, stay prepared, and keep at the work the Lord has given to His Church until He unexpectedly returns.

            The second parable builds on that understanding. The man with one bag of gold is not chastised for poor results. Yes, the 5-bag and the 2-bag man each doubled their master’s investment. But the 1-bag man is chastised for not doing anything. He didn’t put the money to work at all. The Church has work to do in the period between Jesus’ ascension and His second coming, and woe to that church that doesn’t stay at it—even if the results aren’t everything they could wish.

            Then, in the third parable, Jesus turns His attention to what that work looks like. We’d be easily forgiven if we summarized the work as reaching out to others; there are certainly passages in this very Gospel that lead us in that direction. Yet here Jesus’ focuses on acts of love and service: feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger, visiting the sick. Now, if we took account of everything the Scripture had to say about the work of the church, we’d have to say that no one comes to faith because the church ran a food pantry, but that food pantry can be an act of love and create an open door to share the Church’s truest treasure, salvation in Christ. Set that all aside, the Church stays prepared by staying engaged in its world.