Be Prepared

Be Prepared

Matthew 24:36

            If you want the whole story, read Matthew 24 and 25.  Chapter 24 begins with the disciples looking in awe at the buildings of Herod’s temple.  Jesus comments on the transitory nature of those buildings.  The disciples ask him when the end will be.  Jesus goes into a long prophetic discourse on the end times: what the disciples can expect, and how to prepare.  This two-chapter teaching, coming near the end of Matthew’s gospel, acts as a counterbalance to the Sermon on the Mount, which Matthew places at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.

            While Confucianism is more of an ethical system than a religion, Master Kong Fu Zi had much to say about spiritual things.  One of his disciples once asked about serving ghosts and spirits.  The Master said, “When we are not yet able to serve fellow humans, why worry about serving the ghosts and spirits.”  The disciple asked about death.  The Master replied, “When we do not yet know enough about life, why worry about death?”  Alexander Pope gives the same advice in his Essay on Man when he says, “the proper study of mankind is man.”

            In other words, don’t worry about the things you can’t do anything about.  God knows the future, and will share it with us on a “need to know” basis.

            Isn’t this what Jesus is saying to his disciples?  “Look!  This is going to be a terrible time.  There will be war, famines, earthquakes [Jesus might well have added floods, tornadoes and hurricanes].  You can’t do anything about these things.  You can’t prevent them, and you can’t stop them once they start.  They are going to happen whether you worry or not, so don’t bother worrying.  God’s got this all planned out.  Everything will happen when it will happen.  What you must do is be prepared.”

Jesus tells his disciples (including us) what he means by “Be prepared!”  To illustrate, he tells them threeparables. 

The first is The Lesson of the Fig Tree.  “When the leaves of the tree begin to show, you know summer is coming.  When all these events happen you will know the end is near.”  The problem is that wars, famine and earthquakes have been a part of human history forever.  How are we to know which ones foretell the end?  Best advice:  Be prepared and don’t worry about which events count.  God knows and that’s enough.

Later, Jesus tells The Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids and The Parable of the Talents.  The story of the bridesmaids tells us to be prepared because the Bridegroom can return at any time.  Everything we need should be at the ready.  We must keep our lamps trimmed and burning.  The Parable of the Talents goes a step farther.  We are not only to be prepared for the end, we are also to use the talents God has given us. 

In several other parables scattered throughout the gospels Jesus tells his followers to be found working.  We get a hint of this in Matthew 24, where Jesus says that when the end comes women will be grinding flour and men will be out in the fields.  Even those women who are not housewives, and those men who are not farmers should be found at work—and not just any work.  We are to do the work of the kingdom.  That’s the message of the Parable of the Talents. 

It is also the message of the concluding part of this passage, the description of the Final Judgment.  When the Great Judge comes, we’ll be directed to whichever group our work—or lack of it—indicates.  Until that time Jesus’ message is clear.  Don’t worry about things you can’t control.  Be prepared.  Work for Jethe kingdom as if your life depends on it.

Because it does.