In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
This Last Sunday in the Church Year focuses on Christ’s second Advent: His return for the second and final time. In accord with that focus, our Gospel reading is one of our Lord’s parables reminding us to be prepared for that event.
Five of the virgins were aware of the fact that they didn’t know the hour when the Bridegroom would come. They were prepared for whenever that might be. They were wise.
The other five virgins thought that they knew when the Bridegroom would come. They were unprepared and were locked out of the marriage feast that they’d been invited to. They were foolish and had only themselves to blame.
The virgins in our text who were wise acted as if there was nothing more important in their lives than being prepared for the marriage feast that they’d been invited to. Nothing else mattered except to be ready and prepared for the Bridegroom’s arrival. They gave their undivided attention to the Bridegroom and His marriage feast as they made sure they had an abundant supply of oil … so much oil that it would have appeared foolish to those who thought they didn’t need any additional preparation.
The foolish virgins, on the other hand, appear much wiser – much more secure: at least to human reason. They act as if they have all the time in the world. For them, the marriage feast was just another item on a list of things to do. They already had lamps with enough oil for a short wedding procession and didn’t see the need for going to the trouble of getting more. They thought they could get by with what they had.
To the world, we Christians appear to be foolish. We spend an entire morning every week, if not more often: hearing God’s Word when we could be relaxing or doing something else on our list. We come together to confess our sins in the presence of one other and to hear the voice of another proclaiming the forgiveness of our sins in Christ’s name.
Even more foolish to the world is the idea that in eating bread and drinking wine, we are eating and drinking the very body and blood of Christ which He offered up on the cross as the once-for-all sacrifice for our sins: something else we do every Sunday or even more often.
By the world’s standards Christians appear very foolish. We’re more intently focused on the Last Day than we are on the passing trends of the world. We’re more interested in studying Holy Scripture … praying together as the people of God … and catechizing our children in faith, purity of life, and Godly service toward others than in coveting the idols of this world: those frivolous things that numb us to the reality of our sinfulness without actually curing the disease of sin that infects us.
Christians trust what we hear instead of what we see. We live by faith in Christ and not by sight. We appear just as out of touch as those virgins who were carrying their lamps in one hand and extra oil in the other: eagerly waiting for the Bridegroom to appear and the marriage feast to begin. But in the end, when the Bridegroom makes his sudden appearance, those who looked foolish are shown to be wise … and those who appeared wise are shown to be foolish.
The foolish virgins thought they knew when the Bridegroom would come. They thought they had more than enough oil to last through evening. They thought they had plenty of time to get more oil if they needed to. But what they didn’t plan on was that the Bridegroom would be delayed and that the oil in their lamps would run out when they needed it most. They never thought that the Bridegroom would come at midnight, of all times … that he would appear so suddenly, and that the doors to the marriage feast would close so fast that there would be no time to buy more oil.
Because of their foolish thinking – relying on their human reason – they found themselves locked out of the marriage feast to which they’d been invited, and all they had left to hear was the judgment of the Bridegroom: “I do not know you.”
In our day there have been many who’ve foolishly attempted to calculate the day and the hour of Jesus’ coming. Such predictions are unhelpful. They create uncertainty and anxiety for some and harden the disbelief of others. As Christians, we should simply be waiting in patient preparedness for Christ’s return.
Jesus said, “You do not know the day or the hour.” We’re not told the specifics of the times or seasons that are fixed by God’s authority. God, in His wisdom and mercy, has hidden these things from us. They’re simply not for us to know.
St. Peter wrote by divine inspiration that in the last days people would ridicule the wise who patiently wait for Christ’s return.
They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” (2 Peter 3:4)
Owing to the weakness of our sinful flesh, the Bridegroom’s delay can lull the foolish into a false sense of security … thinking that there will be plenty of time for repentance, hearing God’s Word, receiving Holy Communion and praying. Even Christ’s disciples struggled with this: falling asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane instead of watching and praying.
God’s way of keeping time isn’t the same as ours with respect to the last things. Christ isn’t slow … He’s patient. He takes His time because of His great mercy. God desires that everyone would be turned from themselves and their sinful pursuits to Christ: the Savior who died and rose for all. He’s willing to wait, but we don’t know how long. What we do know is that “now is the favorable time … [and] now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6:2) … for there might not be a tomorrow.
The truly wise know that the Bridegroom will appear when we least expect Him: “like a thief in the night”, as Scripture says. At midnight, while everyone sleeps, the call will ring out. And the wise will awake to meet the Bridegroom with lamps filled with the oil of gladness.
The foolish presume they have enough oil to last until the Bridegroom appears. They mistakenly thought that they had no need for extra oil … that what was in their lamps would be enough. Sadly, in the end, their oil burned out. They weren’t prepared and missed out on the marriage feast. But the wise had plenty of oil to keep their lamps burning brightly even while they slept.
Brothers and sister in Christ, God is rich in mercy. He lavishes on us the forgiveness and life that He won for us by His crucifixion and resurrection in Baptism, in Absolution, in the Lord’s Supper, and in His Word as it is preached and read. Christ has won for us more forgiveness and life than we could ever imagine. There’s more of His forgiveness and life in His Means of Grace than we even think that we need: more than enough to keep our lamps burning until the Last Day, whenever that may be. And it would be foolish … perhaps even to our eternal detriment … for us to think that we’ve had enough and don’t need any more.
All the virgins were invited. All went to sleep and were awakened. The wise virgins got up to greet the Bridegroom with joy and joined the procession into the marriage feast with oil aplenty and lamps burning bright. The foolish rose to greet the Bridegroom in a panic. They scrounged for oil they didn’t have, and found out too late that there wasn’t any oil to share.
Like the ten virgins, we too will arise on the day of Christ’s appearing. The wise will rise and enter the marriage feast of the Lamb in His kingdom which has no end. That is God’s gift. The foolish will rise and find out that they’ve been shut out forever. That’s their own doing.
The wise knew who they were waiting for … they were prepared … they were confident of the Bridegroom’s coming. In the same way, we know who we’re waiting for: Christ the Bridegroom.
He’s the One who baptized us … He’s the One who forgives us … He’s the One who feeds us with His very body and blood and gives us His Spirit. In other words, He gives us more oil than we can possibly burn in a lifetime. Trusting Him and having our lamps filled by the oil of His Means of Grace regularly and frequently … we will be prepared for His return on the Last Day.
To live in faith, as did the wise virgins, is to live in the confidence of the Last Day, whether it’s today, tomorrow, or many years from now. We can live and sleep and die in the confidence of Him who once came for us in the manger and on the cross … who comes to us now by Word and Supper … and who will come in glory on the Last Day to raise us from the dead and give us eternal life.
“You do not know the day or the hour” of His coming. We don’t need to know. We only need to know that it is Christ the Bridegroom who is coming and in His gifts of Word and Sacrament He fills our lamps with all the oil we could ever need so that when He does come, we will be prepared to join the festal procession into the heavenly banquet.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Hoy Spirit.
Pr. Jon Holst