Ready and waiting
Text: Matthew 25:1–13
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. As we get nearer to the end of the Church year with Advent fast approaching, the lectionary focusses on the end times. Jesus tells a series of parables about what will happen on Judgment Day and how God will sort the righteous from the unrighteous. Like anything to do with the end times, the parable of the ten virgins (or ten bridesmaids) is both a warning and a promise.
We’ll break the parable down into these three points:
Jesus invites everyone into union with him
Wisdom is in the preparation
Christ prepares us by faith
Jesus invites everyone into union with Him
“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’” (Mt. 25:1–6)
All ten of these women are ready and waiting have their lamps for the bridegroom’s arrival. All ten of them became drowsy when the bridegroom was delayed and all of them fell asleep. All ten of them heard the cry, “He’s here!” All ten of them were invited to come out and meet him. All ten trim the wicks of their lamps when they hear that cry.
Jesus invites all people into the marriage feast and union with Him. One of the Bible commentators I listen to likes to rename parables to better describe what the parable is really about. He argues that this one says more about the bridegroom than the virgins, so it should really be called the Parable of the Polygamous Groom.
To us, it doesn’t sound like a very positive way to describe Jesus, but that’s actually what is being described here. Polygamy, of course, was a much more normal thing in ancient times, but it often went wrong because we humans are not always very good at loving each other. God knows the limits of our love which is why He forbids it.
So, the ten virgins in the parable are not merely bridesmaids, but they are actually awaiting the arrival of their groom. Jesus is the only bridegroom who is capable of perfect love and has the ability to join Himself to each of us in a way that is even more intimate than marriage. He breathes His life into us when we enter this world and He dwells in us through His Holy Spirit in baptism.
Christ “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Ti. 2:4) We don’t believe in universalism—that all people are saved, no matter how they live or what they believe—but we do believe that Christ wants each and every one of us to be saved and gives us the opportunity to receive His salvation. His suffering and death was on account of all of our sin, not just the sin of the people that somehow deserve it. His resurrection defeated death so that all can enter into eternal life with Him.
All ten of these women have the same invitation into marriage with the bridegroom. Likewise, Christ desires to enter into a relationship with each and every one of us and gives each of us the same invitation and opportunity. This is all purely His prerogative—He invites us not because we deserve it, but because He loves us.
Wisdom is in the preparation
There were ten virgins, but five of them were wise and five of them were foolish. The difference seems to lie in their preparation. Only five of them thought to bring some backup oil in case the groom took longer than expected. Of course, that’s exactly what happened.
The foolish bridesmaids, then, were the ones who didn’t do that extra preparation and now face the possibility of having their lamps go out and looking pretty bad in front of the groom. They are even willing to risk missing his arrival to go and find some oil to buy (keep in mind that it’s the middle of the night). Before it’s even begun, they put their whole marriage at risk just to look as well-prepared as the other five.
“And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” (Mt. 25:10–13)
It seems like a pretty harsh consequence, but these five have had every opportunity to enter into the marriage. They had received the same invitation as the other five. The groom never actually said that those without oil in their lamps can’t enter—that was an entirely self-imposed law that the foolish five felt they had to follow. If they truly knew their groom, they would know that he would have had the grace to let them in despite their dull lamps. Instead, they took matters into their own hands and missed the opportunity they were given.
What is Jesus describing here? What does that oil represent? What does it mean to prepare for Jesus’ arrival?
If we think about this parable in terms of the law, it’s quite a simple one to make sense of. People who are wise are well-prepared for the second coming of Jesus and the judgment that will take place. We all know that we will one day have to face God’s judgment for everything we’ve done in our lives. It would be wise, then, to make sure we can face that judgment with confidence that we have prepared well enough to pass that test.
Christ prepares us by faith
But Jesus is about more than just the law. He wants us to hear something a bit more profound and unexpected. He wants us to consider how He prepares us for His arrival. The law is always about what we do. The gospel is only ever what God does for us.
And what does the groom do for these ten women? He invites them into union with Him. He comes in His timing. He gives them time to have their lamps and their oil ready. Finally, He welcomes them into the wedding feast and delivers on His promise to those who are ready.
The wisdom of the wise virgins really had nothing to do with having the backup oil for their lamps. Their wisdom was in their patience and readiness. They fell asleep along with the other five and trimmed their lamps at the last minute as well. What really counted, though, was that they were there when the groom arrived.
They were wise to bring that extra oil, but they only did it so that they were not distracted when the moment arrived. We, too, should simply focus on being present so that we are ready to receive Christ whenever and wherever He arrives.
What might that mean for us as a local church and as Christian people in the world? How can we simply be present and await Christ’s arrival in our lives?
The primary focus of the Church as a whole, local congregations, and every Christian person must always be on receiving Christ and inviting others to do the same. Everything we do as Christians and as a local church must be centred on doing that. If it doesn’t somehow serve that purpose, we should seriously question why we do it.
We all to easily become distracted from this simple purpose by keeping our lamps lit—maintaining our buildings, filling our rosters, keeping our constitutions in check, and arguing over technicalities with each other. These things draw us away and we are unknowingly absent when the groom arrives. We stress out when we haven’t got our reserve oil sorted and our future secured, not realising that Christ invites people into union with Him without requiring any of that.
Organised churches have suffered from this temptation for centuries. The organised and institutional church is supposed to serve the central purpose of providing a place for people to receive Christ. Too often, we get caught up in the details and we forget why we do any of it in the first place.
By sitting here right now, you are doing the wise preparation. By coming together with God’s people to hear the Word and receive his grace in the Sacrament, you are placing yourself exactly where Christ comes.
In the long term, by receiving forgiveness for your sin, you are doing the preparation for when Christ comes again on that final day and exercises His judgment. By hearing His Word and receiving His mercy and grace, Christ is preparing you. It’s not about keeping your record clean, but accepting the clean record granted to you by Christ’s death on the cross.
As we meet as a congregation to elect our leaders and discuss the ministry that God invites us to participate in, let’s remember that He has invited each of us into union with Him entirely by His grace. He prepares us for His return and He secures our future by forgiving our sin and renewing our souls each day, within these walls and outside of them.
As He does so in you, may He grant you the peace which is beyond understanding. Amen.
