Parable of the Ten Virgins (Matthew 25:1-13)

Posted on November 10, 2026 by Pastor Foley

“At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’ ‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’ But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’ But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’ Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.” (Matthew 25:1-13)

The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins by Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow, 1842

When we hear this parable, we wonder what the oil represents, who the virgins are, and why there are ten of them. We may be confused because we thought we were the bride, yet here we seem to be the virgins.

But here is important news: Almost none of Jesus’ parables are allegories! The few times that Jesus tells parables that are allegories, he then reveals the details to the disciples so they can understand.

Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: “I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world.” (Matthew 13:34-35)

Jesus’ parables reveal to his disciples what was hidden since the creation of the world. Their meanings remain a mystery to the crowds and religious leaders, but Jesus makes them known to his disciples. These explanations are recorded in Scripture for us to read. We do not need to search for secret meanings beyond what he has revealed.

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. (John 15:15)

Jesus commands us to have only one Teacher. His teachings do not require another teacher to uncover and explain hidden meanings. Jesus’ teachings are complete and lack nothing. Through the Holy Spirit, the Lord opens Scripture so that we can understand him.

This is true of today’s parable. Jesus tells us its meaning in the final verse:

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.” (Matthew 25:13)

We do not need to assign a hidden meaning to the oil, the virgins, or every detail of the wedding feast. The point is what Jesus draws our attention to with the word “therefore.”

Professor Philip Kern suggests that if Jesus told this parable today, he might describe people driving through a desert to attend a wedding. The wise pack water and extra fuel; the foolish do not. If we heard somebody tell this kind of story today, we would not ask “What do the water and fuel symbolize?”. We would just recognize them as necessities for a journey through the desert.

In the same way, Jesus’ hearers would have understood that the virgins needed oil to fulfill their role at the wedding. The point is not to decode the oil but to keep watch, because we do not know the day or the hour.

But what does Jesus mean by “keep watch”? And what event does he mean when he says we do not know the day or the hour?

Before telling this parable, Jesus left the temple for the last time after the religious leaders rejected him. His departure marked the permanent departure of God’s presence from the temple. His visit was the time of God’s visitation, part of what Scripture calls the Day of the Lord.

The disciples pointed out the impressive temple buildings, but Jesus told them that all would be destroyed.

As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” (Matthew 24:3)

In Matthew 24, Jesus answers the disciples’ question about the temple’s destruction. They did not yet understand that he would be betrayed, killed, and raised from the dead. What happened was so different from their expectations that even when he appeared to them after his resurrection, some doubted.

When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. (Matthew 28:17)

Their expectations shaped their question on the Mount of Olives: “What will be the sign of your coming?”

They were not asking when Jesus would return from heaven to judge the living and the dead. They expected the Messiah’s first and only coming to bring the present age to an end. When Jesus announced the temple’s destruction, they understood it as a sign that he was about to reveal himself publicly as the Messiah.

Their question meant, “What will be the sign that you are revealing yourself as the Messiah and thus bringing this age to an end?” They expected this to happen very soon.

In response to their question, Jesus describes wars, persecution, false messiahs, and signs in the heavens. He makes clear something different from what Jews—including his disciples—were expecting. He made clear that there will be a long delay between his first coming and the end of the age.

This difference in expectation remains a dividing point between Jewish and Christian understandings of the Messiah to this day. The expectation was that the present age would end when the Messiah came. Yet when Jesus came, the age did not end.

Jesus taught his disciples to understand this delay. Paul and Peter also had to address it when proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah: if the Messiah had come, why had the present age not ended?

Jesus’ answer is that the Day of the Lord has begun with his coming, but its fulfillment unfolds like birth pains. As thunder follows lightning, the end of the age follows his coming after a delay.

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:14)

Here Jesus reveals for the first time that the gospel will go beyond the Jewish people. This explains the delay: Christ will offer mercy to God’s enemies in every nation. Then the end will come.

What should the disciples do during this time? In Matthew 24, Jesus tells them not to be deceived, to stand firm, not to return home to retrieve their possessions, and to keep watch. The approaching end of the age does not change our responsibility as disciples. We must continue doing what Jesus commanded from the beginning, even when the world is falling apart around us.

This is why Jesus tells the Parable of the Ten Virgins. He echoes the language of the Sermon on the Mount, his first sermon on discipleship.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” (Matthew 7:21-23)

The parable puts that teaching into a story. The five foolish virgins knock at the door and say, “Lord, Lord,” but the bridegroom replies that he does not know them.

Jesus also returns to the contrast between the wise and the foolish from the Sermon on the Mount:

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” (Matthew 7:24-27)

Disciples are foolish when they hear Jesus’ words but do not put them into practice. They are wise when they hear and obey. What should they do when the sun stops giving light and the stars fall from the sky? Continue hearing and doing Jesus’ words.

Sadly, only days later, on the night Jesus was betrayed, the disciples forgot this teaching and acted like the foolish virgins.

Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” (Matthew 26:38)

“Keep watch” is the same command Jesus gives in the parable. Yet when their world began to fall apart, his disciples did not hear and obey.

Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. (Matthew 26:40)

We are to understand Jesus’ parables by remembering his teachings and recognizing the words and expressions he uses throughout them—including in the parables we are seeking to understand—rather than scouring the parables for hidden meanings.

Whatever happens in the world, we must treasure Jesus’ words and continue doing what he commanded from the beginning.

Keeping watch is not a matter of relying on human strength. Peter was confident in his own resolve:

Peter replied, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.” (Matthew 26:33)

Yet Peter fell away.

Jesus’ command here is not “Be strong,” but “Keep watch.” That is, watch out for anything that takes your attention away from hearing and doing the words of Christ.

In Matthew 24, Jesus warns his disciples of many things that can distract us: natural disasters, wars, false teachers, false messiahs, other believers falling away, political events (including elections!), family responsibilities, and even our physical limitations can draw our attention away from Christ’s words.

We should therefore avoid worldly entanglements as much as possible and guard our devotion to the Lord.

The Apostle Paul picks up on the language of Jesus’ parable of the virgins in 1 Corinthians 7:32-35 when he writes:

I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs—how he can please the Lord. But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife—and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband. I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord. (1 Corinthians 7:32-35)

Paul teaches the same principle: undivided devotion to the Lord.

Undivided devotion means simplifying our lives to focus on one thing: hearing and doing the words of the Lord Jesus at all times. Heaven and earth will pass away, but his words will not.

This undivided devotion to hearing and doing Jesus’ words is what he calls wisdom.

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“For many are invited, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:1–14)

Posted on October 27, 2026 by Pastor Foley
The Wedding Feast. Painting by Eugène Burnand in 1908.

When we sit down with Scripture, we should not primarily ask how it applies to our lives today. Instead, we should be prepared to lose our lives in it.

For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. (Mark 8:35)

The gospel is not merely a message about saving your life eternally. It is a call to abandon your life completely for something more valuable: the Kingdom of God and its King, Jesus.

Voice of the Martyrs founder Richard Wurmbrand once said, “Humans do not have the habit of committing suicide for another’s grief, but that is exactly what we demand from you: ‘To deny yourself, to die for yourself and to live for Christ, who is in grief and suffers again in his mystical body, to feel every pain of his holy martyrs as your own, to remember those in bonds as bound with them’ (Hebrews 13:3).’”

Our focus is not on individual salvation or personal gain, but on Christ our King, his Kingdom, and our new family—the family of Christ.

I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 36:26)

Our hearts were once set like stone on ourselves and our desires. But the new-covenant hearts we received at baptism are hearts of flesh, focused on Christ and his Kingdom. Our lives are not the context for understanding Scripture; the context is always Christ, the gospel, and his establishment of the Kingdom of God.

What, then, is the context of today’s Scripture, Matthew 22:1–14?

Jesus and his disciples are now in Jerusalem—the place where, as he had previously told them, he would be arrested, killed, and raised from the dead.

How did Jesus know this? He knew the Old Testament prophecies, of course. But he had also been in Jerusalem before beginning his ministry in Galilee, preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God there until John the Baptist was arrested.

Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John—although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. (John 4:1–3)

The Pharisees had been concerned about Jesus’ ministry even before he began ministering in Galilee. They knew he was gaining more followers than John, who had been arrested.

When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee. (Matthew 4:12)

Jerusalem had already rejected Jesus. After John the Baptist’s arrest, Jesus became the chief focus and concern of its religious leaders. This helps explain why they kept him under constant surveillance from the beginning of his Galilean ministry, repeatedly raising questions and objections. It also explains why Jesus moved progressively farther from Jerusalem to continue his ministry.

John records several occasions when Jesus returned discreetly to Jerusalem during his Galilean ministry, each time at great risk. We also see Jesus withdrawing to Tyre, Sidon, and Caesarea Philippi.

Jesus was not running away. He came to preach the gospel and usher in the Kingdom of God. His work led through death because the death, resurrection, and ascension of the King were necessary to establish his Kingdom. Our own death must likewise precede our entry into his Kingdom—that is what baptism signifies.

Jesus never lost sight of his purpose. His focus was not simply personal salvation, but the establishment of his Kingdom. He did not spend thirty-three years teaching parables and healing people, only to decide one day that it was time to die.

From the beginning, John baptized Jesus, and the Spirit drove him into the wilderness to be tempted. Afterward, he went to Jerusalem to preach the Kingdom, where he was rejected from the outset.

This is the normal way gospel ministry is done: Always under surveillance by the authorities. Always being watched by the religious leaders. Always being hated and insulted. Always on the move.

Richard Wurmbrand was called “the Phantom Preacher” because he would suddenly appear at an underground church meeting to preach and then disappear when he was done.

The Lord Jesus himself shows us that this is normal gospel ministry.

In Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am? Who do you say that I am?” And when Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”, Jesus said, “It’s time to go to Jerusalem.”

We find out from the Gospel according to John that just prior to entering Jerusalem, Jesus must stop in Bethany to raise Lazarus from the dead. This is when Thomas says to the other disciples, in John 11:16:

 “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” (John 11:16)

We need to read all four of the Gospels and understand the relationship between them. Otherwise we will not understand passages like this one in Mark 14, when Jesus is making plans to enter Jerusalem:

So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. Say to the owner of the house he enters, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.” (Mark 14:13–15)

This is not some mysterious magical spooky spiritual experience. Jesus already had disciples in Jerusalem because of his previous ministry there. They cared for his needs whenever he went there, and he would call on them as he had need of them. As Richard Wurmbrand noted in Preparing for the Underground Church, the Gospels could not identify many people or locations when they were written because doing so would have endangered those involved.

With this context in mind, consider the parable of the wedding banquet in Matthew 22:1–14. Jesus taught it publicly in the temple courts after cleansing the temple—possibly for the second time—not while in hiding.

Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’ But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless. Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are invited, but few are chosen.” (Matthew 22:1–14)

The guests had already accepted the invitation, yet they neither put on their wedding clothes in preparation for the banquet, nor did they attend when the announcement came. Worse, some mistreated and killed the king’s servants.

The Pharisees and religious leaders claimed to be waiting patiently for the Kingdom of Heaven and preparing for its arrival. Yet when John the Baptist announced it and Jesus brought it, they seized, mistreated, and killed the King’s servants—the prophets (including Jesus, who was a prophet in addition to being Son of God).

In Galilee he called the fisherman, the tax collectors, and the prostitutes into the kingdom of heaven. So we can understand that in this parable Jesus is talking about the present time when he was speaking, not our time in the future. He is talking about how when he was rejected in his Jerusalem ministry, he raised up guests for the wedding banquet from Galilee—both bad and good! When Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, he entered the Holy City with “the bad and the good” who followed him from outside Jerusalem, and he was met at the entrance to the city by many of the disciples he had previously made there in Jerusalem. The wedding hall was indeed filled with guests!

Some preachers will claim that in Middle Eastern cultures, wedding clothes are given to guests by those in the wedding party; these preachers say the man’s error was that he didn’t wear the wedding clothes given to him, which represents the “righteousness” Jesus freely gives. It sounds like a good explanation, but this claim about guests receiving free wedding clothes in Israel or other Middle Eastern cultures is simply not true. It is fake news! In Middle Eastern culture, everyone had their regular clothes and they also had an outfit they only wore on special occasions. They didn’t get free clothes for every wedding they went to!

So what are the wedding clothes Jesus is talking about? Jesus has already told us several times in the Gospel according to Matthew. John the Baptist told us also. It is the basic gospel announcement: “”Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” The wedding clothes represent repentance—the garment we must wear to enter the Kingdom.

Repentance is more than feeling sorry for wrongdoing and trying not to repeat it. It is recognizing that life is entirely about Jesus and his Kingdom. Repentance means letting your old self-centered, self-satisfying life fall into the watery grave of baptism, then living in complete dependence on Christ and in total devotion to his Kingdom.

The prayer “Not my will, but yours be done” is not advanced Christianity. It is the cry of a repentant heart at the waters of baptism—our first words in the Kingdom of God.

“For many are invited, but few are chosen.” (Matthew 22:14)

Few are interested in the Kingdom of God, the King, or the King’s Son.

If the King promised better marriages, larger harvests, and more successful businesses, the guests would have come. But the Kingdom of Heaven is not about us.

It is entirely about Jesus.

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So the last will be first, and the first will be last

Posted on October 13, 2026 by Pastor Foley

Matthew 20:1–16 is usually called Jesus’ parable of the workers in the vineyard, but it is better to call it Jesus’ parable of the generous vineyard owner. As we mentioned recently, anytime you are reading a parable, in order to understand it correctly, you always have to start outside the parable and find out the context. Jesus always tells his parables in response to something. Unless we know what that something is, we won’t be able to understand the parable correctly. Earlier, in Matthew 18, Jesus says the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven is the one who restores sinners who are falling away, because that is what God does.

In the case of today’s parable, in order to understand what Jesus is responding to, we need to go back to the beginning of Matthew 19. In last week’s message we finished Matthew 18, which was Jesus’ parable of the unmerciful servant. That parable was Jesus’ answer to Peter’s question, “How many times must I forgive the brother or sister who sins against me?” But it was also part of Jesus’ overall answer to the disciples’ question, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” The parable—and all of Matthew 18—says that the one who is greatest is the one who seeks to restore the brother or sister who is falling away because of sin, even when it means forgiving that brother or sister 77 times. Jesus says that one is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven because God is like that.

Throughout Matthew 18 we get to see Jesus’ heart and thus God’s heart. If Jesus were alone in a room with you, what would he talk with you about? What is of greatest concern to him? The secret sin in your heart? Who you should marry? What job you should take? How much he loves you?

No. When you get Jesus in a room alone, what he talks about is your care for his “little ones”. Remember—that’s what Jesus calls those who believe in Christ and who are your brothers and sisters now that you have been baptized into Christ. Jesus’ concern is always especially for the least and lowest of our brothers and sisters, and whether the rest of us are caring for them. These are those who cannot contribute anything of worldly value to the church. Jesus reminds us to invite them when we hold a party, and he commands us to bring them back from sin.

How do we know that this is what Jesus would speak about in private? Because this is what Jesus discusses with Peter when he talks to him privately after the resurrection.

The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. (John 21:17)

Peter may not have realized how his betrayal and falling away affected other believers, but it was Jesus’ main concern. Likewise, we often fail to consider how our behavior affects Jesus’ little ones. We frequently complain about other Christians. But Jesus says, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” And whatever you did not do, Jesus says, you withheld from him as well. If you withhold love and forgiveness from believers, he says it is the same as withholding them from him.

That’s where Matthew 18 concludes. Now, we move on to Matthew 19. It begins with Pharisees asking Jesus, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?” Jesus answers like this:

I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery. The disciples said to him, “If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry.” (Matthew 19:10)

Remember the disciples’ response! We’ll come back to it.

Then little children are brought to Jesus for him to bless them. The disciples try to stop this, but Jesus rebukes them, saying, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Then the rich young man comes to Jesus.

Jesus replied, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” (Matthew 19:21)

Each of these teachings from the Lord in Matthew 19 are of course important for us to study. But what we’re focused on today is the disciples’ reaction to each of the Lord’s teachings here. In the case of the rich young ruler, when he walks away sad, notice the disciples’ reaction: Peter reminded Jesus that the disciples had left everything and followed him, and he asked, “What then will there be for us?” Don’t forget that question: “What then will there be for us?” Because Jesus sure doesn’t forget it! But first Jesus says this:

Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.”

But then Jesus concludes with by dropping this bomb:

“But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” (Matthew 19:28-30)

Jesus tells the parable of the generous vineyard owner to explain what he means.

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.

And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same.

And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’

And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius.

And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’

But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’

So the last will be first, and the first last.” (Matthew 20:1–16)

Jesus ends the parable with the same phrase with which he begins. But who is last, and who is first? Remember: the parable is Jesus’ answer to Peter’s question: “What will there be for us?” Peter and the disciples were among the first to leave everything and enter the Kingdom of God. Yet Peter’s question showed they had brought something with them into the Kingdom: envy.

There are three “Bible words”–envy, jealousy, and covetousness—that we often use interchangeably but are actually slightly different. Jealousy fears losing something we have. Covetousness wants something someone else has. Envy resents another person receiving something we want because we believe we deserve it more.

We know envy is sinful, but we may not realize how serious it is. It was the reason the religious leaders had Jesus arrested.

For he knew it was out of self-interest that they had handed Jesus over. (Matthew 27:18)

Envy was also central to Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son. The older brother envied the welcome his younger brother received.

But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.

But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’

And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’” (Luke 15:28–32)

Here, the older brother has only two choices: enter the party or leave. Today’s parable ends with the same standoff. The workers who labored in the vineyard all day are in the older brother’s position.

Envy is one of the main reasons people do not enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and it is one of the main reasons people leave after entering it.

Envy shapes every reaction the disciples have to Jesus’ teaching in chapter 19. When he teaches about divorce, they envy single people. When he blesses the children, they envy the children. When the rich young ruler leaves, they show no concern for him. Their focus is entirely on themselves.

Jesus’ response is the same as the vineyard owner’s: the Lord always gives what is right.

Some people say, “I don’t think God is fair to send my grandfather to hell because he was born in a Buddhist country where no one had ever heard of Jesus.” But God is always fair. He will always give everyone what is right. We do not know whether your grandfather will go to hell. But we know Jesus will judge him justly when he stands before him. We do not frighten people with strict theology or comfort them with loose theology. We testify only to what Jesus has given us to proclaim: he will return in glory to judge the living and the dead, and he will always judge justly.

Why would envy keep you out of the kingdom? Because we hate the idea of a kingdom where everyone gets the same reward! “That’s communist!” we say. That’s why these days many pastors and teachers and Christians comfort themselves by saying, “OK, all of us—the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the hypocrites, and us—we all enter the kingdom the same way: By believing and being baptized. But in addition to eternal life, we also can get rewards in heaven based on what we do for Jesus here on earth! So the pastor who faithfully serves a church for 40 years is going to get more rewards than the person who sins their whole life but repents on their deathbed.”

This is why Christians like the parable of the talents much more than this parable of the generous vineyard owner. We think, “The one who uses their ‘talents’ to serve God should get a bigger reward than those who bury their ‘talents’.”

But the parable of the talents is not about God rewarding those who use their talents to do great things for God. In that parable, “talents” are a metaphor for the members of Christ’s family. In that parable, Jesus shows us that what he entrusts to us are not skills and talents to use for him but his family members. Jesus is asking, “What did you do with the little ones I entrusted to you?” They are his “talents”. This is why right after Jesus tells the parable of the talents he tells the parable of the sheep and the goats, and he says, ““Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me”

Jesus’ parables will never make sense if you apply them first to yourself. They are not primarily about you. They are about God and how you treat members of God’s family. That is why Jesus usually begins parables by saying, “The Kingdom of God is like…” And the focus of Jesus’ parables—including today’s parable of the vineyard, as well as the parable of the prodigal son, as well as the parable of the unforgiving servant—is about how you treat other members of Christ’s family…especially the little ones who are most easily and often falling into sin! 

Through the parables, Jesus tells us, “Do not worry about yourself. I will provide what is right. I am never unfair. Instead, seek first the Kingdom of God. Serve the Father, and care for your brothers and sisters—especially those you do not like and those who are strangers to you, yet still belong to God’s family.”

Notice that Jesus does not tell parables where he praises people who play the piano for God or who sing for God or who do other great things for God. Jesus tells parables where the only way to enter the kingdom is to die to yourself, and the only thing you do when you enter the kingdom is to join him in caring for the little ones.

The Kingdom of Heaven is not like the kingdoms of this world. It is not for personal advancement or reward. In this Kingdom, it is not the pastor who serves for forty years who gets the party. It is the sinner who repents on his deathbed. And both receive the same reward.

I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. (Luke 15:7)

The best reward for a faithful pastor is to preach faithfully, die quietly, and be forgotten. That pastor does not need a party, because he is content with the Father’s word: “You are always with me, and all I have is yours.”

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