Holy Week Tuesday- The Last 3 Parables According To The Book Of Mormon

On Tuesday of Holy Week, Jesus, in the context of the Last Days and the Second Coming, gives His last 3 parables: The Ten Virgins, The Talents, and The Sheep and the Goats. But it is Moroni and the Book of Mormon that give us the greatest context for how we should read these parables.

 Raw Transcript

all right welcome back to the Holy Week
short video series We are on
Tuesday This is uh what I want to focus
on are the last three parables according
to Matthew here The last three parables
that Jesus gives He was over in the
temple Earlier he's going to go over
across the uh uh valley of Jehoshaphat
right The the the Kidedron Valley there
And he's going to go over onto the Mount
of Olives and he's going to teach these
parables you What the thing to
understand here is that in Matthew 25
the context of this is from Matthew 24
He's talking about the second coming
He's talking about when the kingdom of
God will come back uh to the earth And
so it's about the last days It's about
the second coming of Jesus Christ And so
this is these three parables are in that
context What are the three parables They
are the 10 virgins the uh parable of the
talents and the parable of the sheep and
the goats These three I don't want to go
into them too much in depth I'll go into
them a little bit What I really want to
talk about is the reference and context
that the Book of Mormon brings to them
because the Book of Mormon brings an
awful lot of context to them and helps
frame what I think that these three
parables are really all about to me they
are sequential and and they represent
something maybe different than you may
have thought about before So let's go
into this here First of all here as you
see here in uh Matthew
25 we've got the three parables of the
10 virgins the talents and the sheep and
the goats But let's move over here
interestingly
to got our scripture notes here to Ether
12
Now Ether 12 is important to understand
In Ether 12 we're talking about the the
the the very beginning of the of the not
the very beginning but this is the end
of the the beginning of the end for the
Geredites And remember that we're not
reading the actual book of Jared here
We're or the of of uh the brother of
Jared This is a a a summarized version
that that Moroni is going to put
together that he ends up calling the
book of Ether here and not the brother
Jared I meant ether to begin with but
it's so it's what he writes and he puts
his own commentary into this and here
where you are getting a uh
uh this is this is where things are
really going to start falling apart for
the Gerodites he's going to insert
himself here and he's going to bring up
something very interesting I mean really
interesting that relates back to the
three
parables says here in verse 28 of of of
of Ether 12 This is Moroni I will show
this is the Lord speaking to Moroni and
they're talking face to face He says I
will show unto the Gentiles their
weakness And I will show unto them that
faith hope and charity bringeth unto me
the fountain of all righteousness This
is the focus of the chapter In fact I
will argue that Mormon and
Moroni's last message in the entire Book
of Mormon summarizing everything up is
of course Jesus Christ at the center but
otherwise it is faith hope and charity
is the message the entire message here
So here we are at the at what is about
to unravel here with the Gerodites And
it's faith hope and charity that is
spoken of 31 after they had faith he's
talking about each of these elements and
did speak in thy name they did show
thyself unto them in great power And
then in 32 thou hast prepared a house
for man Okay thou hast prepared a house
for man yay even among the mansions of
thy father in which man might have a
more excellent hope Hope is about that
state of being of where we can arrive at
And what we we can get out of an awful
state and we get rid of damnation or
anything holding us back right It's to
look forward to who we can be with and
who we can be like That is the hope of
faith and hope and charity Okay Uh he
says that without hope wherefore man
must have hope or he cannot receive an
inheritance in the place which thou has
prepared So that's what hope is about
Then he also says I remember that thou
loved the world This is his
condescension Even unto the laying down
of thy life for the world that thou
mightest take it up again to prepare a
place for the children of man And I know
I now know that this love he's speaking
directly to Jesus here which thou hast
had for the children of men is charity
Wherefore except men shall have charity
they cannot inherit that place which
thou hast prepared in the mansions of
thy father You cannot get there You
cannot be who you need to be You cannot
take advantage fully of the atoning
sacrifice of Jesus Christ without faith
hope and charity And here it's in the
context of a civilization falling apart
Right Then he says this and this is just
really
fascinating Wherefore I know by this
thing which thou hast said this is
Moroni speaking to Jesus that if the
Gentiles have not charity because of our
weakness that thou wilt prove them and
take away their
talent their
hope Take away their
hope Yeah even that which they have
received and give unto them who shall
have more abundantly That is the parable
of the talents Remember talents is a
piece of silver right It's a piece of
silver It's worth about 20 years of
labor It's a lot of money but it is not
playing the piano It is not singing It
that's not the type of talent we're
talking about here It is spiritual
capital It is the spiritual gifts And
this is typically where uh Morona is
going to go into all the spiritual gifts
That's where faith hope and charity find
their real context So here it is They're
talking to each other and they're
talking about the parable of the talents
in the context of the end times in the
context of the the second coming of
Jesus just as Jesus does with the three
parables in the context of the last days
and the second coming of Jesus Christ
That's what I'm saying here I would
submit to you that faith hope and
charity are what those three parables
are about The parable of the 10 virgins
is faith which we could say is testimony
right It's faith The parable of the
talents is hope I'll go over that And
the parable of the sheep and goats is
charity Faith hope and charity are those
last three parables Let's go a little
bit further here And
uh he says here in verse 39 of of
chapter 12 also and then shall ye know
that I have seen Jesus and that he
talked with me face to face Right That's
what's going on there But let's move
further on here Let's go to chapter 10
of Moroni And this is the real message I
know we all talk about uh verse four
right When you shall receive these
things I would exhort you that you would
ask of God the eternal father in the
name of Christ These things are not true
etc etc But the real message of chapter
10 the last the very last because he has
a few of them The last farewell of
Moroni is about faith hope and charity
and Christ That's what the chapter is
about We lose it because of that verse
four And we focus so much on verse four
Move down further Get the get the get
the context here Right In verse eight I
exhort you my brethren that ye deny not
the gifts of God for they are many It's
spiritual gifts These are the
talents Okay And then he moves on
further and talks about faith hope and
charity Every good gift comes from
Christ He says here in verse 19 "All
these gifts of which I have spoken which
are spiritual never will be done away
even as long as the world shall stand
only according to the unbelief of the
children of men Wherefore there must be
this is in regards to the char the gifts
there must be must be faith And if there
must be faith there must be hope They're
sequential They build upon each other
There must be faith there must be hope
And if there must be hope there must
also be
charity This is the message that Moroni
is giving at the end of his life where
his civilization has completely fallen
apart And he wants to bring this back to
us as a message to the Gentiles in the
last days You better have faith hope and
charity This is what is needed at the
end day at the end of times in the last
days when when the second coming is is
upon you Except you have charity you can
in no way say be saved in the kingdom of
God Neither can you be saved in the
kingdom of God if you have not faith
Neither can you if you have not
hope And if you have no hope remember
what the context is here for Moroni what
he's thinking about here what's going on
in his world If you have no hope you
must needs be in despair like Moroni's
people are And despair cometh because of
iniquity Faith open charity on one side
and despair and iniquity on the other
And Christ truly said unto our fathers
if you have faith you can do all things
which are expedient unto
me And there will be none that will do
good if they do not have faith hope and
charity if they have not thought about
these things And you will I you will
know that I spoke directly with Christ
and you will know that I say these
things are true because I am going to
meet you at the bar of God He says okay
low lay hold upon every good thing every
good gift And interestingly in verse 31
he goes into uh um Isaiah chapter 52
right Um and awake and arise from the
dust O Lord And then he talks
immediately about Christ That's a whole
other episode that we can talk about
here because that's really what he's
talking about in 52 Isaiah 52 and
53 Okay So so this is what is going on
here This is what is happening back in
Moroni 7 And when he says look at this
And now I Moroni write a few of the
words of my
father
Mormon All right Which he spake
concerning faith hope and charity For
after this manner did he speak unto the
people as he taught them in the
synagogue which they had built for the
place of worship He's trying to push
back against the devolvement the
dissolution the destruction of his
society with a message of faith hope and
charity This is the message of Jesus to
his disciples and to us in Matthew
chapter 25 with the
parables right And so if I just give a
quick recap on those
parables the parable of the talents five
of the virgins have the oil That is the
faith and testimony that you cannot give
to others You can't you're not it's
impossible You can't do it even if you
want
to They have to accept it They have to
fill their every individual has to fill
their lamps with oil The talents
remember there's one that's given five
One servant that's given five talents He
comes back with five more Well done thy
good and faithful servant My good and
faithful servant Okay you will be given
more And and the one that has two is in
the same position Even though someone is
given
two some people have less Some people
are on the
fringes There is disparity But even if
you have less you go through the same
process and you have the same growth
pattern as the one who had five And that
is the hope No matter what you are given
in life we all have the hope of that
process of being a good and faithful
servant And then we show we're shown the
opposite The one that's given
one the one that that may be uh uh given
the least Well this one actually buries
their
talent Maybe it's through envy Maybe
it's through iniquity Maybe it's through
jealousy Regardless they bury it
And regardless of who we are nor
regardless of the position that we find
ourselves in economically spiritually
emotionally with our family ties with
anything else in our in our life we all
must go through the same process All of
us even those that are the least of us
right must go through the same
process
Disparity is a part of life It's part of
the plan of
salvation And even in the war in heaven
where I I I fully believe that that war
in heaven was fought on Satan's side
about
disparity Look the outcome is going to
not be the same Some people aren't going
to make it Some people will have a lord
glory because of their
agency And therefore Satan or Lucifer
sought to destroy the agency of man to
get an equal outcome for everyone
Equity right Equity That is what he
fought
for And and that's a forced outcome And
that requires tyranny That removes
freedom and agency And that is against
the doctrine of Christ
The reason we have disparity it is a
must in the plan of salvation because
otherwise charity cannot be
exercised And each of us find ourselves
as the one with one talent in different
parts of our lives or at different times
in our
lives And we need others to reach down
to us and help pull us
up And we need to turn to others where
we have more talents and more more
spiritual capital and reach down and
lift others up That is how you build
Zion Without that disparity that cannot
exist and the whole plan of salvation
would be
frustrated So disparity does exist and
that is the plan of that is the parable
of the talents and we all are given hope
because through the shown through the
servant that has five talents and the
servant that has two talents We all can
go through the same process regardless
of where we are in life And then of
course it's easy in in the f third
parable of the sheep and the goats to
see that that is charity Even charity to
the one that has one talent and has
buried
it We still give charity to all To the
least of these my
brethren we offer charity and we become
like Christ and put on the name of
Christ when we are offering charity
faith hope and charity Isn't that
interesting The Book of Mormon giving us
the context and and meaning and and
richness of these last three parables of
Jesus that he gave on
uh um the Mount of Olives on Tuesday and
the last week of his life Thanks for
listening