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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
“At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.”
“At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’”
“Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’”
“‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’”
“But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.”
“Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’”
“But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’”
“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”
Matthew 25:1-13
This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
It had to be fascinating to be someone who had the privilege and pleasure to hear the teaching and preaching of Jesus in person. Sometimes, I wonder what it might have been like if I lived in that day and time.
As we read across the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, it’s very obvious that Jesus was no ordinary minister. He used techniques to convey the will and desires of God that had never been used before. And of course, the spiritual power He displayed through His teaching was so great that we read this about it in Matthew, Chapter 7, verses 28 and 29, as Jesus concluded His famous Sermon on the Mount:
When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at His teaching, because He taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.
Did I mention Jesus taught in a way unlike anything the people had heard before?
Now one thing that separated Jesus from other teachers of His day was that He often used parables, which were essentially fictional stories which contained non-fictional, spiritual truths. These truths served to show a person how to live in a way that God expected.
As Jesus entered His final two days before death, we find Him still about His Father’s business and teaching in the temple. Within Matthew Chapter 25, we get a snapshot of those teachings, three parables which we will cover to end this week. Two of these parables, the first and the last of these three have a connection to Jesus’ return, fitting in that He was soon to die, be resurrected, and then ascend to sit at the right hand of God the Father.
Let’s look again at today’s scripture passage which has been commonly known as the Parable of the Ten Virgins:
"At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.”
“At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’”
“Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’”
“‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’”
“But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.”
“Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’”
“But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’”
“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.” Matthew 25:1-13
Here we find a fictional story with its truth set in the future. Jesus compares this to what the kingdom of heaven will look like and it’s obvious that kingdom was soon to come to earth in the form of Jesus who is the bridegroom in the parable.
In Matthew’s gospel, this isn’t the first time we find Jesus referring to Himself this way. For if we turn back to the ninth chapter, we find Jesus saying this to John’s disciples who were questioning why Jesus’ followers weren’t fasting like they were:
“How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.” Matthew 9:15
Jesus would not be with His chosen disciples for long and so it was important that they cherished and reveled in every moment they shared together. There would be a time ahead for fasting but that time had not yet come.
Going back to the parable at the center of today’s devotion, we find ten virgins who each had lamps and had journeyed out to meet the bridegroom who was obviously delayed in his arrival. In Jesus’ story, note where the virgins weren’t on the same level when it came to sensibility. Half of them were wise, taking an extra jar of oil along on the trip, while the other five were foolish, only taking their lamps with no spare oil.
Well, the ten Virginia reached their rendezvous point with the bridegroom but he was so late in arriving that the scriptures tell us they all became drowsy before drifting off to sleep.
Now, have you ever been wakened suddenly from a very sound sleep?
I know I have.
How did you feel when you first woke up?
If you’ve been like me, there is a brief period of disorientation as you are trying to emerge from sleep mode and get your brain operational to deal with what’s going on. It can be a rather hectic moment for many people.
As we go back to Jesus’ parable, we find the bridegroom finally arriving at midnight, announced with a mighty cry, “Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’”
Awakened suddenly, the five foolish virgins quickly realize their total lack of preparation. Their lamps were getting set to go out which would leave them in darkness. Hoping to get an assist from the other five wiser virgins, they don’t ask but rather demand:
“Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.”
The five wise virgins denied this demand and rebuked their foolish counterparts for not being ready saying:
“No, there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.”
The wise virgins knew that if they shared the extra oil, they could end up in the same place as their foolish peers, and the very reason they brought the extra oil was to not find themselves in a bad place to begin with. And so they rejected the request and the foolish virgins left to buy oil for their nearly empty lamps, a decision that caused them to miss the opportunity that the bridegroom presented. For we read that when the bridegroom arrived, he took the five wise virgins with him into the wedding banquet and shut anyone else out, including the five foolish virgins who returned later only to find themselves on the outside looking in. They pleaded to the bridegroom:
“Lord, Lord, open the door for us!’”
But they were rejected and left out of the great banquet, outsiders who were unknown and not part of the wedding party.
So what was the point here? What was Jesus trying to teach the Jewish and Gentile listeners who heard His preaching? And what is He trying to teach us today, well more than 2,000 years later?
The answer to the question is this:
The time is now to ready ourselves for the second coming of Jesus, the blessed Bridegroom who will one day return to call His betrothed to Him forever.
Note the command to “keep watch” given by Jesus. This is a call for vigilance by all those who desire a place in the great wedding celebration that will occur when Jesus comes back. And since the day and hour of His return is unknown, there is a sense of urgency in making sure we are ready and prepared.
The wise are those who have placed their faith and trust in Jesus, a faith and trust which is akin to the extra oil in the jar. The faith and trust in Jesus keeps the lamp of hope burning brightly until the Bridegroom returns to make all things new.
The foolish are the ones who feel there is no urgency in believing in Jesus. Rather that want to live a life dictated by modeling what Jesus did, fools take more of an “anything goes” approach to the way they live, putting off any commitment to a Savior until later. In the end translation, these fools are playing Russian roulette with their very souls for when Jesus returns, it will be too late to get to eternal life and a multitude of people will be left on the outside looking in, crying out to Jesus:
“Lord, Lord, open the door for us!’”
Only to hear Him reply:
“Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’”
Friends, Jesus is returning and will do so at a time that is not known. And so the question right now is this:
Will you be counted among the foolish or the wise when He comes back?
I urge you today to make sure you are prepared by accepting Jesus as Savior. By doing so, you will ensure having a place within the great wedding banquet when it happens.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
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