Matthew 25:1-13

Keep Awake | The Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost | 12 November 2023 | Matthew 25:1-13 | Paul Bieber |

Matthew 25:1-13 Revised Standard Version

25 Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven shall be compared to ten maidens who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. ² Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. ³ For 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, they all slumbered and slept. ⁶ But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ ⁷ Then all those maidens rose and trimmed their lamps. ⁸ And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ ⁹ But the wise replied, ‘Perhaps there will not be enough for us and for you; go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ ¹⁰ And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast; and the door was shut. ¹¹ Afterward the other maidens came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ ¹² But he replied, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ ¹³ Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”

also Amos 5:18-24; Psalm 70; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Grace, peace, and much joy to you, people of God.

Having departed from the Lectionary for Reformation Sunday and All Saints Sunday, we return to it for the last three Sundays of the Church Year, on which we hear the last three parables. In the first of these, the kingdom of God is compared to a marriage. We are familiar with this image. We heard the story of the King’s Son’s wedding from Matthew 22 last month, and we know well the image of the marriage supper of the Lamb from Revelation 19, one of the culminating images of Scripture.

Just as the parable of the King’s Son’s wedding turns from a parable of gracious invitation to a parable of judgment when we hear of the guest without a wedding garment who is thrown unceremoniously into the darkness outside the marriage feast, so the parable of the wise and foolish bridesmaids is a parable of judgment – as are the other two last parables, in Matthew 25. In these parables a separation is made.

At this very festive wedding there are ten bridesmaids. According to the wedding custom in the days of Jesus’ earthly ministry, they are waiting to escort the Bridegroom into the wedding celebration in a procession lit by the lamps they carry. Five of the bridesmaids, we are told, are wise, and five are foolish. It is not the arrival of the Bridegroom that makes some wise and some foolish. The Bridegroom’s return simply reveals which are which.

Return? Yes, I smuggled in our understanding of who the Bridegroom is: Christ, the heavenly Bridegroom of his Bride, the Church. It is his return in glory for which the bridesmaids of the story wait. The separation between the wise and foolish is the judgment at the culmination of history. As Jesus said at the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, some will have built their house, their life, on solid rock and some on shifting sand. The storm that will break at the end will reveal which are which. He said, “Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven.”

In our story, it is the foolish bridesmaids who are left fruitlessly saying, “Lord, Lord, open to us.” The hard teaching of this parable is that there comes a time when it is too late. Since faith is a relationship with God, there will be a point at which he will say whether the relationship does or does not exist. All ten bridesmaids answered “yes” to the invitation to the wedding banquet. All brought their lamps to the procession, to escort the Bridegroom into the feast.

The foolish bridesmaids thought the Bridegroom’s coming so near that they made no preparations for waiting through the night for him. When he arrived at midnight, the doors were opened and the procession went in with great joy. Then the doors were closed. The bridesmaids who went off to try to get what they had forgotten were too late.

There is a time when it is too late, a moment when nothing can be done anymore. We cannot know when that will be. We do not know the day or the hour, but we know that the Bridegroom is coming, is returning, and that when he comes, the door will be shut. So Jesus says, “Watch.” We are to be ready and not leave unresolved anything that we should have settled with God: some unconfessed, unrepented sin that is eating away at the foundation of our life.

Will the moment of reckoning be on the Day of the Lord, a day of darkness, not light, as the prophet Amos warns those who cry “Lord, Lord” in solemn assemblies but are unconcerned with God’s justice and righteousness? Will it be the fulfillment of our hope when God brings with the risen Bridegroom those who have died in Christ to their resurrection, to be with the Lord forever? That day of separation will come in God’s time.

Or will the reckoning for which Jesus calls me to watch be the end of my life, which will also come in God’s time? We act and talk as if we are in control of our lives, but we are not, as if we have a right to our lives, but we do not. How can we know that we are ready for the end of this life, ready to go through the doors into the heavenly banquet?

What does it mean to watch, to wait with perseverance even when the Bridegroom is delayed? The parable tells us that all those who were waiting for him slumbered and slept. All were awakened and startled and surprised by the voice at midnight. But only five of them – the wise – had that something in their spiritual lives that is like oil, that give light and maybe even warmth. Where there is oil, the fire can be tended, the lamp can be trimmed.

The Word is the oil. “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples.” Being willing to believe in Jesus Christ, to come to him, to belong to him keeps the little flame of faith burning, a faith sustained by the Word and the other means of grace, a faith that perseveres until the Lord’s return. We receive life from him whom we meet in the Word. Where the Word is, there is faith; where faith is, there is life, there is Christ, one is well-prepared. We will rise, we will meet him, we will be with him forever.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

—

The Rev. Dr. Paul Bieber

San Diego, California, USA

E-Mail: paul.bieber@sbcglobal.net