Matthew 25:1-30

1Jesus said, ‘I will tell you another story to show what the kingdom of heaven is like. There were ten young women who were going to a marriage party. They took their lamps with them and they went to meet the man who was marrying a wife.

2Five of these young women were silly. The other five young women were wise.

3The silly women took their lamps with them, but they did not take any extra oil with them.

4The five wise women took jars of oil with their lamps.

5The man who was marrying a wife did not come for a long time. So all the young women became tired, and they went to sleep.

6In the middle of the night, someone shouted out, “The man is coming! Come out to meet him!”

7The ten young women woke up. Then they prepared their lamps to make them work well.

8The five silly young women said to the other five young women, “Give us some of your oil, because our lamps are not giving much light.”

9The wise women replied, “If we did that, then there would not be enough oil for all of us. You must go instead to the people who sell oil. You must buy some oil for yourselves.”

10So these five women went to buy some oil. While they were away, the man arrived for the marriage party. The five wise women were ready. They went with him into the house for the party. Then the servants shut the door.

11Later, the five silly women also came to the house. They said, “Sir, Sir, please open the door for us.”

12But he replied, “I tell you, I do not know you.” ’

13Then Jesus said to the people, ‘So you must watch carefully. You do not know on what day or at what time I will return.’

14Jesus said, ‘The kingdom of heaven is also like a man who began a journey. Before the master went away, he told his servants to come to him. He said to them, “Take care of all my money and all my things for me.”

15The master gave one servant 5,000 gold coins. He gave another servant 2,000 gold coins, and to another servant he gave 1,000 gold coins. The master gave to each servant what he would be able to use well. Then he went away on his journey.

16The servant who had received 5,000 gold coins went out immediately. He bought and sold things with the money. When he did this, he got 5,000 more gold coins.

17The servant who had received 2,000 gold coins did the same thing. This servant got 2,000 more gold coins.

18But the servant who had received only 1,000 gold coins did something different. He went outside and he dug a hole in the ground. He buried the money that his master had given him.

19After a long time, the master came home. He asked the servants to come to him. He wanted to know how much money they had now.

20The servant who had received 5,000 gold coins came to his master. The servant said, “Master, you gave me 5,000 gold coins. Now I have an extra 5,000 gold coins.”

21The master said to this servant, “You are a good servant and you have done really well. You were careful with a small amount of money. Now I will give you authority over many more things. I am really happy about this and I want you to be happy with me.”

22The servant who had received 2,000 gold coins also came to his master. The servant said, “Master, you gave me 2,000 gold coins. Now I have an extra 2,000 gold coins.”

23The master said to this servant, “You are a good servant and you have done really well. You were careful with a small amount of money. Now I will give you authority over many more things. I am really happy about this and I want you to be happy with me.”

24The servant who had received 1,000 gold coins then came to his master. The servant said, “Master, I know what you are like. You tell people what they should do all the time. You take food from fields where you did not put any seed in the ground. You get fruit from trees that you did not plant.

25So I was afraid of you. I went and I buried your gold coins in the ground. Look! Here they are. You can have your money back again.”

26The master said to him, “You are a bad and lazy servant. You know what I am like, do you? I get food from fields where I did not put any seeds. I get fruit from trees that I did not plant. You knew all that.

27So you should have put the money into a bank. Then, when I came home, I could have received my money back from the bank, with extra money.”

28Then the master said to his other servants, “Take the 1,000 gold coins from this bad servant. Give them to the man who now has 10,000 coins.

29Some people have received good things. They will all receive even more and have lots of good things. Some other people have nothing. Those people will lose even the little bit that they do have.

30This servant cannot work for me any longer. Take him outside and throw him into a dark place. There, people will cry and they will bite their teeth together.” ’