What Does the King Want?

 Matt 25:31-46  November 26, 2023  Christ the King

Salvator Mundi
Leonardo daVinci

 

King Midas is a story about a King who loves gold,

He was already rich beyond anyone else, but he wishes

that everything he touched would turn to gold.

He gets his wish, but he finds that this is not a good thing.

Everything he touched did turn to gold: flowers, furniture,

he couldn't sleep because his bed was gold,

he couldn't eat because his food turned to gold.

Then he touched his beloved daughter 

and she turned into solid gold.

He got what he wanted, but he was miserable.

 

Shakespeare’s Richard the Third is the story about a King

who as a prince stopped at nothing to get to be King.

He puts his relatives in jail, has some killed, and tells lies about others.

He finally becomes King, but he is so frightened 

and suspicious because of everything he did that he eventually

kills one of his brothers and his wife.

His kingdom rebels against him and on the night 

before a great battle, the ghosts of everyone Richard has killed come to visit him.

They tell him that he will die.

And the next day, Richard is killed in a battle against his own brother.

His ambition for power was his downfall.

 

King David was the great King of Israel,

the chosen one, the anointed one.

He has everything he wants, he is beloved by his country, 

he has wealth luxury, many wives, many concubines,

but one day he sees a woman, Bathsheba,

bathing on her own roof top.

Even though she is married and he has eight wives of his own,

he decides that he wants her.  

She concedes, because you don’t refuse the king,

and she becomes pregnant with his child.

So David sends her husband into a dangerous battle and he is killed.

God is not pleased with David for this, and David’s relationships

with his children are cursed for the rest of his life.

These are just three stories about Kings

There are many more stories about Kings who have many things,

but choose to use their power for their own ends

to fill their own wants and egos.

And that story rings true even today.

 

The stories of powerful people committing

sexual assault, abuses of power, and corruption,

are stories of powerful and wealthy people

who have everything they want,

but use their positions to intimidate and coerce

and to get more and more.

 

And it seems like many of our current world’s leaders

seem to want absolute loyalty from everyone

and will use intimidation and violence

against their own people to get it.

 

And our own leaders in this country spend their

and power and collateral just trying to make

corporations bigger, and trying to ensure that

banks have more money, and rich people have more money,

and to make themselves more comfortable

all at the expense of the average American, and especially the poor.

 

The story seems to go that those who have the most power

want more of it, And the only thing that satisfies them

is more than what they had the day before.

This is the common story about the kings of this world.

 

Today is Christ the King Sunday,

the day when where we remember that Christ is our king,

our ultimate leader, and the real leader of the world.

And in the illustration we hear today, we see what Christ

uses his considerable power for.

 

So, this is Jesus last parable in Matthew.

It’s the last one he tells before he is arrested and killed.

It’s the final of the apocalyptic parables,

the ones we’ve been hearing, about the end times.

This is what he leaves his disciples with.

 

Jesus says that at the end, when Jesus returns,

he will come in glory, just as you would imagine

the king of the whole world coming:

On a throne with the angels surrounding him,

draped around in glory and splendor.

 

And at that moment, he judges all the nations of the world.

But what does he use his power for?

And what is the basis for his judgment?

It’s not how much money they provided for him,

or how much land they gave him,

or did they worship him or bow down to him on a regular basis,

or did they make him feel good about himself,

or did they honor him give him enough loyalty.

 

No, his question for them is

“How did you treat the least of those among you?”

This is what is important to the king.

This is what is important to Jesus. 

 

Did you give the hungry something to eat?

Did you give the thirsty something to drink?

Did you welcome the stranger? Clothe the naked?

Take care of the sick? Visit the prisoner?

This is the basis for the judgment of the world.

This is what is important to the king.

Not whether you bowed down before him

with the proper reverence and ceremonies,

not that you gave him what he wanted and made

his friends happy and rich.

 

What is most important to the King, is that you used your power to

take care of the  least powerful in your nation.

 

So the parable says at the time of this judgment

“All the nations will be gathered before him, 

and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates

the sheep from the goats”

 

The translators translate that word there as people,

but people is “laos” or “anthropos” but the Greek 

word that’s there is “autos”  which is just the pronoun “them”

which refers back to the “nations”.

 

 “All the nations will be gathered before him,

and he will separate them – the nations – one from another.”

Most people who study this stuff believe that the intent 

of the parable was that the nations would be divided like sheep and goats.

 

This is not a parable about individuals, but about nations.

This is not a parable about our personal piety and mercy.

This is parable about politics and empires.

That one little translation choice makes a big difference.

So how is the nation that we live in doing?

What is important to our leaders?

 

Because in the end, we will not be judged on stock market returns,

or the strength of our military,

the amount of successful fortune 500 companies we have,

or our unemployment rates, or the rate of inflation

which all of which our leaders seem to be most interested in.

 

We will be judged on how we treated

the least powerful in our empire.

So have we fed the hungry?

17 million households in the US suffer from hunger.

And this country continues to cut food stamps

and other benefits for those in poverty.

 

Have we given the thirsty something to drink?

Flint Michigan, Jackson Mississippi, the Rio Grande Valley,

and other primarily black and Latino communities have had

ongoing water problems in the US.

 

Have we welcomed the stranger?

There is still a fear and hatred of immigrants in our country.

And many people with all kinds of immigration statuses

live in fear of violence, exploitation, harassment, and deportation.

 

Are we taking care of the sick?

Almost 67 percent of bankruptcies in this country are due to

medical bills and healthcare for the poor is always being cut.

 

Are we reaching out to the prisoner?

The US represents only 4.4 percent of the world’s population

but we have 20 percent of the world’s prison population.

This is just a short list.

 

How would our nation do when the Son of Man returns?

Has the United States recognize Jesus in the least of these?

The richest most powerful nation in the world?

Would we be with the sheep or with the goats?

 

With 63 percent of Americans still identifying as Christian,

and with 88% of our Senators and Representatives in the US

identifying as Christian, we should be doing better.

Because this is what is important to Jesus.

This is what is important to God.

This is what is important to the king.

 

The King doesn’t care about who is saying “Merry Christmas”

or about keeping prayer in school,

or posting the 10 commandments in court houses,

Or about giving religious privileges to Christians.

It’s not about sexual morality, or policing women’s healthcare,

It’s not about advocating against transgenderism,

or removing marriage rights from same gender couples,

or whatever passes as Christian public policy these days.

What’s most important to the King is how we treat the least of these.

 

Now this might seem like all bad news,

because we’re not doing well in that department as a nation.

It might seem that we’ll all be cast into the eternal fire.

But we remember that this is a parable not an allegory.

This parable is not here to make us feel guilty because

we personally didn’t do enough for one person.

It’s not a prediction, it’s a story to help us

think and imagine, evaluate, and reorient ourselves.

 

This parable is here show us what is the ultimate concern

for our savior and ruler.

And to tell us that empires and nations who don’t care

for the least powerful, will not stand in the end.

 

So it might be bad news to those who love their

wealth and power and have no interest in sharing it.

But I assure you, this is good news for those people

who feel chewed up by the system. And for those unable

to sustain themselves and keep their heads above water.

And this is good news to all of us who ache and hunger for justice.

And who see our brothers and sisters suffer and hurt for them.

It’s good news because the King sees their suffering

and our suffering this suffering is not the end of the story.

 

It might not look so good for us now,

It might look like we’ve failed the test

between the sheep and the goats.

But Christ is King and he wants to see all the nations

care for all their people.

And if that’s what the king wants,

that’s what the king will get.

 

It may look like we’re going in the wrong direction right now,

but God is in the process of creating a world,

a new heaven and a new earth,

where greed and apathy have no place.

Where violence and hatred are only memories.

We don’t know how or when the King will get there,

but we have faith that the King will make this happen.

 

We live in a world that God created

and in the end, the world that God created

will not sustain nations who do not care for the least among them.

We will be changed, God’s way will be our way,

probably not in our lifetime, but soon and very soon.

 

The good news of this parable is that we have a King who cares.

We have a savior who’s concern is for us all.

God doesn’t see people just as tools that the more

powerful can extract labor and resources from

until they’re all used up.

God doesn’t see us as pawns in a play for power,

or some economic game.

 

To Christ the King, we are not

just subjects or peasants or play things.

 

From the most powerful

to the least powerful among us,

we are all the King’s children.

Don't Believe the Crafty Virgins

 Matthew 25:1-13

November 12, 2023

The Wise and Foolish Virgins
Ain Vares

 

We’re nearing the end of the Gospel of Matthew,

and I can’t say I’m too sorry.

It’s often hard to find the good news in some of

these parables Jesus tells in this gospel.

Mark and Luke often have the same parables

written a little gentler.

 

But this parable is only in Matthew.

We only get this every three years and often

we don’t get it because of Reformation and All Saints,

So when we get it, we should take it seriously.

 

I think when we read parables, we want to come right to

the definitive conclusion and find out

what Jesus wants and get on with the whole thing.

But the parables that Jesus tells aren’t like that.

They’re not like Aesop’s fables.

Jesus doesn’t always seal things up neat and tidy for us.

I think they’re here to make us wonder.

 

They’re there to make us think differently and

To make us guess, and even to debate.

Debate was something that Jewish people did

and do about theology and the scriptures.

It’s a way to discover.

Christians seem to want to have all the answers, but as a Jew,

Jesus was probably more into debate or hashing things 

out together, having several different possible answers to the same question.

They liken it to Jacob wrestling the angel in Genesis,

they don’t stop wrestling with scripture until they get a blessing.

 

And this is a parable that I think deserves

more wrestling than we usually give it.

 

I think the classic way to wrap this parable up in a neat package

is to say, “be like those wise young women”

Have your lamp filled with oil and your wicks trimmed.

And to tell everyone what that metaphor means for us:

like the oil is prayer, the wick is faith. Something like that.

“Keep your lamps trimmed and burning” is an old gospel song.

And that’s a perfectly fine interpretation, I bet you can write

your own sermon with that one. I’m sure I have.

 

But I have found this conclusion to be little anxiety inducing.

Like one of those dreams I keep having where I

show up at a test at the end of a semester, but I have forgotten

to go to any of the classes or read any of the books.

 

Or the feeling that I always get when I’m having

people over for a party, that nagging feeling

I’ve forgotten something very important.

It stresses me out. Have I done enough?

I’ve surely missed something.

 

And the moral to that story is “be prepared”,

like the boy scout motto. “be prepared”

Don’t forget to get the right cranberry sauce,

people will want the right cranberry sauce,

The party is ruined if you don’t have the right cranberry sauce.

You know what will happen if you’re not prepared,

scorn and embarrassment,

And if that’s not enough, Jesus won’t even recognize you.

Yikes, lots of anxiety.

Not a lot of grace at all.

No blessing there.

  

But if you notice, “be prepared” is not even what Jesus

tells us at the end of the parable.

Jesus doesn’t say, “be like the wise young women”

and he doesn’t say be prepared with that oil.

He tells us “Keep Awake”.

And in the story, “ALL of the young women got drowsy and slept.”

So all of them were not doing what they needed to do.

 

It’s important when reading a parable to understand

the context that it’s being told in.

Here, Jesus is talking to his disciples,

not to the religious leaders in the temple.

He and the 12 have left the temple and Jesus says that

there would be a time when the temple wouldn’t be there.

And then they’ve asked him to tell them about that time,

and how would they know?

 

He starts out this lesson for the disciples in chapter 24

and he starts it out by saying “don’t let anyone lead you astray”

He talks about false prophets that try and make them

go here and there. That is important for this parable, I think.

 

And it’s also important, in a parable, to know about

the social context of the story that Jesus is telling.

Which is a wedding. Weddings didn’t roll then like they do now.

In Jesus time, weddings were kind of surprises.

The exact time was not known in advance.

The community kind of knew something was brewing

that a couple is engaged and about to be married

and they needed to be ready

and the weddings happened after sundown.

 

The young women, or the bridesmaid’s job was to 

light the way for the bride and the groom to go to the wedding party.

There’s lots of other fascinating things about weddings, 

but that’s all we really need to know for this parable.

So the young women are doing their job,

waiting for the bride and groom,

But in this story the bridegroom is late.

None of this would have mattered if they bridegroom wasn’t late.

But he was, and instead of staying up, the young women fell asleep.

All of them. Not just the ones called foolish, the wise ones too.

 

And another thing we can do with a parable is look

up some of those words and how they were translated.

I can always rely that someone who knows more than me

to have done this already, and sure enough someone has.

The word that they translate as “young women” 

is actually “virgins”, which is interesting for a variety of reasons,

and I don’t know why the translators made the 

choice to call them “young women” but I’m not sure what to make of that.

So moving on.

 

But what I kind of do know what to make something out of is that

the words that are translated a little more gently in the story

as “wise” and “foolish” are a little harsher in the Greek.

“Wise” is better translated as “crafty”.

It’s the same word that’s used when Jesus 

says in Luke “be as crafty as serpents”. So more than wise, they’re cunning.

Or maybe even “devious”.

And the word that’s translated as “foolish” is probably

better as stupid. It’s actually pronounced morai which is the

where we get the word moron from. So more than foolish,

it’s actually dull or slow-witted.

 

Now obviously, the disciples wouldn’t need that subtlety

of language translated for them.

They would have just known from the words

that Jesus was calling the virgins with the oil crafty,

and that maybe they were up to no good actually.

 

So back to the parable, everyone has fallen asleep

and when the tardy bridegroom comes,

the stupid virgins realize they don’t have enough oil

and their lamps have gone out.

And they ask the crafty virgins if they could have some oil.

 

One thing that always bothered me about this 

parable in the traditional understanding of it, is about those Wise virgins –

the ones that we were supposed to be like and emulate –

Why don’t they something as simple as share?

Jesus talks about sharing in lots of other places.

In the wide scope of the story of Jesus, he is all about sharing.

So if these wise virgins were actually the heroes of our story,

why wouldn’t they share a little of what they had?

Some people posit that maybe Jesus is talking about 

stuff that couldn’t be shared, like personal faith. And again, it’s vague

and anxiety inducing. And I think that’s a stretch anyway.

 

I think the answer to this conundrum is actually that the

crafty virgins are not the heroes of the story.

The crafty virgins take advantage of this opportunity

of the sleep-dazed, dopey virgins.

When the stupid virgins ask for some oil, the crafty virgins 

tell the foolish ones, “no, there won’t be enough,

Why don’t you go to the gas station up the road

and get you some more?”

And here’s where, I think, the real problem comes in,

the stupid virgins believe the crafty virgins and they leave.

They are led astray by these false prophets.

They go off on a hunt for the right kind of cranberry sauce,

and they miss the whole party.

 

Where the foolish virgins went wrong in this story is that

they believed the crafty virgins.

They trusted the myth of scarcity of the kingdom of God.

They believed that there wouldn’t be enough oil.

They believed there wouldn’t be enough light and that 

the bridegroom was  not going to be happy 

if they weren’t prepared because – what? there wouldn’t be enough light?

Here’s the thing about light, just because I’m holding the light

it doesn’t mean that other people can’t use the light I’m holding.

If five of those virgins had lamps that were lit,

that would have been enough for that whole bridal party.

The reality is that those crafty virgins wanted the bridegroom

and the party all to themselves, so they sent the

stupid virgins on a wild goose chase down

to the Kwiki mart for some more oil.

 

I think the point of this parable,

is that five virgins without enough oil

didn’t actually need to be worried about it.

They’re worry actually led them astray and they missed

the main goal which was to see the bridegroom into the party.

 

So what I think Jesus was saying to his disciples is actually 

what he says, “keep awake” and don’t believe in those 

crafty religious people who tell you that the kingdom of God is only for the select few

that the blessings of God are only for those who have

Don’t believe the false prophets when they try to re-direct you.

Basically don’t believe in the traditional interpretation

of this parable! Don’t go off spending all your time trying 

to be perfectly prepared, you might actually miss the whole party.

 

And for us, don’t believe those religious leaders

who tell you in the nicest way possible that God only wants

a certain narrow definition of good and holy in God’s kingdom.

Don’t believe them when they say that God only wants

those people who have pulled themselves up by their

own bootstraps and are self- sufficient enough 

and resourceful enough and have all their spiritual ducks in a row.

Don’t let them distract you.

And don’t believe all the voices that try to lead you astray

and tell you to go and get your fill elsewhere.

Don’t believe the voices that tell you to go shopping,

or to gather other earthly goods, like oil or

pricey things that feed you

for a short time and then let you down.

You might be otherwise involved and miss God.

 

When the disciples ask Jesus “how do read the signs?

how do we tell when you’re returning to us”

Jesus answer is, “don’t sweat it.”

Just keep awake. Don’t get distracted.

You are invited to the party no matter if you’re prepared or not.”

Just stay awake and wait for God.

And don’t worry about the lamps if you run out of oil,

there’s enough light to go around.

 

So that’s it, I think.

I think that we’ve wrestled enough to

get a blessing from God here.

Maybe next time we’ll approach it from

another angle and get different blessing, I don’t know.

Parables can grow and change depending on what’s going on.

 

So in conclusion for this time.

The Parable of the 10 virgins:

Don’t believe the voices that

try to convince you of your inadequacy,

don’t believe the voices that say

that you don’t have enough, or you aren’t enough,

or you don’t do enough.

 

The Kingdom of God is like a party.

Everyone’s invited.

and you don’t want to miss it.