Faithful and Wise Steward (part three)

Before reading this post, you should certainly should check out part one and part two in order to have an idea of where the discussion is headed.

Now that we have looked at the overall teaching of Jesus in Matthew 24 and looked at the rough p’shat readings of these parables, it’s time to wrestle with the potential details, the remezes, and the drash meaning that lies underneath the packaged teaching of Matthew 24–25. Before we do that, let’s review what we had as a synopsis of Jesus’s teaching points in the last post:

You’re going to hear rumors of the end and false messiahs; do not believe it.

The world is going to get crazy and there is nothing you can do to stop it.

All of this is going to have to happen and you will have to persevere.

You will have to be ready; being ready means taking care of God’s people.

Parable of the Foolish Bridesmaids — be ready!

The priests aren’t doing it, so you will have to.

Parable of the Talents — you’ll have to give an account.

Persevere and be ready by taking care of the oppressed.

Parable of the Sheep and Goats — take care of the oppressed and do what the priests aren’t doing.

FOOLISH BRIDESMAIDS (vv. 1–13)

If you want to look at a suggested remez, I would offer up Jeremiah 25:

Therefore the Lord Almighty says this: “Because you have not listened to my words, I will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,” declares the Lord, “and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy them and make them an object of horror and scorn, and an everlasting ruin. I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, the sound of millstones and the light of the lamp. This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.”

The key to looking at all of these references is going to be the larger context of each remez. Would it make sense in the context of Matthew 24–25 that Jesus would remez the use of Nebuchadnezzar as a tool of God to destroy the people and remove the sounds of joy and weddings from their midst? Would it make sense that Jesus’s drash would be the use of Rome to destroy the city of Jerusalem? Wasn’t that the point of the whole conversation of Matthew 24? Brilliant.

THE TALENTS (vv. 14–30)

Beyond just the remez, it should be worth noting the details of this parable are so strange to us because the context of Jesus’s original parable is the life and reign of Herod Antipas. In Jesus’s original parable (the parallel story of the ten minas, found in Luke 19), we are given additional details that help us understand the parable of the talents. In the parable of the minas, Jesus is employing a rabbinical tool known as kal va’omer (“greater and lesser”). In this teaching method, the rabbi uses a negative example to portray a universal trait; after making the case that the trait is true, the rabbi then will say “how much more” it is true in a positive example.

In the case of the minas and talents, the cultural backdrop is the life and reign of Antipas. When Herod the Great died, he willed his kingdom to his three sons. Upon his death, the three sons set sail on three different ships for Rome in order to bring gifts to Caesar and ask him to honor their father’s will. The Jews (Pharisees) also sent a delegation on a fourth ship to plead with Caesar not to make Antipas king. Caesar decided to name Anitpas a “tetrarch” (just lower than a king) and Antipas blamed the Jews for the decision. Upon his return, Antipas made an example of the Jews who were left at home and slaughtered them by the thousands.

This cultural setting is the backdrop to the kal va’omer that is the parable of the ten minas. The parable of the talents, a parallel story told later by Jesus, employs the same teaching points. The point of the parable (as seen in the last post) is that you will have to give an account for what you have been entrusted with. This is the universal principle that is true for both positive and negative examples (Jesus’s kal va’omer). 

Consider the following as the remez (from 2 Kings 22):

In the eighteenth year of his reign, King Josiah sent the secretary, Shaphan son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, to the temple of the Lord. He said: “Go up to Hilkiah the high priest and have him get ready the money that has been brought into the temple of the Lord, which the doorkeepers have collected from the people. Have them entrust it to the men appointed to supervise the work on the temple. And have these men pay the workers who repair the temple of the Lord—the carpenters, the builders and the masons. Also have them purchase timber and dressed stone to repair the temple. But they need not account for the money entrusted to them, because they are honest in their dealings.”

Again, context will be everything. But this story comes at a point in the story where they are cleaning out the temple and they find the Book of the Law. Those doing the work of restoration (not the priests, mind you—they lost the Book of the Law) are entrusted with money to aid them in repairing the Temple of God. Because they are honest in their dealings, they do not have to give account for what they do with the money. Do you suppose Jesus’s drash could be that those who are not priests should do the work of restoring the presence of God in the world? And if they are honest in their dealings in response to the priests’ dishonesty, they won’t even have to worry about giving an account, because they have done the will of the LORD?

THE SHEEP AND GOATS (vv. 31–46)

This one, to me, is an easy grab for a remez. Consider Ezekiel 34:

“ ‘As for you, my flock, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will judge between one sheep and another, and between rams and goats. Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? Must my flock feed on what you have trampled and drink what you have muddied with your feet?”

And here, the context is a condemnation of the priesthood (throughout the entire chapter). So the drash would be that God will divide His flock into sheep and goats; the context of the chapter will make it clear the deciding factor will be how they treat others.

So I guess Jesus wasn’t teaching a brand new parable, was he?

Shocked? We shouldn’t be.

When one views the threaded teachings and the three parables together, it becomes very clear how brilliant this entire teaching is on multiple levels. The remez/drash readings of these parables together would look something like the following:

God is about to use Rome as a “Nebuchadnezzar” of sorts to judge the people of God. You should be a faithful worker who can be trusted with the investments of the kingdom, even if the priests will not. Remember, you will be judged by how you treated others.

It’s the same teaching we heard in Matthew 24. Jesus put it into three parables and it was the same teaching on a p’shat level. We dug deeper and realized this is in fact the same story we have been learning all along. The same lesson, the same meaning, the same teaching.

I like this Jesus guy. He’s something else.

Faithful and Wise Steward (part two)

After addressing the disciples’ questions about the coming of “the end,” Jesus reinforces his teaching like he’s done so many times by telling a series of parables. Jesus tells three parables in rapid succession — the parable of the foolish bridesmaids, the parable of the talents, and the parable of the sheep and goats. Now, instead of having to place all of the biblical text here in this post, I’m simply going to invite you to take the time to pause and read Matthew 25 (and maybe even brush up on the previous post and the conversation in Matthew 24).

Rather than deal with all three parables separately, as we have been doing, discussing the different levels of interpretation for each one, I would like to deal with the p’shat level readings of these three parables together so that we might appreciate immediately what Jesus (and Matthew) is trying to accomplish by packaging this teaching together.

THE FOOLISH BRIDESMAIDS (vv. 1–13)

The p’shat of this teaching should be somewhat obvious. Jesus is telling a parable to reinforce the need to be ready and the foolishness of not being prepared. As we’ve looked at before, the context of Jewish weddings helps us to understand the foolishness of the bridesmaids. After a couple’s betrothal, the groom disappears for an undetermined length of time as he prepares their home and a place for them to be wed. The bride-to-be has no idea how long this will take and must be ready for the groom’s arrival. How foolish would it be for the bridesmaids not to be ready for the great celebration? This would be a matter of great anticipation in the village; wouldn’t everyone be ready for the coming of the groom?

THE TALENTS (vv. 14–30)

We’ll talk more about the confusing details of this parable in the next post, but we’ll consider this a p’shat observation of the teaching: Jesus wants to convey that people will have to give an account for what they have done with God’s Kingdom. How have they used what God has given them? It might also be worth noting here that the amount of the talents may be pointing to something. Do you remember the talk we had about the meaning of numbers? Consider that each member of this story is a particular number of talents. The first is given five (Books of Moses), the second is given two (the Tablets of Moses), and the third is given one (God). You don’t suppose there could be any hints about those that are given a deep knowledge of the Text, those who have a basic knowledge of the Text, and those who just have an experience with God — do you? God expects you to use what you have to bless the world around you.

THE SHEEP AND GOATS (vv. 31–46)

We are very familiar with this parable, and the p’shat within this teaching is also obvious. What we typically take away from this teaching is the criteria of the judgment — what it is that condemns the goats as goats. The sheep are praised because they take care of those in need. They hear the cry and they care for the marginalized. The goats are condemned because they do not join and partner with Him in bringing justice (mishpat) to the world. What does God care about?

When the Groom comes, will we be ready? Will we be able to give an account of how we have used what He gave us? We know what He will be looking for and the account that will matter; He will want us to care for those in need.

Now, let’s take the summary from the last post and combine it with the teaching points seen here before we dive into the remez and the drash contained in the teachings above:

You’re going to hear rumors of the end and false messiahs; do not believe it.

The world is going to get crazy and there is nothing you can do to stop it.

All of this is going to have to happen and you will have to persevere.

You will have to be ready; being ready means taking care of God’s people.

Parable of the Foolish Bridesmaids — be ready!

The priests aren’t doing it, so you will have to.

Parable of the Talents — you’ll have to give an account.

Persevere and be ready by taking care of the oppressed.

Parable of the Sheep and Goats — take care of the oppressed and do what the priests aren’t doing.

Do you see how Jesus’s parables are great reinforcements to His teaching to His disciples? And all of that is from a p’shat level observation. So let’s keep digging. Got your shovel?

Faithful and Wise Steward (part one)

On their way out of Jerusalem for the day, the disciples begin commenting on how amazing Herod’s building project is. At this point in history, the entirety of the Temple Mount had not been completed and this immense structure would still be astounding to behold. Jesus responds to his impressed disciples that, in fact, destruction is sitting on the doorstep of Jerusalem, describing how not one stone will be left upon another. Later, his disciples come to him and begin asking him about timelines. Exactly when is this destruction supposed to come?

And with that we are launched into one of the most intensely discussed discourses surrounding the “end times.” We immediately click into our “when-is-Jesus-coming-back-and-how-do-we-tell-the-future” mentality, drowning in all the details. I can remember writing a paper in Bible college on the teaching in Matthew 24 and the argument about which part of the chapter was talking about what. Was the entire conversation about the end times? Was the first part about the destruction of Jerusalem and the last part about the end times? If so, when does the shift take place in Jesus’s discourse?

So, before we even get started, let me make the case up front: This entire discourse is about the destruction of Jerusalem. That is the topic that got Jesus into this conversation, that is the topic that sits at the center of the conversation, and there is nothing in Jesus’s words that would warrant a shift in subject matter. In fact, to turn this into a dialogue about the end times would completely ignore Jesus’s closing points about not knowing the future.

Nevertheless, let’s walk through the passage and try to see how Jesus interacts with this question from the disciples. They want to know, “When is all of this destruction going to take place?” Jesus responds:

“Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.

“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

“So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.”

Jesus’s point: You are going to hear rumors about coming destruction and false messiahs who will promise deliverance. Do not be deceived. The world is going to get crazy. This is unavoidable.

He continues:

“If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you ahead of time.

“So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.

“Immediately after the distress of those days

“ ‘the sun will be darkened,
    and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
    and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’

“Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

“Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”

After quoting the book of Daniel, Jesus continues to use multiple prophetic images from the Nevi’im that speak about coming destruction (mainly of ancient Babylon) as a parallel to the coming destruction from Rome. Jesus quotes prophets whose messages will be of perseverance. He reiterates, You are going to have to persevere through these tough times; there will be no escaping it.

Jesus then continues with more confirmation of these points to his disciples:

“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

Please notice that Jesus’s point is that nobody will be ready for this coming destruction. Nobody can tell the future and destruction always comes when people least expect it. Jesus’s point is, Keep watch and be ready, because you do not know when this will happen.

But all of this might raise the question: What are supposed to be ready for? What are we supposed to be ready with? How do I make sure I am doing what I need to do to be ready?

“Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

This teaching is a little tricky, but pretty straightforward, especially in the context of the last few days and a withered fig tree in the distance. The answer to the question about the steward is easy. The faithful and wise steward represents the priests. However, as we have seen, they are certainly not getting the job done.

If we see this discourse as one conversation given in response to the disciples’ question, it helps us see the packaged answer Jesus gives them, without getting lost in our infatuations with the end times. Jesus’s response would sound something like this:

You’re going to hear rumors of the end and false messiahs; do not believe it.

The world is going to get crazy and there is nothing you can do to stop it.

All of this is going to have to happen and you will have to persevere.

You will have to be ready; being ready means taking care of God’s people.

The priests aren’t doing it, so you will have to.

Persevere and be ready by taking care of the oppressed.

Of course, as always, Jesus isn’t done. He has some parables to throw on top of this teaching…

Six or Seven?

It seems that while the Pharisees are taking this information about Jesus’s yoke, Jesus doesn’t even give them time to set up a trap. Suddenly going on the offensive against the Pharisees now (it was the Sadducees earlier), Jesus gives them a real brain-teaser that apparently stumps the teachers so much that “no one dared to ask him any more questions.”

But Jesus isn’t about to let them off the hook. Having just made a minor public spectacle of some highly trained teachers, Jesus turns to the crowds and his disciples saying:

“The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

It should be noted that Jesus does affirm the place of these teachers within Jewish society. He affirms their devotion to obedience and the soundness of their teaching, along with their commitment to the Text. The thing that Jesus appears to have a problem with is their interaction, expectation, and dealings with other people. He doesn’t like how they tie up expectations and load up the guilt without doing anything to help relieve people of their burdens. He also isn’t a fan of how they seem to put their righteousness on display in order to receive the approval of men. Instead, he’s wanting to call people to serve one another, not impress them.

However, Jesus has some tough things to say to the Pharisees in the crowd that day:

“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it. 

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.”

Now, for the Jewish listener, the moment you heard a teacher prophetically give a list of woes, you are going to think of Isaiah immediately. In chapter 5, Isaiah gives his own list of woes.

Woe to those who join house to house,    who add field to field,until there is no more room,    and you are made to dwell alone    in the midst of the land.The LORD of hosts has sworn in my hearing:“Surely many houses shall be desolate,    large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant.For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath,    and a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah.”

Woe to those who rise early in the morning,
    that they may run after strong drink,
who tarry late into the evening
    as wine inflames them!
They have lyre and harp,
    tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts,
but they do not regard the deeds of the LORD,
    or see the work of his hands.

Therefore my people go into exile
    for lack of knowledge;
their honored men go hungry,
    and their multitude is parched with thirst.
Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite
    and opened its mouth beyond measure,
and the nobility of Jerusalem and her multitude will go down,
    her revelers and he who exults in her.
Man is humbled, and each one is brought low,
    and the eyes of the haughty are brought low.
But the LORD of hosts is exalted in justice,
    and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.
Then shall the lambs graze as in their pasture,
    and nomads shall eat among the ruins of the rich.

Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood,
    who draw sin as with cart ropes,
who say: “Let him be quick,
    let him speed his work
    that we may see it;
let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near,
    and let it come, that we may know it!”

Woe to those who call evil good
    and good evil,
who put darkness for light
    and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
    and sweet for bitter!

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
    and shrewd in their own sight!

Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine,
    and valiant men in mixing strong drink,
who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
    and deprive the innocent of his right!

If one were to compare these two lists of denouncements, they would notice the kind of person described is quite different. Go ahead, take a second to look at Isaiah 5 and ask the question, “What kind of person is being condemned?” Then, ask the same question of Matthew 23.

What did you find?

I do this exercise with my students and they never fail to articulate the same thing. Isaiah’s woes describe a person who is wrapped up in selfishness and greed. It’s a disgusting picture of a person who has completely lost the plot of God’s story. They oppress others, serve self, and live for injustice. The woes of Matthew 23 describe a person who is self-righteous.

But did you notice? Extra credit to anyone who counted the woes.

In Isaiah, there are six woes; an appropriate number for woes that are denouncing sin, right? But in Jesus’s denouncement, there are seven.

Jesus’s point: “You have perfected the art of evil and sin.”

Do you know what’s even worse than a greedy person? A self-righteous person.

How can you possibly take sin and greed and take it to the next level? You can become a cold, self-righteous “know-it-all” who actually destroys the work of God. This is why self-righteousness is so significant. These people claim to speak for God, yet they put a completely counterfeit version of God on display to the world around them. It’s even worse than the sin of greed, because at least people know greed when they see it.

By inserting a seventh woe, Jesus says they have completed the sin of their forefathers. This is evidenced further by reading Jesus’s closing to this denouncement:

“Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.”

Jesus says, “Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.” 

In the NIV, Jesus says,”Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started.”

It’s a striking warning that I try to be reminded of frequently. I belong to a generation bent on restoring justice to the world we live in. We cringe at the idea of greed and the oppression of the weak. Yet, if we are not careful, we can be in danger of an even greater sin. We have been repentant of the greed and waste and destruction of our forefathers. We have seen the abuse of the earth, the abuse of aliens and slaves, the abuse of resources, the abuse of power. We must be very careful not to miss the pride that lurks under the surface of our self-righteousness. We must work to hear the words of Jesus warning us to make sure we see ALL people, help and serve ALL people, and pursue humility in our walk after God.

Let’s not perfect the art of sin.

Let’s not complete what our fathers started.