B (2:53)

Right. So let's just underscore this, that of course, Matthew is divided up into these different major speeches of Jesus, as we've seen. And at the beginning of the Gospel, we have the first major discourse of Jesus, the Sermon on the Mount. Now in Matthew 23, 24, 25, we have what we might call the Sermon on the Mounts. Jesus begins in Jerusalem on Mount Zion, which, where he condemns, he excoriates, really the Scribes and the Pharisees. He leaves and then he goes out on the Mount of Olives and he continues his teaching about judgment and what will happen to the Temple and what will happen on the last day.

A (3:32)

Yeah, that comparison is so important. And we talked, I think, about how the three kind of pillars of Jewish catechesis was the idea of Torah and then the idea of Avodah, which was the idea of worship and temple. And then the third thing was Gemalut Hasadim, which means works of mercy. And you know, the Sermon on the Mount moves in that threefold movement where Jesus talks about. You have heard that it was said speaking of the Torah, but I say to you, so teaching Torah. Then in chapter six, he moves to works of piety, which you would expect teaching on the Temple. But he talks about works of piety, prayer, alms, giving, fasting, and then the third part of the Sermon on the Mount, he goes to works of mercy, building treasure in heaven by being generous and giving alms and things like that. And so if you look at Matthew 23, he upgrades. Now he's kind of judging the teachers of the Torah. Then in Matthew 24, he's judging the temple. And now in Matthew 25, we all fall under the judgment of God individually by what we do or don't do.

B (4:30)

And so what we read is that these virgins go out to Meet the bridegroom. And the foolish ones take their lamps, but they have no oil in them. Now it's important to clarify what's going on here. In the ancient world, they, they didn't have electricity. And so the way your lamps worked was based on oil. And oil was a very valuable substance. Now you lived in the Holy Land, so you've had a lot of experience looking at those things. Yeah, I love that.

A (4:57)

And I can't believe we didn't think about bringing an oil lamp in because we have these great oil lamps. A 1st century oil lamp that I got from one of the caves of Qumran that was given the August Institute by a generous benefactor. And these oil lamps fit in the palm of your hand because they couldn't be very big because if they burned too much oil, you'd burn through your oil supply. And your oil supply was limited because the oil that they used in the ancient world was olive oil. And so you could only get so many olives and so many pressings of the olives. And you had to use some of that pressing for your cooking, for the olive oil, for your cooking oil. You had to use some of that olive oil for your, basically your skin, your lotion. It was your hand lotion dry there. It's very dry and chapped. And so then you would have use it for anointing, but also for healing wounds and anointing wounds. But then you'd use it for light and you have a limited supply. So as you burn through your oil supply, you're running out of light and you had to wait for the next season. You couldn't go dig in the ground and get more oil. It was very limited supply and very seasonal.

B (6:00)

Can't just order it from Amazon.

A (6:01)

No, you couldn't. Yeah, and so oil was precious and light was precious. And so that's why when the foolish versions run out of oil, it's not easy to go get it. When you run out of your oil supply, you're stuck until the next season.

B (6:13)

That's right. And so what's the story all about? We read in verse 5, the bridegroom was delayed and they all became drowsy and slept. And here we have a foreshadowing of what's going to happen in the garden of Gethsemane. And we're getting ahead of ourselves, so we'll talk about that more later. But finally the bridegroom comes at midnight and the foolish virgins haven't brought enough oil. And so they fell asleep. And so they didn't turn off their lamps or didn't extinguish their lamps. They go to the wise virgin and say, well, give us some of your oil. And they said, no, we can't do that, because then we won't be prepared when the bridegroom comes. And so they have to go. The wise ones go into the marriage feast, and the foolish ones have to go and try to find some oil somewhere to buy. And when they come back, they're locked out of the wedding feast. And then we have this amazing line where they say, lord, Lord, open to us. Now, that is a remarkable expression, because as we talked about when we were looking at the Sermon on the Mount, the only time in the Greek version of the Old Testament you hear that Lord, Lord used is in reference to.

A (7:21)

God, to God himself. You see that in Exodus 34, 6, where as the Lord tells Moses to put his face in the cleft of the rock, and he passes by with all his glory, says the Lord, the Lord.

B (7:30)

That's right.

A (7:31)

May God, merciful and gracious. And so it's a major claim.

B (7:34)

It's a major claim, right? And so we heard that in the Sermon on the Mount. Now, Jesus is using that expression here, and it's pretty clear in contact, in context, he's talking about his own coming, right? You have to be ready for when the Son of man comes. So Jesus is identifying himself as. As the Lord. But let's be clear. Before Jesus goes on, as he will in the next couple of stories, to talk about that final day of judgment, the context shows us that Jesus is Lord, Lord within the context of a marriage banquet. And that's also significant because in the Old Testament, in the Scriptures of Israel, God is described as Israel's bridegroom. God isn't just Israel's maker. God isn't just Israel's king. God wants to enter into an intimate relationship with his people. And that's what he's calling us all into. In fact, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, on the last day, many will say, lord, Lord. And you will say, depart from me, for I never knew you. So it's so important that we not just do the good works. It's ultimately not about just doing good works. What Christ is calling us into is love, right? We are called to know him. We're called to know the bridegroom. And the way we know him is. Is the same way we know anybody else. We have conversation, we listen to them. And that's why I'm so passionate about these Bible studies and the Bible in A year that we do, because it's really here in Scripture that the Lord is speaking to us and that we have that opportunity to come to know him.

A (9:06)

You're right, Michael. It's so important to know. And I love that covenant theme of knowing throughout Scripture. You know, Adam knows, even she conceives. And so this idea of intimate knowing and intimate relationship that you. That you speak of, and it reminds me of exactly what this imagery of the lamp and the oil is all about. You know, we talked about how precious oil is. And at the center of this parable is Jesus's metaphor of the lamp. And you have a lamp, and then you have the virgins who are foolish, who run out of oil. What does that mean? And I think if we go back to Jesus earlier Sermon on the Mount, we can understand how this metaphor is actually working and what the symbolism of the oil and the lamp and the light is really signifying. And that takes us back to Matthew, chapter 5, verse 14, where Jesus says, you are the light of the world. A city set on a hill. You know, you know, a lamp is not put under a bushel basket, but on a stand so that all may see its light, so that the. So that your good works may be known and that they may give glory to your Father. And so Jesus refers to good works as the light and the oil. And that good works is exactly what you said. It's really love. Because you can't get the bridegroom. If you're not in love with the bridegroom, you can't be welcomed into the eternal heavenly wedding banquet. If you're not in love, you're not going to be in heaven.

B (10:24)

Very good. Very well said. All right, so then it ends. Watch, therefore, for you know, neither the day nor the hour. Picking up on the theme we saw at the end of Matthew 24, then Jesus tells a second parable about a man going out on a journey, and he calls his servants together and he entrusts to them his property, and he gives to each of them talents. Now, when we hear the word talents, I think we immediately think of our unique abilities, you know, the things that we're good at, our skills, our special gifts. And that's an appropriate application of this. But actually, talents is a unit of money in the ancient world. Yeah.

A (11:06)

So to say you're talented was really saying you're rich.

B (11:09)

That's right.

A (11:11)

It has nothing to do with personal skills and abilities.

B (11:13)

That's right.

A (11:14)

It was really about your bank account.

B (11:15)

And the English expression of talents in that way. Actually, flows out of the Christian interpretation of this. So it's really Christian culture that gives us the idea that we all have unique talents, by the way.

A (11:27)

Yeah, it's really fascinating, this idea. And so, you know, here we have this master who's going to leave his servants with a certain amount of talents. And what. What's really striking about the. The steward here, the owner, is that he gives different levels of talents to different servants according to their ability.

B (11:45)

Yeah. One gets five, one gets two. The only. The other one only gets one is. Don't you feel bad for that guy, only got one talent.

A (11:53)

You think so? But if you understand what a talent is, you realize. No, because you're talking about. Think about talents as million dollars. I mean, it's a huge sum of money. That's what it's relevant to in the ancient world. So these talents are enormous sums of money. And so the fact that he just has one talent doesn't mean he's got, you know, one $20 bill in his pocket. He's given a great wealth. And so now the master is going to entrust this great wealth, and he wants them to use it to grow his property and his investments. And so I always like to call this the parable of the investment banker. And. And then he leaves, and he's going to come back and he's going to see how his servants have done.

B (12:33)

That's right. And so we have five talents. The one who is given the five talents are multiplied, right? He goes out and he trades with others, and he makes five talents more. The one who has two does the same, makes two talents more. But the one who is only given the single talent, what does he do? He just buries it in the ground. And when the master comes back, he says, look, this is what I did because I was afraid. I didn't want to mess up. And I think there's a real deep, profound lesson in this, don't you think here, Tim?

A (13:04)

Yeah. Jesus talks about anxiety as something that we have to fight against. And fear and anxiety come from being fatherless. In other words, if we don't see God as our heavenly father who provides and cares for us, we become fearful and anxious and paralyzed by fear. And faith helps us conquer fear.

B (13:23)

That's right. We can't serve both God and mammon. And oftentimes the reason for that is it's a question of where do we put our trust? The Greek word for faith, pistis, means trust. Do we trust in the Lord, or do we trust in our own resources, our own wealth? One of the major reasons we don't contribute, one of the major reasons we don't give to other people, let's be honest, is because of fear. We think, all right, Lord, if I give this money away, what will be there for me in the day of necessity? And yet that's not really the lesson Jesus wants us to learn, now, is it? He wants us to learn not to trust in our own resources, but to trust in him. And so the other servants receive the talents and they. They go out in faith, they take a little bit of a risk, and they multiply what they were given.

A (14:20)

Yeah. And I love in verse 21 what Jesus says to the first steward when he comes back and does an accounting of him. He says, well done, good and faithful servant. I mean, isn't that what we want to hear at the end of our lives from our Father in heaven? Can you imagine God saying to you, well done, good and faithful servant. Right? That is, there's nothing better in our life. There's nothing better we can. There's no achievement that can come close to the glory and the peace and the joy of knowing that hearing those words, God the Father pleased with how we have served him. And. And then he says, look, you have been faithful over a little, and I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. Now Jesus is really teaching something significant there, right?

B (15:07)

He wants us to see that God isn't just holding out salvation to us in a way that is disinterested.

A (15:15)

You're not just finishing a to do list, right?

B (15:18)

God wants us to enter into the joy of his inner life ultimately. And so this is a really important reminder. I remember when I was a college professor, I had a student come to my office one day, and she started to explain that she was really struggling in my class because I kept on talking about how God loves us. And she said, I just know that that's not the case for me. I said, what do you mean? She said, I know God doesn't really love me. God's angry with me. He's given up on me. And I had to explain to her, you don't understand. God wants you to be saved more than you want him to want you to be saved. Right? I mean, he wants you to be saved more than you want to be saved yourself. And I think we often forget about that. You know, sin will teach us that God is somehow our enemy. We see this in the Garden of Eden, right? When Adam and Eve sin, they go and they hide from God. Up until this point, they were not afraid of God. But through the serpent's deceit, we become convinced that God actually has it out for us. This is not the case at all.

A (16:22)

No. And I love how Jesus is what's at the heart of our Lord. And he's revealing this in this parable is he desires to share with you and me the love and the joy he has in the Father. Right. He wants us to share in his joy. And that's what the invitation is. And that's what's so sad about the steward who buries his talent, is he refuses to do the labor, the work, and the giving that's required to bring about an addition, to bring more to the Master. And he even says to the Master, I know you're a hard and hard and calculating man. In other words, he doesn't have love for the Master, so he doesn't want to grow the Master's property.

B (17:07)

And he doesn't expect the Master to have joy in him either. Right. He sees the Master is just his owner, is just his boss. All right, so after this parable, we read about the scene of the final judgment. And here is where we really get that vision of what it is we are going to be called to account to. On the last day we read, when the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. And let's just highlight here how significant it is that Jesus is going to be the judge on the last day. I mean, to be the judge means you have to be able to read people's heart. You have to have all knowledge. Right? And that's precisely what Jesus is claiming to have here. Jesus is nothing less than the God of Israel. Before him will be gathered all the nations.

A (17:57)

That's such an important point. I want to reinforce that for everybody because oftentimes, you know, we know from the historical quest for Jesus that started out of the 19th century, so many German scholars and then others started to look at Jesus. If we look at the life of Jesus, he was a good teacher and he was a good moral teacher. But this isn't about simply moral teaching. He's saying he's the arbiter of what is moral and he's the judge of the moral standards, which means he has to be God.

B (18:22)

Yeah, yeah. It's a very profound statement. Of course, a lot of people in the 19th century would say, well, it's just not believable that Jesus would have seen himself as God. And the reality is what Jesus teaches in the Gospels over and over Again, in many different places, is that he is coming to transcend what had previously been expected. We see this in lots of different ways. In Matthew 11, for example, what is to be known about God can only come to us through the Son, and even the wise and understanding can't grasp it. So Jesus is precisely making the point that he's going to show us something that goes beyond what we would otherwise understand. He says he's going to sit on his glorious throne and before him will be all the. He says before him will be. Will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats and the eggs.

A (19:25)

And they should evoke Ezekiel 34. That's exactly right, you know, because in Ezekiel 34, God speaks and he says, I myself will be the shepherd, and I will separate, I will judge between.

B (19:35)

Sheep and sheep, between rams and male goats. And so Jesus is here identifying himself with. With the role that the Lord God himself will perform in Ezekiel chapter 34. And so then we go on, and Jesus says he will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. And the king will say to those on his right, come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and here it is. What is it that Jesus is going to ask disciples on the last day? What is he going to hold us to account for? I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. And the righteous will answer him, saying, lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink? You know, it's always been interesting to me because if I was there, I.

A (20:38)

Would be like, yes, I'm in. But the integrity and the honesty of the righteous, Lord, when do we see you? When do we feed you? When do we clothe you? When do we visit you in prison? They want to know, and they're being honest in their integrity. And then Jesus says, whenever you did it to the least, yeah, this concerns.

B (20:55)

Me greatly because I think if I was in the spot, I would say, yeah, I'm glad you remembered that. Thanks so much.

A (21:00)

You know, I'm in. I'm going through the gates, right?

B (21:03)

Follow right on in there, all right? And so the righteous answer him, lord, when did we see you do this? And he says to them something remarkable. Amen. I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. Now this reminds us of the scene of Paul on the road to Damascus, right?

A (21:25)

Yeah, I know exactly where Paul gets called out, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? And Jesus identifies himself with, with the Christians that Saul is persecuting. And so you see that kind of the double edged identification here, it's a two edged sword, right? On the one hand, if you persecute the Christians, you're persecuting Jesus. But on the positive side, if you take care of these Christians and the poor, then you're blessing Jesus, right?

B (21:51)

And it's amazing to look at this within the Gospel of Matthew, because who are the brothers of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew? Jesus says, whoever hears, you know, who are my mothers and who are my mother and my brothers? He says, well, it's those who hear the word of God, right? And do it. And so Jesus is identifying himself with believers. And here we have, I think, shades of that mystical body theology of Paul. We also have a remarkable claim here, right? Jesus is saying, whatever you do to the poor, you did to me. Well, that's what God says. Yeah, I know.

A (22:25)

That's so important in the Old Testament, throughout the Old Testament. And of course, one great text that the rabbis loved was Proverbs 19:17, where it says, he who gives to the poor makes a loan to God and God will repay. And so this idea was so stark. For the rabbis to say that God owes you anything would be blasphemous, except that God says it. If you give to the poor, right. God's on the hook to repay you. And so what you do to the poor, you're really doing for it on behalf of Yahweh. And so when Jesus then says, whatever you do to the poor, you're doing to me. He is making the claim that he is the Lord.

B (22:58)

That's right.

A (22:59)

Of Lords.

B (22:59)

That's right. It's amazing to compare this scene in the Gospel of Matthew with another very popular text in the first century, first Enoch. It's not scripture to us. It is quoted in the New Testament, cited by the New Testament, very popular in Jesus's day. And in the Book of Enoch we have a vision of the coming of the Son of Man. And there we read thus the Lord commanded the kings and the mighty and those who possess the land. And he said, open your eyes and lift up your horns if you are able to recognize the chosen one. That's a term for the Messiah. And of course, Jesus says in the Gospel of many are chosen. And Jesus is described as the chosen one of the Father and the Lord of spirits. That's God was seated, seated him, seated the Son of Man on his throne of glory, which is exactly what Jesus says here. The Son of Man will come on his throne, throne of glory. And we read and the word of his mouth will slay the sinners and all the unrighteous will perish from his presence. And there, there will stand up on that day all the kings and the mighty and the exalted and those who possess the land. And they will see and recognize that he sits on the throne of glory. And how he in righteousness, he righteousness is judged in his presence. But notice in 1st Enoch, it's God who's judging. And it's in the Son of Man's presence. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus the Son of man, one who judges. And he says, how you treat others is ultimately how you treated me. This is very different than what you see in First Enoch.

A (24:29)

This is so extraordinary. Jesus is clearly taking the role of God and the God of Israel. And I love one of the key terms he uses here is this idea of inheritance. You know, that's such an important. And I'll just give a reference to your wonderful book on salvation, what every Catholic should know, because we're talking so much here about salvation. And you've given such a great book on this idea. And you know, I think, Michael, a lot of people fall into this false dichotomy, I don't have to do anything to be saved or I have to earn my salvation. And the term Jesus used here, that Paul will pick up quite a bit in Galatians and Romans is the idea of inheritance. And in the Old Testament, Israel is going to inherit the promised land. Throughout the book of Deuteronomy, God keeps talking about the inheritance that he has for Israel. And now Jesus is talking about the inheritance of the kingdom of God, which is going to be heaven for us. And we are going to be to be heirs, we have to be children of God. And it's not by doing good works that we earned that inheritance, but by doing the deeds of love. We become children of God or the bride of the bridegroom, such that we can then get the inheritance right.

B (25:42)

It's not so much that we earn the works in just an economic sense. There is an economic metaphor that's used throughout the Gospels, no doubt about it. But the deeper truth is that we are called to be united to Christ inasmuch as you did to the least of these, my brothers did it to me. We are called to be united to Christ. And who is Christ? He's the Son. And so what does that make us? It makes us sons and daughters. The only reason I am a son of God, you are a daughter of God. The only reason that, that we can say that is because of our union with Christ the bridegroom, right? Who's come to unite us to Him.

A (26:21)

It's so important because Jesus talks about what keeps people from being generous at the end of the Sermon on the Mount is anxiety and fear. He talks about cancer of God and mammon and store up treasure in heaven. Because Jesus knows that we're naturally motivated to store up treasure on earth. But what we oftentimes don't fail is a divine wisdom to store up treasure in heaven. And so the man who fails to invest his talent was paralyzed by fear and anxiety. And so Jesus goes on for the whole second half of Matthew, chapter six, talking about, don't be anxious about what you'll eat or drink or what you wear. Don't be afraid of this uncertain future. Because I think, you know, the one thing that paralyzes people from being generous is fear of the future. Because I don't know what I need in the future, because the future is uncertain. Therefore, how can I give in the present when the future tomorrow is so uncertain? And Jesus says, there is a way you can give in the present even if you have an uncertain future. And it's because your Father, who is in the present is also in the future. And your Father knows what you need, and he provides for the birds of the air and clothes, the lilies of the field. And your Father will take care of you. And so you can entrust tomorrow to your Heavenly Father.

B (27:37)

Well said. When I was younger, I used to think of the offertory at Mass as the intermission. Right? So we've got through the homily. Now we're going to have the Liturgy of the Eucharist. Let's just take a break for a minute and sit down. Far from it. The offertory is a fundamentally important part of the Sunday liturgy because what we're doing there is putting into practice the teachings of Jesus. On the one hand, we're learning to trust in him, we're learning to part with our hard earned money, right? But then at the same time, we're giving to those who are in most need. And of course, that doesn't just apply to the Eucharistic liturgy, but it applies to all the various ways that we support other people. And of course, thank you to all of you who support us through the Mission Circle. Otherwise, we just have these oil lamps. I don't know how we would have enough light.

A (28:30)

That's right. No, exactly right. I mean, we are deeply grateful for everybody in the Mission Circle because you help us reach more people. You know, we just did a Bible conference for Holy Week, and we were able to offer it free and get over 20,000 people because of our Mission Circle members. They help us be able to make these things, offer things for free, and provide programming, informed, and it's a great blessing. So grateful to all of you who support us. And then I think, you know this passage with Mother Teresa of Calcutta. She talked about discovering Jesus in the distressing disguise of the poorest of the poor. And again, you know, we can think, oh, I wish I could be back in the first century to help Jesus. We can. And we can help Jesus today, especially by helping the poorest of the poor. And that's something that God calls us to. To do something beautiful for Jesus by helping and blessing the poor. That's so important. So here we have Matthew 25, three incredible stories where Jesus gives us the final examination, what we will be measured by and what will be asked at the end of our life. And so it always fills me with fear and trepidation when I read this because I feel like, oh, my goodness, I've got to up my game. And I always go back with more humility to God and begging him for the grace to be more faithful to him. That's so important. Well, we want to thank everybody for joining us for our Bible study. Next time, we're going to dive into Matthew chapter 26, and we'll begin with the Passion narrative. But we want to thank all of you for joining us on this journey through the Gospel of Matthew. God bless you.