A text – Matthew 25:1-13
25 “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten young women took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. 3 When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, 4 but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. 5 As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. 6 But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ 7 Then all those young women got up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ 9 But the wise replied, ‘No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ 10 And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet, and the door was shut. 11 Later the other young women came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ 12 But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’ 13 Keep awake, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.
A reflection:
This parable of the virgins or bridesmaids can be troubling. Matthew includes several such parables about Judgment Day in his gospel, and all of them seem arbitrary and sudden and a little shocking. New Testament scholars agree that Matthew’s audience was faithful congregations of Jewish folks who believed in Jesus well after Jesus’s ministry on earth. They were trying to make sense of the promise of Resurrection. They were looking soon for Jesus’s return, but that day didn’t seem to be on the horizon.
All of the Judgment Day parables in Matthew have the same basic theme. Stay alert. Never give up waiting and hoping for Jesus’s return. You will never know the day or the hour. Stay ready. Well, we might say to Matthew, it’s been 2000 years. It’s a little hard to be vigilant that long. But worse, we’d have to admit the thought of the Second Coming is rarely on most of our minds. And maybe that is the point of such a story for us. Are we waiting at all? Are we ready, when we see the bridegroom coming, even after such a delay, are we ready with our lamps and our oil?
Many scholars interpret the lamps and oil to be our faith in Jesus. We have faith that Jesus lived, died, and was raised to life again. We have faith that, in the end, he will bring us to life as well, to live with him and God and the Holy Spirit. We Lutherans know that we cannot earn that hope through our good works, but we trust that Jesus knows that we believe in him and know that God loves us and will raise us up again.
If we have that faith, we are already numbered among the wise bridesmaids. We have a never-ending supply of oil for our lamps because we have faith in an abundant Savior. We are also foolish and forget about God from time to time. But our faith gives us what we need to come when Jesus calls us on that last day. We don’t worry about going out at the last minute to buy more oil, or about finding ourselves behind a locked door. We know that our Redeemer lives and will raise all who believe in him to eternal life. That is good enough for us. As to staying alert for the bridegroom’s arrival, our prayers each morning or evening will remind us. Our love for God is known and treasured by God. Believe it.
A prayer:
Lord God, thank you for loving us. Thank you for generously providing for our eternal lives. Help us to calm the fears of those who doubt and inspire them to believe in you and your salvation. Amen.
