Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me

 "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.  All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.  And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.  Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:  for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in.  I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.'   Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink?  When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You?  Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?'  And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.'

"Then He will say to those on the left hand, 'Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels:  for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.'  Then they also will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?  Then He will answer them, saying, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.'  And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

- Matthew 25:31-46

Over the course of the past week, we have been reading Jesus' discourse outside of the great temple in Jerusalem, in which He's predicted both the destruction of the temple and the end of the age, when He will return.  In yesterday's reading, He gave us a parable about stewardship:  "For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them.  And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey.  Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents.  And likewise he who had received two gained two more also.  But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord's money.  After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.  So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, 'Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.'  His lord said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things.  Enter into the joy of your lord.'  He also who had received two talents came and said, 'Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.'  His lord said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things.  Enter into the joy of your lord.'  Then he who had received the one talent came and said, 'Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed.  And I was afraid, and went and his your talent in the ground.  Look, there you have what is yours.'  But his lord answered and said to him, 'You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed.  So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest.  Therefore take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.  For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.  And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness.  There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."


"When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.  All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats."  My study bible says, "Here is the majestic climax of the discourse, which is not simply a parable but an account of the universal judgment.  Since the Cross is now near for Him, Jesus raises up the hearer to the sight of the glory of the Son of Man, His judgment seat, and the whole world before Him.  He shows the heavens opened and all the holy angels present to witness His judgment.  For if the first coming of the Son of Man was in humility, to serve and to die, the Second Coming will be in glory, as a King to judge all the nations."

"And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.  Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:  for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in.  I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.'   Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink?  When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You?  Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?'  And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.'  Then He will say to those on the left hand, 'Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels:  for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.'  Then they also will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?  Then He will answer them, saying, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.'  And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."  My study bible tells us, "The standard of judgment is uncalculated mercy toward the needy.  The works produced by faith are emphasized, for a saving faith produces righteous works.  It is possible to fool ourselves about whether we truly believe, but what we do so reflects our true inner state that we will need no other evidence before God's court.  The needy are the intimate brethren of Christ.  The least of these may refer primarily to Christian missionaries or to needy Christians and, by extension, all who suffer.  Jesus identifies Himself with the poor and the outcast and invites to brotherhood all who are kindled with love for others (1 John 4:20).  These are crowned with grace."

Jesus sets out two ways of seeing things in this discourse on the Judgment.  There are the things we fail to do, and the things we do in service to Him without necessarily understanding it -- or, perhaps, by proxy.  In both cases, He reminds His disciples that they fail or succeed in serving Him.  Ultimately, we are to see Him and His face in all things we do, or fail to do.  I think the concern with justice and mercy here is made complete by the notion that Christ Himself will suffer on the Cross.  If there is any way in which we may come to understand that our world isn't necessarily fair and just, it's this story about Jesus, this Gospel that teaches us that He -- One who loves us -- will die because of greed and envy and malice and the hundreds of things that we do to one another that create an unjust world.  It is a picture of a world ruled by "the evil one" who must crucify the One who loves us and who comes to set us free from that ruler.  This is the Gospel in a nutshell.  It's the story of Jesus who is the Son who has come to liberate us from this box of hypocrisy, of injustice and lack of mercy and understanding, and to set us apart so that we may know and live His way of life that He teaches here.  To fail to do so is to let Him down.  As Jesus speaks about those in prison or those who are needy or sick or in some way marginalized, He's quite clearly speaking about Himself.  He will live out this teaching Himself; He will be that face in which He asks us to see Himself.  He will be a prisoner and needy and outcast and a stranger.  He will be the one who is mocked on the Cross.  He will be the one treated without mercy, without justice, the one for whom all rules of justice will be ignored, and procedure thrown out the window.  He will be brutalized and scourged as a criminal.  The one abandoned and left alone -- well, that is the Christ who teaches us about those among us who will fill that place.  And it's important that my study bible points out that He's speaking to a group of His disciples, and so the least of these may very well mean those among us, of our group, this family as He has referred to it, who also seek to serve.  It's no accident that He refers to "the least of these, My brethren."  But, as He points out very clearly (for example, in the parable of the wheat and the tares), we can't necessarily understand just exactly who those truly are.  It's the knower-of-hearts, Christ Himself, who does the separating here.  As He's taught before, what we do -- or fail to do -- for the least of these, we are to see Him in their place. It think it's important that Jesus emphasizes a sense of identification with "the least of these" as part of the group.  Over and over again, He's told His disciples that this is the model of leadership that He wants, and clearly, His emphasis on this kind of view of hierarchy teaches us where our biggest weaknesses are:  they are in matters of power and rank.  Love, ultimately, teaches us in all kinds of ways that life is not about power hierarchies and competitions but rather about how we choose to relate to others, with what discernment do we discern, how we truly take the time to see what's right in front of us.  It's not that we are to be blind to those who would cause us harm, who cause injustice or take advantage, or all the number of things that we could ask ourselves about how we are to practice His mercy.  Far from it.  Christ asks us to be "wise as serpents and gentle as doves."  And in that phrase is our discernment, the time we take to truly see, to take time for the least of these, even to understand who they truly are -- because where someone is hurting and meek isn't obvious.  Let us remember that to give of ourselves is more than money.  It's about the heart that seeks to know, to understand, to heal, to discern.  Where does His face lead you?

Well done, good and faithful servant

 "For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them.  And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey.  Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents.  And likewise he who had received two gained two more also.  But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord's money.  After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.  So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, 'Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.'  His lord said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things.  Enter into the joy of your lord.'  He also who had received two talents came and said, 'Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.'  His lord said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things.  Enter into the joy of your lord.'  Then he who had received the one talent came and said, 'Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed.  And I was afraid, and went and his your talent in the ground.  Look, there you have what is yours.'  But his lord answered and said to him, 'You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed.  So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest.  Therefore take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.  For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.  And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness.  There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

- Matthew 25:14-30

 In our current readings, Jesus is in Jerusalem, and it is the Passion Week.  He has made His Triumphal Entry, cleansed the temple, and been questioned by the various groups of the leadership.  Outside the temple, He began to speak to His disciples of the time to come:  the war that is coming to Jerusalem (and the destruction of the great temple) and also the end of the age, and His eventual return.  In Tuesday's reading, He taught that only the Father knows the day and hour of His return, but that His disciples must be ready, because "the Son of Man will return at an hour you do not expect."  On Wednesday, He taught of the faithful and wise servant, master of the household, who kept good order in preparation for the master's return.  Yesterday, He taught the parable of the wise and foolish virgins.  "Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.  Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish.  Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.  But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.  And at midnight a cry was heard:  'Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!'  Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps.  And the foolish said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.'  But the wise answered, saying, 'No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.'  And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.  Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open to us!'  But he answered and said, 'Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.'  Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming."

 "For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them.  And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey."  My study bible says, "This parable illustrates the use of gifts given by God.  A talent was a great sum of money and came to designate a special gift or endowment."  I think it's important that we see from the illustration in this parable that each person is given their own "amount" to handle, according to ability.  There is a kind of equality in the inequality here, if you will:  each is judged by the master according to the merit of ability or capacity.  There is no comparison here except that. Again, as in so many of the recent examples Jesus is giving, He illustrates the concept of stewardship as we await His return.

"Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents.  And likewise he who had received two gained two more also.  But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord's money.  After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.  So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, 'Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.'  His lord said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things.  Enter into the joy of your lord.'  He also who had received two talents came and said, 'Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.'  His lord said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things.  Enter into the joy of your lord.'  Then he who had received the one talent came and said, 'Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed.  And I was afraid, and went and his your talent in the ground.  Look, there you have what is yours.'  But his lord answered and said to him, 'You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed.  So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest.  Therefore take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.  For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.  And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness.  There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."  Here, my study bible tells us:  "The Lord came after a long time but exacted full accountability.  The wicked and lazy servant could not evade responsibility for ignoring his talent.  We are stewards of every gift, using each for our own and our neighbor's salvation.  Idleness is a renunciation of God's grace, as well as a lack of love for God and humanity.  Since people are managers, or stewards, of God's gifts, each of us will give account of how we used the abundance of gifts given to us."

The sense in which we look at today's reading really depends on how we understand the word "talent," in some sense.  What is a talent?  What do you consider to be a talent?  I think it's important that we understand that as good stewards we're put in charge of some kind of goods that don't really belong to us.  They are gifts.  We serve a master who is the true owner of the talents, whose household we're "managing."  In that sense the "talents" require good stewardship, with a consciousness of the owner who has entrusted them to us.  So, how do you think of talents?  What are they for, how do we use them?  It seems to me that the profitability of talents, in this sense, is something that must be measured on terms the master will be pleased with.  How we use those talents depends on who and what we're trying to please.  If we compare these "talents" (originally meaning a sum of money) to the "oil" in the lamps of the virgins of yesterday's parable, then we are more likely to be onto something not evident by using our current meaning of the word "talent" (as evolved from this literature).  Oil in the lamps was likened to mercy and grace; and here, talents given by this Master really would seem to indicate a spiritual capability, a kind of potential in our lives for more than merely some kind of self-aggrandizement through accomplishments that look good to others, the kind of success we equate with use of talent in a purely material sense.  If we look at the talents in this different way, then we come to a completely different picture than we usually associate with the word "talent."  We then have to start to think about what our spiritual capacities are for understanding where God would lead us in our lives, what our Master would choose for us to do with the good gifts He has given us.  In that context, the best use of our talents isn't necessarily winning a contest in which somehow we're measured against others, but rather how far we go in using all that is at our disposal (talents, resources, energy, opportunities) to create a life well-lived, one that reflects the glory of God in those lamps that are planted within each of us, in which we are like the salt and light of discipleship that was spoken about in the Sermon on the Mount, in which Jesus taught to "let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father in heaven." Over the course of the past several readings, we've spoken a lot about memory, and how important and essential the concept of memory is to our understanding of faith.  Here, the example is clear:  the "good and faithful" steward is someone who keeps alive the memory of the master, even when He is delayed.  This is a memory of trust, with an attitude that is willing to have the courage to try.  Again, there's a clue here that this use of talents isn't about a contest:  rather, it's about faith -- and material success or failure isn't really the point, but perhaps the courage to take the risk of faith.  The one who fails is the one who, out of fear rather than faith (or trust), "played it safe."  Let's take it a step further and open up our thinking about faith and talent.  Where does God call us?  How does God draw you out of your "safe shell" or hiding place and into the light you may be asked to shine?  That is the risk worth taking, the good steward's use of the talents with which we've been entrusted.

Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!

 "Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.  Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish.  Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.  But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.  And at midnight a cry was heard:  'Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!'  Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps.  And the foolish said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.'  But the wise answered, saying, 'No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.'  And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.  Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open to us!'  But he answered and said, 'Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.'  Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming."

- Matthew 25:1-13

It is Holy Week in the Gospel readings, and Jesus is in Jerusalem.  At the present time in our readings, Jesus is engaging in the discourse outside the temple, speaking to His disciples.   This discourse began with Saturday's reading, in which He began speaking of the time to come in Jerusalem, after His Passion and death and Resurrection.  In Monday's reading, He began to speak of His Second Coming.  In Tuesday's reading, He spoke of the preparedness for this event, the way of being ready for His return in this time to come.  Yesterday, Jesus continued:  "Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?  Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing.  Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods.  But if that evil servant says in his heart, 'My master is delaying his coming,' and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites.  There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

 "Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom."  Of this parable, my study bible tells us that it illustrates preparedness, or lack of it, while the bridegroom was delayed (verse 5).    It says, "The Old Testament prophets portray the covenant between God and Israel as a marriage covenant.  The marriage will finally be consummated when the Bridegroom returns at the end of the age and the righteous form a wedding party to go forth to meet Him.  The Bridegroom represents Christ in His Passion, who dies out of love for His Church (Eph. 5:25-27)."  Ten virgins, I would venture to say, clearly indicates the wedding of a great King.

"Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish.  Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.  But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept."  My study bible says, "That the wise virgins also slumbered and slept suggests that once prepared, a person rests as needed."  Surely the delay of the Bridegroom, in this story, is the parallel to the perceived "delay" of the return of Christ.  The real question becomes, "What do we do with this time of the perceived delay?"  How are we prepared?

"And at midnight a cry was heard:  'Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!'  Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps.  And the foolish said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.'  But the wise answered, saying, 'No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.'  And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.  Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open to us!'  But he answered and said, 'Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.'  Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming."    My study bible says of the wise virgins in the story:  "Their refusal to give oil to the foolish ones is not a lack of love.  It portrays the fact that spiritual preparedness cannot be conveniently given or borrowed.  This parable encourages the proper use of God's gifts:  to bear fruit.  Some interpreters say lamps indicate the gift of purity and holiness, and oil, works of mercy -- the grace of the Holy Spirit.  Traditionally, virginity has been considered a special 'lamp,' and almsgiving or help to the poor a special 'oil.'"

The story of the wise and foolish virgins gives us something to think about in this time of awaiting Christ's return.  Surely we can't help but think of this Bridegroom's "delay" ourselves.  But it also gives us a hint about the purpose of this time.  There's a great play on words here in the notions of "alertness" and sleeping portrayed in the readings of the past couple of days.  What does it mean to be alert or wakeful?  We've spoken in the past couple of commentaries about remembrance, or memory.  Remembrance and memory play a great part in Christian worship.  In our liturgical services, we enact the great sacrifice that Christ will make in His Passion and death on the Cross.  We take the sacrament of bread and wine as body and blood of Christ, as Jesus instructed when He taught that His disciples must "do this in remembrance of Me."  We could even extend that "memory" to each time we "eat bread" and remember the One who died for us, the One who asks us to be good stewards of all that we are given, of all that is truly His.  Memory is a necessary part of our faith, in so many dimensions.  And here, memory plays an important part in defining just what we do with this time when the Bridegroom seems to be delayed.  We have time to prepare, to consider what we need -- the oil of mercy and grace with which we fill our lamps.  A few readings ago we spoke about the holy fire of love that appears in so much literature of saints and mystics.  An individual lamp is something like that fire that belongs in each of us, an individual soul.  With what energy does it burn, how does it shine?  And we remember again Jesus' teaching about His disciples (here in Mathew's Gospel, part of the Sermon on the Mount), how they are to be like lamps which "give light to all who are in the house."  Memory, again, plays a role in our understanding of this Gospel, of these teachings, and the many ways one teaching will reflect upon another, Jesus' words echoing themselves to teach us, to enforce, to bring to mind, to understand.  Our alertness, our awake state, our alacrity, are the things we therefore must treasure in this time of the delay of the Bridegroom.  It's all tied in with remembrance:  remembrance of the things that the Master wishes us to be about (as in yesterday's reading and the parable of the "wise and faithful servant"), to remember our Master who is true owner of all that we are given and all that we have, to remember that He's coming at an hour we don't expect, to remember what it is to be prepared.  My study bible points out that oil is often considered an analogy to acts of mercy and grace, and if we look closely at the Greek, we'll understand why.  "Elaion" is olive oil, and "eleos" is mercy.  In sound, they are identical (the ending of the word depends on context).  When the Good Samaritan, in the story in Luke's Gospel, binds up the wounds of the hurt man, he uses elaion, olive oil, as a balm.  When Jesus asks which was the neighbor to the hurt man, and the lawyer replies, "The one who showed mercy on him," the gospel is using the word eleos.  This symbol of olive oil -- the basis for all healing balm in the ancient world --  this golden oil, becomes a symbol for the grace of the Holy Spirit, and the anointing poured out upon the whole world, but also needing to be active in each one of us.  Therefore, we have another image of what it is to remember to keep our lamps full of this oil.  When we "remember God" we also fuel the fire of grace in ourselves, taking time for prayer and worship, and the acts of grace that work with us and within us.  So, we come to a tie between "remembrance" and "grace" --  and finally back to the purpose of this time of delay.  It is so we remember what we are about, we "take rest" in His grace as we need to, so that our lamps burn bright, and are full of the fuel for the fire of God's love in us.  In this sense, waking or resting, we remain alert to the fire of love, the memory of God's grace, the oil of the lamps that anoints us with grace.  Let us "remember" to rest in that place, to be alert to God's love, to know what we must be about as we await the return of the Bridegroom.

Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?

 "Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?  Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing.  Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods.  But if that evil servant says in his heart, 'My master is delaying his coming,' and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites.  There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

- Matthew 24:45-51

 In our current readings, Jesus is in Jerusalem.  He has made the Triumphal Entry, cleansed the temple, and been interrogated by various groups of the religious establishment.  As Jesus stepped out of the temple, He began a discourse about the time to come in Jerusalem (the destruction of the temple), and also the end of the age, His Second Coming.  See the readings from Saturday and Monday for the earlier parts of this discourse.  In yesterday's reading, Jesus continued, "Now learn this parable from the fig tree:  When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near.  So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near -- at the doors!  Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.  But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.  But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.  For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.  Then two men will be in the field:  one will be taken and the other left.  Two women will be grinding at the mill:  one will be taken and the other left.  Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.  But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.  Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect."

"Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?  Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing.  Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods.  But if that evil servant says in his heart, 'My master is delaying his coming,' and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites.  There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."  Jesus gives us the image of stewardship as the model for what we are to be about in His absence, as we await His return.  It gives us pause to think about what a good steward really is.  The Church here is in an image of a "household" and a steward would be the one who is "ruler" or manager over the household, making sure it's running smoothly, well-stocked with goods, and economically in good condition.  There are two senses in which Jesus gives what is a violation of the good conduct of the steward, but they both start with the thought that the Master is delayed.  So, the first thing we learn from Jesus' parable here is to emphasize remembrance:  we must remember that His Return will happen at a time we can't predict.  To keep a constant thought about this reality is a part of what it is to be a true disciple.  The failure to do so here in this example is to result in two ways of failing to be a good steward.  One of those is to beat one's fellow servants.  That would be a sense in which "stewardship" turns into brutality and self-aggrandizement, a failure to hold strongly in mind the concept of the Master's return and how the Master wishes His servants to behave toward one another.  It is a failure to keep in mind our essential equality and "belovedness" before the Master.  This behavior would be similar to the behavior expressed in the parable of the wicked vinedressers, an arrogance that usurps the place of the Master and acts with injustice, brutality, exploitation.   The second way to fail at stewardship is to be totally careless of all responsibility by "eating and drinking with drunkards" and therefore to fall down on the job, and forget what we are to be about.   That still seems to involve a kind of exploitation of assets of the house for personal indulgence, and so, while we each hold positions of stewardship in one way or another in our own lives, we also must conclude that He is especially speaking here to those who will be among the leadership of the Church, His chosen apostles, and those who will succeed them.  Once again, we're also given the promise that the Master will return on a day and an hour when He's not expected, and there most certainly will follow a "reward" appropriate to the behavior He's warned about.  If you think about it, we may still be awaiting His return to the world, but none of us can say when our lives will end, how many opportunities we will have (or with which people and situations), or at what point we will be meeting the Master.

"Stewardship" involves a good many things, but there is one thing we must always keep in mind that's clear from the parables Jesus teaches on this subject, and that is the nature of property ownership and our relationship to the Master.  Who "owns" the Church?   Does anyone own fellow servants?  The model that Jesus teaches here is one in which we are all fellow servants, and the true ownership of all the goods in this grand household doesn't rest with any of us, but with God.  It sets up the idea that whatever we do with our lives, in our jobs as servants to the Master, we must remember that the things we have in our lives, the people we have in our lives, and this great gift of the gospel (the good news of the kingdom) and of His Church, is not something that is "owned" by any of us.  We are all stewards.  The property is the Master's, and, as good stewards, it's our job to follow the will of the Master in the ways in which we conduct ourselves:  how we use the things put at our disposal or in our charge, and how we conduct ourselves with respect to our fellow servants.  One example of the ways in which this parable of stewardship is put to use has become an issue for the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew, who has championed the idea that the world is a beautiful gift from God, and that it is our job as stewards to care for the world in a way that preserves its beauty and goodness.  This would especially extend to issues of pollution of natural resources, and of course their protection for future generations.  If we think about it, Jesus' encouragement here for all of us to be aware of His return at all times essentially is a way for us to remind ourselves what the conduct of a good life is like.  It gives us a heightened sense of awareness, of mindfulness (to use a commonly used term of spirituality today) of what we are always to be about.  When we keep in mind that ownership of everything is in God's hands, it may give us a sense of respect and of care that Christ Himself, the Master, suggests here.  In this sense, we're all stewards, and we must all practice care of the good, the beautiful gifts of God's grace, including how we relate to our fellow servants, and how we care not just for the world, but for this gospel.  Who owns it?  Whose good news is it?  Nobody owns this kingdom, which is a free gift of the Master, whose gift it is to give.  Let us be mindful of the things put into our hands:  our lives, our talents, our resources, a beautiful world filled with good things.  How about the distribution of the "good news" -- the gospel of the kingdom?  How do we steward our lives in remembrance of the Master?  What is just and what is not?  How do we live with this awareness and watchfulness, and not fall down on the job?  What good things are you given stewardship over?  How does the Master's love guide you in your life, to be a faithful and wise servant?

Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect

 "Now learn this parable from the fig tree:  When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near.  So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near -- at the doors!  Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.

"But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.  But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.  For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.  Then two men will be in the field:  one will be taken and the other left.  Two women will be grinding at the mill:  one will be taken and the other left.  Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.  But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.  Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

- Matthew 24:32-44

Yesterday, Jesus continued His talk to His disciples on the future in Jerusalem and of His Second Coming.  He began this talk as He walked out of the temple with His disciples (see All these are the beginning of sorrows).  In yesterday's reading, He said to them, ""Therefore when you see the 'abomination of desolation,' spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place" (whoever reads, let him understand), "then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.  Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house.  And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes.  But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!  And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath.  For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.  And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened.  Then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There!' do not believe it.  For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.  See, I have told you beforehand.  Therefore if they say to you, 'Look, He is in the desert!' do not go out; or 'Look, He is in the inner rooms!' do not believe it.  For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.  For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.  Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.  Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.  And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."


 "Now learn this parable from the fig tree:  When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near.  So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near -- at the doors!  Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away."  My study bible says that the words this generation "probably refers to the new race of Christians.  The end is always near, just ahead of us."

"But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.  But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.  For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.  Then two men will be in the field:  one will be taken and the other left.  Two women will be grinding at the mill:  one will be taken and the other left."   My study bible tells us:  "The unexpected suddenness of Christ's coming will catch people unaware and engaged in earthly pursuits, just as in the days of Noah."  Jesus' quite vivid imagery here suggests that the text conveys a great emphasis on our "unpreparedness" for this day, and the sudden nature of this moment.  It is up to us, who have this warning, to be prepared in the ways He teaches.  We note also the emphasis on the unknown chronology, only "His Father in heaven" knows.

"Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.  But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.  Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect."  Here, my study bible says, "The Lord's purpose in this discourse is not to make the disciples 'experts in prophecy.'  It is rather that they may watch and be ready, continually engaged in virtuous action, obeying His commandments -- remembering that we cannot know the time of His coming.  These warnings are illustrated by the parable of the householder and the thief, and three longer parables which follow (24:45-25:30).  They urge us to (1) watchfulness, (2) faithful responsibility, (3) preparedness, and (4) use of our spiritual gifts."  For the rest of the discourse, lectionary readings over the next several days will give us the rest of the verses noted here.

I think it's important that we keep in mind that Jesus is preparing His disciples here for what is to come after He is gone -- after His suffering, death on the Cross, Resurrection and Ascension.  How will the Church struggle to survive?  What is to be the attitude of these early Christians after He is gone, and as they seek to evangelize and build their churches, spreading His gospel of the kingdom to all the world?  It's important that we understand that the attitude He is conveying here for these disciples is the one that He gives us as His departure is prepared, as He is paving the way for His exodus from Jerusalem.  This "departure" speech (if we can think of it in this context) is therefore a kind of preparation for the rest of the Church as it awaits His Return.  In other words, it's a preparation to teach us who are of this Church how we are to set our faces toward the East (so to speak) and await in preparedness for His return.  The vivid illustration of people at work in every day tasks, and the element of surprise and suddenness teach us about the essential reminders we must give ourselves that the Master will return at any moment, and we just don't know when that is.  Not only do we have no idea, He has no idea (at least, that's what's implied in the text).  There is a deliberate omission of any opportunity for timely planning.  The key here is that we must always be prepared.  Not only that, but it's up to us to remind ourselves that we must be prepared.  This is an essential part of memory -- a sense of memory that keeps alive not only the events of Jesus' life, but also this promise:  "the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect."  That, it seems to me, is a promise, deliberate and emphatic.  So, what it really does is open up the question to us about what it means to be ready, to be prepared.  Every moment becomes important.  Life takes on a heightened sort of energy from this perspective.  How do we take opportunities to be prepared for the Master's return?  Is there something put in front of us now that needs a decision?  And, just right this moment, is there a way to make choices that really reflect our awareness of this memory, this promise, this knowledge that His return will be unexpected?  The heightened expectation of each moment thereby raises our awareness of what we are to be about, what we need to remember, and how we are to be about the Master's business.

For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be

 "Therefore when you see the 'abomination of desolation,' spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place" (whoever reads, let him understand), "then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.  Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house.  And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes.  But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!  And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath.  For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.  And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened.  Then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There!' do not believe it.  For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.  See, I have told you beforehand.  Therefore if they say to you, 'Look, He is in the desert!' do not go out; or 'Look, He is in the inner rooms!' do not believe it.  For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.  For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.

"Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.  Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.  And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."

- Matthew 24:15-31

Right now in our readings, Jesus is in Jerusalem, and it is Holy Week.  He has made His Triumphal Entry, He has cleansed the temple, and been quizzed by various groups of the religious leadership.  Jesus has made His grand critique of the Pharisees (see the readings from Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of last week).  On Saturday, we read that Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple.  And Jesus said to them, "Do you not see all these things?  Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down."  Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things be?  And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?"  And Jesus answered and said to them:  "Take heed that no one deceives you.  For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many.  And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars.  See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.  For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.  All these are the beginning of sorrows.   Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake.  And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.  Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.  And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.  But he who endures to the end shall be saved.  And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come."

  "Therefore when you see the 'abomination of desolation,' spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place" (whoever reads, let him understand), "then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.  Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house.  And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes.  But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!  And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath."  My study bible says here:  "Daniel's prophecy of the abomination of desolation was fulfilled in A.D. 70, when the Roman general Titus, before ordering the temple burned, entered the Most Holy Place, thus defiling the temple.  Jesus quotes this prophecy so that the disciples might know these things will happen while most of them are still alive.  Whoever reads, let him understand are code words from the author to early Christians about the known meaning of what is written."

"For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.  And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened.  Then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There!' do not believe it.  For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.  See, I have told you beforehand.  Therefore if they say to you, 'Look, He is in the desert!' do not go out; or 'Look, He is in the inner rooms!' do not believe it.  For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.  For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together."  My study bible asks the question here, "How will the Christ come back?"  Jesus moves from discussion of the destruction to come to Jerusalem to a discussion of His Second Coming.  My study bible suggests, "The event will be unmistakably visible to all."  It notes that in the Church (for many denominations) prayer is in the direction of the rising sun, "because the East symbolizes Christ Himself who is the East of easts, Light of light.  The great day of the Lord will be illuminated by the true Light, the 'rising' (Is. 60:1, 3; Mal. 4:2; Luke 1:78; 2 Peter 1:19).  The very creation will be transfigured -- not destroyed but superseded -- by the light of His presence at the end of the age."

"Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.  Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.  And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."  My study bible says that Jesus teaches here about His own Second Coming, not for the disciples' sakes only, but "for all of us who come after them.  The sign of the Son of Man in His Second Coming is thought by many to be His glorious Cross, the memorial of His Passion.  His power and great glory will be brighter than the sun, which will be darkened.  The Lord Jesus will come from heaven in the same way the Apostles saw Him ascend to heaven (Acts 1:11)."

Throughout the times of the Church, people have been concerned with Jesus' Second Coming.  It seems that at many times in  Church history, people have expected an imminent return, looking for signs and perhaps devising chronologies.  But what we can understand from Jesus' teaching here is twofold:  there is a certainty about His return, a promise that this will come, and at the same time an uncertainty:  we don't know when that will happen, and He has been careful to tell us (in tomorrow's reading) that He doesn't know when that will happen.  There is another great certainty in this description, and that is that when it does happen it will be something all of us will be aware of; nobody is going to miss this.  That's a warning to all of us that anybody who promises a secret hidden knowledge is deceiving.  And there we come to our present time, because truly we are living in a time of uncertainty.  The disciples Jesus is speaking to were living in a time of the great Roman Empire, when all kinds of changes were taking place in the world.  Jesus warns the disciples clearly and vividly in this reading about what is to come in Jerusalem, and in great detail warns of the tribulation they are to endure.  They are not to be fooled in that time of tremendous uncertainty.  Today, the world seems to be in a state of instability, heightened by a sense of the swiftness of events that can happen and affect many places on the globe simultaneously.  One can study the phenomenon of world markets for various products and our interconnectivity from continent to continent via modern communications to understand how financial markets may be impacted globally within a single day's news cycle and observe the modern world's innovations that heighten the impact of uncertainty.  World economies are interconnected; what happens in one country has an even more devastating impact on other countries, particularly shifts in the larger, more stable economies (such as a change in interest rates) have huge impacts on smaller and weaker economies.  This is simply one aspect of our modern lives, and it does affect all of us.  Changes in corporate structure affect the ways we think of job security and livelihoods.  Moreover, in today's world, populations seem to be on the move more than ever before in history, as a greater percentage of immigrants make up the populations of countries all around the world -- and as weapons create warfare, not in the grand vision of empire, but in skirmishes for power and control which seem to be destabilizing many regions simultaneously.  All of these things add up to a sense of a world in which things happen at a very rapid pace, and instantaneous communication, transportation, innovation and new technologies mean that change is extraordinary.  The days seem to get shorter, indeed!  All of this is to say that when there is a greater sense of instability, we tend to look toward this Second Coming, and even God's hand in the ways that time seems to be shortened.  We dwell in this "time of the end" when we await Christ's return.  But we really need to remember that we've been deliberately given no time-table for this event, and we've also been told that it will be unmistakeable.  No, we are in the time when the wheat and the tares grow side by side, when we know what we are to be about as His disciples, a time when our confidence must be in our faith.  The Teacher has set it all out very clearly for us.  As we read the next few readings, Jesus will make it very clear how He expects us to conduct ourselves in this period of waiting for that Sun to rise in the East of easts.  For today, let us consider the survival of the Church at that time of its infancy, and His teachings throughout Matthew's Gospel about the state of our hearts, and the ways we nurture our faith in all events and times.

All these are the beginning of sorrows

 Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple.  And Jesus said to them, "Do you not see all these things?  Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down."

Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things be?  And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?"  And Jesus answered and said to them:  "Take heed that no one deceives you.  For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many.  And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars.  See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.  For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.  All these are the beginning of sorrows. 

"Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake.  And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.  Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.  And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.  But he who endures to the end shall be saved.  And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come."

- Matthew 24:1-14

In recent readings, Jesus is in Jerusalem.  He has cleansed the temple, and been quizzed by various groups of the leadership.  Over the course of the past three days, we read His great critique of the Pharisees, starting with the readings on Wednesday and Thursday.  Yesterday, He continued:  "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.  Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.'   Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.  Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers' guilt.  Serpents, brood of vipers!  How can you escape the condemnation of hell?  Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes, some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.  Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.  O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!  How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!  See!  Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'"

 Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple.  And Jesus said to them, "Do you not see all these things?  Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down."  My study bible has several notes on today's reading.  Here, it tells us:  "This is a prediction of the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70, which sets the tone for Jesus' discourse on the end of the age (chs. 24; 25).  The New Testament describes the end time in a variety of ways, so that no precise chronology can be determined (see Mark 13; Luke 21; 1 Cor. 15:51-55; 1 Thess. 4:13-17; 2 Thess. 2:1-10; and the Book of Revelation).  Jesus' emphasis is on being prepared through watchfulness and stewardship rather than on constructing exacting chronologies.  In this chapter the end is described as a process with three overlapping stages:  (1)  the beginning of sorrows (vv.4-14), (2)  the Great Tribulation (vv. 15-28) and (3)  the coming of the Son of Man (vv. 29-31)."  It's important here that we understand the impact of Jesus' words on those listening.  The temple at this time was the grandest building project of Herod the Great, who was known as the Great Builder.  It was immense, with porticoes and porches and innovations that made it one of the wonders of the world.  Its stones were huge.  There was a rumor that there was gold between the stones, and in the siege of Jerusalem, precisely what Jesus predicted here happened.

Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things be?  And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?"  And Jesus answered and said to them:  "Take heed that no one deceives you.  For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many."  Of these verses and the rest of the reading, my study bible tells us:  "The question about the signs and the persecutions is connected in Matthew with the sign of His coming and the end of the age.  The disciples dream of the hoped-for earthly kingdom, which they expect to appear almost immediately.  Jesus knows their anticipation and sets out to prepare them for what is to come.  He warns them to take heed not to (1)  be seduced by any deception (v. 5), (2)  be overpowered by the violence of afflictions which will come (vv. 6-9); or (3) stumble because of the false brethren (vv. 10-12)."

"And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars.  See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.  For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.  All these are the beginning of sorrows."  My study bible tells us that here "Jesus and the disciples are sitting on the Mount of Olives looking out over Jerusalem.  The immediate reference here is not to the wars of the world over the centuries, but to wars in Jerusalem."  The word translated here as sorrows (in "these are the beginning of sorrows") means "birth pains" in the Greek.

"Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake.  And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.  Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.  And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.  But he who endures to the end shall be saved.  And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come."  Jesus speaks to them of what is to happen with the Church, but, as my study bible puts it, "all these calamities and tribulations will not prevent the progress of the gospel; the Good News will be preached everywhere (Rom. 10:18; Col. 1:6, 23)."

Let's consider what Jesus is saying here.  Its impact on the disciples must have been stunning to the point of numbness.  How can they take in what He is saying?  They are expecting the manifestation of a kingdom.  They trust and know He is Messiah.  But He has warned them of what is to come to Him in Jerusalem, and they scarcely take it in.  Imagine this news hitting them.  But Jesus prepares them for what is to come knowing that the birth pains of His Church will go through all of these things.  It's simply astounding to consider the kind of faith that understands both the calamity, betrayal, and tribulation coming to the disciples (including the siege of Jerusalem) and also the success of the Gospel, that it will go to all the world.  How can they, the disciples, possibly take this all in?  They cannot, but because of His prediction to them the Church did escape the great destruction that came to Jerusalem in A.D. 70, heeding the warning signs that had been told to them.  But when we imagine the difficulties of the birth of this Church, we have to understand what He calls on us to do.  Many people seem to believe that success as a faithful person is a life in which everything goes perfectly smoothly.  I daresay that if these people of the founding of the Church believed that, then there wouldn't be any Christianity.  Jesus' life itself would form simply a stumbling block, rather than this symbol of the Cross that has come to stand for transcendence and so much more.  Jesus here teaches them resilience, endurance, a kind of peace that is not dependent upon "the world," but rather on the reality of God's love and the role they play in manifesting God's kingdom in the world.  And then, beyond all this, there is the assurance of "success" -- that the gospel of the kingdom will go out to all the world, as indeed it continues to do.  As faithful, the great impact of Jesus' message here enforces the understanding of the portrait of the world at this time in which we await His return, the one given us in the parable of the wheat and the tares, in which all grow side-by-side, even within the Church itself.  Let us consider, then, what triumph and success really mean on Christian terms.  It may mean we go through many difficulties.  It may call on us to learn humility, to value the things of the kingdom beyond what amounts to success in "the world."  And yet, it is a realistic idea - an understanding of what we can control and what we cannot control.  We can choose our faith.  We can be strengthened through a faith in God's love, a kind of a joy that is not dependent on whatever picture the rest of the world might see, a peace that comes from reconciliation to that which supersedes everything else, and a knowledge that we are called upon to endure.  This is life beyond what the world presents us with, a life that takes in the reality of the world, and knows that there is more to this picture than meets the eye.  How do you find your place in the gospel of the kingdom?  What does it teach you in difficult circumstances?   When Jesus speaks of "birth pains," let us remember that difficulties, in the life of faith, are a labor toward something new, a growth, a harvest toward something we can't know until it's with us.

You are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness

 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.  Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.'   Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.  Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers' guilt.  Serpents, brood of vipers!  How can you escape the condemnation of hell?  Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes, some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.  Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!  How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!  See!  Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'"

- Matthew 23:27-39

Over the course of the past two days, we've been reading Jesus' critique of the Pharisees and their practices.  See They bind heavy burdens hard to bear; and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers for the beginning of this discourse in the temple at Jerusalem.  Yesterday, we read Jesus' continuation:  "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers.  Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees!  For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.   Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.'  Fools and blind!  For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold?  And, 'Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.'  Fools and blind!  For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift?  Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it.  He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it.  And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law:  justice and mercy and faith.  These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.  Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!   Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.  Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also."

 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.  Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness."  Jesus continues His thoughts from yesterday, regarding the difference between the inner life and the external life (and its focus) in the ways these Pharisees are living and practicing their faith.  The great difference between internal reality and external appearance adds to the understanding of what hypocrisy is here.  His focus, from yesterday's reading, is on the "inside of the cup and dish" -- a metaphor for ourselves.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.'   Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.  Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers' guilt.  Serpents, brood of vipers!  How can you escape the condemnation of hell?  Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes, some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.  Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation."  What I find interesting about this passage is the form of urgency of the messages of the prophets, wise men, and scribes sent by Christ:  they come to save people from their own bad habits and practices -- to save those who are perishing, even the very ones who persecute, scourge, and kill and crucify them.  The present inheritors of the places of those who persecuted the prophets of the past are the very ones who claim they would not have done so:  and yet are about to do the same to Him (and others who follow).

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!  How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!  See!  Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'"  This image of Christ as "mother hen" is a very important one, because in it we see His real response as One who is sent.  He loves the people He is addressing, and they have failed so in their willingness (or unwillingness) to heed anything He has to teach.  It's not a failure of love on His part, but a failure in the response to love ("you were not willing").   The time is up, His mission is complete.  He will leave them (take His exodus) at their own hands.

It's interesting to think of how Christ phrases the role of the prophets and saints who are sent to those who persecute them.  The real "energy" behind the sending is just that:  to prevent their perishing, to save those who are their persecutors.  Although God's mercy is infinite, what we find (in my opinion) through the Gospels is that there is a sense in which this mercy can be exhausted, and that is through our own choices not to hear, not to care, not to return and try to change.  I believe that the "fire of love" -- in the image, perhaps, of the "fiery ones," the angels of God (most specifically, those who sing the Thrice Holy hymn, and are always in worship at God's throne) -- is a fire of love that seeks to purify, to "burn away" that which is not like the fire and cannot survive in that fire.  In this fire of love that is pure holiness we find images that are part of the miraculous lives of saints, or even more powerfully, the burning bush which was not consumed, in which Moses encounters holiness, the I AM of God.  The burning bush, for Christians, came to be a symbol for Mary:  she who was visited by the Holy Spirit, but in her purity, never consumed.   Purity, in Mary, is a profound inner spirituality, a kind of sense of the internal and external being one and the same, the opposite of hypocrisy.  This sense of purity conjures up the image of the pearl of great price.   Before modern innovations such as cultured pearls, a pearl found in nature was one of pure nacre:  something that was the same on the inside as the outside.  Again, an image that is the opposite of what Jesus describes here when He speaks of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, those who are like "whitewashed tombs" but are internally full of death and decay and "uncleanness."  Let us consider, then, what the point of "holy fire" is:  it appears in the saints to heal and purify, to have the effect of sanctifying, it lives in those who can stand in it and not be consumed.  Just as a test for gold reveals impurities that burn in fire, this sense of holiness is that which conveys a kind of purity in which the fire of love only finds that which is like itself.  In that sense, an image of that which will perish is one in which no love is found in it, no mercy, no sense of wanting to be like God at all.  That is, no heeding of the call to turn back toward God; perhaps a sense that God is absent and will not see, particularly in those who wish to have all control themselves  (see the parable of the wicked vinedressers).  All this is to say that Jesus' criticism of the Pharisees isn't just for the Pharisees, but for all of us, for each of us.  It's a way of understanding where we don't want to go, where we lose our way, and go the opposite direction of God's love and God's holy fire.  Remember the image of the purity of body, soul and spirit in Mary -- or the pearl that is pure in the most profound sense of that word, with no inconsistency.  This doesn't mean we are finished at some point, but rather that we are consistently on the journey of faith; we ask for the fire of God's love to show us the way to be like God, to grow in our understanding of that love and how we practice it and live it, and to allow it to do its work in us.  That's just the path we want to be on.

Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!

 "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers.  Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees!  For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. 

"Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.'  Fools and blind!  For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold?  And, 'Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.'  Fools and blind!  For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift?  Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it.  He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it.  And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law:  justice and mercy and faith.  These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.  Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! 

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.  Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also."

- Matthew 23:13-26

 In our current readings, Jesus is in Jerusalem.  He has made the Triumphal Entry and cleansed the temple.  He has been quizzed by various groups of the temple leadership, with the Pharisees in particular seeking entrapment.  None have been able to do so.  But, speaking out and responding, Jesus goes on the offensive.  In yesterday's reading, we began Jesus' grand critique of the Pharisees.  Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, saying:  "The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat.  Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do.  For they bind heavy burdens hard to bear; and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.  But all their works they do to be seen by men.  They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments.  They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, 'Rabbi, Rabbi.'  But to you, do not be called 'Rabbi'' for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren.  Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.  And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ.  But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant.  And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

  "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in."  My study bible tells us:  "The Pharisees perpetuate a systematic hypocrisy which creates a wall between people and God." 

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers.  Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees!  For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves."  Jesus begins here with what my study bible calls "His eightfold indictment of the Pharisees."  He charges them with "inverting God's values and with being mean-spirited, greedy, ambitious, absorbed in externals, hypocritical, and blindly self-righteous."  And it suggests, "How much worse will it be for Christians who lapse into patterns of religious life similar to the scribes' and Pharisees'!"  Here in these particular verses, the suggestion is that the proselytes learn only greed, and predatory behavior on the weak, from such practices, and thus become "twice as much a son of hell" as their teachers.

"Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.'  Fools and blind!  For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold?  And, 'Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.'  Fools and blind!  For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift?  Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it.  He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it.  And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it."  These verses teach us about the emphasis on material gain -- the gold -- in these practices, and the neglect of the more weighty matters of God.  It in fact, "devalues" the importance of God in creating all wealth and meaning of worth in the first place.  Jesus, of course, has warned us not to swear at all -- a wise practice, given the weightiness He invokes here of just what we might swear by.  He gives just a taste of the true measure of practices and of words.  But in these practices, the Pharisees have lost sight of God.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law:  justice and mercy and faith.  These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.  Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!"  Just before Jesus began His critique of the Pharisees, He answered a lawyer regarding the greatest commandments.  This criticism teaches that the Pharisees have failed to honor the greatest,  "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind,"  and the second, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."  My study bible -- which is the Orthodox Study Bible -- says:  "These warnings are especially important to Orthodox Christians.  This historic Church has maintained the ancient liturgical obligations, beautiful holy objects, specific rituals which externally guard righteousness, and imposing tradition, handed down through God-fearing fathers.  These rites can be performed, invoked, defended and passed on without ever being taken by faith to heart; or they can be helps, safeguards and doorways into the true life of Christ in us, which transforms us from glory to glory."  It adds here:  "Jesus is not against externals, but considers them of lesser significance.  The weightier matters are of trust and obedience to God in justice, mercy and faith."   Regarding Jesus' last line here in verse 24, we're told, "In the ancient world, strainers were attached to the mouths of decanters, because any liquid might contain foreign matter.  Pharisaic observance used the strainer also to strain out any ritually unclean substance which one might accidentally consume.  This gnat and camel analogy points out how carefully the scribes and the Pharisees observed the minutiae of the Law, while neglecting its most significant aspects."

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.  Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also."  Finally, we come to these important verses which will lead to the rest of the critique in tomorrow's reading.  These words remind us of Jesus' teachings from the Sermon on the Mount, earlier in Matthew's Gospel, when He taught His disciples to be self-aware, to "cut off" the things from themselves that cause difficulties -- meaning that we are to watch ourselves and cast away even habits that we are fond of if they get in the way of our membership in the Kingdom, God's work in us.   Here, He puts it to them that their failure to care about the "inside" and their emphasis on good appearance isn't going to help them at all.  "Extortion and self-indulgence" aren't categories for membership in the Kingdom, but rather that which must be cleansed -- the place to start in a true desire for good spiritual life.

The consistency of the Gospel reminds us once again that Jesus' teachings are really for everybody.  The things for which He has condemned the Pharisees as hypocrites are really part and parcel of His preaching right from the beginning, in the Sermon on the Mount.  He has taught His own disciples to "clean the inside of the cup," so to speak.  He has taught them not to swear at all.  And He has repeatedly warned them about hypocrisy.  Before He came to Jerusalem, He taught His apostles several times about leadership in which the greatest among them would be the servant of all.  The Church that Jesus sought to establish, this place of "living stones" which make up that Church, is in no way separate from His condemnation or criticism of the Pharisees.  In fact, His teachings are perfectly consistent and came first to those who would be His disciples, His apostles, and those who will make up His Church -- especially the hierarchy.  Therefore, as my study bible points out, these warnings in the form of the criticism of the Pharisees' practices come especially strongly to those who call ourselves His followers.  There is perfect consistently in these teachings.  And, truly, if Jesus' harshest criticism is to call someone a hypocrite (meaning "actor" in its original Greek root -- someone who wears a mask that covers up the true person underneath), then it is our duty to take it all to heart for ourselves.  You really can't go wrong by taking Jesus' teachings seriously when He says in answer to the lawyer's question that the two greatest commandments are first to love God and second to love neighbor, because, after all, this is His Church as well that He sought to establish.  His focus in His teachings to His disciples has consistently been on the heart, to take care of the "inside of the cup" so that the outside will be clean.  See, for example, His teaching that it's not what goes into the mouth of a person that defiles, but what comes out of the mouth that is rooted in the heart.  Therefore, it's up to us who call ourselves His followers to take all of this seriously, not as if they're mere words to those in the temple 2,000 years ago.  We still have the same problems and the same temptations.  It's still easy -- in fact, perhaps far easier, given the ways in which we are saturated with media and advertisements of all sorts -- to focus on the outside and neglect the inside, to seek after appearances rather than substance and simplicity.  Can our "yes be yes and our no be no?"   It's still a world in which we're going to be tempted and judged by appearances, one in which externals count, seemingly, for everything, in which integrity is something one really has to work at.  But we have help, a merciful and loving friend and advocate, we have His words and teachings, a way to step through our lives and avoid the stumbling blocks -- and a graciously loving, immensely longing father and brother (and guidance) who simply await our return.  The promise of love is the capstone on all the rest.  When we forget the first and greatest commandment, we lose sight of the greatest treasure of all, the love of God that teaches us to be "like Him" and awaits us at every heartbeat, to show us the way.  Jesus has already taught His disciples that "with God all things are possible."