Jesus is the last and greatest of the Prophets. He is the Prophet that Moses predicted (Deuteronomy 18). That means He gives the final word, brings the blueprints for the final temple, speaks the final world into existence, and has complete and permanent access to the divine court, where He can offer a defense for His people. Everything prophets have done, Jesus does, and more. That has tremendous implications for understanding how to interpret the specific prophecies that Jesus spoke during His lifetime. If He is the Last Great Prophet of Israel, we should try to understand His prophecies in the way we understand the prophets of the Old Testament. Israel’s prophets, in short, give us a pattern and a model for understanding Jesus’ prophecies.
What we find in many of the Old Testament prophets is the reality of double fulfillment. There is often a double time frame operating in prophecies of the Old Testament. Jeremiah prophesies that a new covenant is coming for Israel, and he explicitly speaks of entry into the land, restoration from exile. “Days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.” It is a prophecy in the first instance that was fulfilled in the history of Israel in the Old Testament. It’s about return from exile. A few verses earlier, Jeremiah said, “They shall again use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I bring back their captivity” and “I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast.” When we get to the New Testament, though, Hebrews quotes from this passage and applies it to the new covenant in Jesus. Jeremiah’s prophecy was actually fulfilled in the restoration from exile, but there is a surplus that is not fulfilled until the coming of Jesus.
Likewise, Isaiah prophecies about the coming of the Messiah. Isaiah also says that in the “last days” the mountain of the house of the Lord will become the chief mountain. Nations will stream to it, and they will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. When was that fulfilled? It was fulfilled in the last days, the days after Israel returned from exile, and it was also fulfilled in the first advent of Jesus, and it is still being fulfilled today. Isaiah also talks about a Davidic king. He is going to be a Davidic king, and the government will be on his shoulders; His government and peace will increase; He will establish it with justice and righteousness forever. That’s Jesus, and that was fulfilled in the first advent of Jesus. But the first advent of Jesus was just the beginning. There was much more to come.
This is what typology is about. Typology is a way of interpreting Scripture. It puts the work of Christ at the center, and interprets the Old Testament as a series of foreshadowings of Christ.
But more fundamentally, typology is a way of looking at history. When we read history typologically, we see recurring patterns, patterns that the Bible highlights for our instruction. There is not just one exodus, but many exoduses; there is not just one fall into sin, but many falls into sin; there is not just one man who moves from suffering to glory, but many. We find ourselves in the middle of a biblical story, and we can see how it’s going to turn out. And even more fundamentally than that, typology is about God. It assumes that God works in history in a consistent way. The Bible gives us clues to God’s habits, and so we can anticipate what He’s up to in our lives, and we can follow His lead faithfully. God is consistent. He does the same kinds of things over and over again.
All this is important for understanding the final section of the Olivet Discourse. I have been interpreting the Olivet Discourse throughout as a prophecy concerning the coming of the Son of Man to destroy Jerusalem and the temple in AD 70. Jesus tells us explicitly that these things will take place before the generation of the apostles passes away. Yet, I’ve also emphasized that this passage applies, in a secondary way, to the church throughout all ages. Because God is consistent, because God does the same kinds of works again and again, we can find other times when some similar sequence of events occurred. When we get to the end of chapter 25, we come to a passage that is almost universally understood as a passage about the final judgment. Even Bible students who think the rest of Matthew 24 is about AD 70 think that Jesus shifts here. And here the pattern of Old Testament prophecy becomes especially important.
There are clues that the text is connected to the events Jesus has been describing, that the judgment of the nations, the sifting of the nations into sheep and goats that He describes here, is connected to the first-century events that he’s been describing. Jesus says that all this will happen when the Son of Man comes in glory with His angels (v. 31). Jesus has used almost this same phrase earlier in Matthew, when He warned that the Son of Man would come to “recompense every many according to His deeds” (16:27). In that earlier passage, Jesus says that some of the disciples would live to see it (16:28). The judgment scene in Matthew 25 takes place at the end of the Old Covenant. The other clue is the phrase “glorious throne.” That phrase is used only one other time in Matthew, in 19:28, where Jesus promises that “in the regeneration, when the Son of Man comes on the throne of His glory” the Twelve will sit on “twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” The regeneration is not the end of the world, but the beginning of the new creation that was initiated in Jesus’ ascension and the beginning of His reign over all things. And Jesus is talking about the Twelve sharing in His assessment and judgment of Israel. That’s part of the apostolic age, and it’s when the Son of Man sits on His glorious throne.
The Olivet Discourse progresses from the judgment on Jerusalem (24:1-35) to a warning about Jesus’ assessment of His own disciples (24:36-25:30) to a judgment on the nations (25:31-46). This section is about the Son of Man’s judgment on the nations. The nations are going to be shaken by the coming of the Son of Man. Jesus has said that before the end comes, the gospel will be preached to the entire oikoumene (24:14). The Roman world from one end to the other will hear the good news of Jesus, as the apostles fulfill the commission that Jesus gives at the end of Matthew, the great commission. During that time, nations and cities are going to accept or reject the gospel. At the end of the age, Jesus is going to assess and judge the nations based on their treatment of these missionaries. Matthew 25, I think, describes the way that Jesus will assess nations on the basis of their treatment of the apostles.
The nations will be judged according to their treatment of Jesus’ “brothers” (25:40, 45). The naked, hungry, sick, imprisoned in this passage are not, in the first instance, the poor and needy in general. They are the brothers of Jesus, and I think specifically the missionaries that Jesus sends out. Jesus earlier sent out the Twelve, and judged the cities of Samaria and Galilee based on their treatment of the missionaries (10:1-15; 11:20-24). The missionaries went out without anything, and the cities that received the gospels had to care for the missionaries as well. When the gospel moves to the Roman empire, the nations will be judged in the same way. In the first instance, the nations will be judged according to whether they received the traveling missionaries sent by Jesus (cf. 10:42).
We can put it this way: Jesus is the seed of Abraham, and His “brothers” are children of Abraham. Because of that, they are the bearers of the Abrahamic promise, and the Abrahamic promise is, “I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you.” That’s one way, the main way, that the apostles will participate in the judgment of the nations and the judgment on the twelve tribes of Israel. They participate by bearing the Abrahamic promise. Whoever gives a cup of cold water to a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward.
Now, this begins with the dispersion of the Twelve with the great commission, but it doesn’t end there. Throughout the history of the church, the nations are being judged by their response to the gospel, and their response to the bearers of the gospel. In this, the judgment of the nations is perfectly consistent with Jesus’ judgment of the tribes of Israel. The Son of Man comes to destroy Israel because of the abomination of desolation, because the harlot Jerusalem drinks down the blood of the saints, and is ripe for desolation as a result. For Israel, that’s not only a moral but a ceremonial evil. When other nations drink the blood of the saints, they put themselves in a similar danger. When the nations receive Jesus’ messengers, clothe them, feed them, visit them, they are going to receive a reward from the Son of Man. But there are also hints here that Jesus is talking about something beyond AD 70, something even beyond the process of sifting and judgment that takes place throughout the church’s history. There are signs in the text that Jesus is talking about a final judgment, which occurs at the end of all things.
Jesus’ rewards and punishments are permanent. The King says to the sheep on the right that they are “blessed of the Father” and will “inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” At the end, he says that the righteous enter into “eternal life.” The goats, meanwhile, are sent off to “eternal fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels.” Those don’t sound like historical judgments. He is not simply saying that these nations will collapse, or that they will be invaded by enemies, or that they will become poor. He’s sending people to eternal life or death, to the kingdom or to hell. More generally, the end of the old covenant foreshadows the end of the new, just as Old Testament prophecies are frequently fulfilled in Jesus’ ministry and more fully later. It’s not surprising that the New Testament teaches that a final judgment will take place after the millennium (19:11-12), and that final judgment will also be a judgment “according to their deeds” (Revelation 19:12). Our entry to life or death will be determined by how we treat Jesus, as He shows Himself in His brothers.
We can draw two conclusions from this passage, the first theological and the second a practical one. The three parables in Jesus’ Olivet Discourse all emphasize that Jesus assesses His disciples according to their performance. The judgment scene at the end of Matthew 25 makes the same point: The ones who enter life are the ones who have acted righteously toward the least of Jesus’ brothers. It’s not enough to be a household servant; how do you perform your responsibilities? Are you being a faithful priest, preparing food at the proper time, or are you drinking yourself drunk and beating your fellow servants? It’s not enough to be part of the wedding party; are you a wise or a foolish virgin? Are you putting aside a reserve of oil, continually seeking a fresh outpouring of the oil of the Spirit to keep your lamp burning? It’s not enough to be given a talent; the question is, what do you do with that talent?
The judgment at the end of chapter 25 takes this even further. These people are not being judged by what they do, but, like the virgins, for what they haven’t done. They are being sent to eternal punishment or eternal life based on whether they have actively assisted the naked, the hungry, the sick, the imprisoned, whether or not they have sought out needy people and actually helped them, generously giving of their own things to help others. Many Protestants like to minimize this kind of passage, and weaken it. Protestants insist that we’re not saved by what we do; we’re saved by what Jesus does. When we stand at the final judgment, Matthew 25 does not describe what’s going to happen, many Protestants think. Jesus won’t ask whether we’ve been generous to the needy, but whether we believe in justification by faith. We won’t be judged by our righteousness, but by the imputed righteousness of Jesus.
These passages, and many others, show that we will be judged by what we do, according to our works. There are no passages in Scripture that say anything different. We are brought into the kingdom by God’s grace and favor, but in the end we will be judged by our works. We have a standing as slaves of the house by the grace of God, but we are finally assessed based on our performance as slaves. Of course, we’re saved by what Jesus does. But what Jesus does is to produce good works, make us faithful household servants, give us the wisdom to be faithful virgins, enable us to invest and gain an increase. That’s Jesus working in us. But if He’s really working in us, He’s going to produce fruit in us.
The practical point has to do with the basis for judgment. Think about the situation Jesus has been talking about. Judgment is coming on Jerusalem, and the nations are going to be shaken. What should the disciples do? They would be tempted to hoard their goods, stockpile weapons, hunker down for the tough times. Get a generator, for sure. That’s what we’re tempted to do. It is a temptation, and needs to be resisted. As the disciples await the judgment, they should be doing what Jesus has done: Not hoarding, but giving; not stockpiling but serving; not hunkering down but clothing the naked, feeding the hungry. That’s the way to prepare for disaster. I’ve said that in the first instance Jesus is talking about the treatment of His “brothers,” those who are sent out on a mission to the nations. But Jesus is also judging based on our treatment of the poor and needy generally. He’s not saying: You need to provide for the poor, if they are Christians, but otherwise you can simply ignore them. We are judged based on whether we actively provided for those who needed food and clothing, by whether we are visiting the sick and imprisoned.
He doesn’t judge based on how well we know our catechisms, whether we know how to dot every “i.” He doesn’t judge based on whether we support the right kinds of candidates and causes. He doesn’t judge us by our beauty, or our skill, or our intelligence. He doesn’t judge based on whether we conform to middle class American expectations. He doesn’t even judge us by how well we avoid sin, how well we avoid murder, anger, adultery, lust, envy, slander. He judges us by our works, and by whether or not we have actively done good, not whether we have simply avoided evil. He judges us based on whether we have produced the righteousness that surpasses the righteousness of the scribes. Jesus is sending people to hell because they failed to care for the needy.
In this too, Jesus is the final prophet. Many of the prophets addressed both Israel and the nations. When they addressed Israel, they condemned Israel for idolatry, for violations of the law. They condemned Israel for mistreatment of the poor, but that too was on the basis of the law. When they address the nations, the standard is different. Those who have the law are condemned by the law; but those without law are condemned on a different basis. They are judged based on whether or not they abuse the image of God, whether or not they mistreat the weak.
Jesus is a final prophet, but He has deepened this prophetic theme. Jesus identifies Himself with the hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, imprisoned, and strangers. That’s nothing new. He’s been doing that His whole life. Jesus spent much of His ministry associating with outcasts, tax gatherers and sinners (9:10-11; 11:19), feeding the hungry (15:32), calling prostitutes to repent (21:13), encouraging generosity to the poor (19:21), rescuing the helpless. Jesus focused His ministry on bringing the good news to the poor (11:5; cf. Luke 4:18), and He identifies Himself with them. Treatment of the needy is thus the basis for the judgment of the nations because these are the people that the Son of God has chosen to identify as His brothers.
Incarnation means that God the Son, the Eternal and Almighty God, takes flesh, every bit of it. He takes every bit of our condition to Himself. We are naked and ashamed; Jesus takes that to Himself, and calls the naked His brothers. We are hungry for the tree of life, thirsty for the water of the garden; Jesus takes that to Himself, too. We are sick, imprisoned, strangers – and Jesus assumes all that to Himself, makes that too His brother, becomes a stranger, takes our infirmities on Himself, allows Himself to be arrested and mistreated. He comes to be brother to the stranger, brother to the naked, brother to godforsakenness, brother to despair, brother to death, brother to the cross, brother to every last sling and arrow that flesh is heir too.
“Where were you?” the goats ask. Jesus says, “I was there in front of you, in the beggar, in the homeless, in the drunk and the drug addict, in the mentally ill, in the unemployed.” “Where were you?” they ask. “I showed the face of the Father in the broken image of humanity, and if you want to find Me, and serve Me, then you’ll have to look there.” “Where were you?” “I was right there,” Jesus says, “and if you ministered to the least of these My brothers, you minister to Me.”
Peter J. Leithart is President of Trinity House.