Matthew 25:1-13; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11; Isaiah 65:17-25
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the
Holy Spirit.
Last Sunday, you were a
sheep. This Sunday, you are a virgin. Yes, once again, your Lord Jesus is
speaking to you in a parable. However, the truth is that you are not a virgin,
are you. Truth be told, you are more like that woman Jesus met at the well who
had had seven husbands, and the man she was presently with was not her husband.
You are a spiritual adulterer and idolater; You give your fear, your love, and
your trust to foreign idols and false gods. And, yet, you have repented, and
you have been baptized. And, even though you were a spiritual adulterer, your
Lord looks upon you as His virgin bride. In fact, He has suffered for your
betrayal and your wandering eyes and hearts, and He has died for your
transgressions, paying the penalty for your sins in His flesh, and He has
washed you clean in His holy, innocent shed blood and has called you His
beloved, His bride. This is the Lord’s work, and it is marvelous in our
eyes.
Yes, you are a virgin, and
you are a bride in the eyes of the Lord. And, you are waiting, even now, for
the arrival of your Bridegroom. But, your Bridegroom is delayed. He has been
delayed for almost 2,000 years, and it may be another 2,000 years before He
returns. Or, He may return today, or tomorrow, or next month. For, “with the
Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”
Therefore, you must watch, for you know neither the day nor the hour. Ah, but,
what does that mean? How do you watch? And, what are you watching for? Well,
you are watching for the coming of the Bridegroom, Jesus. That’s simple enough.
However, these past few weeks you have heard warnings about false Christs that
will arise in the last days. The only way to distinguish the teaching of a
false Christ is by checking it against the Word of the true Christ, the Holy
Scriptures. And, how do you watch? Well, the best kind of watching is done, not
with your eyes, but with your ears. Blessed are the eyes that see what you
see, and the ears that hear what you hear. Once again, being a regular
hearer of the Lord’s Word and being a regular recipient of His gifts will equip
you and sustain you with eyes that see and with ears that hear. All
of this is to say that, in order to be well prepared for the Bridegroom’s
return, in order to be found watching when He comes, you do not need to be found
doing anything, but, rather, you need to be found receiving. What
must you be found receiving? Well, your Lord Jesus describes it in The Parable
of the Wise and Foolish Virgins as oil, oil in your lamps. Thus, the ultimate
question that must be answered in this parable is, “What is the oil, and where
can you get it?”
But first, let us consider
why the oil is the all-important factor. As all ten of the maidens were
virgins, it was not their virginity alone that made them more or less prepared
to enter the marriage feast. Likewise, as they each, at least initially, had
their own lamps burning with oil, having a lamp and oil at some time was not
decisive either. Additionally, all ten virgins fell asleep, and, thus, it was
not even their wakeful watching that made them well-prepared for the
Bridegroom’s arrival. So then, the necessary thing that counted for
preparedness when the Bridegroom arrived was the oil, and the oil alone. When
the cry went out at midnight that the Bridegroom had arrived, all ten sleeping
virgins awoke and began to tend to their lamps. However, five of the virgins,
whom Jesus calls foolish, had run out of oil. They had not brought extra along
with them and were not prepared for the Bridegroom’s delay. The other five virgins,
who also slumbered, nevertheless brought extra oil with them. Because of this,
Jesus calls them wise. They filled their lamps and lit them and prepared to
enter the wedding feast.
Now, what is the oil? Where
do you get it? How do you keep it over the course of your life? These are the
questions you should be asking. What is the oil? The oil represents faith
continually sustained by the means of grace, thus able to endure until Chris’s
return. Where do you get it? Plainly, in the Church, for the Church is the
Bride of Christ in which He is present with His gifts of forgiveness, life, and
salvation. In the Church is the womb of the baptismal font from which new
Christians are born. In the Church is absolution and the forgiveness of sins.
In the Church is the proclaimed Word of the Lord, the Gospel, which comforts
and strengthens faith, and equips for good works to the glory of the Lord. In
the Church is the body and blood of Jesus for the faithful to eat and to drink
that they may persevere in this little while in which our Bridegroom is
delayed. The oil is faith, and the Word and Sacraments in the Church, the means
of grace, sustain faith until the Bridegroom comes. Thus, how do you keep
the oil of faith over the course of your life? You come regularly and
frequently to the Church to have your oil replenished and to be forgiven,
comforted, and strengthened that you may persevere until He comes and be found
well prepared.
That is where the five
foolish virgins made haste when they awoke and realized that their lamps had
gone out and that they had no more oil. Sure, they hoped to borrow some from
the others, but that will not do. No one can believe for another, but each must
believe for herself, each must have the oil of faith to fill her own lamp.
Thus, they made haste to go and buy from the oil merchants. “Go and buy?” you
protest. “But, pastor, you are always teaching us that we cannot buy, earn, or
merit our justification by our works or money.” You are right, of course! Then,
what does Jesus mean to say? Well, think of it this way: The time between
Jesus’ Ascension and His Parousia, that is His return on the Last Day – the
time of the Bridegroom’s delay – is the time of the Church. It is the time in
which the faithful are gathered by the Holy Spirit around the means of grace,
God’s Word and His Blessed Sacraments, that new Christians may be born, that faith
may be created, strengthened, and sustained, and that sins may be forgiven.
However, when the Lord returns on the Last Day, when the Bridegroom arrives,
the time of the Church will be over. Thus, the five foolish virgins rushed out
seeking to buy oil only to find that all the vendors were closed, not only for
the night, but forever. The time in which to buy oil and to keep your lamp full
with oil to spare is now. When the Lord returns, it will be to late. This is
what it means to be prepared: You are prepared if you have oil in your lamp.
You are prepared if your faith is being nurtured, strengthened, and preserved
in the means of grace, through Word and Sacrament, in the body of
Christ, the Church, His Bride.
“Ok,” you say, “but still,
why does Jesus say that the virgins should go to the dealers and buy oil for
themselves? You can’t buy or earn faith, right?” Right! You are absolutely
right! But, what does the Prophet Isaiah say? “Come, everyone who thirsts, come
to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and
milk without money and without price.” If you have oil, if you believe, if you
trust in Jesus Christ and Him alone for your forgiveness, life, and salvation,
then your God-given, Holy Spirit-created faith is credited to you as
righteousness. Likewise, as St. Paul writes in today’s Epistle, “But you are
not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you
are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of
the darkness.” And, “since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on
the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.” You
did not buy this defensive armor, but they are yours and they cover you and
protect you because you have faith in Christ. The oil of faith is replenished
and sustained in the same way, but you have to have it. You can’t borrow it.
You can’t earn it. You can’t buy it. But, you must have your faith replenished
through the Words and Wounds of Jesus, in the Church, through Word and
Sacrament.
Therefore, if you absent
yourself from the means of grace for a prolonged period of time, you are
putting yourself in grave peril. No, you will not surely die,
immediately, – remember who used that little trick on our First Parents – but
you will die, spiritually, in time. This reminds me of the story of a pastor’s
visit to a member who had stopped attending church. The pastor was welcomed in
and was seated in a chair by the fire. Neither the pastor nor the parishioner
spoke a word. After a while, the pastor reached out with tongs and removed an
ember from the fire and placed it upon the hearth. As the silence continued,
the ember grew steadily colder until it was stone cold dead. After a few moments’
silence, the pastor returned the cold, dead ember to the fire, and immediately
it began to glow once more with the light and warmth of the coals burning
around it. As the pastor reached the door to leave, the parishioner said, “Thank
you so much for your visit, Pastor, and especially for the fiery sermon. I
shall be back in church next Sunday.” The Parable of the Wise and Foolish
Virgins is just such a story. Here Jesus teaches you to keep yourself glowing
with His light by remaining in His gifts where He gives them and where He has
promised to be until He returns. Having oil in your lamp is not something you
have to go and seek for yourself, but your Lord, your Bridegroom Jesus suffered
and died and rose again to keep your lamps full through His Word and Sacraments
until He returns to take you to Himself to be His Holy Bride. Until then, He
provides this feast for you today, which is but a foretaste of that great
wedding feast that is to come.
If you remain in Him, He
has promised to remain in you. He will never leave you or forsake you. And,
nothing can separate you from His love. If you remain in Him and His gifts, it
matters not should He return when you are awake or when you are sleeping, for
your life is in Him throughout this little while until He comes. And,
your Lord Jesus exhorts you to encourage one another and build one another
up in this truth. If you see that a brother or sister is missing out on the
gifts, that his or her faith is growing weak, or cold, is dying, or is already
dead, encourage them to come and receive the true oil of faith and be
replenished. For, the time is coming when the Church will be closed and will be
no more, and then it will be too late. However, today the Church is open and
Jesus’ gifts are free for you to buy without cost or price. Come, and fill your
lamps with the precious, life-giving oil of faith in Jesus Christ, and fear not
the day and hour of His coming. Join your voice with the voice of Christ’s
Church of all times and all places saying, “Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus! Come,
quickly come!” Behold! He has come. He comes. And, He is coming on the clouds.
“Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus! Come, quickly come!”
In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment