D.A Carson
I invite you to turn in Holy Scripture to Luke 16 beginning at verse 19.
Now my intention was to speak from this passage today and from several parables in Matthew 24, 25 tomorrow. Well I’ll try to condense this first one a bit then turn to Matthew 24 and 25 and condense some of that and well see how we will get on. It leads to be a double blessing or indigestion. Here then what’s scripture says.
19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’
25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’
27 “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, 28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
29 “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’
30 “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
31 “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”
This is the word of the Lord.
So how shall we understand this parable? Is Jesus is saying that there is a simple reversal between our status in this life and our status in the next? Live life well, and then hell. Suffer pain, enjoy great gain, that is how it works. But so much of scripture stands against such simplistic reversal theology. Sometimes there is that kind of reversal but it is far from consistent. on the one hand after all there are some God blessed and Godly rich people in scripture. Abraham, Job, Solomon in his better days, Esther, Philemon, probably Thoephilus. And there are at least some poor who are wicked not least to the book of proverbs. So how do you integrate this passage if you try to universalize it in some general reversal scheme? Moreover how would you integrate such a simple simplistic reversal with other biblical themes, after all what is the cross about? Why did Jesus die for us? What do you do if text insisted even our righteousness are filthy rags? In fact there are some contextual clues that help us read the parable more probingly. Look at something in the surrounding verses. Begin at chapter 16:13 “No one can serve two masters”. Either you will hate the one or love the other or you will be devoted with the one and despise the other. You can’t serve both God and money.
So here is a general principle in a particular application. The general principle is you can have only one ultimate in your life. The particular application is that ultimate is money then I’m sure it isn’t God. Indeed Luke has more than most of the other evangelist. He has more to say about money and how to look at money and what to do with wealth. The problem with money is it so easily become our master. What we pursue, what we serve that it becomes the measure by which we judge others that is why the apostle Paul can say that covetousness is idolatry. Money are pursued of it, our love of it, our desire to be identified with it, our desire to be controlled to it to control others through it. All of it serves to “The God”, God. You can’t have two ultimate two gods, you can’t have two masters. Back up of it, verse 11.
“So if you have not been trustworthy of handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?”
Now that a shrewd manager is a difficult one to interpret but the very least that is meant by this thing is that 'if you prove to be irresponsible in the material blessing that God gives you, why on earth do you think you are going to be responsible on spiritual gifts that God gives you?'
But then look at verses 14 and 15, the Pharisees who loved money heard all this and were sneering at Jesus, they were lifting up their noses to Jesus the text says. Why, because they loved money. That is to say they saw no incompatibility before loving God and being filthy rich no incompatibility no tension, no warning in fact they were inclined to things that their very money demonstrate that they were superior.
Now we try to avoid acting like that but deep in our hearts we know that it is pretty easy to fall into that trap, isn’t it? You’re seminary students and you come from a rather poor home and you have a real clunker of car that well termites hold hands, they hold it together, it is a rust bucket and it’s kind of 85 thousand miles (run) and you can hear the vows clinking and then something happens. Somehow you run into some money and you go and get yourself a really nice car and you are now settled in at church and of course you are grateful to God for this but then you come up into a stop sign, a stop light, and you look over next you and you saw some poor dude driving a clunker and you are driving Lexus. Now you are not going to feel robber much but nevertheless when the light changes you pulled smoothly out of there pouring away like an over fat cat while the thing behind you is clunky clunky clang. You can’t help swell with this certain amount of… well if you are thinking Paul’s of the thing gratitude. But deep down you know it is superiority, you got what is your due, I mean all those years of study and clunkers and now you’ve got an Lexus. It is so easy for us to begin to measure God’s blessing on our lives in terms of material thing isn’t it so when Jesus starts warning with this sort of connections, they sneer at them.
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Why, Jesus tells them, verse 15. 'You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others but God knows your heart.' Now in fact here you are stumbling across one of the minor themes of Luke’s gospel, it is the self-justification theme. Go all the way back to another parable in chapter 10 verses 19 and following, the parable of the good Samaritan. when Jesus has finished his first exchange with the man that the man wants to justify himself, chapter 10:29. So he asked him another question, you see he wants to justify himself or again in chapter 18. We’re told the parable in the Pharisee and the tax collector, verse 9. To some we’re confident of their righteousness and look down on everyone else at self-justification. Do you see? Jesus tells them a parable. Two men go to the temple to pray, the one is a Pharisee the other is a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prays, “God I thank you that I’m not like other people”. Which was telling the truth? “Robbers, evil doers, adulterers and even this tax collector”. Which was telling the truth? I fast twice a week and give a tenth of what I get. Which was telling the truth? But the tax collector stood up at a distance, he would not even look at to heaven but penitent breath and said, “God have mercy on me a sinner.”
I tell you the truth that this man rather than the other want home justified before God. For all those who exult himself will be humbled and those who humbled themselves will be exulted. In other words there are two kinds of justification.
There is the justification we get from God where God declares sinners just on the basis of what he has done in Christ. In self-justification we declare ourselves just. We are rarely so crush to put it in such bold terms but deep down it is what we think. And so Luke’s gospel is constantly warning against self-justification so we read in our own chapter, we read of these people who are pleased with themselves, they’re sneering at Jesus because of his warnings. Jesus says you are the ones who justify yourself, that is self-importance there is self-identity, and their place in society is bound up with their measure of prosperity. They are looking down with their wrong self-righteous noses at those poor people including this poor man Lazarus. Do you see?
But there are other contextual things to note in the gospel of Luke. From 9:51 on Jesus is on the road to the cross, He is on the road to Jerusalem. Sometimes it is called ‘Luke’s travel narrative’. From 9:51 on He is on the road to Jerusalem so that everything happens, happens under the looming impending shadow of the cross which also is telling you how to read the whole book because the whole book is driving you to the passion of it. Which means it is, if you read this parable without understanding that this takes place on the road to Jerusalem on the cross then you are misreading the book.
But there is another detail. This is the third of the sequence of the three parables. In chapter 15:11-32, a prodigal wastes his father’s possessions. In 16:1-8, a dishonest servant wastes his master’s possessions and here in our parable a rich man wastes his own possessions. Do you see? There is an emphasis on what you do with your own wealth.
Now we come to our parable, it is divided into two parts. First there is the narrative, ‘the contrast between two different men’ and then there is an extended dialogue, ‘the blindness of the dumbed man’. Let’s begin with the narrative, the contrast between two different men, verses 19-23. You are introduced in to the rich man in life sumptuous living and then Lazarus in life suffering and then pain and dying. Then you continue Lazarus now in blessing in heaven and the rich man himself in pain. So it’s rich man- Lazarus, Lazarus- Rich man. That in order comes up again in a moment.
Verse 19 introduces us into self-indulgent Rich man. The Rich man who is dressed in purple and fine linen and lives in luxury every day. Purple cloth in the ancient world was very expensive because there is only two ways dying clothing in purple. one was from the matter root; one was form a certain kind of sea crust-ation. Both were really expensive to develop so only the filthy rich can wore them. That meant that if you are really, really rich you wore a lot of purple to prove that you are rich. It’s the way it is it becomes a kind of plaque. “He was dressed in purple and fine linen”, the word that is used is the word that regularly refers to undergarments, in other words either even his underwear was polished. That is the point. There is a slight bit of humor here in case anyone is interested even his underwear is at the very high quality. He live in luxury every day, he ate sumptuously every meal was multi-course the best of choice of wines serve hands and foot, he deny himself nothing. By contrast, verses 20 and 21, we’re introduced to this man Lazarus a beggar. Now of the two only the second man is named. That’s significance in the ancient worlds, the people with names are important the others are fillers in as it were. More important yet is the fact that the very name Lazarus refers to 'the one whom God helps' and when you first read this account you think to yourself, “Brother is this the one whom God helps? I don’t know if I want God’s help”. Except that you’re supposed to remember that name all the way through the end and so you’ll find out who it is that God really helps by reading the entire account. The name Lazarus was prophetic after all. Do you see? Which is the way of telling you the reader, don’t judge too soon but judge 50 billion years from now that would be much more accurate reading. “He was laid at the door of the Rich man’s house”. You have to remember that at those days there were no clinics, hospitals, emergency ward or the like and so in small village life what takes place was that those who are really rich were expected to show extra compassion on those who were really down. Now note poor village didn’t have all that much to share but the really rich people will have extra rooms and extra food and maybe even some primitive medicines, the poor villages would have nothing. So it was expected therefore that the poor people in town would take all those kind of total responsibility.
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So this villagers bring this poor man, they have to carry him he is so ill at this juncture and lay him at the gate of the rich man. The gate, the fact that it is a gate it is not a door suggest that it is a ward compound, suggest that this is a big house, a big house, a compound. And there is a mention of dogs. You have to remember that in the ancient world there were dogs and there were dogs but no pets. There were dogs but they were wild, think of Australian Dingos or they were dogs that work and if they were working dogs they weren’t like Scottish sheep dogs that you could control with whistles to bring in the sheep, they were guard dogs think of Doorman pinchers.
So what we have here is a ward compound and inside there is pair of vicious guard dogs and nobody comes out and helps this poor man Lazarus as he was laid by the gate. But as he leans against the gate we are told the dogs came and leaked his soars.
Most of our English translations have it, “even the dogs came and leak his soars”. It is not like that original says it, “but the dogs came and leak his soars”. The rich and did nothing but the dogs came and leaked his soars, these guard dogs. You must remember that dogs in those days weren’t feed from tin cans with premiere or some other names plastered on the side al carefully calculated by really excellent dog nutritionist, no they eat the scraps from the Rich man’s table. You saw that as well when you have read in the past the account of the Syro-phoencian woman. Even the dogs eat the scraps form the table. Now this is all part of the cultural setting that is assumed here and it becomes more important as you see.
So he wants to be fed the scraps from the Rich man’s table himself. Verse 21, he longs to eat what fell on the Rich man’s table, that is he wanted the dog food but the dogs came and leak his soars. Help is so near at hand but it is still withheld from Lazarus. Nor is this the case of compassion fatigue. You know, where you’re asked so often to do so much that you get burn out and finally just make your decisions about what you shall give to the charity for and the rest you shall just withdraw. This is one man in a small village and you are the rich dude that could help him. This is not even compassion fatigue it is just plain hard harden callousness, superciliousness, condescension. And then verse 22, Lazarus dies with no mention he was made a funeral. He might have been buried in a common plot for the poor and the broken but we are told he was carried to Abraham’s side.
He was carried to Abraham’s bosom. Then it is important to remind yourself in what happens in the ancient feast in the near east. It was not common to eat lying down but for real feast what is what you did. You commonly eat sitting down but the thing is like the Lord’s Table, the great feast of passover then it was very common to have a low table with some bread and each place and some pots of pure meat and then pots of pure fruit. And as you lay on a long mat leaning on your arm you would take some bread and break it off and dip it on the pot of portage and ate it. These were not some poor size single bed they are just narrowed to mat and so you are lot closer to the next dude and you might in fact reach across the table and take some of their bread and put it to some friend’s mouth too. It is some part of intimacy of table fellowship. That meant of course that the person who was on your right had respect to you. That is almost certainly what is going on in the biblical description at what takes place at the last supper, you recall the scene. Jesus says something like one of you is going to betray me? You can imagine all the hands taking the food and stopping half way to their mouth as they look around the table. “Surely not I Lord, I wouldn’t do that Lord?”, Peter apparently is sitting a little further away signals to John who is at Jesus’ right. “Psst, ask Him, ask Him who it is? so the person on Jesus’ right, if He’s going to talk to Him since Jesus is behind him, can just lean on his arm put his head back on Jesus’ breast, on Jesus’ bosom. Now that sounds a bit artificial and uncomfortable in our western culture.
Western Culture plus an English mother have combined to make me think the appropriate distance between consenting adults is 36 inches. Then I go to Latin of America where they go under the delusion that the appropriate distance is 18 inches. So they get closer and I back up, they get closer and I back up, they get closer and I back up, so I tried an experiment they get closer and I leave my foot out, they step on it. All of that is culture of course. You know I go to some parts of the world and it is hugs and kisses all around. I was brought out in French so I got that side of me too. I go to France then, mmhwuahh! My friend, Mwuah! both cheeks. Then I go to the Muslim worlds and very often especially in the Arabic structure its three kisses and I never remember where side to start on and its getting dangerous when you’re getting close. You Know? Its kiss, kiss, kiss. And then you do you know my Muslim friends would walk down hand and hand with me. “Alright Lord if you say so.” And if my wife is with me I must not walk hand with her she have to walk a respectful distance behind me. This cultural signs are very different in different parts of the worlds. So you must not think this is actually a strange scene. We have this strange scene in many respects. Imagine going out shaking people hands, how artificial is that why not hug for example.
So John the Baptist put his head back on Jesus’ breast, on his bosom and asks his question. Now that is the image we must have here. Lazarus finally gets the glory and he is on Abraham’s right hand, the place of honor at a great feast with his head resting intimately on Abraham’s breast.
The angles carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. Undoubtedly there was a great fanfare, speeches by the village’ mayor saying how much it contributed to our society and what a grand fellow he was.. but in hades he was in torment. And somehow according to this parable the rich man lifts up his eyes and sees a long way off Abraham and Lazarus. That is necessary for the account, it’s a parable. He sees them and that precipitates the dialogue. The dialogue itself verses 24-31 is divided into three parts. In each part the Rich man says something and then Abraham responds.
23:09~
▲Alright, first cycle. Verse 24, He is in torment, he sees Abraham and Lazarus by Abraham’s side and somehow is enable to recognize them both, that is just some part of the parablic reality, and he calls out to Abraham. Now what would you have expected the rich man to say at this point. Try to put yourself in the rich man’s place. What would you have expected the rich man to say at this point? He recognizes Abraham and Lazarus. Wouldn’t you expect him to say something like "Oh my! Did I get that one wrong?" or "Oh! Lazarus, would you forgive me? I treated you so abominably, I am so ashamed." Wouldn’t you expect him to say something like that? He doesn’t even address Lazarus, he still ignores him. He never talked to him in his life, he certainly not going to talk to him now. Now he goes to the top dock, “father Abraham, he even placed the racial card, I tuned one of the sons of the covenant and you’re my father. He ignores Lazarus when he was in pain now he wants Lazarus to do something for him to relive his own pain. He demands services from the one to whom he would not even give dog food and there is no repentance there is no asking for forgiveness, there is no awareness of guilt, there is only awareness of his own suffering and he still expect Lazarus to jump like some mean ill. In other words the rich man even in hell can’t give a imagine giving up his self-importance.
Abraham’s response, remember he says and then he lists four things and now you have exactly the same sequence you got at the beginning of the narrative. Remember you had this, Lazarus had that, you have this and now Lazarus has this, and you have that. do you see? It repeats the summary and in addition there is a great golf fixed so that no one can go from here to there or form there to here. Now so far as the text goes Lazarus is quiet but if there is something behind Abraham’s words, 'beside all this between us and you a great sarcasm has been set so that those who want to go from here to you can’t nor can anyone cross from there to us.' It is not impossible to imagine that Lazarus is actually saying 'it’s alright I’ll go, I'll go.' No. No one can go from here to there that is mentioned first or form there to us. Or perhaps such reading in too much but this strict emphasis in the chasm in mentioning that no one can go from here to there, who might want to. Who would want to? The only person who would want to is someone who wants to cool this rich man’s tongue after all. The only other person on sight is Lazarus. That was the first cycle.
▲Second cycle: Verses 27-29. The rich man now in fact becomes the beggar. We’re told then I beg you father send Lazarus to my family for I have five brothers let him warn them so that they will not also come to this place of torment. You must not see this as a mark of repentance. Even the vilest sinners have family feelings, they want to spare their own family but here there is still no repentance, there is no begging of Lazarus for forgiveness indeed. If Lazarus who is still not addressed can’t be used as a table waiter to bring him water perhaps he can be a messenger bot to go warn the brothers back home. He still doesn’t address Lazarus but wants Abraham to order him around like a minion. Abraham’s response, “they have Moses and the Prophets let them listen to them.” They have Holy Scripture and in that day virtually everyone will be going to synagogue on the Sabbath they will hear the word of God again and Again and again. What do you make of the word of God?
This will bring us back to something said yesterday about how the parables regularly takes old scripture and give it new life, trust it in ways that are bit unexpected. Did you see many Jews at Jesus’ day read old testament accounts about how righteous people were blessed with wonderful vines and large herds and so forth. And then in times of declension and idolatry and the like and they were set upon by the Philistines and by the Midianites and then later the Assyrians and the Babylonians. So if we have some rich dudes in Jesus day it must be a sign of blessings. That is the way they are reading the text. There is enough evidence in the text that they can almost take it that way. Except there is enough biblical text that also warns against too much wealth and you read the proverbs and give me neither too much wealth nor too much poverty. The one who clothes me into arrogance and the other one will clothes me onto despaired. And mean while the text still command. Deuteronomy 6, dear to love God with your heart and soul and mind and strength. Many texts warn wealthy people to do generous to their money.
So there has been a sort of narrow focus that identifies money and blessing but not as swift that brings in all that the scriptures have to say about this matters, that is what Jesus is getting across. Your brothers are so deaf that what they really need to do is to listen to the scriptures already given, listen to Moses and the prophets, if they really listen to them they will have all the warning that they need.
▲The third cycle is more alarming yet. Verses 30 and 31, now this man in hell actually tries to correct Abraham’s theology. Isn’t that spectacular? No Abraham you got all that wrong let me explain some basic scripture to you. In other words people in hell will still be trying to justify themselves. There is no evidence as far as I can see anywhere in scripture that hell is filled with people who are deeply repentant and want to be holy. It is filled instead with people who still hate God, love themselves, justify themselves, and will argue that Abraham is wrong.
Hell is not filled with people eager to turn to righteousness and live though it is too late. It is filled with people who know it is too late but are still full of justification and in endless cycle of sin and condemnation world without end.
Abraham replies, “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead”. And of course as Luke pens these words in his book, he remembers that this takes place as Jesus is on the road to Jerusalem where he dies and rises from the dead and some still do not believe.
◒ Now what are some pastoral implications of these let me mention three.
In all of our attempts to show the bible is relevant and has immediate application to life, never ever forget that in scripture there is this fear of rejoicing to pursue in the place of torment to flee.
▲There is a heaven to be gained and the hell to be feared.
Richard Baxter used to say I preach as dying man to dying men and never sure I will preach again. Somewhat to live within the sound of church and chapel bell I want to build a rescue shop within one yard of hell. So C. T. Studd "we needed generation of serious preaches who warn men and women of wrath to come, not preachers who are endlessly doing some seminars for rich dudes about what to do with your investments." The old poem by Bertram Shadduck is not much more than duller but is still powerful.
I dreamed that the great judgment morning
Had dawned, and the trumpet had blown;
I dreamed that the nations had gathered
To judgment before the white throne;
From the throne came a bright, shining angel,
And he stood on the land and the sea,
And he swore with his hand raised to Heaven,
That time was no longer to be.
Refrain:
And, oh, what a weeping and wailing,
As the lost were told of their fate;
They cried for the rocks and the mountains,
They prayed, but their prayer was too late.
The rich man was there, but his money
Had melted and vanished away;
A pauper he stood in the judgment,
His debts were too heavy to pay;
The great man was there, but his greatness,
When death came, was left far behind!
The angel that opened the records,
Not a trace of his greatness could find.
The moral man came to the judgment,
But self-righteous rags would not do;
The men who had crucified Jesus
Had passed off as moral men, too;
The soul that had put off salvation,
“Not tonight; I’ll get saved by and by,
No time now to think of religion!”
At last they had found time to die.
34:42~
You know that the weeping and wailing was the last we’re told of their faith. They cried for the rocks and the mountains, they prayed but their prayer was too late. There are people whom we know who on the last day will lift up their eyes being in torment. There is a heaven to be gained and a hell to be shunned and if we are serious preachers of the word of God we take Jesus teaching about heaven and hell seriously.
▲Second, the things in which we take so much pride, wealth, ethnicity, race, religious privilege, education, family, safety, beauty, athletic ability, charm, knowledge may actually blind us to our need of grace. All of these wonderful grace gifts easily turn into gods. Gods that the God, God. So we must always reject false formulas wealth inevitably signals the blessings of God. It may, it may be the devil’s own snare. The question always to ask is who is Lazarus that is who is the one who is genuinely blessed by God?
▲Finally, God has never left Himself without witness and the most powerful of witness is the one that ponders down from age to age is the witness of scripture. We must listen to the witness of scripture or we are lost people. If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets and we add to Jesus and the apostles, they will not be convinced even of someone rises from the dead.
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◒ Now this is a Luke’s parable and I will finish a little differently if this were the end of the chapel hour but now I’m going to invite you to turn to Matthew 24, 25.
And we are going to speed up just a wee bit. Let me remind you that Matthew 24, 25 is frequently called the eschatological discourse. From chapter 24 verses 1-35, you get the substance of what Jesus says will take place. I wish I had time to unpack those verses but they are extremely difficult and to do anything like an adequate job will take me a couple of hours just to survey the flow of thought.
But interestingly enough from 24:36 all the way to the end of 25:46 that is about a chapter and a half, Jesus tells you how to wait for the end. So He talks about the end for about a chapter then He tells you to how to wait for the end in a chapter and a half. And all of that is conveyed in parabolic material that is some of it is narrative parable and some of it is parabolic material without narrative, they are been-yets.
So how do you wait for the end? You see that is a really is a serious question, I have a son who is 28 almost 29. He is a marine. 6’3. He was born big and kept on going. My wife is only 5’1. When she was in the latter stages of carrying Nicolas she used to say I’m going to deliver an elephant. She could not possibly deliver him. He was huge that it has to be sea's action and he just kept on going from there. When he was 3 and a half he was really a hunk. When he was born, for those of you who is in a football, the nurse who was there in the delivery room called him, Oh it is another Fridge, for those of you who remember Chicago’s heroes. And when he was about 3 and a half, when we came close to meal time, he was mommy’s little shadow just following mommy around everywhere waiting for food. You see mom wouldn’t give in, my wife goes by the rules and you don’t have snack before the meal. You wait for the meal and eat properly. So you see so, he was mommy’s little shadow. Wait Nicolas it is only 10 minutes, try teaching delayed gratification to a 3 and a half year old. You know?
So for him those ten minutes stretched into eternity meanwhile life is perhaps in my study try to finish writing the last paragraph of an article. I got all the pieces on my head, I knew what I’m going to say, I wanted to get them down. If I wouldn’t had a meal they will bred of my head and would take me half an hour or 45 minute to crank up again till I’ll get that last paragraph written and I was looking at my watch, 10 minutes to go. Oh my, oh my how am I going to get this down in time? Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, same ten minutes. For me there were racing away for Nicolas they were taking forever.
How many kinds of waiting are there? Waiting for the sun to go down on the western shores of a lovely lake in the A….. while you’re walking on the beach on the waster shore hand in hand with the one you love wanting the sun to take forever to go down, waiting for the rounds of nausea to abate after the latest chemo, waiting to die, waiting for a loved one to die, waiting for your wedding date, so there are kinds of waiting. Do you see?
So the question is how are we supposed to wait for Jesus and what that does say about the nature of the kingdom? Well what is taught really in this chapter and a half are five things.
▲1. Number one is to wait for the Lord Jesus as servants, who do not want to be surprised by their master’s coming. Matthew 24:36,
:36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven nor the Son, but My Father only 37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.”
Now people often say as it was in the days of Noah, lots of sin and degradation subtle batty and time when Jesus Himself returns. That is not what the text says. The text does not say it will be justice but morally speaking in our day as in the days Noah when everything was so normal so it will be in our days. People will be having weddings, children will be born, people will retire, and there will be normalcy. Even though Noah was preaching for 500 years about the impending judgment, they don’t believe it. They just go on with their life, everything is normal. That is what is going to happen in the end of the days. They will be surprised because they have not taken the warning seriously or again too men will on the field. one will be taken and the other left. Somewhat this taken is to be taken away in a secret rapture but in the light of the presiding verses it probably means taken in judgment however you work it out. The point is not whether you are taken this way or that way. The point is two men working on the field, are probably in the nature of 1st century farming, either way in a father and son or 2 brothers. They are working in the most intimate relationship, small family farm. one is taken the other is left. Or two women similarly at the hand mill, a bottom stone, a stone on top of it with a stick sticking out the side, a hole in the middle of the stone on which you put your grain and then two women squatting on either side of the stone. In a very nature the case of two sisters or a mother and daughter and one woman pulls that stick around, a 180 degrees and then the other woman pulls the other in a 180 degrees and then the first one pulls it around in 180 degrees pouring more grain and gradually the grain was crashed and there are fine flours comes out the side. In the nature of the case again two women likely to be intimately related, one is taken and the other is not.
And then in case we still haven’t got it another vineyard is used to make the same point. Verse 42, “Therefore keep watch because you do not know on what day the Lord will come.” But understand this, if the owner of the house has known what time of night the thief was coming he would have kept watch and not of led his house will be broken into. So you also must be ready because the Son of man will come at an hour where you do not expect Him.
I have been broken into only once. It was a long time ago. I was a student of Miguel and then the small flat that I had, there was a lot of space but we had a place down at the basement where we had separate little storage, chambers that were under lock and key where we could put our cases and things like that. My father have loan me a lovely cow hide case. They just don’t make them like that anymore, really, really, thick leather, old fashion, and so. He had it when he was a young man and he let me have it to bring my stuff the university and so on. It was spectacular, wonderful class, solid bronze, big leather straps over the top with bronze buckles. It was a lovely piece, you know? Some thief had gone in there, the case wasn’t even lock there was nothing in it but he had taken a sharp knife and just slash it open and ruined it completely and so on. Well of course I did not know it was coming. If it had come I’m not sure what I would have done. If I was sensible I probably would have called the police and get them to set something up. If I was not been sensible which was far more likely I would have had two or three of my chums with me hiding there waiting to take the guy on and talk to him about a better way of life. But in fact I did not know when he was coming and my father’s case was irretrievably destroyed. So it will be at the coming of the Son of man in the end.
Now understand there is an analogy between Jesus coming and the coming of the thief but that does not mean Jesus is to be compared with the thief in every respect. These arguments of analogy have one or two points of comparison but that is all. That is the unexpectedness that is being used to clarify the issue not the Jesus is justifying thievery. I mention that it seems almost too trite to say, I mention it because it becomes important in understanding a couple of later parables. Now what you will discover as you work through the remaining parable is that every new parable that is introduced picks up the lesson of one or more of the presiding parables but then adds on something extra.
So the first set of vineyards makes a simple point. Wait for the Lord Jesus as those who do not want to be surprised by their master’s coming.
▲Second, wait for the Lord Jesus as stewards who must give accounts of their service whether good or bad. Hence verses 45 and following:
45 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?
46 It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns.
47 Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions.
48 But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’
49 and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards.
50 The master of that servant will come at a day when he does not expect him
Now that is harking back to the first vineyard. Do you see? In every case something harks back to the first one or the presiding one.
“and at an hour he is not aware of.
51 He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
In other words not only are we to wait so as to not to be surprised. We are to wait with the full knowledge that we are going to give account to our service whether good or evil.
▲3. Number three, wait as those who know the master’s coming might be long delayed. That is the parable of the ten virgins. I won’t take the time to read this particular one. I’m sure you are familiar with it but you must understand something of 1st century village life marriages for this one to make sense.
If you read a newspaper account of wedding today, it is all about the bride. She was dressed in a lovely dress with a certain cut and a tough and a long train and the bouquet is such and such and so on and down to the bottom it says the groom is also present. But in the ancient world all the focus was on the groom. It was apparently because the groom paid for it all. In our world the bride or the bride’s parent paid for it all. So it was not too surprising. You know the one who pays the paper calls to tune, all the focus was on the bride. But in the ancient world it was the groom who paid for everything which is one of the reasons why the groom tended to be a little older to come a while to save up. So the bride was not even mentioned here which has some feminist interpreters really gnarled. But in fact it is no worse in the newspaper ads in our day running the other direction, it is not the point. The point is to understand how this delay works in the story. It was common for there to be in a kind of unofficial celebration at the bride’s house. The groom will be there with some friends and relatives but small unofficial. But they are not really as tight about time restrictions and then schedules and so that light celebration when is supposed to go on fairly could go on and on and on. When it is finally over then you parade through the streets to the groom’s house where the official ceremony and celebration takes place. Then if it is poor house then it will last half a day something like that and he have to provide the place and the food. If it is a polished place then there might be a wall compound and then a gate. You’re going there and the gates are shot because you do want to watch against party poppers, gate crushers who were trying to go in for the free food and drinks. It could go on for the entire week. And people you and the procession was supposed to come by the invited guest saw you and in this case there are ten young women who are waiting to join in the procession and five were wise and five were foolish. They all have torches, they know it this is going to take place after dark but some of them realized, you know this things are regularly delayed they could be half way through the night before they actually show up so they bring some extra oil in a little jar to put in their little satchel from which the light is fed then they all fell asleep.
There is no shame or blame attached to falling asleep, they are just waiting. All of them fall asleep, the wise and the foolish. That is not the point. But at midnight the cry goes up, “Here comes the groom”. We would have it here comes the bride. Here comes the groom and so they brushed, dust off their clothes and get their lamps going ones again and the wise ones pour a little oil from their jars in their little satchel and so on. Then the foolish ones discover they don’t have any enough oil to keep their lamps going. Their lamps are almost their badge of admittance. I mean there is no street light, it is dark. I mean this is the sign that they are ready, that they know what they are doing, they are joining the procession. So they have to go off in to the village to waken up the olive oil seller. And of course there are no 24/7 services so they are pounding on door, “come on down from your upstairs flat, come on down”. “We are going to sleep, get me in the morning”. “No this is an emergency, this is an emergency”. Then eventually comes down, opens the door, sells them some oil but by the time they came to the grooms place the gates are shot. They are viewed as gate crushers, dismissed.
Now the point of the narrative is simple wait as if you know the master’s coming maybe long delayed. That is important. Do you see if you knew truly and infallibly that Jesus is coming back in six months wouldn’t that reshape how you live? There is no point pursuing a Ph.D. program. Get out there and do some more evangelism, help some poor people. No point watching your investments carefully you have enough for six months. That is it. You don’t need more than that. Meanwhile invest your money and your time and you energy into eternity, Jesus is coming back in six months. You know that, it is the truth He is coming back for sure.
But now supposing you know Jesus is coming back for sure in 200 years. You know it and it is for true, you know that, you were right in your knowledge. Doesn’t that change on how you will do things? Then you will be more concerned on passing out heritage for you children. Maybe you better get that Ph. D. after all. Now you are worried about continuity, you might want to start a seminary. And think about strategic issues in world mission and you are concerned about how the local churches are doing not only for now but for the next generation and the next generation. You need about six generations seven generations to cover two hundred year. Do you see?
Now the point is we don’t know six months or 200 years. What we do know is the master’s coming maybe long delayed and that puts a responsibility on us to think strategically long term. You see the apostle Paul who can talk pretty bluntly about waiting for the Lord Jesus to return, looking to the Lord in heaven, and so on, nevertheless you find a passage like 2 Timothy 2:2 that he was thinking at least 4 generation up. He tells timothy, "The things that you have heard from faithful witnesses", that is the apostolic band, “you make sure you find people to pass it on to so that they will pass it on to others”. See but the apostolic band that passes them on to Timothy who passes them on to another generation who will be charge to pass them on to another one. Four generations, Paul is thinking strategically. Do you see? Yes we wait for Jesus, he could come back at any time but in the other hand this is how you plan your life. This is how you think through how the gospel gets pass on. Don’t you see? There are a lot of evidences in the New Testament that warn you not only to be ready but also to understand that the delay could be very significant. Thousand years is like a day, days like a thousand years to the almighty. Might be a mark of this grace that He comes back so fast as others come to faith.
▲4. Then number four, this is often called the parable of the talent in the NIV 2011, it is called the parable of the bags of gold.
14 “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. 15 To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16 The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. 17 So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. 18 But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
19 “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 20 The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’
21 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
22 “The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’
23 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
24 “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’
26 “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
28 “‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. 29 For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. 30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Now there are two details in this parable that you must understand to read it right. First, the Greek word Talenton, because it sounds like being much more talent. It was regularity the translated as talent. The trouble is when you and I hear the word talent today we think of the ability to play violin or do whole lot of mathematical sums in your head really, really, quickly or particular talent with training puppies or horse whisper or talent doing Judo or whatever, that is what we think of. The trouble is on the Greek word Talenton doesn’t mean talent at all; it is a measure of weight of money. If it is a talent of silver, let’s call it a bag of silver, a talent of silver have 6,000 denary in it. Now a single denarius was the pay for a day labor, a blue color worker to work for one day. So 6,000 denary represent about 20 years of day laborers wage. That is worth different amounts on different parts of the country. But let’s say $ 800,000, it is quite a lot of money. That is if it is silver, if it is gold it is worth millions and millions, and millions of vast amount of money. That is just one bag. But here we are told one slave actually is given 5 bags of gold, tens of millions, maybe hundreds millions of dollars, a lot of money. Another is given two the other is given one, each according to the master’s assessment of the individual person’s ability.
The second detail that you must understand if you are to make sense of this parable is that the word rendered servant is do lost which always invariable in the new testament means a slave. You can’t understand this passage if you think you are dealing with servants. I understand why translations like ESV, NIV, all of them use servant here because they are trying to distance themselves from the overtones of slavery in the American History. But in the other hand it really does mean slave and that is important to understand this text as we’ll see in a moment.
So this wealthy man delivers his gold, bags of it to three slaves and then he goes away for a long journey. You see now you’re picking up the previous one. “His return might be long delayed” they don’t know when he is coming. There commission in effect to improve the master’s assets and so one goes away and begins to make it work. You must understand that to make this money work you don’t go to a stock exchange and then invest wisely. There are no stock exchange in the ancient world, none. If you have money and you want to make it grow significantly what you have to do is by business and then another business and several businesses then you buy a small fishing smug and you start a fishing company in Lake Galilee then you buy another one, then you buy a vineyard. Then you got to hire the right people, the right managers, the right workers, oversee it have you accounting in place and pay your taxes then you might get a small shipping company going to get the fish down to Jerusalem and so on. Don’t forget you got millions and millions and millions maybe a hundred million, two hundred million, a lot of money. It takes a hard work to invest that sum of money in businesses when you are responsible in managing them. So you see? But gradually with time that money doubles. Now the network of the entire enterprise is ten bags of gold.
The master returns. There is a certain kind of quite pride in the first slave’s answer, “Master you gave me five bags of gold, I have just cash in all of my business here. You now have ten bags of gold.”
And the master says two astonishing things, “Well done good and faithful slave, you have been faithful over a few things now I’m going to give you a real job.” What? You have been faithful over a few things? Hundred and million bucks? This has been nothing now you are really going to get a great job. That is the first thing he says. Does it not polluting the water? What do you think of when you think of heaven? Sitting on a way cloud, wearing a diaphanous night gown, playing a harp for the first billion years, you know if I’m going to play a harp wearing a diaphanous white night gown I’m not even sure I want to go because it is not my color.
Now the biblical images of what happen is high, highly, highly diverse. Joining the choir around the thrown sounds a great deal of fun and resurrection existence? Yes but one of the images here is work, you are going to get a real job. Real responsibility beyond anything you have ever done which suggest that there is going to be work and no fatigue, work and no corruption, work and honest return, and growth and imagination and flourishing. Do you see it is not static, it is wonderful? We are told there are people there from every tongue and language and people and culture. Why the people are think that when we get to heaven we are going to speak the same language. The text openly says that the languages are going to be preserved. There are people there from different language. If it takes me the first million years to mandarin that is ok I can have a million beyond that to improve the intonation just a wee bit. And then maybe after that I’ll jump to Kikuyu or maybe Urdu. Do you see? I got tired and I’m growing and im learning.
So the first thing he says is you have been entrusted with a few paddly(little) things now I’m going to give you a real job.
And the second thing he says is come and share your master’s happiness. What? That is not what you say to your slave? You say go fetch my sleepers, I want my supper at 6:00 don’t be late; what I like is so on and so on and so on. Isn’t that what you say to slaves? But this master says, “well done good and faithful slave now come on in and you are part of the family, come and share you master’s happiness and I’m going to give you a real job.
Then second slave comes. He got four bags of gold but he doubled it. He says the same thing and the master says the same thing to him. And then the third chap came, verse 34. He says 'master I knew that you are a hard man harvesting your and gathering your scattered seed. So I was afraid that and went and hid your gold in the ground and see here is what belongs to you.' You see initially you might actually have sympathy for this character. He might think that he is in an invidious position. If he invest things well then the return is the master’s, not his, he is a slave and he doesn’t own any of it. If he invest then the economy goes belly up you got some really nasty weather and the vineyards fail or the fishing smack is destroyed then you lose everything. So the master holds you accountable, the master gives you a reward. So what is fare in that? Just hide in the ground and give it back to him. So you have some sympathy with this chap, don’t you? But that is because we are thinking of trade union rules. We are remembering that workers have their right to withdraw their labor but in fact what you have to remember is that this is a slave. This is not justifying slavery any more than the earlier parable justify thief. But you must see that the analogy here is slavery because we do belong to God and we owe Him, we owe Him obedience. So that is we don’t do what we are told He holds as to account in precisely the same way that a master holds his slave to account. The slave does not have the right to withdraw his services. We do not have the right to withdraw from God, He holds us to account.
What he says is the real thing is you refuse to work for me, you are wicked and lazy, you refuse to do what you are told, you are in fact laughing at me because if you really were all that frightened and yet really want to do what is right, at least you would have put that on the bank so the money could have earned some interest. You are trying to do the thing which would be most embarrassing to me without getting you head chopped up. And I tell you that you are a wicked and lazy servant and you will bear the consequences.
So what is the point of this parable? Wait for the Lord Jesus as slaves commissioned to improve their master’s asset. It is not just the Lord is coming at any time and then we have to give an account and it could be long to wait but wait to the Lord Jesus as slave commissioned to improve their master’s assets.
▲Now I don’t have to time to deal with the last one. The last one is even more surprising when you read it within context. But what I’m trying to say in the sequence in these two days is not only how to interpret this parable or that parable but to think through what this says about the nature of the Kingdom. Do you see Jews who were expecting a kingdom that would come in a one big bang and the righteous would be gathered up into glory and the unrighteous would be condemned like chap burned up with unquenchable fire? Suddenly you have a view of the kingdom that is really quite different. In Matthew 13, it is like a farmer who sows his seed; here it is like a man who goes away in a long journey. The kingdom is already done. Meanwhile the master’s slave, slaves of Christ Jesus, slaves of the living God. You are not slaves to sinners, we are slaves to God. Our commission to improve the master’s assets is to wait for him not knowing when he returns and then comes the consummation and in the consummation you will get a real job and you will sow the master’s happiness. There will be resurrection existence. There will be more sorrow or death, sorrow or pain. The old has passed away and meanwhile our passion is not to improve our own assets but the master’s.
Let us pray,
In truth Lord God we confess with shame how easy it is to be snookered by the passing fancy and the glittering lights of a dying culture. Return us again Lord God to an eternal perspective so that we join the church in every generation that cries out Yes! Yes! even so come Lord Jesus and long for the day of His appearing ready for it, eager for it. By grace determined to improve the master’s assets. We ask in Jesus name. AMEN
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