{"id":7303,"date":"2023-11-01T08:00:42","date_gmt":"2023-11-01T00:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=7303"},"modified":"2023-11-14T07:32:36","modified_gmt":"2023-11-13T23:32:36","slug":"319-matthews-three-emphatic-reminders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=7303","title":{"rendered":"319. Matthew\u2019s Three Emphatic Reminders"},"content":{"rendered":"

13\u00a0<\/sup>Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

26\u00a0<\/sup>But his master replied, \u2018You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter?\u00a027\u00a0<\/sup>Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

45\u00a0<\/sup>Then he will answer them, \u2018Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.\u2019\u00a046\u00a0<\/sup>And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.<\/span>\u201d<\/strong> [Matthew 25: 13,26-27,45-46<\/span>, NRSV<\/em>]<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Parable of Wise and Foolish Virgins<\/em>, by Peter von Cornelius c.1815<\/span><\/p>\n

As Matthew\u2019s Gospel draws closer to the climax in Jesus\u2019 passion, death and resurrection, the Evangelist inserts a long speech by Jesus known as the end-time discourse (or eschatological sermon) in 24:1-25:46. This is the last of the five discourses in the Gospel. The occasion was Jesus responding to disciples who asked about the destruction of the Temple and the time of his second coming. <\/span>The Church selects these readings as it enters the final weeks of Ordinary Time. The focus of the readings now shifts to the eschatological to talk about death, judgment, heaven, hell and our readiness for them.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the discourse, Matthew first lays out a series of warnings issued by Jesus (24:1-36). The key is watchfulness, which underlines that one cannot know the day and hour when the Son of Man is coming. The Parable of the Unfaithful Servant serves to warn unfaithful Christians and perhaps even more so the church leaders, that when the Master comes, they will be put out with the hypocrites (24:51), for they will be judged no less harshly than the scribes and the Pharisees (24:37-51).<\/span><\/p>\n

Our interest is then drawn to the three emphatic reminders in which Matthew lays down in his famous chapter 25, where Jesus asks his followers to ponder his return. The speech consists of three parables, \u201cthe Ten Bridesmaids\u201d (25:1-13), \u201cthe Talents\u201d (25:14-30) and \u201cthe Last Judgment\u201d (25:31-46). Evidently, Matthew underlines three reminders<\/em>: that<\/em> the Lord will come again at the end of time, that<\/em> everyone without exception shall have to give an account of one\u2019s life to the Lord when he comes again on the Last Day, and<\/em> that<\/em> the Lord will judge us according to our deeds.<\/span><\/p>\n

The fist striking element about the three parables that make up the 25th<\/sup> chapter of Matthew’s Gospel is that those who are condemned in all three parables are not described as wicked, immoral or sinful people. On such close reading, Matthew surprises in not seeming in any way to seek to impress his readers with tales of explicit sins against which ferocious punishments were in order. To the contrary, Matthew seems clearly to imply that being afraid to commit sin is no guarantee of a fast-track to heaven.<\/span><\/p>\n