Be Awake! Be Prepared- Matt 25
The parable Jesus tells today is about the arrival of God to set things right at the end of human history set in the metaphor of a wedding feast. In the Old Testament, God is sometimes described as the groom, and God’s people are the bride. Interestingly, Jesus constantly places himself in the place of the groom, which is a hint about his divinity.
In Jesus’ time, marriage had three steps. First, there was an engagement, which was a contractual agreement between a groom and the father of the bride. (Sorry, women). The second step was the betrothal, which involved a ceremony, and gifts were given to the father of the bride. The covenant is then sealed with a cup of wine, and from this point the husband and wife are officially bound together. The groom then returns back to his father’s house, and he spends the next year preparing a place for them to live together.[1]
The third step is the actual wedding ceremony and feast. This is the context for our parable. The actual ceremony and feast would take place in the house of the groom’s father, where the new couple would live together. The celebrations could last up to a week. On the day of the wedding, the house and the area in front of the house would fill up with guests. As the crowd is gathering, the groom and a few of his close friends would go to pick up his bride from her family’s home. On the way back they would form a kind of parade, celebrating as they travel through the streets past the homes of their neighbours. Back at his father’s house, everyone would be gathered and waiting for them to arrive.
This is where we meet the 10 bridesmaids who are waiting for the bridal party to arrive, and who have dozed off while waiting.
The lamps they are holding would have been a kind of ceramic cup filled with olive oil. A wick would be placed in the oil and laid over the edge. According to the scholar Kenneth Bailey, it was particularly important for young women to have working lamps in this culture. It had to do with more than safety- It was about protecting their reputation. Bailey says that when he has seen women in the Middle East out at night, they don’t cast the light of their lamp on the ground to see where they are walking, rather, they carry the light in front of them to light up their faces, so everyone can see who they are and where they are going. It was to protect them from scandalous accusations.
The procession is taking longer than some of the bridesmaids thought and 5 of them don’t have enough oil in their lamps. The other five wisely brought extra oil, but not enough to have extra to share.
As the bridal parade enters the final street to the house, someone yells, “behold the bridegroom. Come out to meet him”. All the guests flood out to meet the couple as they finally arrive at the house. Five of the young women have enough oil to top up their lamps, but the other five don’t have enough. They have to go into the village to find someone they can beg, borrow, or buy oil from. … Remember, everyone knows everyone in these villages. They know which doors to knock on. Getting oil is not a problem. The problem is they don’t have enough time. They leave to rush and find oil, but while they are gone, everyone floods into the house and the door is shut.
The young women get their lamps working again, and rush back to the house, but they come to a locked door. They knock saying, “Lord, lord, open to us.” But the groom replies, “Truly I tell you, I do not know you.” And this is where our parable ends.
The point of the parable seems to be this. Jesus is the groom, and God’s people are traditionally seen as the bride, and here all those who attend the party seem to be God’s people. The messianic feast is about to take place. This is the Second Coming- when Jesus arrives to set things right. When he arrives, he will find some of God’s people prepared, but unfortunately some will not be properly prepared for his arrival. So, the parable seems to be urging us to be ready, like the five wise bridesmaids, … and not be caught unprepared like the five foolish bridesmaids. It seems that we will not be able to lean on anyone else’s preparation, just as the foolish bridesmaids couldn’t take oil from the wise. We have to take responsibility for our own preparation.
So, this leads us to ask, what does it mean to prepare for him? I think we get a hint at the end of the parable. We read that the foolish bridesmaids came to the locked door saying,
“’Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’”
These are the most terrifying words to imagine Jesus saying to us. He is saying these people don’t have a relationship with him. We hear these words earlier in the Gospel of Matthew (ch 7:21-23)-
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.’”
So, preparation here is likely tied to the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus is outlining what it means to be citizens of God’s kingdom, or (to put it another way) what it means to do the will of the Father. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus speaks about
anger as the seed of murder,
lust as the seed of adultery,
justice in marriage,
avoiding telling lies to manipulate others,
love for enemies,
giving and praying and fasting to grow closer to God rather than using these practices to enhance your public image,
to value the eternal God above temporary wealth,
to let go of anxiety and trust God,
to refrain from judging others,
to treat others the way we want to be treated. …
Living according to this teaching seems to be the way to prepare. And it seems like it will be too late when we hear the news that he is coming. In other words, the time to start preparing is now. And this is something no one can do for us. …
On Remembrance Day we remember those who lost their lives in war. We sometimes think that our spiritual lives are just about our personal relationship with God. It is more integrated than that, though. Being people of the kingdom has a practical effect on our world. Our world is in desperate need of people who know how to forgive, and how to love an enemy, and how to bless someone who has cursed them. …
Wars don’t start overnight they build until they burst into reality. People who are fully formed as disciples, living as citizens of the Kingdom of God, who live out the Sermon on the Mount in their lives, would not have been able to perpetrate the holocaust, and would have stood against bigotry against Jewish people long before that horror began. War erupted in Christian Europe because of a failure of Discipleship. … I’m not talking about the label “Christian”. This is about more than what we call ourselves. I’m talking about spiritual maturity. This is about learning to be like Jesus and growing in his wisdom about living life.
Jesus warns us about putting off our spiritual preparation for another day. It is a warning because we don’t know when he will arrive. … We also don’t know when our last day will be, and that day we will come face to face with him. …
But delaying our spiritual preparation also means that those around us will be denied- we may have been able to shine Christ’s light into their lives in a way that would have helped them to heal and grow. Romans 8:19 says,
“the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God”.
Jesus speaks about his followers being salt and light in the world. Our discipleship isn’t just about us. The creation yearns for us to be mature disciples of Jesus Christ. … One of my favourite quotes was spoken by St. Seraphim of Sarov, who said,
“Acquire the Spirit of Peace and a thousand souls around you will be saved.”
… Perhaps what the world needs most of all is holiness. Maybe we need more people whose vision is so fixed on Christ, that the people around them are drawn to the beauty of Christ and his kingdom.
Tom Holland (who I don't believe is a Christian) is a historian who has a particular interest in the ancient world. He has recently written a book called “Dominion” that traces the complex 2000 year history of Christianity in the West, looking particularly at the effect Christianity has had in the formation of modern Western thought and ethics.
He argues that the moral values that are held in the West are shaped by a Christian past. Even those who reject Christianity still hold, and are shaped by, these values. For example,
why should we be bothered by the stronger trampling on the weaker? …
Why should the individual human being have inherent value? …
Why believe in human rights? …
Why should the poor and vulnerable be cared for? ...
Holland suggests that these assumptions would not have been held by ancient peoples. For people in the West to condemn the bad behavior of Christians invokes moral values that were shaped largely by Christianity.
Our discipleship to Christ matters. It matters because God wants us to grow in maturity and wisdom. God want this for us- so we can have a deeper relationship, but God also wants this for the sake of those around us. … We stand in our own time, and the way we are disciples (or not) and the way we invite others into the discipleship of Jesus (or not) might very well be what stands in the way of future acts of horrendous hate and violence. Our discipleship is about more than just us. AMEN
[1]
(The first two steps are
according to Prof. Darrell Johnson. The next step is mainly based on Kenneth
Bailey’s cultural insights)
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