Watch, work and serve: the ten bridesmaids, the talents and the judgment of the nations

Matthew 25 finishes the Olivet Discourse, the last of the five great discourses in the first Gospel (chapters 24-25). Jesus has been seated on the Mount of Olives, east of the temple, answering the disciples' question about the fall of the temple, his coming and the end of the age. Chapter 24 ends with the parable of the faithful and wicked servants, and chapter 25 adds three more pictures of the day of his return, each longer and weightier than the last. Immediately afterward, at the start of chapter 26, Matthew uses the formula that has closed each discourse and begins the passion narrative.

Church tradition names the author as the apostle Matthew, the tax collector, on the testimony of Papias. Many critical scholars hold that an unnamed Jewish Christian scribe wrote it, using Mark and other sources, in about AD 70 to 90, while others favour an earlier date. The first readers were probably Jewish Christians in a mixed church. A community waiting for its Lord in a period that was longer than anyone had expected would have heard all three parables as relevant.

The chapter has no counterpart in Mark. The parable of the ten bridesmaids and the judgment of the nations occur only in Matthew. The parable of the talents is close to Luke's parable of the minas (Luke 19:11-27), though Luke's servants each receive the same sum and are given it as the master goes off to receive a kingdom, with a rebel party in the story. Many scholars think the two are separate parables, and others think they are versions of one. Luke places his on the road to Jerusalem to correct the notion that the kingdom would appear at once, whereas Matthew places it on the Mount of Olives.

The chapter is made of two parables and a description of a judgment scene. Parables make one central point through a story, and the details serve the plot.

• The first two are told as a continuation of the previous teaching on readiness, and their openings and closings show their meaning.
• The first ends with the command to watch because the day and hour are unknown (25:13), repeating 24:42.
• The second closes with the master's word of welcome to the faithful and with the casting out of the useless servant.
• The third is not usually called a parable, although it has parable-like features such as the shepherd, the sheep and the goats. It is better described as a prophetic picture of the last judgment.

The key interpretive rule is to avoid allegorizing every detail. In the first parable the oil has been taken by various readers in the history of the church to stand for faith, good works, the Holy Spirit or love. The text does not say, and the point of the story is plainly preparedness for a delay. In the second, the large sums carry the main weight: whatever the master has entrusted is to be used. In the third, the question of who 'the least of these' are is a matter of exegesis, and the chapter gives the clues in the language of the earlier discourse (10:40-42; 12:46-50).

The chapter must be read with the Old Testament picture of the Lord as bridegroom (Isaiah 62:5; Hosea 2:19-20), of the Day of the Lord (Joel 2; Zephaniah 1), and of the shepherd who judges between sheep and goats (Ezekiel 34:17-22).

Who are 'the least of these my brothers'? There are three main views. One holds that they are all who are hungry, poor or imprisoned, because the scene is a judgment of the nations by their treatment of human need. A second holds that they are Christ's followers, especially missionaries and those who suffer for him, since Matthew elsewhere calls disciples his brothers (12:49-50; 28:10) and promises reward to those who receive them (10:40-42). A third combines the two: Christ identifies with his disciples, and care for them is the test, yet the principle reaches to all who suffer. Our understanding of the passage is that the text is most closely tied to the second reading, with the first as the fuller horizon of the same principle. We state it as our reading of the text, and other serious interpreters differ (see the note on traditions).

Verses 1–13

Ten bridesmaids take their lamps to meet the bridegroom. Five are wise and bring extra oil in flasks, and five are foolish and bring none. Weddings in the ancient world were village-wide events, and a common reconstruction has the bridegroom and his party coming to the bride's house after dark, though the details of the custom are not certain. The bridegroom is delayed, and all of them sleep. At midnight comes the cry that he is coming. The foolish ask for oil, the wise say there is not enough, and the foolish go to buy more. While they are away the bridegroom arrives, and those who are ready go in with him to the wedding feast. The door is shut. The others return and call on him as Lord to open the door, and he says that he does not know them. The reply echoes 7:21-23. The conclusion is to stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour. Sleeping is not the fault, since all sleep. The difference is that five were ready when the cry came.

Verses 14–30

A man going on a journey entrusts his property to three servants, giving five talents to one, two to another and one to the third, each according to his ability. A talent was a large weight of silver, worth many years of a labourer's wages, so even one is a great sum.

• The first two put the money to work and double it, and when the master returns after a long time he gives each the same words of praise: well done, good and faithful servant, faithful over little, now set over much, enter the joy of your master.
• The third buries his talent in the ground and returns it, saying that he knew the master to be a hard man and was afraid. The master calls him wicked and lazy, takes the talent from him and gives it to the one with ten, and the servant is thrown into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. The man was not punished for losing money. He was punished for wrongly representing the master and for doing nothing with what he was given. The commendation is for faithfulness, not for the size of the return.

Verses 31–46

The Son of Man comes in his glory with all his angels and sits on his glorious throne. All the nations (ethne) are gathered before him, and he separates the people as a shepherd separates sheep from goats, the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. To those on the right the King says, come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. The grounds are that he was hungry and they fed him, thirsty and they gave drink, a stranger and they took him in, naked and they clothed him, sick and they visited him, in prison and they came to him. The righteous are surprised: when did we see you so? The King answers that whatever they did for one of the least of these brothers of his, they did for him. The same words are said to the goats in reverse. They go away to eternal punishment, and the righteous to eternal life.

The chapter draws together three features of the New Testament's teaching on the last things.

• The first is the delay and the certainty of the Lord's return. The church's long wait is not a sign that the promise has failed (2 Peter 3:8-10), and readiness is a matter of daily faithfulness, as in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11.
• The second is that the judgment tests what a person has done with what they have been given. The master gives the talents; the servants do not earn them. The New Testament says elsewhere that grace sets the standard and that works show the truth of faith (Romans 2:6-8; Ephesians 2:8-10; James 2:14-26). Judgment according to works is not at odds with justification by faith, because the works are the evidence.

The third is the doctrine of final judgment. There will be a separation of the nations, a verdict according to what has been done, and consequences that Jesus calls eternal for both groups. The fire is prepared for the devil and his angels, whereas the kingdom is prepared for the blessed from the foundation of the world. The judgment is the work of the Son of Man, which the Old Testament assigns to God (Psalm 96:13; Joel 3:2).

The chapter also reflects the Bible's persistent concern for the poor, the stranger and the prisoner (Isaiah 58:6-10; Deuteronomy 10:18-19; Ezekiel 18:7). The care of the hungry and the stranger is a standard of the Law and the Prophets, and Jesus puts himself at the receiving end.

The chapter is full of Jesus' claims about himself. He is the Bridegroom, the title the prophets applied to God and which Jesus took up (9:15; compare John 3:29 and Ephesians 5:25-32). He is the Master who goes away and returns to settle accounts. He is the Son of Man of Daniel 7:13-14, who comes in glory and sits on a throne, with all the nations before him, and he is also the King (25:34, 40), the Shepherd who separates the sheep, as the LORD does in Ezekiel 34:17-22. These are self-portraits, not hidden types.

The most striking claim is in verses 40 and 45, where the King says that what was done to the least of his brothers was done to him. It is the strongest statement of his identification with his people in the Gospel, and it connects with Paul's meeting with Jesus on the Damascus road, where persecuting the church was persecuting him (Acts 9:4-5).

There is also an echo of what follows. The King who says he was naked and in prison will within days be seized, bound, stripped and handed over (26:50; 27:28). The King who was a stranger and did not receive hospitality will be rejected by his own city. The judge of the nations comes to the judgment seat by way of the cross.