191124 Sermon on Matthew 25:1-13 (Last Sunday of Church Year) November 24, 2019

191124 Sermon on Matthew 25:1-13 (Last Sunday of Church Year) November 24, 2019

What are you looking forward to? Is there some family gathering that is coming up? Christmas is around the corner. What gifts do you think you might get? Retirement? Vacations? Weddings? Children or grandchildren? There are a lot of possible entries on a list of things to look forward to.

What about Jesus Christ’s second coming in power and great glory? Is that on the list? There’s a proverbial saying that I don’t think people really know what they are saying when they use it. They say, “It’s not the end of the world.” My family knows that sometimes I respond, “If only it were!” But there’s good reason for why people use that expression the way that they do. The end of the world means the end of our earthly activities. This earthly life moves into the past. A somewhat unknown future rushes upon us. There are also a lot of scary sights and sounds that accompany the end of the world as all the old gods are failing that people put their trust in.

You, who trust in Jesus, though, should not be afraid of him coming in power and great glory. This is not something you can do just by mustering up your nerve to not be afraid. That won’t work—at least it won’t work when things actually finally begin to move. There is only one reason why you should not be afraid of Jesus coming again, and that is the message of the Gospel. Behold, I bring you glad tidings of great joy that is for all people. Unto you is born a Savior who is Christ the Lord. The hostility between foul sinners on the one hand and a holy God on the other has been overcome by the sacrifice of God on the cross. This means that Jesus comes, and the Father together with him, with a different disposition than we otherwise would expect.

What do we otherwise expect? God, with another word, even tells us. Meeting your Maker, face to face, immediately thrusts before us God’s judgment. The trial is started. The books are opened. There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed. What we otherwise expect, apart from the Gospel, is that we will be horrified—and rightly so.

There is a stupendous truth here. It is the greatest of all truths but one. St. Paul calls it the ministry of the letter. This is the glory of Mt. Sinai when the whole mountain shook, and the people buried their faces into their hands and pleaded with God to stop speaking otherwise they would die. This is the glory that so enlightened Moses’s face that the people couldn’t stand to see God’s glory reflected from it. He had to wear a veil. Otherwise the people couldn’t stand looking at him. St. Paul says that the end of this ministry of the letter is death—eternal death. That is what the Law calls for. “In the day that you eat of it you will surely die,” for the wages of sin is death.

Now I said that this judgment by God is the greatest of all truths, save one. The truth that surpasses this truth is the Gospel. The Gospel says that Jesus, who is true God and true man, was condemned in our place. He was declared guilty, having taken upon himself our sins. He was punished so severely that he sweat blood in anticipation of it, and he truly died as a result of it even though he is God. Therefore, whoever believes in him will live, even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in him will never die. The stupendous truth of the Law has been swallowed up by a greater truth that is of God’s own making. The righteousness that we can never have a ghost of a chance of attaining by the keeping of the Law is fulfilled by Jesus in our place, and we are given an even greater righteousness with which we need not be ashamed. It is the righteousness of Jesus, given to us as gift, held to by faith. It is even the righteousness of God himself. That is what has been given to you and is continually given to you every day in the Holy Christian Church.

So let’s go back to how we might feel about the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everybody has a part of them that is afraid of it. To be perfectly unafraid would mean that you have a perfect faith. That isn’t possible in this life where we are constantly under assault from the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh. There’s an element of fear in each of us because the Law is true, and the Law says that God should punish us eternally in the lake of fire.

But here we should recall something that happens so often in the Bible. So often God’s people are confronted with terrible facts—similar to the one I’ve just mentioned with the lake of fire. The laws of nature say they are going to be crushed or drowned or burned. The laws of military science say that they are going to die. The laws of nutrition say that they are going to starve. But into these terrible situations the Lord God himself steps in and he says, “Do not be afraid.” God says, “Do not be afraid,” countless times in the Scriptures. It’s as though he is saying, “I understand that these laws are calling for your destruction, but I am the Lord of all laws. I’m going to enter into the fray myself, and then just be still and see how I am God.”

And so on Judgement Day we will be witness to the working of a Law that is much greater than the laws of nature or military science or whatever else we might be familiar with from our earthly life here. This day will also be witness to how this Law of laws wreaks its terrible vengeance upon those who have transgressed it, but have no faith in Jesus. But for those whom God has chosen for salvation, whom he has baptized, whom he has nourished with his word, whom he has strengthened when they stood and raised when they have fallen, whom he has shepherded safely through the valley of the shadow of death—for these who have believed in Jesus to the end, God will say, “Do not be afraid. This Law has called out for your punishment, but I have silenced all accusations against you when I sent my Son to die for all the sins of the whole world including yours.”

That experience will be similar, but vastly greater, than the acts of deliverance that we hear about in the Bible. We will experience something greater than the ark floating upon the waters of judgment, the passage through the Red Sea on dry ground, the fiery furnace, the lion’s den, the storm on the Sea of Galilee. When it comes to the Day of Judgment, our danger is greater than any of these biblical examples. God’s act of deliverance is more drastic. In none of these other examples did God lay his very self on the line, but that is what he has done to save us from the Law’s judgment against us. The price for our deliverance was costly. He gave his dearest treasure.

So what we can see from all of this is that the day of the Lord is tremendous. Nobody will have experienced anything like it before it happens. It is not something that can just be taken for granted—some future event that is nothing to get excited about. If ever we have been excited about anything, then all of that has to pale in comparison to this day. It will be the worst day that has ever happened for some people. It will be the best day that has ever happened for others.

The prophet Malachi brings this out. We’ll have this reading in a couple weeks. The day of the Lord is coming, burning like an oven. The hot sun of God’s glory is going to scorch some so that they are burned. That same hot sun is going to be like the spring sun that calves feel when they are put out to pasture. It will have healing in its wings. We will go out leaping. We will frolic, soaking up that heat from the sun.

We have a happy picture in our Gospel reading too. Here Jesus is the groom. The bride is the Holy Christian Church. He is coming for her. The folks in this parable are not sad. They are not dreading the coming of the groom. They want him to come. If they are sad about anything, then it is that he has been delayed. When the cry comes at midnight, “Wake, awake, he comes!” Those young women are roused from their sleep with great happiness.

It’s like Christmas morning. You don’t have to prod the children to get out of bed. They come a-running like calves out of the stall. They can’t wait to see him. And so it is for us too. We know Jesus. He has made himself known to us. We’d like to see him.

But Jesus also has a reason for telling us about the foolish virgins too. They wanted to go to the wedding. They thought it would be a lot of fun. When they wake up they discover, to their horror, that they have forgotten to bring oil along with them. This always makes me think of recurring dream I used to have when I was in college and seminary. I dreamed that I had my schedule of classes that I was supposed to attend. I went to them, but then there was a class that I forgot about. Having forgot that I had the class, I obviously didn’t go. Time passes, and then I suddenly realized that I had this class the whole time and I didn’t have any of the work done for it. I was so dreadfully sorry in those dreams. Once I discovered my mistake, it was too late to do anything about it. I ached with sorrow. I’d wake up in a cold sweat. I was relieved to learn that it was only a dream and wasn’t real.

That, unfortunately, is the feeling that these foolish virgins had. They thought they were in. They thought that they were fine. They thought that they were members of the congregation in good standing. It turns out, by their negligence, they have lost the one thing needful. They are unprepared, and that dreadful sentence is spoken against them, “Amen, I tell you: I do not know you.”

As Jesus finishes this parable he says, “Watch, therefore, because you do not know the day nor the hour.” That helps us understand what happened with the foolish virgins, and it gives us our cue so that we do not end up in the same boat. These nominal Christians quit watching for Christ’s second coming. They quit living for the life of the world to come, and started to live for this earthly life that will not endure. They lost hold of the tremendous day with its stupendous events. They said, “We know all that stuff already. There’s no need to go on talking about it.” In this way they are slowly lulled into negligence and sleep. If they do not wake up, and get some oil for their lamps, they will end up like we hear about in our Gospel reading.

So how do we keep oil in our lamps? How are we to prepare? How are we to watch? The fear of failure or the fear of punishment will never do it alone. If we prepare only by being fearful, then we will inevitably meet God as though he were our enemy. Perhaps, by fear, we can prepare somewhat for battle against him, but I don’t like our chances in such a fight. Fear alone won’t do.

But among us, this is not really a problem. Among us, it is rather the opposite. Fear of the Day of Judgment is shrugged off. It’s as though it’s no big deal. Or it isn’t talked about at all. A person might wonder with this parable how it is possible that these church members, these virgins, were foolish and unprepared. Well, might it be that when they congregated as a church they never talked about Judgement Day, or it was explained away as nothing to worry about? Do you realize how rare it is to find a congregation that takes God’s judgement seriously? Our land is littered with churches, but I don’t know if a tenth of them take such things seriously. And yet they have well meaning people in them who are quite sure that they are Christian. Tell me, how can you be prepared for this great and awful day if you are never told anything about it?

And so we dare not shrug off this day or the fear that we now feel concerning it. But that person is only truly worthy and well prepared who has faith in Jesus’s words. And what are Jesus’s words? Why is he coming? Is it not true that he says that he has come, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him? Is he not the groom, hastening to the bride whom he loves?

The Christian’s strength is never in fear. Fear is still a part of the Christian’s life in this world, because we still have our flesh and our faith is not perfect. Fear can’t get us one inch closer to heaven. It is faith in God’s promises that are our strength.

The day of the Lord, the Day of Judgement, lies in the future. It could be today. It could be tomorrow. If ever we have looked forward to anything, then we should look forward to this day. Even with the happiest days that we have in this earthly life, defects are inevitably mixed in. It can’t be any other way. That is not so with Judgment Day. That is when all things will be set right. It is a thrilling cry: “Wake, awake! Here he comes!”