Christ continues to discourse to His apostles; these three parables are told right after His discussion of the signs of the times. Christ is teaching us how to prepare for the tribulations to come, but really how to prepare to enter into His presence now, so that we can be ready to greet Him when He comes again in glory.
Parable of the Ten Virgins
In marriages in ancient Israel, the
bridegroom would lead his wedding party at night through the streets of the
city, picking up guests as they went, until they arrived at the house where the
wedding feast would be provided. Each of
the guests were expected to hold a small oil lamp, so that the party looked
like a stream of light following the bridegroom.
READ Matthew 25:1
What
is the “kingdom of heaven”?
God’s immortal family in heaven, who are
having a mortal experience on Earth.
Those who have become the “sons” and
“daughters” of God, through covenant.
They hold the High Priesthood and have
entered into His presence while in mortality.
They have the promise of eternal life
because they know the Lord; they have received that promise from His lips.
Why
is the kingdom of heaven likened unto virgins?
In ancient Israel, most women who were
not married yet were virgins.
So, implied is that these ten guests had
never been married themselves; they have never attained to the resurrection
themselves; they have never accomplished an atonement; they are not yet royal
sons or daughters; while they are participants of a kind, they are not the
primary characters in the wedding – they are observers and members of the “chorus”
or entourage; but the implication is that they can all still be brides
themselves someday.
The bridegroom is Christ and these ten
are invited guests at the feast for His wedding; they are dependent upon the
Lord for their salvation, which is found inside the “house” at the bridegroom’s
feast; only the kingdom of heaven or friends and family of the bridegroom are
allowed to enter or be saved.
What
does the fact that they were part of the wedding party imply about the virgins?
They held an authorized invitation to
meet the bridegroom as part of the wedding party, to participate in the
ceremony by holding lamps burning with oil, and to enter the wedding feast as a
guest at the end of the journey.
In other words, they are having a mortal
probationary experience, have accepted the gospel of Christ, are baptized, have
a portion of the Holy Spirit with them, and have received the temple ordinances
that enable them (or have taught them how) to enter through the veil into God’s
presence.
READ Matthew 25:2-4
Is
there a difference between being invited to be in the wedding party and being
wise?
Yes, holding an authorized invitation is
necessary but not sufficient – it does not guarantee you will perform
effectively (or even participate by accepting the invitation), or become what
is required to enter into the wedding at the end.
In other words, ordinances are just an
invitation but you must understand and live the terms of the associated
covenants if you would like the actual blessings; the Holy Spirit of Promise
will not seal the blessings upon you unless you live up to the terms – that is
due to eternal law (see D&C 130:20-21).
What
did all ten virgins do?
They all brought lamps.
They all brought oil.
They all burned their lamps, thinking the
bridegroom would come at a certain time.
They all slept when he “tarried”.
What
did the five wise virgins do that the others did not?
They brought extra oil with them, in case
the bridegroom tarried unexpectedly.
What
does the oil represent?
The Holy Spirit – i.e. the oil in the
lamp-stands on the Temple Mount represented the Spirit.
If
your lamp is filled with oil, what does the extra oil represent?
A “well of living water” or “spirit”
within you (see John 4:10-14 and D&C 63:23) or being part of the “true
vine” (see John 15:1-7).
It represents being connected to God and
being replenished from above and within – it starts with the Baptism of Fire
& the Holy Ghost and continues until the individual is one with God because
they are filled with His Spirit having made their calling and election sure by
hearing His testimony to them of their salvation.
READ D&C 45:56-57, 59
What
distinguishes “wise” from “foolish” covenant makers?
The wise have received the truth.
Taken the Holy Spirit for their guide.
Have not been deceived.
The Lord will be in their midst.
His glory shall be upon them.
How
does one avoid being deceived?
By taking the Holy Spirit as their guide
– it is the only way to truly know the Lord’s will for us and to become one
with Him (see John 6:13; Mosiah 2:36-37).
And, therefore, not relying on anything
else as their “guide” – i.e. men, organizations, priests with authority, prophets
with actual spiritual experience, science (theories or truth), precepts or
opinions of the world, themselves, etc (see 2 Nephi 4:34; D&C 1:19-20;
Proverbs 28:26; Isaiah 2:22; Jeremiah 17:5; D&C 3:7; D&C 5:21).
That is not to say that these things
should not inform us – but they should not be taken as our “guide” – they
should not stand between us and God, and we should not rely on them to guide us
but go to God directly – become connected to Him by enabling His Spirit to be
within us.
READ Matthew 25:5-6
Why
did the Bridegroom tarry?
He does things for His own purposes but
many times it is to prove us – will we be “found fighting” or not?
His ways are not our ways; the
bridegroom’s plan was always to come at midnight, as unexpected as that might
have been to the party guests (see Isaiah 55:8-9).
Why
did both the Wise and Foolish sleep when the bridegroom tarried?
The rain falls on the just and the unjust
– He wasn’t just late for the Foolish; and bad things happen on a Telestial
earth due to our agency (although His waiting isn’t necessarily caused by our
righteousness or wickedness).
Both the Wise and the Foolish get caught
up in the concerns of this mortal world and fall “asleep” from time to time.
Sleep is part of this mortal experience;
the body gets hungry and has to eat and it gets tired and must sleep.
But clearly His delaying was not
understood as a possibility by some of the Virgins/wedding guests.
READ Matthew 25:7-9
Why
didn’t the Wise share their oil with the Unwise?
Oil = Holy Spirit; it can’t be shared
from wo/man to wo/man but can only be obtained from God to wo/man – they had to
go to those who “sold” and get it themselves (i.e. God) through their own
experience.
It is also interesting that oil or “holy
spirit” must be “bought”; light is gained through aligning one’s behavior to
eternal laws (given to us as commandments by God) – in doing this we must
sacrifice our own wills or make a “payment”; while it is freely available, we
must offer the acceptable offering in sacrifice to receive it.
What
does the oil in the lamps of the Unwise “going out” mean?
They didn’t have a “well of oil” or “well
of living water” – i.e., the Spirit within them.
They had a finite quantity of oil, and
one that was not enough to last through the night; they had received a portion
of the Spirit through adherence to a partial law but that was all.
They were alone in the world, without the
Spirit as a constant companion who had changed their natures.
That might have appeared to be okay while
they had oil (spirit) in their lamps at the beginning of the evening but after
they had slept while the bridegroom tarried (extending the tribulation prior to
His Second Coming), they lacked the reserve of oil they needed to survive the
day and were disconnected with the source of the oil (God) so they couldn’t
easily be replenished.
READ Matthew 25:10-13
Why
is the door shut?
The party is for invited guests who
participated in the ceremony, only.
If
the Unwise were invited to the wedding, why did the bridegroom tell them, “I
know you not”?
The invitation is necessary but not
sufficient.
The guests have to be ready to “participate”
– with oil in their lamps (Holy Spirit with them), wearing the wedding garment
(having accepted the Atonement of Christ to cover their own sins), and “known”
of the bridegroom (received the Second Comforter).
Going
back to the Parable of the Net (Matthew 13:47-50), how is the same two-step
process represented in this parable?
First, the invitation is offered (i.e.
the net is cast, collecting both good and bad fish).
Second, readiness is accessed by angels,
and those that pass are allowed to enter (i.e. angels pick through the catch,
saving the good and casting away the bad fish).
Parable of the Wedding Feast
READ Matthew 22:1-14
What
is implied by the fact that some are “bidden” to the wedding feast?
They are the invited guests.
They have some relationship to the King –
either family or friends.
He knows them and they know Him or at
least their relationship with Him would assume that; worst case scenario, they
have had an opportunity to know Him.
What
is the significance of the “marriage of His son” to the “kingdom of heaven”?
The kingdom of heaven IS God’s family.
The marriage is a seminal event in the
life of a member of the king/God’s own family.
It is something that the king/God wants
his family and friends to be a part of; if they refuse, they are displaying the
fact that while they seem to have a relationship with the king/God, they really
do not – they don’t care about Him and the things that are important to Him, as
a friend or family member who loved Him would.
The marriage of the king’s/God’s son is
the Son’s arrival into a state where He can also be “infinite” through a
marriage – infinite in that He can have children; it is the Son’s sacrificial
atonement and attaining to the resurrection and subsequent crowning with all of
the glory that the Father has, becoming a “Father” Himself.
And the guests are invited to participate
in that event – to witness it and to rejoice in it, and to gain a benefit from
so doing (to attend the ceremony and the feast; or in our case, to be saved in
His kingdom through the merits and mercy of His Son).
What
does it mean that the invited guests “made light of” the wedding?
They were more concerned with their own
affairs.
They “took lightly” the opportunity that
had been given them (see D&C 84:49-58; Alma 42:27).
Why
did the invited guests treat the servants so badly; why did they not just
politely decline or use an excuse?
They were willfully rebelling.
They had gained enough light to have
merited an invitation while others did not (all were not invited at first) but
they knowingly denied it to follow their own paths instead of submitting to the
will of the king/God.
One cannot just politely decline when
they have gained that much light and knowledge (see D&C 84:41).
And once one had chosen to deny their
king/God; they must fight against Him because they cannot abide His presence.
But they do not want to be cast down to
Hell themselves – they seek for His power and to dethrone Him (see Isaiah
14:12-15).
What
will happen to those invited guests who reject the invitation?
They will be utterly wasted – root and
branch (see Isaiah 60:12; D&C 2:3; Malachi 4:1; D&C 109:52; D&C
133:63-73) they will be damned without the chance to progress or have eternal
increase and they will lose all they have gained (see Alma 12:10-11).
Who
are those in the “highways”?
They are not invited guests.
They do not know the Lord like the
guest’s do.
In Israel, those in the highways were
travelers or robbers or the homeless.
They are the “residue” or the nameless,
unimportant ones without standing or status or a “home”.
Travelers might have had a home once but
they are currently without one but are planning on returning to one at some
point, if they can complete their journey (implied is through strange lands, as
they have journeyed far enough as to not be able to return to their home each
night); the homeless either never had or have lost their home – the highway has
become their home but it offers no comforts or privacy; robbers rob the
travelers for gain and attack the homeless to intimate them for recreation.
None of these people are “desirable” at
the time they are on the highway, as all are “homeless” at the moment and are
filthy from the dust of the road and sweaty with the exertion of traveling or just
living in the heat.
Many of them are inherently
“untouchables” in polite society (robbers and homeless).
And some of them are wicked criminals
(robbers).
What
did the servants do with those they found on the highways?
They “bid” them come to the wedding feast.
They invited them but did not compel them.
They did not discriminate between “bad”
and “good” but invited “as many as they found”.
Why
do the servants invite both “bad and good” to the wedding feast of the king’s
own son?
Because “bad” and “good” are not criteria
that the king cares about.
Because the king’s definition of “bad”
and “good” are different from society’s.
What
is the king’s main concern with regards to the wedding?
That it be “furnished with guests”
willing to witness and rejoice in the wedding of his son.
How
did the “friend” from the highway come to the wedding without an appropriate
wedding garment to wear?
Those in the highway would not be
expected to own or have packed a wedding garment suitable to be worn at the
wedding of the king’s son…
So, the king would have provided all his
guests with the wedding garment himself, to ensure they were appropriately
dressed (see Moroni 10:31).
So the only way someone from the highway
could have come to the wedding without the wedding garment is if they, too
(like the invited guests), rejected the offer.
What
is the “wedding garment” and what does it symbolize?
It is something they “put on”.
It is something they are given by the
king.
It is glorious and beautiful; it is a
garment of light that enables them to stand in the presence of the king and his
son in their royal court and in all their glory and not be ashamed to be there.
It “covers their nakedness” or sins or
“blood” or the dirt and sweat of the highway from this fallen world.
But more than that, it transforms them
from highway travelers to royal wedding guests or friends and family of the
king himself.
It is the symbol of their belonging at
the wedding; it is the symbol of their adoption into the company and family of
the king or God.
It is made by the king or his son from
the skins of “beasts” or as a result of a great sacrifice in a mortal world
(for more on this, see the Gramarye post on Moroni 10:30-33).
How
does the king define “bad”?
To the king, “bad” means not being willing
to come to the wedding feast when invited.
“Bad” also means refusing to wear the
wedding garment that has been provided to you by the king himself.
“Bad” refers to those who will be cast
into “outer darkness” because they willingly rebelled against God – this refers
to those invited guests who had “earned” that right through their prior
righteousness but fell, and those who accepted the invitation to enter God’s
presence but failed to allow themselves to be clothed with light through the
sacrifice of the atonement of Christ, knowing what they were doing at the time.
What
does it mean to be called and chosen?
To be called is to be invited to the
wedding feast.
To be chosen is to accept the invitation
and put on the wedding garment when given it by the king.
Parable of the Talents
READ Matthew 25:14-18
Why
did the man give his money to his servants?
He expected them to increase his money.
It was not just for safe keeping – he
could have left it in a more secure place if that was the goal.
What
do the talents represent?
The light or intelligence given to the
individual to use in this life for good or evil.
The blessings and opportunities inherent
in a mortal life, including the physical body and its life; from the elements
that are Christ’s and were acquired at great cost to Himself, He crafts a world
and bodies within which we can have a mortal probationary experience and thus
progress (which is what He wants – it is how He gains more glory or “riches”
and why He is willing to invest), if we will take the risk (with His elements
and our future happiness) to do so; but if we fail to invest and make a
“profit” (albeit we are unprofitable servants because of the large initial cost
of the “principle” investment or “talent”), we are doubly damned – for ourselves
and for making poor use of the “talent” which cost our Master so much to
provide to us for our use.
A “talent” is a great deal of money – the
Lord’s money – and it is entrusted into the hands of someone who has not made
or handled that kind of money before – either from lack of
opportunity/experience or lack of success; so it is a test to see what they
will do with something they wouldn’t (and shouldn’t) ordinarily have – but it
“takes money to make money” and we would never be able to make more unless we
obtain something to invest – and in this case it’s a “loan” or really more of a
“stewardship”.
The “interest” is what we do with the
talent or “initial investment” which is not ours – the interest is shown in
whether we “magnified” the investment and grew it to something more than it was
before, which is only something we can do in this mortal life. Through
our obedience, we accumulate light and knowledge, better enabling the
possibility that we gain eternal life – i.e. becoming more like Christ (because
we must become precisely like Him to be saved, as He alone is the prototype of
the saved man).
How
did the two servants gain the additional money?
They “traded” with it – i.e. they
invested the money and got a return (i.e. they used their agency to act in ways
that increased their light, through faith, obedience, sacrifice and charity, in
the face of difficult or risky circumstances).
Did
the servants incur risk by trading with their master’s money?
Yes, it is always possible to lose money
(perhaps all of it) in an investment situation (i.e. we are all in jeopardy
ever hour in this life – failure is a very real possibility, putting at risk
all of the light we have gained to this point).
READ Matthew 25:19-23
Why
was the man away for so long?
He wanted to give his servants enough
time to prove themselves to him.
The man needed to be out of close
proximity, so that the servants could really be agents unto themselves; they
needed to be true stewards and have the decision rights over what to do – which
would not have happened if the man had been close by or was coming back soon.
Why
did the man really give his money to his servants?
To prove them - their capability to grow
his money .
But also to assess their willingness to
put themselves at risk to do their master’s will.
What
is a sovereign?
All queens and kings are sovereigns.
A sovereign is a master who rules with
power.
In the world, sovereignty has often been
a matter of blood inheritance.
But the Kingdom of God only honors
inheritance within the context of the law of the harvest, wherein individuals
are first stewards who prove themselves before being made rulers (see Matthew
25:21).
What
is the result of good stewardship over a few things?
Good stewardship over a few things is translated
into sovereignty over many things.
There is vast power to be gained by
submitting to the terms laid out by God in scripture and in ordinances, and it
simply cannot be had in the ways power is traditionally gained in the world: by
blood relationship or by the sword.
Why
did the master feel he could now trust the two servants with “many” things?
In their own respective stewardships,
they proved themselves both capable and willing to put themselves at risk and
to do so successfully (submitting to the Lord’s will within the bounds of their
stewardship opportunity).
He gained firsthand knowledge of their
performance (i.e. having gained more light and knowledge in this life they are
at the advantage in the world to come – the Father can give them more blessings
and responsibilities because they are trusted, having been proved in the
furnace of affliction that is this mortal life).
READ Matthew 25:24-30
Why
did the last servant hide the money?
He was afraid of his master – his master
was a “hard man” – too strict and rule bound (i.e. God is bound by natural
spiritual law – He must be precisely what He is or cease to be God).
He thought his master unfair with his unrealistically
high expectations (i.e. becoming a God, like the Father, requires the servant
to become perfect and precisely like Christ, the prototype of the saved man,
himself).
As a result, he took less risk by hiding
the money, rather than losing it on the market (i.e. he flinched from the
challenge in any number of ways: trusting in a priesthood leader to follow,
keeping outward performances without submitting his whole soul to an inward
spiritual transformation, fear of the pain inherent in serving and loving those
who persecute you and despitefully use you in return, etc).
What
did the last servant misunderstand about the Lord’s expectations?
Perhaps he misunderstood that to the
master, safeguarding the money and losing the money are equally unacceptable
(i.e. he wasted the opportunity the master had given him; including wasting the
resources that could have gone to another and been increased) – think of David
who “invested” the money but due to his negligence and risk taking, actually
lost the initial investment; but this parable shows that doing nothing is an
equally poor choice.
Or perhaps the key to understanding the
parable is that investing the money is the act of using our agency effectively
and choosing the light, while failing to do so shows cowardice or selfishness
or lack of faith and choosing darkness – in other words, if you invest you
don’t lose (you exercise faith) but you only “lose” by lacking the faith to
invest in the first place (it’s like the “Matrix” – the investment risk is not
real but appears so as an act of faith).
What
does it mean that “to those that hath, shall be given” while those that have
not will be taken all that they have, and how is this fair?
All that we receive has been given to us
by the Lord, including our lives (see Mosiah 2:20-21).
We are all beggars and none of us “earn”
anything – we are all unprofitable servants (see Mosiah 2:21) and God rewards
us for any little obedience we attain to, anyway (see Mosiah 2:24).
The Lord can do what He likes with His
own things/blessings; as we justly merit nothing, we have no right to complain
or set the criteria for blessings (see Matthew 20:15).
Those that soften their hearts will
eventually be given all things while those who harden their hearts will lose
what they have and will be taken captive by the devil (see Alma 12:10-11)
because those that soften their hearts and meekly follow the Lord’s will can be
trusted by Him – and will eventually become like Him in all ways.
Whose
money is the principle that is invested?
The Lord’s.
Whose
money is the interest that was made through the hard work and investment of the
servant?
The Lord’s.
His expectation is that there will be
interest, and it belongs to Him, too. It
is ALL His. There is no such thing as
“skimming off the top” with the Lord’s money (the principle) – the income from
the interest or the investment is HIS income.
Any increase gained from sacred funds is
also the Lord’s and should be used expressly as He dictates; using this
“interest income” to build $2-billion-dollar shopping malls is stealing the
Lord’s money for one’s own purposes.
What
is this parable really about?
Parable is about how we react to
incurring the risk to come down to earth and attempt to gather more light, such
that the work and glory of the Father might be realized (our immortality and
eternal life assured).
The risk is that we fail and stop in our
progression or even become miserable forever and a danger to the universe (i.e.
Satan).
Parable of the Sheep and the Goats
READ Matthew 25:31-34
What
is the difference between a sheep and a goat?
Sheep know their Master’s voice and
follow Him = those who have been born of God and have received a mighty change
of heart and taken upon themselves His name (Mosiah 5:7-9).
Goats are independent, aggressive and
combative = the natural man who are known by “some other name” (see Mosiah
5:10).
Ye Have Done It Unto Me
READ Matthew 25:35-46
How
does the Lord prove the desires of our hearts – that we are a sheep not a goat?
By putting people in our path whose
suffering we can relieve.
By giving us opportunities to sacrifice
for others – to put their needs before our own convenience, preferences, or
self-interest.
We reveal the true desires of our hearts
in the unplanned moments that “happen upon us” – like coming upon a beggar in
the street – what is our first reaction?
Why
is serving the hungry, poor, homeless and prisoners really serving Christ?
They are all His children, too.
If we love Christ, we will keep His
commandments, including loving our neighbor as ourselves (see John 14:15;
Matthew 22:36-40).
We serve Christ when we bring to pass His
work of enabling the immortality and eternal life of His children, including
our own (see Moses 1:39); only those who are precisely like Him can be saved
(see LoF 7:9); relieving the suffering of others is EXACTLY the work Christ
spent His mortal life doing, culminating in the atonement (see Alma 7:11-13).
Ultimately, we will be able to see Him in
the faces of those whom we serve. He
will “appear” to us first in this way.
Through this process of exercising faith, we will gain charity and begin
to be purified even as He is pure, so that when He comes, we shall see Him as
He is because we will be like Him (i.e. quickened, filled with light, purified,
see Moroni 7:48).
How
were these righteous people “exercising” faith?
He is calling us to exercise faith by
seeing people in need as a living symbol of Him, the suffering servant.
Anyone who serves His fellowmen with this
in mind will connect with Him who suffered to save those same people.
Faith is active; faith is used to serve and benefit others – it is
tied directly to compassion and charity.
And those who love Christ, will seek to
keep His commandments and feed His sheep with their whole souls (see John
14:15; John 15:10; John 21:15-17).
How
are types of people that will inherit the various kingdoms of glory illustrated
in this parable?
Telestial =
those who did not relieve the suffering of others.
Terrestrial =
those who did relieve the suffering of others.
Celestial =
those who suffered; these are they who were sent to earth to “prove” the other
two groups and by so doing, learn themselves what it is to be “precisely” like
their Lord so that they might be saved (see Abraham 3:22-26; LoF 7:9, 15-16).
