Matthew 25:31-46

Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

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Wow. Here we are at the end of another liturgical year! And one of my favourite passages too.

Chapters 24 and 25 of Matthew are considered by scholars to be the last of 5 "discourses" (i.e., long sections of teachings by Jesus). It is hypothesized that these 5 sections are intended by Matthew to be a new Torah - a new set of 5 "books" paralleling the 5 books of the Torah attributed to Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

The implication of this for present day understanding is that this final section has been significantly edited by Matthew to fit his intentions.

Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Click here for an easy to print or email Adobe PDF version of this note.

Wow. Here we are at the end of another liturgical year! And one of my favourite passages too.

Chapters 24 and 25 of Matthew are considered by scholars to be the last of 5 "discourses" (i.e., long sections of teachings by Jesus). It is hypothesized that these 5 sections are intended by Matthew to be a new Torah - a new set of 5 "books" paralleling the 5 books of the Torah attributed to Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

The implication of this for present day understanding is that this final section has been significantly edited by Matthew to fit his intentions.

The themes of chapters 24 and 25 are: final judgment and the return of the Son of Man, or, the establishing of the reign of God on earth; and teachings about delays. These two issues were certainly of high concern to Matthew and his community. Scholars debate how much they were top-of-mind for Jesus. Thus the debate about how much Matthew used - and changed - anything Jesus might have actually said to address concerns that arose only after Jesus' death, resurrection, and ascension.

We have just heard (Matthew 25:14-30) a parable about the present age where the honourable slave who doesn't use his masters wealth to steal even more from the dispossessed, but instead buries it and returns it in full, is punished and "thrown into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Jesus continues by telling what it will be like when the promised "new age" comes.

Note in verse 31, that the Son of Man "comes in his glory," that is, with all the proper public honour and recognition that is due; unlike the present age where "the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified." (Matthew 26:2)

And when the Son of Man comes in his glory, there will be a judgement-punishment that will reverse the judgement-punishments of this present age. Whereas, in the previous parable of this present age, it was the honourable slave who was punished, in the age to come, it is the honourable who will be rewarded and the dishonourable who will be punished.

Note that the criteria used for separating the honourable from the dishonourable all have to do with how the rich-privileged-able respond to the needs of the dispossessed.

What I love about this parable is that BOTH those judged to be honourable and those judged to be dishonourable have exactly the same response:

Lord, when was it we saw you hungry ...?

In other words, the judgement is NOT based on doing the right things to/for Jesus. The judgement is based on doing the right things for the dispossessed. This is not rocket science; it only requires common sense and human decency. It doesn't even require "belief."

Did I say this was my favourite passage? Yikes. I sincerely hope that Paul got it right and we are saved by God's grace.

David Ewart,
www.davidewart.ca