Sermon manuscript:
Today I’d like to consider our Gospel reading. This is one
of Jesus’s parables. At the outset I’d like to remind you that, generally
speaking, Jesus’s parables are not nice, satisfying stories, as some might assume.
More often than not Jesus’s parables are intentionally unsatisfying. What I
mean by that is that usually not everything is wrapped up in a tidy package
where the plot goes the way that you think it should go. Jesus’s parables
describe the kingdom of God, and God’s thoughts are not our thoughts nor are
his ways our ways. His parables reveal and obscure at the same time. So it
isn’t surprising that there should be plenty for us to wonder about, even after
hearing the same parable many times for many years.
With the parable before us today I think there are several
elements that we can quickly identify and explain. Then we can spend some more
time considering what is more difficult. This parable is taken from a long
section at the end of Matthew’s Gospel where Jesus is teaching about the end of
the world. With that as the context, it is certain that this parable is about
the end of this world and Christ’s second coming.
So the bridegroom in the parable is Jesus. Jesus is coming
again. We are not sure of the day nor the hour. The ten virgins represent
Christians—or at least those who identify themselves as Christians. As virgins,
they are pure and undefiled. With the number ten you have a number of
completion. While they all identify as Christians, whether they are genuine or
not seems to be at the heart of what is being taught. Not all ten make it into
the wedding banquet. Five of them do. Five of them do not. So it seems that all
ten of them identified themselves as Christians and thought of themselves as
Christians, but only five of them ended up with the Lord Jesus.
Jesus himself gives us the moral of the story, which he
sometimes does after his parables. Whenever Jesus does that, I think it is
especially important that we pay close attention to what he says. Here Jesus
says, “Therefore, keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”
I feel quite confident about all the things that we have
identified so far, but there are several things that we haven’t talked about
yet. We especially have not talked about the differences between the ten
virgins. Five are identified as wise. Five of them are foolish. The reason why
the five are wise is because they took an extra flask of oil with them. The
foolish ones did not.
Perhaps this wouldn’t have been a problem if the bridegroom
would have come when they were expecting him to come. But he didn’t. He was
delayed. They all became drowsy and fell asleep. Presumably, while they were
sleeping their oil lamps were burning away, using up their oil. When they woke
up with the cry, “Wake, awake! Here comes the bridegroom! Come out to meet
him!” They suddenly discover, to their horror, that the flame is ever so
low, if not extinguished all together. This would never do for such a festive
occasion.
The five wise virgins thanked their lucky stars that they
had remembered to pack some extra. The five foolish virgins couldn’t do
anything about their lamps then and there. They’d have to find some place that
would sell them oil at that late hour. By the time they get back, the door was
already shut. The Lord is rather cold to them. He says, “Amen, I tell you: I
do not know you.” Presumably, therefore, they are left in the outer
darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Immediately we wonder, “What went wrong here?” Jesus’s own
words supply the answer, “Watch, therefore, because you do not know the day
or the hour.” They should have stayed awake. If they had stayed awake they
wouldn’t have been surprised. But notice that all ten of them, the wise as well
as the foolish, became drowsy and fell asleep. This, I believe, is where we
have something that is unexpected, which is a normal feature for Jesus’s
parables. Jesus says, “Watch,” that is, “Stay awake,” but they
all fell asleep. It would seem that someone being truly wise would require a
lack of sleep altogether. The wise virgins not only should have extra oil, but
they should have also stayed awake.
When it comes to watchfulness and staying awake, there might
be something else that is relevant here. Jesus spoke this parable during Holy
Week, after he had entered in on Palm Sunday, but before he was arrested. Just
a day or two after Jesus spoke this parable, on the night when Jesus was
betrayed, his disciples had a very hard time staying awake. After the Lord’s
Supper Jesus went to Gethsemane with his disciples. He went on further to pray,
and he told his disciples to stay awake while he did so. This is where Jesus
prays, “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet, not my
will, by thy will be done.”
Three times Jesus comes back to his disciples and finds them
sleeping. He says to them, “Weren’t you able to stay awake with me for one
hour? Watch and pray so that you do not enter into temptation. The spirit is
willing, but the flesh is weak.” But this speech evidently was not enough
to keep them awake. They fell right back to sleep after Jesus left them to pray
again.
As you know, this physical sleep was soon surpassed by an
even worse spiritual sleep. That is to say, when Jesus was arrested, when the
shepherd was struck, the sheep were scattered. When Jesus the Christ was put in
handcuffs the disciples all abandoned him, even though they had promised up and
down that they would never do such a thing. Hours before they had said they
would sooner die than abandon Jesus. But when the temptation came, they found
that they could not resist.
And, as far as their own selves were concerned, they never
regained their senses. Let us not forget that nobody was waiting outside of
Jesus’s tomb for him to be resurrected except some Roman soldiers whom the Jews
had sent to stand guard. The women who first discovered that he was not there,
that he had arisen, were not going to his tomb to greet him. They were bringing
the things that were necessary to properly lay to rest his corpse, because
there hadn’t been time on Friday because of the fast approaching Sabbath. Peter
and John, the first of the twelve who heard about it, raced to the tomb because
they were totally surprised by this cry of the women: “Look! He’s not there.”
Even later on that day, in the afternoon, even after Jesus had for sure
appeared the Mary Magdalene, if not to others, the disciples who were walking
to Emmaus still did not believe that Jesus had come to life again.
So this is something that we can safely say: Our
watchfulness is not very good. All ten fall asleep. The holy apostles and
disciples were unbelieving. You should also know this about yourself by
personal experience. How often have you fallen into temptation because you did
not watch and pray?
Well then what are you going to do when at midnight comes
the cry: “Look, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!” What are you
going to do when the trumpets blasts long and hard, so that all flesh tingles
at the sound of them, waking all those who are in their graves? This is where I
think we see the difference between the wise and the foolish virgins that is
the most important—the thing that truly makes them wise and foolish. The wise
virgins had a good conscience. They kept their eyes on the bridegroom. They
were on their way to go meet him, even though they had no merit or worthiness
in themselves—after all, they had not done what Jesus said they should do. They
had failed to watch.
The foolish virgins, on the other hand, did not have a good
conscience. They were ashamed. They couldn’t bear to be seen with their unlit
lamps. What, were they supposed to carry around their unlit lamps in the dark?
They’d look like fools! So they are desperate to save face. They want to get
some of the good conscience that the wise virgins have, but here’s the thing
with a good conscience—you can’t give it to anybody else. You either have it or
you don’t. So the foolish virgins go off looking for a good conscience, and by
the time they find one, it isn’t good enough to pass divine judgment. He does
not know them.
Think also of the disciples during Holy Week. Judas Iscariot
and Peter had both betrayed the Lord. It’s not clear exactly what Judas thought
would happen to Jesus, but it doesn’t seem that he was expecting him to be
sentenced to death. Judas is struck with a very bad conscience indeed. He tries
to find a better one. He tries to make up for what he had done. Greed had made
him do what he did, and now he looks at those 30 pieces of silver with horror.
He throws them back to the Jewish authorities. He is sorry! He is so sorry! He
wishes that he had never done what he did. He looks at himself in disgust, and
in despair he goes and hangs himself. He murders himself—something that the
devil would like us each and every one of us to do.
Peter had bragged during the Lord’s Supper that he would
never deny Jesus. Even if all the other did, he never would. Jesus said that he
would deny him three times before the rooster crowed at dawn. And so it was. Peter
cursed, lied and swore and said he never knew the man when he was asked about
it by a girl by the charcoal fire. What a disgrace! How could he ever show his
face again!?
Now the Scriptures do not actually tell us what happened
when Jesus came to Peter after he rose from the dead on Easter. The only thing
that we know about it is that Paul says Jesus appeared to Peter before he
appeared to the twelve. So we don’t know what happened, but I think we can be
sure about one thing. Peter did not go away, and he did not tell Jesus to go
away, like he did, years before, on the Sea of Galilee when Jesus brought about
the miraculous catch of fish. Although Peter was humbled—tremendously
humbled—he loved Jesus’s appearing. He wanted to be together with Jesus.
This is what will also make the difference on Judgment Day.
There will be those who love his appearing, and there will be those who
immediately see that their lamp has gone out. They are unpresentable. They will
wish that they had lived a better life. They will wish that they hadn’t done
all those shameful and embarrassing things that had mercifully been allowed to
forget while they were still living. Jesus says that on that day there will be
people who will wish that the mountains would fall on them, to cover them up.
Oh God! Save us from such a fate!
And how, pray tell, might we do that? By trying harder?
You’re going to turn over a new leaf? You’re going to make up for all that
you’ve done wrong? Well, you better go find somebody who is selling oil, ’cause
you ain’t got none.
No, let me tell you a better way. Think of Jesus’s second
coming as a bridegroom who is coming to you. Look forward to his coming to you,
because he is not coming to shame you. He is friendly, loving, even—like a
groom who is in love with his bride. And although you have absolutely no right
whatsoever to assume this posture towards Christ’s second coming—after all, you
have fallen asleep, you have fallen into temptation—you may do so with a good
conscience. This conscience is not based on how you’ve lived your life. It is
based upon the bitter sufferings and death of our Lord Jesus Christ for you—the
bloody atonement that satisfies all of God’s wrath over all sin.
Look forward to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. It will
be the best day that has ever been. But in order for you to do so, you must put
aside all your works. You must put aside all your efforts to justify yourself
before God. These won’t work. If you don’t do this, then you’ll be too busy
trying to fix yourself on that great day so that you totally miss the joy of
the wedding. There is no better way for you to prepare for Christ’s second
coming, which could come at any day and any hour, than to look forward to
seeing him. If you want to see Jesus, then it will be done for you as you have
desired.
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