Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost

The eschatological ethical life is the gift of the reign of heaven

Commentary on Matthew 25:1-13

O. Wesley Allen, Jr.

The last few weeks of the liturgical year always focus on eschatological themes as the church calendar winds down toward Reign of Christ Sunday and then the First Sunday of Advent in the new year with its annual focus on the parousia.¹ The final three Gospel lections of Year A are the three parables that make up Matthew 25, the conclusion to Matthew’s eschatological discourse (chapter 24–25). Naming this wider literary context is essential for helping parishioners understand the strangeness of the three parables.

In his redaction of the eschatological discourse in Mark 13, Matthew adds these parables at least in part to make sense of an earlier addition in the discourse. In 24:36–44, Matthew portrays Jesus as drawing an analogy between the parousia and the flood in Noah’s day: Those in the ark were left behind, but those caught in the waters were swept away in judgment. This is the opposite of the way popular culture talks about the “left behind” today based on 1 Thessalonians 4:17, where those saved are caught up together with the resurrected dead to meet Jesus in the sky and taken away, and those judged are left behind.

For Matthew, those left behind are the saved who are gifted with more responsibility for the work of the reign of heaven on earth. Matthew’s purpose in presenting his eschatology in these terms is to call his audience to live eschatologically, to “stay awake” here and now, in between the “already” and the “not yet.”

Already: The birth, teachings, healings/exorcisms, death, and resurrection of Jesus as a whole mark the incursion of the end of the ages, in which we currently live and which we wait to see fulfilled.

Not yet: We also currently live in a day when Caesar (as a symbolic representation of human power enforced on others) and his demonic allies rule with intimidation, oppression, violence, and death and long faithfully for the consummation of God’s reign.

The three parables in chapter 25 (assigned for the final three weeks of the liturgical year) each offer a different metaphorical view into what that eschatological existence looks like for followers of Jesus. The parable of the wise and foolish wedding attendants is the first of these three parables.

Parables by definition have a twist in them that is key to understanding the intended impact of the parable (for example, a tiny mustard seed becoming a great tree, when everyone knew there was no such thing as a mustard tree; Luke 13:18–19). That is a problem for this parable because our knowledge of ancient Jewish and Roman wedding practices is somewhat sketchy. It is difficult to know which elements in the parable reflect actual practices and which the original audience would have recognized as being twisted. Did wedding attendants wait at the groom’s house as described, instead of being part of the wedding procession? What kind of lamps would have been used instead of torches? Was it customary for a groom to come late at night?

That said, the parable’s core meaning is clear enough. Matthew uses this story as an allegory with the groom representing the Son of the Human and his delay representing the delay of the parousia. Past supersessionist, anti-Jewish interpretations of the parable have viewed the foolish bridesmaids who do not have enough oil and are excluded from the party as being the Jews who reject Jesus as the Messiah, and the wise bridesmaids who get to enter the party as the faithful, gentile Christians. But the 10 as a whole await the bridegroom, thus signifying that they all represent followers of Jesus Christ.

Matthew’s audience is the church. Both the wise and the foolish ones, therefore, are to be found in the church, and represent “two ways” of approaching eschatological existence. This means that the parable is not an allegory about those inside the church (who enter the wedding hall) in contrast to those outside the church (who are left outside the wedding hall), but an allegory exhorting those inside the church.

As with the other Matthean wedding parable (22:1–14) that appeared in the lectionary about a month ago, just being invited does not mean one gets to stay. Those not properly robed (22:11–14) or not having enough oil for the long wait (25:3, 10–12) will not enter the reign of heaven. Those not living the ethical life taught by Jesus are not experiencing God’s reign (see 7:13–27). On the surface level, then, the parable exhorts the church (as Jesus does repeatedly in the Eschatological Discourse) to vigilantly do good works in preparation for the impending (albeit delayed) parousia (verse 13), given that the Son of the Human can arrive at any unexpected moment (verse 6).

Parables, however, are never only to be understood at the surface level. For Matthew, the eschatological ethical life is the gift of the reign of heaven. This way of living is a demand to be sure, but more, it is the way we experience the “already” of the reign of heaven in the face of the “not yet” experienced in the continuing reign of Caesar.

The parable is told such that hearers are encouraged to identify with the foolish bridesmaids—notice how much focus is on them as compared to the wise ones. In truth, we all need to be “wiser” in the sense of the parable. Preaching this text invites the congregation to ask not “Are we ready for the second coming?” so much as “In what ways are we not prepared to meet the eschatological Christ ever anew everyday?”