“The bridegroom was delayed”

We had a very helpful sermon on Matthew 24.36-25.13 last night. I’m still convinced ch. 24.1-35 is about AD 70 (more to follow in the fullness of time), but, following some of David Field’s comments on Matthew 24 I think a transition to the second coming in v. 36ff can be sustained. The disciples ask two questions - one about the destruction of the temple and the one about his coming and the close of the age - and it is quite reasonable to see that Jesus answers them in turn. There is a transition from references to “those days” to “that day” in v. 36. Moreover, the language of being cut in pieces and being put with the hypocrites in the place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, and of the bridegroom coming to the marriage feast is suggestive that Christ’s second coming is in view here.

One thing that was highlighted last night was that the point of being ready and keeping watch in light of Christ’s unknown return is to make sure we are serving God faithfully and relating to the Lord Jesus. The emphasis in the parables is on the bridegroom’s delay.

I merely want to add to that the further point that none of this requires the Christian to believe that Jesus could return at any moment. For example, Peter is told in John 21.19 that he would die before Jesus returns. He certainly wasn’t expecting Jesus to return in his lifetime. Yet that didn’t negate the need for him to be faithful and prepared in the present. Indeed, there’s a thought going round at the back of my mind that maybe the fact that the virgins in the second parable, having prepared (or not) beforehand fall asleep and are woken by the cry that the bridegroom has arrived suggests that Jesus’ hearers were even meant to expect that they would die and then be raised up to meet their Lord when he finally returned. A long delay is to be expected. Murray in The Puritan Hope also makes the point that the expectation that Jesus could return in the lifetime of each generation of Christians, from the first generation onwards, would mean that we have been misled for the past 2000 years.

Given that we have the promise, for example, that “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you” (Psalm 22.27), and since we don’t quite see that yet, on the basis of God’s word, we don’t have to live expecting that Jesus could return at any moment. Yet the master’s delay isn’t a license for unfaithfulness and unreadiness. We need to serve faithfully in the light of his eventual return, and make sure that we are obeying the gospel, and repenting of our sins and trusting in Christ.