INTRODUCTION

Jesus finishes His prophetic discourse with a series of three parables – the parable of the wicked slave (24:45-51), the parable of the ten virgins (25:1-13), and the parable of the talents (25:14-30). Each of these is about expectation, and each describes how wise and faithful disciples respond to their master’s delay.

THE TEXT

“Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them . . . .” (Matthew 25:1-30).

HOUSEHOLD SERVANTS

As we saw last week, the brief parable of the servants of the house is tied directly to Jesus’ predictions about the destruction of the temple. Jesus’ “house” is His temple, and the servants in the parable are implicitly priests. Like priests, they have to provide food at the proper time (v. 45; cf. Numbers 28-29). If Jesus’ disciples fail to serve His people, His temple, and join the drunkards (Leviticus 10:9; Deuteronomy 21:18 -21; cf. 1 Corinthians 10), they will themselves become sacrifices, cut in two by the Master.

THE BRIDEGROOM COMES

The parable of the virgins ends with a warning to “be on the alert” (25:13), which echoes the warning that Jesus gave in 24:42. This parable too is about the delay between Jesus’ departure in the ascension and His “return” a generation later for the wedding feast (25:1; cf. Revelation 19:1-10). Again, the symbolism suggests a temple setting. The temple was the “trysting place” of Yahweh and Israel (cf. 2 Chronicles 3:1 with Ruth 3). Like Passover, the coming of the Bridegroom happens at midnight (25:6; Exodus 12:29 ; cf. Esther 6; Acts 16:25 ; 27:27-44). The virgins are attendants of the Bride, the ones who prepare her for the wedding and the coming of the Bridegroom. Perhaps they are meant to symbolize Israel , who was supposed to prepare the way for the coming of the full Bride, in which there is no Jew or Greek. Like the servants in the previous parable, some of the virgins are prepared for the wedding and others are not; they arrive too late and are shut out (vv. 8-11). The wise virgins keep the oil of the Spirit, and thus shines like lights in the dark world (cf. Matthew 5:15 -16). “Buying and selling” is a liturgical image (Isaiah 55:1; Revelation 3:18 ), and the foolish virgins don’t go to the “market” soon enough to have a supply of oil.

TALENTS

A talent is equivalent to 6000 denarii, or 20 years wages for a day laborer. Household servants are like priests; but the servants in this parable handle money, and function more as kings (cf. 2 Samuel 12:30 ; 1 Kings 9:14 ; 10:10 , 14; etc.). The question with this parable is about timing: Is Jesus still talking about the time between His departure and the “settling of accounts” in AD 70? Or is He talking about the entire period between His ascension and the final judgment? Two details hint that Jesus has changed theme. First, as noted, 25:13 matches 24:42, and thus closes out the section about the “day and hour” that is coming within “this generation.” Second, the master in this parable is gone for a “long time” (v. 19). Jesus thus appears to be talking about the whole age between the ascension and the final judgment.