Matthew 25:1-46
25:1 Remember that "virgins" are metaphorically representative of humans who remained spiritually faithful to the True God. In this metaphor, Christ is the bridegroom. He is the Husband-To-Be. These humans live their lives with the intention of finding their husband. They bring their lamps (their souls).
25:2 Half of these humans are going to remain faithful to God and half will not.
25:3 Five of these humans lived life without oil in their lamp. Let's uncover the metaphor: Five of these humans lived life without God in their soul.
25:4 The other five of these humans lives life with oil in their vessels. Let's uncover the metaphor: Five of these humans lived life with God in their soul.
25:5 As we know, Jesus waits an unspecified amount of time before returning. The husband is "delayed" and this therefore gives the wives a bit of freedom and time to distinguish themselves. By delaying His return, God allows people to live their lives in freedom so that they can choose to accept the awaiting husband or to deny Him. Remember: Jesus is a spiritual husband! Your union with Him is a spiritual union (not a romantic union).
25:6-7 Jesus returns and the wives (the 10 humans) awake and make their way to meet Him.
25:8 The five humans who did not live with God in their soul (with oil in their lamps) could not make the journey to Jesus. Why? They don't even recognize Him; they can't even see. They are not prepared, their souls chose another god, a false god and they are scrambling because of their poor choices.
25:9 The wise humans, who are able to return to Jesus, will not trade or dilute their souls. They have committed wholeheartedly to Jesus and are eager to unite with Him. They suggest the foolish humans to work to meet Jesus fairly. You have to do the work. You cannot ride on another's work. You can't piggy-back your way into heaven. Just because your friend or mother or sibling is good and true, does not mean they can save you a space in heaven. Your work, individually, creates or denies your space in heaven.
The wise humans tell the foolish: If you want to join Jesus, you must do it they way He taught, there is no other way.
25:10 Therefore, those who were workers of God and were observant make it in time to enter God's House. Those who are workers of injustice and were ignorant toward the truth... will have chosen to miss their chance.
That's a beautiful thing about God: He lets US decide where we want to be. God does not deny us anything. God offers us everything: eternal love and peace. We deny ourselves His gifts... He never denies us anything. If we behave wickedly, we willingly give up the gifts he offers us.
25:11 When evil people see the wonders of Heaven and the returning of the good children... they will want to join. Of course they will! God offers us everything of truth, beauty, love and light. Unfortunately, God will not allow a soul who chose to be unfamiliar in the word of God. Evil cannot enter or exist in His house. The light eats darkness up into oblivion. An evil soul cannot withstand the power of God's light.
And remember -- God invited everyone to the wedding. He invited the whole 10. The whole Earth. He gave and gives everyone a chance -- some people squander it away.
We talk often about "good" and "bad" but remember to relate these things to everyday life. Each day we are given lessons and choices. We can learn from our mistakes when we make bad choices. We deal with other people throughout the day and we must be able to honestly say that we were kind, honest and fair to everyone we encountered. This is not always easy, in fact, sometimes it's hard.
Do not negatively judge yourself when you have an instinct of reacting badly to someone who has treated you poorly. This is natural. But you are child of God. You know better than to replicate the same wicked attitude/ action as the one which was used against you. Children of God choose right even when wrong is tempting, and that makes the difference.
Challenge yourself to go to bed each night able to fairly and accurately say that everything you said, did and implied was done with good-intention. Does that mean to let people walk over you? No, of course not. You should always stand firm, you should be courageous -- but in defending yourself, be honest, be fair and refrain from negativity. State the facts and move on. Hopefully the person will have learned a lesson. Go to bed each night knowing you did your best through whatever circumstances you faced.
25:12 God wants to know you. If you live your life, Earth on Earth, with Him by your side... He will know you. Truly know you for you worked alongside Him in your life.
25:13 Another reminder from Jesus, who is doing His best to impress this into our minds: Watch. Be ready. Be good.
25:14 We begin a new parable here: The Parable of the Talents and we can derive a lot of the meaning of life from this parable. God placed humans on the Earth and gave to them each unique abilities (directly from Him). Abilities such as charisma, intelligence, understanding, a platform from which to teach... there are so many ways God sets each person up. Some people are born teachers, others surgeons, or grandfathers or best friends... We each are placed uniquely by God into a situation where our specific personalities can have an impact, a powerful influence on those around us.
25:15 Now, with our abilities, God assigns us jobs. Each job varies. Some people are challenged to influence a lot of people. For example, an intelligent brain might be challenged to become a surgeon and save 100s of people. A person who is especially courageous might be challenged to save 1 person who is bullied and needs a friend. God intricately positions us on the Earth. He gives us each a "talent" and with that talent, He wants us to save/help/influence another (or many others).
25:16 So, the person in this parable with 5 talents can be thought of as a person with a gift from God which would help and enable them to reach at least 5 other people. (Remember that this "5" can be representative of any number). So, this person, perhaps the surgeon we spoke of, worked very hard to perfect and use her skills to help many others.
25:17 Another person, with 2 talents (a different ability) perhaps a teacher, used his God-given skills of logic and reasoning to reach out and educate others who could benefit from his skills.
25:18 Another person received 1 talent. Remember that God gives each person no more than they can handle. Perhaps this person had trouble with logic and reasoning and does not have the mind or memory for surgical work... but instead, this person has been given a courageous heart. Perhaps this person's courageous heart is enough, when put into effect, to save a little boy on a bus who is bullied by other kids.
Each of these skills is measured equally by God. Each individual is to important to God that whether you save hundreds or just one person, His heart is overjoyed. If you change one persons life for the better, you have changed the world. God is grateful for all work done in His name.
But the problem is, this person who received 1 talent, does not use it for God. Instead, this person hide their abilities and did not use them. This person instead became concerned only with himself and hid his abilities away.
25:19 God returns and takes inventory. He wants to see how we used our abilities to reach others. That's God's plan for us... He wants us to choose to love each other. He wants us to choose to help each other. He gives us the abilities to do so and He's so excited to see how many people we have loved and helped through difficult times.
25:20 The first person did their work. They used their abilities selflessly for others' benefit.
25:21 God's heart was glad. He welcomed this person into His house.
25:22 The next person came and was revealed to have done the same. God measured how much they were capable of, and they reached their mark. God expect no more and no less of what we are capable of.
25:23 God's heart was glad. He welcomed this person also into His house. Remember why God is so happy: God is happy because not only is this person walking into God's house... but also because walking with this person, is all of the people they influenced and supported and encouraged.
25:24 The third person did nothing with their abilities. Instead, they blamed God. This person whined and complained that they did not want to do any work and therefore, they did not influence, support or encourage a single person. They did not spread the message of God through there actions and because of that, the people they could have helped remained helpless.
25:25 This person tries to walk through the house of God. This person says, well, I did not bring anyone with me... but I am still going to walk through the door.
25:26 God does not allow this person inside. Why? Well, think of the example. This person could have helped that bullied child and instead chose not to. This is a hateful choice. This choice revealed to God that this person had a hateful, selfish heart.
We all make mistakes. We have all done things we regret and we all have not always acted our best or made the right choices --but sometime in our lives, we must learn from and recognize our mistakes. When we recognize and learn from our mistakes, we admit *authentically* to God that we are ashamed of our bad behavior and that our hearts are sad because of the harm we did (either by inaction or bad action). God forgives us and walks with us as we hopefully begin making the right choices.
However, this person never felt bad. This person never apologized. God points this out in the next verse.
25:27 God is upset. He is telling this person, not only did you not help anyone else during your time here... you also corrupted yourself. God is saying that he is not even getting back the person he started with because this person has chosen to neglect God.
25:28 Therefore, the place for this person in heaven is given to another person -- a deserving person. God is always fair.
Remember, there is unlimited room in heaven. There is a place for everyone, but everyone does not accept or work for their space. God rearranged things, He gives more space to His children who earned it if a space opens up.
25:29 We get what we put in. If you've dedicated much of yourself to the people of the world; God dedicates so much to you. If you are violent and selfish, you have taken from humanity and therefore what you do have (an invitation to the eternity) is taken from you too.
25:30 The selfish servant is removed and eliminated. They will be angry, but remember that they will not be sorry. God always forgives an apologetic heart.
25:31 Jesus comes and presides over all of us. And we will be glad to have Him.
25:32 Jesus will comb through all of humanity; God will look into our hearts and decide where each of us belongs.
25:33 The good will live beside God and the bad will be place elsewhere (they will be eliminated).
25:34 Jesus gathers all of the true children under God's wing and delivers to them all of the love and protection that was promised to them.
25:35 Bask in this verse, it teaches us how deeply we are loved by God. He considers us a part of himself. We are His children: when we are hungry, He feels the hunger pains, when we are thirsting for something, he himself feels depleted, and when we have no protection, our vulnerability hurts His heart. He has an incredible, selfless love for us. For who? For people who fed his starving children (metaphorically and literally), for people who protected those without safety and for people who carried others out of desperation.
25:36 Jesus continues this powerful verse: He suffers when we suffer. He is so appreciative, so grateful for the children who clothe, heal and free other children. When we free a person, we free a part of Jesus' heart. Think about your own family members... when they are in pain, you pain with them. It is the same for God. And when someone encourages or saves your child... the gratitude you have for that person is immeasurable. God's love is perfect, full and deep.
25:37-39 This is a characteristic of humble people: they are usually unaware of all the good they do. Humble people do not boast or help others for show or for reward and therefore, they don't often realize the impacts they have had on others' lives. These humble, good children of God are wondering what they did to deserve all of the credit Jesus just gave them. To be honest, they're baffled. They did not even realize how many they helped... because they helped because they cared and not to keep score.
25:40 Powerful. Jesus tells them, when you save even one quiet, tiny child of God, it is recognized enormously by God. We are a part of His heart. Our acts of kindness flow directly through His heart.
25:41 Similarly, when a person is evil and hurts a child... that pain runs directly through God's heart. He is pained and sorrowful when we are in pain or filled with woe. Therefore: He destroys the people who created and spread evil and pain.
25:42-43 God remembers all of the suffering caused by wicked people. Nothing slips past His notice. He remembers the long, difficult nights His true, innocent children have lived through.
25:44 Evil people do not like to acknowledge their wrong-doing. They think they are guiltless. God catches them off guard -- God has counted every one of their horrible actions. They did realize that what they did to the children of God, they were also doing to God himself. Wicked people try to get out of punishment. It won't work.
25:45 Surprise! The mean and selfish people of the world will find out that their hateful actions are known and remembered by God.
25:46 The good live with God forever. The bad are eliminated... they do not even exist anymore, that is their everlasting punishment. They do not get to live with God in peace and love... they give up a beautiful opportunity.
