Matthew 25 Commentary
Please choose a passage:
Matthew 25:1-13
Jesus tells an extended parable about the kingdom of heaven and His return, likening them to a bridegroom coming for His bride late at night. As ten bridesmaids wait for his coming they fall asleep. Five of them were wise and brought extra oil for their lamps. Five were foolish and did not.
Matthew 25:14-30
The Parable of the Talents: Jesus tells another parable about the kingdom of heaven and His return, likening them to a man who entrusts his estate to his servants while he is away on a long journey. He respectively entrusts five, two, and one talent(s) to three servants according to their abilities.
Matthew 25:31-46
The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats: “The Context of the Parable” Jesus ends His Olivet Discourse with a teaching about a series of Divine judgments. This teaching is known as “The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats.” It is the final parable of four that discuss His return.
Matthew 25:31
The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats: “The Opening Remark” Jesus begins His teaching of “the Sheep and the Goats” by saying that when the Son of Man comes in His glory He will sit on His glorious throne.
Matthew 25:32-33
The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats: “The First Judgment: Sorting the Sheep from the Goats” Jesus uses the metaphor of a shepherd separating the sheep from the goats to describe what will happen during the first of three judgments to occur. This image establishes the tone for the entire teaching that follows.
Matthew 25:34
The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats: “The Second Judgment: The Reward of the Righteous” Jesus says that the King will address the righteous sheep after they have been sorted to His right. He will call them “blessed of My Father” and invite them to inherit the kingdom...
Matthew 25:35-40
The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats: “The Life Choices of the Righteous” The King will explain how the inheritance for the sheep was based on the way they treated Him through various acts of kindness and mercy during their lives on earth. The righteous will ask when they ever served Him.
Matthew 25:41
The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats: “The Third Judgment: The Banishment of the Accursed” Jesus says that the King will address the accursed goats who were sorted to His left. This judgment will happen after the King rewarded the sheep. He will call them “accursed ones” and banish them into the eternal fire...
Matthew 25:42-45
The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats: “The Life Choices of the Accursed” The King will explain how their punishment was for the way they did not serve Him when He was destitute during their lives on earth. The accursed will ask when they ever refused to serve Him.
Matthew 25:46
The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats: “The Closing Remark” Jesus concludes His teaching about the Judgments regarding the Sheep and the Goats with a short summary statement. He explains that the goats will go into the eternal fire while the sheep will go into eternal life.
Additional Resources
The Gospel of Matthew was written to demonstrate to the Jews of Jesus, the Messiah’s generation that He was indeed the Christ. Matthew thematically substantiates the Messianic identity of Jesus beginning with the genealogy of Jesus, which ran from Abraham, the father of Israel’s people through King David who was promised to have a son who would be on Israel’s throne forever. Throughout his Gospel account Matthew makes use of numerous prophecies both explicitly stated and by way of subtle allusion to support his thesis. Matthew further makes use of parallel events in Jesus’s life to those of Messianic figures from the Old Testament (Moses, Joseph, David, etc.) to bolster his argument.
Jesus came to offer the Jews the chance to participate in the inauguration of the Messianic Kingdom. To do this, they would have to receive and follow Him as their Messiah. Jesus’s message was “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). Ultimately, they rejected Him as their Messiah and condemned Jesus to death by crucifixion. The Jews’ rejection of the Messiah opened the door for Gentiles to enter the kingdom (Matthew 8:11-12, 22:1-10). Matthew’s Gospel is therefore a call for the Jews repent of their murder of Jesus and to embrace Him for the divine Messiah He is.
Matthew shows how their rejection of Him and His brutal death was predicted not only by Jesus Himself, but also was foretold in the Jewish scriptures of the Messiah.
The main proof that Jesus was the Messiah was “the sign of Jonah” (Matthew 12:39, 16:4). This was Jesus’s death and resurrection from the dead. “Just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40).
Because Matthew’s Gospel was written to people who were already members of God’s eternal family by virtue of their faith in God’s promise to send the Messiah, Matthew emphasizes the “reward of eternal life” (aka “The Prize of Eternal Life”) rather than “the Gift of Eternal Life”. In other words, Matthew’s Gospel focuses on how to “enter the kingdom” rather than how to “be born again”.
Matthew’s Gospel demonstrates how Jesus came to fulfill the law and open a way for God’s people to participate in the Messianic kingdom if they would follow His example of worshiping God from the heart by forgiving and serving others.
For “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). If we have faith to follow the example set forth by the resurrected Messiah, whom all authority on heaven and earth has been granted (Matthew 28:18) and take up our cross for His sake (Matthew 16:24-25), then we will become great in His kingdom (Matthew 20:26).
Finally, Matthew provides extensive samples of Jesus’s teachings including “the Sermon on the Mount”, “the Little Commission”, and “the Olivet Discourse” and many parables, alongside accounts of numerous miracles and wonders, personal moments with His twelve disciples, interactions with seekers, and increasingly as his Gospel account progresses: challenges and confrontations with His adversaries – the Pharisees, Scribes, and Priests.
Jesus continues His Olivet Discourse with His disciples about the end of the age and His return. In chapter 25, He tells the last two of three parables that reiterate the principles of being ready at all times for His return, and how the disciples should apply those principles to their lives. The final two parables of the discourse are called “The Parable of the Bridesmaids” and “The Parable of the Talents.”
After these parables, Jesus describes the Judgment in terms of separating “Sheep and Goats.” Believers will be sorted into one group (Sheep), and unbelievers into another (Goats). King Jesus will then judge to what extent did the sheep serve other people, and to what extent did the goats fail to serve. Then the sheep will enter into eternal life with God, while the goats will be sent away into eternal punishment along with the Devil and his demons.
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