What the Wait Reveals

Jesus’ Warnings About Waiting

Have you ever thought about how much we hate to wait?

So much so that we’ve built an entire culture around escaping it. Grocery pickup so you never stand in a checkout line. Restaurant apps that text you when your table is ready. Phone systems that offer a callback so you don’t sit on hold. Even your own phone will notify you when a human finally answers so you don’t have to endure a single minute of hold music.

We have gotten good at avoiding the wait.

But there is a wait that is not meant to be avoided, minimized, or escaped.

Jesus talks about it in Matthew 25. In three back-to-back parables, He explains how we are to wait for His return, and He lays out the consequences of waiting poorly. Each story ends with someone being shocked at their exclusion.

The bridesmaids didn’t expect to miss the wedding (Matthew 25:1–13). The fearful servant didn’t know he’d lose what he didn’t invest (Matthew 25:14–30). The goats didn’t realize they would be separated from the sheep (Matthew 25:31–46). Three different stories, three different failures, but the same stunned surprise at the end of each one.

They didn’t wait well.

The Bridesmaids: Waiting without Readiness

The bridesmaids who ran out of oil for their lamps failed because they weren’t ready. And readiness, Jesus makes clear, is not something you can borrow at the last minute. When the five unprepared ones asked the five wise ones to share their oil, the answer was no—not out of selfishness, but because that kind of preparation cannot be transferred.

Instead, we are called to live in a state of readiness for the return of the King of Kings. That means building our relationship with Jesus now so that we know Him when He returns. Only as we spend time with Him can we truly know who He is and how He loves us.

The Fearful Servant: Waiting without Investment

The second parable reminds us that we are stewards of the talents and resources God has given us, and we are to confidently put to good use what God has placed in our hands. Like the fearful servant, we may feel unprepared, but we are not to live in a “wait for more” posture in which we delay doing for God until we have more: more time, more confidence, more resources, more clarity, more permission….

God calls us to move forward with what has been entrusted to us.

The Goats: Waiting without Compassion

In the third parable, the sheep saw the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the sick, the imprisoned, and they helped them. The goats saw the same people and did nothing.

Jesus said that when we pass by the needy, the vulnerable, the overlooked, we are to see them and take action. We are to welcome and love those that society finds least comfortable. Jesus reminds us that these acts of mercy toward those who can’t return our generosity are acts performed for Him.

Waiting Well

Three parables. Three groups who didn’t see or expect their failures. And underneath all three failures was the same reality: They had not allowed the coming kingdom to shape how they lived in the present.

Had the bridesmaids truly known the bridegroom as King, they would have made sure their oil was sufficient to light their lamps. Had the servant known his master as good instead of harsh, he would have wisely invested what he had been given. Had the goats ever really known Jesus, they would have seen Him in the vulnerable and had compassion for them.

Had they known that their every act of faith, obedience, and love was part of getting ready for the coming King, perhaps they would have waited differently. Had they looked forward to the coming kingdom of astonishing abundance, breathtaking beauty, and unending awe, with Jesus on the throne, perhaps they would have changed how they waited.

Jesus’ parables are a warning so that we might know how to live, that we might grasp the significance of what we’re waiting for.

May we wait well.

Here’s what you’ll receive in this toolkit: