Last month here in San Diego, parents were hit with a double whammy of circumstances which made proper planning paramount. During the last weekend before school started, when last-minute moms like me were raiding what was left in the Target bins, Hurricane Hillary was due to hit us—the first tropical storm to hit southern California in an age.
People were scrambling, preparing with sandbags and clearing out shelves of food in the grocery store. We were preparing food and water for the school week and in the name of disaster-preparedness. Everyone wanted to make sure we’d be okay in the event of a prolonged power outage, and we also wanted our kiddos to have their outfits and lunchboxes ready.
Parables of preparation
Whether it’s a storm or a new school year, no one wants to be caught unprepared. We want to control as much as possible for the smoothest and best experience. It’s only natural. Jesus talked a lot about preparing in a series of parables in the gospel of Matthew. In a series of three short stories, he told his disciples to be ready for his return.
The first is that of the faithful and unfaithful servant (Mt. 24:45-51). During the master’s absence, the wise and faithful servant is at work and making sure the other workers are fed properly and on time. As a reward, the master puts him in charge of all his possessions. The unfaithful servant uses the master’s delay as an excuse to beat the other workers and eat and drink with drunkards. As a result, the master’s return is unexpected and the unfaithful servant is cut off from life.
The second is the parable of the ten bridesmaids (Mt. 25:1-13) who go to meet the bridegroom. Five of them are foolish and bring no oil to refill their lamps. Five are wise and bring along flasks for extra oil. While the bridegroom is delayed, all ten of them fall asleep. The bridegroom’s arrival is announced with a shout. The foolish ask the wise for extra oil but are told to go buy some for themselves. As they do so, the wise follow the bridegroom into the wedding banquet and the door is shut. When the foolish ones return, the bridegroom says “Truly, I tell you, I do not know you” (v. 12).
Interestingly, this is the only one of the three parables in which Jesus tacks on an admonition: “Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” (Mt. 25:13)
In the parable of the talents (Mt. 25:14-30), a man entrusts his property to his slaves while he is away on a journey. The man who was given five talents traded them and earned five more. The man who was given two talents also doubled his earnings in this way. The third man admits that he was afraid, and buried his talent. The property owner praises the two men upon his return, but calls the third man “wicked and lazy,” asking him why he didn’t at least put his talent in the bank to accrue interest. As a result, this man is thrown into outer darkness and his talent is given to the man with ten.
What does this mean for us?
Jesus didn’t often explain his parables and sometimes we do ourselves a disservice by believing that their meaning is obvious. We tend to wrap up these stories with pretty bows that conclude: And the moral of the story is….
These short stories were meant to provoke our assumptions and to challenge our understanding. Jewish New Testament scholar Amy-Jill Levine writes:
“Reducing parables to a single meaning destroys their aesthetic as well as ethical potential.”
So I’ll resist the urge to over-simplify, and instead share some observations.
In each of these parables, the master/bridegroom is delayed. People must wait on him, and it’s what they do in the waiting that counts. The ones who wait well—the faithful servant, the five wise bridesmaids, the first and second slave—are rewarded.
How did they wait well?
The faithful servant is responsible: he is working and he is making sure others are cared for and have enough to eat.
The five wise bridesmaids are prepared: even though they fell asleep, they were ready with extra oil for their lamps when it was time to go.
The first and second slaves were confident and industrious: they took risks with their master’s money, but they were confident their efforts would pay off.
Conversely, the people who did not wait well were punished. The unfaithful servant used the delay as an excuse to mistreat others and was cut off from life as a result. The five foolish bridesmaids weren’t prepared and missed out on relationship and celebration with the bridegroom. The third slave acted out of fear and buried his master’s money and so he consequently lost what had been given to him.
Some challenging questions
Each of these parables compels me to ask: how am I living towards Jesus’ return? Why this long wait, and am I waiting well? What is my responsibility in cultivating the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven?
It’s easy for us to look around at the state of our world and long for Jesus to return, to heal the sick once and for all, to repair and restore creation, to wipe every tear away, to mend all of our broken and dysfunctional relationships. It’s much harder to look inward—at our own lives, at our church communities, at our societal systems—and examine what we’re doing while we wait.
We know what to do to prepare for Back-to-School, or to prepare for a hurricane. There are pretty straightforward checklists involved. Maybe it’s overwhelming to think of preparing for Jesus’ return. Maybe we feel inadequate in the face of all the needs around us. Maybe we feel too sinful or too small.
Every day, we can live prepared
The good news is that God wants to partner with us in this, inviting us to join Him in kingdom-building work. And in God’s economy, nothing done in love is too small, no act of faith is ever wasted.
In fact, on the heels of these three parables, Jesus talks about separating the sheep from the goats during the judgement of the nations. The sole difference between the two was whether or not they fed the hungry, welcomed the stranger, clothed the naked, cared for the sick, visited those in prison.
It seems that, in a sense, we are always living towards Jesus’ return, regardless of conscious thought, because each time we act with compassion we are ushering in God’s kingdom.
We can be responsible as we wait and ensure that the people in our daily lives are cared for.
We can be awake to even the smallest needs around us and be prepared to show compassion.
We can risk investing our love when there’s nothing in it for us, confident that our efforts are never wasted.
How will you wait well today?
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*Feature Photo by Tim Foster on Unsplash
Sarah K. Butterfield 