Matthew 25:1-13
The full meaning of some of the Lord’s parables is not immediately clear to us. Jesus’ parables were spoken to a first-century Jewish audience.
He often told stories that drew on certain unique customs of first-century Jewish people that are not familiar to us today. Today’s parable from St. Matthew, about the ten virgins, is one of these.
One of the wedding customs of the Jews, was that on the day of the wedding, the bride, and several of her friends – her bridesmaids, as it were – would wait at the bride’s home, until the bridegroom came to escort his bride to what was then going to be their new home.
The bride’s friends followed along, and became a part of the procession to the bridegroom’s home. When they all arrived, they went inside for a big wedding banquet.
This is the frame of reference for the parable of the ten virgins. These ten girls, or young women, were – in effect – bridesmaids for a wedding.
In this particular case, the bridegroom was delayed. For five of the virgins, this didn’t matter, as far as their preparedness to be a part of the nighttime wedding procession was concerned. They were ready for the wedding, whether it started on time or started late.
But for the other five, this delay did matter. They did not have enough oil for their lamps.
They were not prepared for the possibility that the bridegroom might be tardy – in coming to meet his bride and her retinue, and in leading them to the banquet. So, when he did end up coming later than they expected, they were not ready.
The focus of their lack of preparedness was their lack of oil for their lamps. These lamps were necessary for a nighttime procession.
The five foolish virgins had not brought along an extra supply of oil when they went to the bride’s house, to wait with her for the bridegroom. So, when that oil was needed – once the relatively small amount of oil that had been in the lamps had been burned off during the time of waiting – it was not there.
When it was announced that the bridegroom was finally on his way, and the foolish virgins realized the situation they were in, they tried to get some oil from the wise virgins – who had each brought an extra supply for their own lamps. But the wise virgins told them that they would not have enough for themselves, if they gave them some of their supply.
They told them to go instead to buy more for themselves. The foolish virgins accordingly left – in a hasty attempt to find someone who would sell them some oil.
But remember that according to the scenario of the parable, it was now midnight. We can assume, therefore, that there were no oil venders open for business at that hour of the night.
So, when the bridegroom arrived to pick up his bride, and lead her and her bridesmaids to the wedding at his house, the foolish virgins were not there. They were not a part of the procession.
They were not a part of the banquet. They were, ultimately, excluded from the wedding.
The point of the parable, was to teach the church to remain always ready for the coming of the Lord on the last day, when he will finally usher his beloved church into the joys of eternal life, in the new heavens and the new earth. In the parable, Jesus is the bridegroom.
The parable doesn’t actually mention the bride in so many words. Christians are described on this occasion as those who are the friends and companions of Jesus’ bride.
What is preserved through the use of this illustration is the corporate nature of the church. You and I, as Christians, are not awaiting the Lord’s Second Coming all by ourselves.
We are waiting together. Even when the Lord seems to be delayed in his visible return to this world, we stay together, and continue to wait together.
The church is often thought of as a big supernatural hospital, where the spiritually sick or wounded are treated and made well. But from the perspective of today’s parable, we might think of the church also as a big “waiting room” at the Doctor’s office.
We know that the time of our ultimate healing and cure will come, and that we will be delivered once and for all from the afflictions that we endure in this sinful world, when the Great Physician comes bodily to raise our bodies from the grave, and to bring us into his eternal habitations.
But for now, we are still waiting for this. It has not yet happened.
Now, in general terms, the act of waiting for something can have one of two effects on those who are waiting. If you are confident that the thing for which you are waiting is really going to happen, and if you know that this thing will be a good thing when it does happen, then the act of waiting helps to build up your anticipation, and your yearning for that desired, future thing.
Think of a young couple in love waiting for their wedding day, or of a young married couple waiting excitedly for the birth of their first child.
But for those whose hearts are not really in the waiting – and if they are not so sure that the thing for which they are waiting is really all that significant – then the act of waiting can wear down the resolve and patience of those who are waiting.
It’s like being put on hold on the telephone, when you are trying to talk to someone about a relatively unimportant matter. If you are kept on hold for, say, five or ten minutes, and there are other things you would rather be doing, you may very well hang up, and not just keep waiting indefinitely.
Another thing that has happened to me, when I have been on hold for a long time, is that I get distracted from the act of waiting, and start to do, and think about, other things – even though the line is still open, usually on speaker phone. And then when someone at the other end does finally pick up, and say “hello,” if I do not immediately respond to that “hello” within a matter of one or two seconds, he hangs up!
So, all that waiting was for nothing, because it was not an intense and focused waiting. I was not ready – in an instant – to talk, when the opportunity to talk came.
Jesus has, as it were, put the church “on hold.” He has told us that he will get back to us, and return to this world to judge the living and the dead.
He has not told us when he will do this. But he has told us to wait, and to remain ready, for when he does do this.
Because of what may appear to you to be a delay in his fulfillment of this promise, have you, perhaps, stopped waiting? Have you hung up the phone, and moved on to do other things that seem to be more pressing, and more real, as far as life in this world is concerned?
Or have you become distracted in your waiting, so that there is a part of you that is now thinking about other things, and prioritizing other things, instead of remaining firm and steadfast in an active and lively expectation that Jesus can return at any time – and that you must therefore be ready for him at any time?
Again, the focal point of the virgins’ preparedness, or lack of preparedness, in today’s parable, is the presence, or absence, of a supply of oil. This oil is faith.
Jesus elsewhere asks the rhetorical question, “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” The answer, of course, is that he will, because his true church will endure until the end.
He promises that he will be with his disciples always, even to the end of the age, through the ministry of Word and sacrament that he has commissioned them to carry out among all nations in perpetuity.
But throughout the history of the church on earth, and also at the present time, there have been many who visibly assemble with the church; who outwardly seem to be waiting for Jesus with the church; and who therefore appear to others to have faith; but who do not have faith.
The oil lamps and oil flasks of the first century were made out of clay, not glass. Just as with the human heart, you could not look through those oil containers to see if there was really anything inside.
Five of the bridesmaids in today’s story seemed to be ready for the bridegroom’s appearance. Externally, they were holding lamps. But their lamps were empty. There was no oil in their lamps. Their was no faith in their hearts.
Do you have oil? Do you have faith? Outwardly, you appear to be waiting with everyone else. Outwardly, you seem to be ready, if the Lord were to come today for you and his church. But are you ready?
Some people within the outward fellowship of the church, even if they do not say it in so many words, think that they are ready, even when they are not, because of a borrowed faith. Do you consider yourself to be a Christian because your spouse is a Christian, and is serious about the faith, even though – when push comes to shove – you remain personally indifferent?
Do you think that you have faith, because you were born into a Christian family, and your parents have faith? God does not have any grandchildren, you know. Or do you not know that?
If you are not yourself a child of God, by adoption through the indwelling of the Spirit of his only-begotten Son, then you are not a part of his family at all.
In effect, the foolish virgins wanted to borrow faith from the wise virgins, but it could not be done. A borrowed faith is not a real, saving faith.
The faith that prepares you for Christ is your own faith, not someone else’s. The faith that keeps you ready for life in the next world – and that fills you with the hope of Christ in this world, too – is your own faith in Christ.
Over and over again, Jesus said things like this to individuals to whom he had ministered: “Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well.” “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”
And what is most pertinent is what he said to Peter: “I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”
Peter’s faith was very much in danger of failing. But Jesus prayed him through it. And when your faith is in danger of failing – or if it has actually failed – Jesus will pray you through it as well, as he intercedes for you at the right hand of the Father.
In God’s kingdom, the nature of the buying of oil, or of the acquiring of faith, is best understood in terms of the divine invitation that was issued through the Prophet Isaiah:
“Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. … Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live.”
As God himself explains it, buying wine and milk without money, means listening to his Word, inclining your ear to his Word, and hearing his Word.
This involves a real appropriation – a deeply personal appropriation – like what happens when you buy something, so that it becomes your own possession. But what the gospel offers is not actually for sale. The faith that the gospel creates in those who hear it, is a gift of grace.
The “vendor” to which you have recourse, for a continual replenishing of your faith in Christ, is the Holy Spirit. And the place where he is “open for business,” as it were – and is available always to renew your supply of faith – is in the Word and Sacraments of Christ.
Where the message of Christ crucified is proclaimed; where baptism is administered, and continually recalled through confession and absolution; and where the Sacrament of Christ’s body and blood is distributed, is where you come, to buy without money.
This is where we all come to be renewed in our confidence that the Savior who once did come to redeem us and forgive us, will in glory come again for us at the end of the age. This is where our flagging faith is reinvigorated by the gospel, and where we are continually justified by faith in the promises of that gospel.
To find faith is really to find Christ, who is the object of faith. To be given a new supply of faith is really to be given Christ. To him we cling, and in him we trust.
In repentance, you do need to “take ownership” of your sins – to “buy in” to the honest admission that you have not been eagerly and undistractedly awaiting Christ as you should have been. And maybe you have stopped waiting for him altogether, so that your faith is now dried up, and is in need of a complete restoration.
But then, for the renewal and replenishing of your faith, God invites you to “take ownership” of Christ: to “buy in” to him and his grace, without money, and without price. God invites you to receive faith, by receiving Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith.
And as you mystically receive Jesus by faith now – and continually receive him in this way, as you continually hear and believe his Word – you will be ready then, to receive him also in his glorious bodily appearance on judgment day.
Until he does visibly come in that final way, you and I – and all of his people – will truly be waiting for him together, when we are waiting for him in the fellowship of his church.
His Word will be proclaimed among us until the end. And his sacraments – in which his Word is combined with elements of the earth – will be administered among us until the earth, as we know it, is no more.
For as long as we need to wait – as each of us stays close to Christ, and as we also stay close to each other in a mutual encouragement of the faith that resides in each of us – we will pray together, and we will pray personally, in words like these, from a hymn by John Monsell:
With my lamp well trimmed and burning, Swift to hear and slow to roam,
Watching for Thy glad returning To restore me to my home.
Come, my Savior, Come, my Savior, O my Savior, quickly come. Amen.