10 Virgins, 5 Talents, Sheep and Goats

Today I read Matthew 25, which is the parable of the 10 virgins, the parable of the talents and the parable of the sheep and the goats. Most people I think are familiar with all 3 of these parables and in fact, in church last Sunday our Sunday School lesson was about this very chapter. It's funny to me that so many people when they first hear the parable of the 10 virgins, they usually react with harshness towards the 5 wise virgins for not sharing their oil with the 5 foolish virgins. I never did though, it always reminds me of that saying, a lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.

Even as a child when I heard this parable, I was always more curious why the 5 foolish virgins did not just plan ahead. It made sense to me that the 5 wise virgins only had brought enough oil for their lamps and did not have any to spare. Perhaps that makes me selfish, I don't know, but I've been on both sides of the equation where I was the one who planned ahead and someone else did not, or where I did not plan ahead and someone else did. There have been times where the other person shared with me or I with them, but there were far more times where they did not or I did not. Yes, it is a very Christlike thing to do to share even if you only have a very little. But it is also not wise to harm yourself to help another.

Put into spiritual terms, if someone was struggling with a problem, a sin, it is not pleasing to the Lord that you help them shoulder that burden by also partaking of that sin. If someone has a drinking problem, we should not accompany them to bars. And that goes the same for all other sins too. It is a wonderful thing to help others through their sins and burdens and I think God smiles upon us when we help others with their burdens or help clean up the effects of their sins. That is how we help shoulder the load that others bear. That is how we can have extra oil for our lamps if you will and help those others in need. But just like the 5 wise virgins, we cannot pull someone into heaven, it is a toll road that each must pay on their own. We can only help and encourage.

The parable of the talents is a pretty straight forward parable. We have each of us been given talents of the Lord and He wants us to use them and maximize them. However, on Sunday during the lesson, I had a thought that the talents could also be a type or a shadow for righteous living. As we live righteously, we gain in righteousness and we begin to change so that we desire to be even more righteous and grow and progress. To me that could be likened to this parable how the servant with 5 talents took them and made 5 more and the 2 made 2 more talents. These two servants took where they were and built on it. They took their love of the Gospel and their ability to follow the commandments and built upon that foundation so that they were able to keep the commandments a little better and a little more perfectly. But the servant who took and hid his 1 talent, he did not improve himself and is stuck in a rut and perhaps has even gone backwards a little bit. With such behavior the Lord is not pleased. As we have read in the Doctrine and Covenants, we should be anxiously engaged in a good cause of our own volition. We should not have to be commanded or compelled to be righteous. Just a different way to look at the parable and I don't know if it is more correct than the standard parable but it is food for thought anyway.

The parable of the sheep and the goats always brings Mosiah 2:17 to mind for me. The basis of the parable is that the sheep are those which served the Lord by serving their fellow man, whereas the goats did not. Mosiah 2:17 of course tells us that when we serve our fellow man we are only serving God. In the context of becoming who we want to be, serving our fellow man is the easiest way to become the type of man or woman we want to become. The Lord also uses mankind as His tools to perform His work. He comforts us best by sending one of his servants to us to say the right thing at the right time, or to help out in a time of need. And it is a good feeling to be the one providing that service as we have discussed in the past. Service begets love and our ultimate goal is to become like God is who loves all mankind. There is a reason He uses us to serve and fulfill the needs of others when He could do an infinitely better job Himself. It is because we need to do the serving as much as the person on the receiving end needs it. Remember, it is by small and simple things that He accomplishes His will. We are those small and simple things.

All 3 of these parables are pretty straight forward and are easy enough to understand. However, we need to put them into practice and make sure that we are preparing ourselves through righteous living and giving service to those around us that we see are in need of help, whatever that help is, even if it's only holding open a door for them. Like the hymn says, "there are chances for work all around just now, opportunities right in our way". And work for our Heavenly Father is bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of man, which for us translates to service. Don't let them pass you by, you will regret it if you do, I can promise you that. Until tomorrow.