Matthew 25:1-11
Lord God, heavenly Father, send forth Your Son
to lead home His bride, the Church, that with all the company of the redeemed
we may finally enter into His eternal wedding feast; through the same Jesus
Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God,
now and forever.
The Gospel
Prepares Us for Our Heavenly Bridegroom’s Coming In order for the “lamps”
of our lives to burn brightly with such love, we must be filled with the “oil”
of forgiveness through faith in our Bridegroom, Jesus Christ (Matthew 25:1–4).
Therefore, as we await His coming, wisdom directs us “to the dealers” (Matthew 25:9), that is, to the ministers of His
Gospel. Thus we wait upon the Lord, and we “encourage
one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:18). Waking or sleeping,
we are prepared to meet Him when He comes “with
a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the
trumpet of God,” and “we will always
be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17).
There's a story that comes from the sinking of the
Titanic. A frightened woman found her place in a lifeboat that was about to be
lowered into the raging North Atlantic.
She suddenly thought of something she needed, so she
asked permission to return to her stateroom before they cast off. She was
granted three minutes or they would leave without her.
She ran across the deck that was already slanted at a
dangerous angle. She raced through the gambling room with all the money that
had rolled to one side, ankle deep.
She came to her stateroom and quickly pushed aside her
diamond rings and expensive bracelets and necklaces as she reached to the shelf
above her bed and grabbed three small oranges. She quickly found her way back
to the lifeboat and got in.
Now, that seems incredible - because thirty minutes
earlier she would not have chosen a crate of oranges over the smallest diamond.
But death had boarded the Titanic. One blast of its awful breath had
transformed all values. Instantly - priceless things had become worthless.
Worthless things had become priceless. And in that moment she preferred three
small oranges to a crate of diamonds.
There are events in life, which have the power to
transform the way we look at the world. Jesus' parable about the ten young
women with their lamps offers one of these types of events, for the parable is
about the Second Coming of Christ. But Jesus doesn't come right out and say
this. Rather, he lets the story describe it for Him. The woman on the sinking
Titanic understood, in the light of her current circumstances, that she must
make preparations for living on a lifeboat.
Diamonds would not do, only the precious resources of
an orange were good enough. Likewise, in this world, where Christ may return at
any moment, the parable warns, we must be ready.
Outline: “To be wise like the wise women” —
1. Be
prepared for Jesus’ coming — v. 4.
The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps.
Only Matthew gives the parable of the wise and foolish
maidens. It concerns the return of Christ. His coming is delayed. During the
delay, foolish people go to sleep and run out of oil for their lamps. At
midnight, when least expected, the Bridegroom comes. [Christ] The unprepared
have the door shut in front of them. The parable teaches us to be constantly
alert and prepared for the return of Jesus Christ.
2. Refuse to
share your spiritual resources — vv.
8-9. The foolish ones said to the wise, 'Give
us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.' 'No,' they replied, 'there may
not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy
some for yourselves.
Christians are familiar with the three Wise Men, but
how many know about the five Wise Women? According to the parable half of us
are foolish when it comes to the end of days. Our foolishness is expressed in
claiming to know the day and hour of Jesus’ return, in withdrawing from the
world to await the return of Christ, and in ignoring the possibility of Jesus’
Second Coming in our time. In the parable we have a model for wise men and
women.
“Go ... and buy
for yourselves” (v. 9). On the surface this response seems heartless. The
foolish five are in a crisis; there is an emergency. Shouldn’t the other five
be considerate and compassionate enough to share what they have?
It is an urgent matter because it is a matter of
eternal life or death. There is sternness in the parable: When the foolish
girls finally get to the wedding feast, the “door was shut” (v.10), and when they appealed for entry, the
bridegroom unbelievably says, “I do not
know you” (v. 12).
All of this happens by virtue of the nature of being
prepared spiritually. No one can get to heaven on the oil of another’s faith.
Without faith in Christ, the door of salvation is closed. Faith in Christ is
the key to open the door which leads to eternal life... It sounds cruel but the
fact is that people without faith are unknown to God, for to know is to be
personally related to God.
Timing is everything. The word is based on two Greek
words for "time." One
refers to regular, every day, business as usual - time—what we might call
chronological time. [Chronos] χρονίζοντος
On the other hand, the other type of time [Kairos,]
καιρός means "special" time, as in "God's time." According
to business as usual--the bridegroom is delayed. The ten virgins fall asleep.
The five foolish girls represent the "wisdom of
this world”—“the live-by-what-you- can-see- wisdom" that God has turned
upside down. The five wise virgins represent the "wisdom of faith,"
the wisdom of trusting in Christ's complete redemption of the world.
As a sign of how the five foolish virgins live by the
ways of this world, they wind up going to the marketplace to try to buy some
more oil. While they were participating in the established market system--the
status quo of the world--the bridegroom interrupted chronological
business-as-usual time by breaking in and making His dramatic arrival.
Faith is not about believing correct thoughts. Faith
is about trusting in Jesus. Which, in turn, means living in the new reality He
teaches—not in the status quo, business-as-usual- living of this world, but
rather, living in "the way" of Jesus, in anticipation of the Father's
kingdom, by affirming the absolute equality and dignity Christ has given to all
people who come to Him by faith, confessing and repenting of their sins and
then trusting in the merits of Jesus’ sacrifice for them on the cruel and
bloody cross of Calvary - and hanging in there - even when it appears that God
is far away, or that the Bridegroom has been delayed.
3. Enter the
feast of the kingdom — v. 10. But
while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The
virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door
was shut.
"But at
midnight a cry happened!" It's a bit awkward in English, but the word
Jesus uses here γέγονεν [gegonen] literally means "it came into existence," in other words, "it
happened." The word is often used to underline the significance of the
event. In the middle of the night of chronological time, there is-"a cry"--and "behold! The Bridegroom showed up!"
It happened!
Matthew tells us that the day of opportunity, the
chance for repentance, the season for faith in Christ, is over for those who
are not ready to meet the Lord when He comes. For the five foolish virgins the
door to the wedding feast was shut, locked, and bolted. There was no way they
could gain entrance. The Bridegroom even went so far as to declare, "I don't know you" (Vs 12). Once the
Bridegroom has showed up, once Christ has returned, it is too late to try to
get ready for His coming. You must be ready before He returns.
Points to
Ponder
"Our wicks
are being extinguished! V. 7
The mindful answered there absolutely will not be
enough. The oil is the means to receive the bridegroom. The oil sellers are not
open and you cannot buy it. There is nothing left to tell you. Jesus gave up
all of His and faced the outer darkness. That is why the Christian's judgment
day is Good Friday. V. 9
As they were going to buy the bridegroom came and the
door was slammed shut. You do not need to hear this. Your name has been
tattooed into Him. The unprepared are those who know they are not the prepared.
V. 10
The Ten
Virgins © Ed Riojas, Higher Things
Collect
for Proper 27 Series A, Lutheran Service Book © 2006 Concordia Publishing
House, St. Louis
