Are you ready for Easter?
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Easter is the most important event in Christian history. Jesus knew that, and his ministry in the last week of his life reflects that priority.
Many in our culture add the story of the Easter bunny into our celebrations, or at least an egg hunt for the kids. Easter, like Christmas, is a wonderful holiday but can become a lot of different things unless we keep our primary focus on God’s word. Like the busy season of Christmas, there is a holiday to plan for, but that final Tuesday of Jesus’ life serves as a message of God’s priorities for Easter.
Stories with a lesson, or parables, were one of Jesus’ favorite ways to teach his disciples. When Jesus was with them on Tuesday of Easter week, he used parables to emphasize what they most needed to understand.
He was still answering their questions about what they had seen happen in the temple earlier that day and illustrating what he meant when he said, “Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Matthew 24:44).
Are we ready for that hour?
The parable of the Ten Virgins
Jesus told his disciples about ten women who grabbed their lamps and went out to meet a bridegroom. Some brought oil with them, and some did not. When the bridegroom arrived, those who hadn’t fully prepared were off looking for more oil and missed his arrival. They missed entering the marriage feast because they found the door had been locked. Jesus taught his disciples, saying, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour” (Matthew 25:13).
Jesus was teaching them the point of our lives on earth. We are here to prepare for our lives eternal. Some of the women were ready, and others were excluded because they were not.
Who do we know that isn’t ready for “the bridegroom” to return? How do we help them find what they need? The women who had oil weren’t able to give it away. Like them, we can’t “give away” some of our own salvation so others can use it for their lives. We can only help them find their own salvation, their light before the bridegroom arrives.
The Parable of the Talents
In the Bible, talent was not an ability but a form of money that could easily be invested or exchanged. The word for servants was literally the word for slaves, but the slaves in Jesus’ story were entrusted with “talents” from their master before he went on a long journey. These servants were essential to the Master and his plans. When the master returned, the slaves entrusted with the most had invested the money and increased the amount they could return to the master. The master said to these faithful servants, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:23). The servant who had only been entrusted with one talent buried it in the ground and was only able to hand back what he had been given.
Jesus told his disciples, “To everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away” (Matthew 25:29). The servant who did not serve the Master was cast into the darkness, a place of suffering. Like the virgins who did not “prepare” for the Master’s return, the servant who buried the Master’s gift was not given a place of reward.
Jesus was about to die, and his death would become the final sacrifice needed for the sins of every person. When I teach this parable to children, I always liken it to tickets at the State Fair. The tickets for their entrance, food, and rides have been purchased, and they are waiting for them at the gate. Those who pick up the tickets are allowed to enter and enjoy all their tickets afford them. Those who refuse to stay in the line because they think it is just too long a wait or think they will just come back later do not experience what God wants to give them.
Who do we know who has refused to do what is necessary to enter God’s kingdom and receive all that he wants to give? In addition, how can we help our brothers and sisters in Christ invest their lives in his kingdom purpose?
Jesus’ last message that Tuesday is for everyone to understand
You will likely never hear a message on hell for Easter Sunday. You might not want to read the last words Jesus told his disciples Tuesday in his Olivet Discourse. It was Passover, and the gardens would likely have been full of new growth, flowers, and warm sunshine. Jesus could have closed his message to his disciples with comforting words of hope and happiness, but instead, he stressed the one point we all need to think about today.
Jesus said, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world’” (Matthew 25:31–34).
Jesus then described people who were hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, and in prison. The people on the right, the sheep, had blessed them with help while the goats had done nothing. Jesus said that how we treat others is directly related to how we treat him.
Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me” (Matthew 25:45). The “goats” were sent “away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:46).
Sheep or goats?
We live in a culture that wants to allow people to believe whatever they want to believe about God, the Bible, and heaven and hell. We enjoy our Easter being about the joy and peace of the resurrection. We appreciate the beauty and celebration of a beautiful spring day filled with faith and family and some Easter meals with candy eggs. ALL that is good and right when you know you are a “sheep.” The truth is, we need to remember our Easter is only a celebration for the sheep. We are ready and waiting for the bridegroom to return! But what about the goats? Jesus, seated with his disciples, made it very clear: Heaven and hell are real. Everyone we meet today is either a “sheep” with an eternal life or a goat with an eternal death. Those are the only two categories that will matter when Jesus returns.
Jesus made that point to his disciples at the end of that Tuesday while sitting with them on the Mount of Olives. We don’t know what Jesus did the next day, Wednesday. Many theologians have speculated that our Lord used that day to prepare spiritually for all that was ahead.
Whatever we do for others today, this Wednesday of Easter week, we do for Jesus. Let’s follow Jesus’ example and get ready for Easter. Let’s be prepared for the bridegroom to arrive. As servants, let’s invest what we have been given in his kingdom purpose. As sheep, let’s be aware the “goats” aren’t coming to heaven with us – yet.
Easter is a great time to help someone know how to be born again. If we believe Jesus’ message and help others do the same, goats can become sheep.
Have a blessed and holy Easter!
