It’s about a wedding.
It’s about being watchful and ready.
Yes, to all, and more.
It is best understood without
allegory. Some key players are not even
mentioned, the bride for instance. And
when you come to the part about buying oil that is surely salvation, then we
have a problem with purchasing what is given so freely. So we will not get allegorical in this
parable, but we will find a very strong message for those who will hear.
We find ourselves listening to another
story about a wedding, or at least some of the associated aspects of a
wedding. Weddings were not a save the date thing back in the day.
You knew that a marriage was forthcoming but the exact wedding date,
well you could only guestimate. Now some
guesses might be closer than others. You
could swing by the groom’s new house, probably an addition to the family house
or at least on the same property, and see how it was coming along.
Think back to the previous parable, the king sent out the invitation to the
wedding banquet for his son as the feast was being prepared. The invited guests knew it was coming, they
were just waiting for the announcement.
It’s not like everyone would show up at the same time. People would be coming for days and staying
for days. There would be quite the
banquet and party before the bride and groom finalized their union.
Now the groom surely knew the story of
Jacob and his first wedding and knew not to drink too much too early so he knew
who he was getting hitched to, but that’s another story.
If the groom was just laying a stone a day building a home for his bride-to-be, then perhaps his enthusiasm level for the betrothal was not quite peaked. If he was burning the midnight oil, he wanted to get this show on the road.
The Hebrew man upon proposal to his
bride—surely in concert with both sets of parents—would make a place for he and
his new bride to live. The good thing
was that in that day it didn’t matter if you were a wine maker or a fisherman,
you probably knew how to build a house. Materials
were readily available. Now if you wanted fine cedar from Lebanon to panel the
inside, your father might need to have some money; but everyone could build a
place to live.
Getting a mortgage—a loan to build a
new house—wouldn’t make sense. Why go
into debt for something that costs you mostly sweat equity. Surely, the were some material costs, but with
dad’s help, you could build the place.
So you would tell your bride that you
would go and prepare a place for her and then come and get her when it was
ready. You would not tell her this
unless you meant it. That sounds sort of familiar.
The story is about a wedding but
mostly it’s about being ready. If the homeowner had known when the thief would break in, he would have
held a reception. Surely Smith and
Wesson would have been on the receiving committee and Colt 45 on tap. But criminals just never seem to show up when
you want them to—how inconsiderate. You
must be watchful and ready.
Not only watchful and ready but always ready. We are not speaking of a thief but of a time
when Christ will return. Jesus made the
comparison to something that people understood.
The disciples surely wanted a date to put in their day planners or
smartphones. But, the best we can do is
to know
the season. We can be watchful of
the signs
of the times.
Even then, we must not become complacent
when things do not happen the way we think that they should. Remember, the Lord’s time and our time are
not always the same time. The Lord is not slow in coming as we calibrate speed, he is
patient; but he is coming.
He
is patient
because he wants all to come to repentance and to know his incredible love, but
he is coming and we must be ready.
So, the parable is about being ready, always
ready, and a wedding and associated banquet—and more. And more…
The parable goes back to the
foundation of the world.
Wisdom was there at the beginning of the world.
Wisdom is intertwined into the fabric of the universe. Wisdom remains the hallmark
of God’s servants to this day.
The parable is about wisdom. Five of the maidens are wise and five are
foolish. Five are ready for the bridegroom’s
arrival and enter with the procession and get to enjoy all that is in store for
them.
Five are foolish and are caught
unprepared. They ask the other five to
give them some of their oil and the five who are wise tell them to get their
own. On the surface, it seems sort of
harsh. “Sorry, girlfriend but you are on
your own.”
Perhaps, Jesus should have preceded
the reply of the wise girls with, and
they loved the foolish girls and told them, go and buy your own oil. The wise were not being cruel or unkind, they
spoke
truth. In the context of the story, they might not
have enough oil and then everyone would be out of luck. They brought enough for themselves. They were not oil merchants. They were bridesmaids. They were wise.
Today, you could probably go to
Amazon.com and get 1 hour delivery by drone.
In the parable, the foolish girls had to go wake up the oil vendor and
buy more oil. I wonder if there was a
middle of the night surcharge. It didn’t
matter. They didn’t make it back in
time.
Go to those who sell oil and buy some for
yourselves.
There are some things that I cannot give you. I can’t give you my:
· Wisdom.
I can teach and mentor and encourage you to learn, but my wisdom is my
wisdom whether it is much or little. You
have to get your own. Many of us have
longed to be able to just transplant or download wisdom into our kids,
especially during their teenage years, but you can’t do it. The good news is that if you are truly
seeking God’s wisdom, he is so generous in giving you just what you need. God gives wisdom and he is not stingy about
it, but I can’t give you mine.
· Salvation.
I can’t re-gift the greatest gift of all time, nor do I need to. It is available to all who will receive it. You can get your own, and I hope that you
have already done that.
· I can’t give you my readiness. If you live in my house you might get the
benefit of my readiness if someone breaks in while I am home; but readiness is
something that everyone must negotiate on their own.
Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus that the people should be wise for the days
are evil. There is much evil in the
world and we need to make the most of every opportunity to obey God and love
our neighbors. There will be a time,
surely in the middle of all the wickedness of the day, when Christ will
return. Will we be ready?
Today, we are a people who need our
guidance summarized in a tweet or a Facebook post where you don’t have to click
the hyperlink that reads “more.” So here
is Tom’s tweet on this parable. I make
it indicative and not interrogative.
When
Jesus returns, he is going to catch us doing exactly what he told us to do!
We are saved. We practice wisdom. We are ready day or night, sooner or later,
early or late, summer or winter—sometimes in Oklahoma it’s hard to tell them
apart—for Jesus to come and claim us because we obey him. We are his.
We are completely his. The world
does not receive our affection. Our love
for God is manifested daily in our love for our neighbors. Our oil vessels remain full.
Our
lamps won’t go out!
We are ready!
There are words in this parable that I don’t ever want to hear. I don’t want to hear them spoken to me. I don’t want to hear them spoken to you, and
because God is shaping me in the image and likeness of Christ Jesus, I don’t
want to hear them spoken to anyone.
Truly,
I say to you, I do not know you.
Ouch!
Jesus had parables about fishing, building
a house, shepherds, and even father and son relationships. Occasionally, he had one that involved the
women. Society was male oriented, but Jesus
still included parables with the women.
In this case they were young women, bridesmaids if you will.
Let’s note something about these
bridesmaids that often gets overlooked or sometimes modern day presumptions
take over. Sometimes, those presumptions
make it into the translation. Sometimes,
they may be correct. But consider the
third verse in this parable.
Those who were foolish took their
lamps and took no oil with them,
In the original Greek, the word extra is not there. Some modern translations add the word
presuming that nobody would show up with a lamp that doesn’t have oil or
subsequent remarks a few verses later, but the original words that we have say
that the foolish took lamps but no oil.
Fools
despise wisdom.
What kind of person brings a lamp and
no oil? The person who detests and
despises the ways of God.
I can’t beat up the translators too
much because later the foolish girls ask the wise ones for oil because their lamps
are going out. I have to ask, were they ever burning in the
first place?
Before we continue, I tell you that I
don’t like cute when it comes to biblical interpretation. I think considering the literary, textual,
tradition, and historical lenses for any exegesis is beneficial. Even the redaction criticism—how the biblical
writings were assembled by their final authors or editors thousands of years
ago—brings benefit.
But the exegesis titled, “cute” or
“neat” or “funky” doesn’t work for me.
What do I mean? People who read
the Bible and preach, develop curriculum, and otherwise launch into expository
commentary sometimes resort to cute. That is they find a lesser used meaning of a
word that fits very well into context as
is or twist a phrase to mean something that sounds good but perhaps lacks fidelity
to the original intent or the full biblical witness.
It is good to explore these
possibilities. They make great Bible
study inquiries in a Berean type model, but we must be careful about making
them doctrine or becoming dogmatic and straining out gnats at the expense of
missing the very clear message. That
said, I think it worthwhile to consider that the foolish maidens brought no oil at all.
That would be to take verse 3
literally and to regard with some skepticism the comments of the foolish. Who ever said that the foolish always speak
the truth. For those who made it through
the Proverbs with me a couple years ago, we know that this is not the case. My
guess is that the foolish
girls just grabbed their lamps and went to the place where young maidens waited
for the bridegroom to arrive. When they
realized they were unprepared, they concocted
the best story
they could
come up with at the time. The foolish
seldom let the facts get in the way of the story. The
foolish think
that their lack of effort, concern, readiness, and general disobedience will somehow
prompt an emotional response from the wise to do
things that they are not called to do.
People still run out of gas today,
even with all the bells and whistles on modern vehicles. If I am driving cross country and know what’s
ahead, I will push the limit on my gas tank; but when I come home for the
night, I usually like to have at least half a tank. I don’t know what the night holds in store
and if I get a call at 2:00 a.m. it is usually not something that will wait
until 2:00 p.m. The last thing I want to
do is have to go fill up may gas tank. There
is just something about being prepared.
Perhaps the words of the wise
maidens to their foolish
counterparts were founded not only in wisdom but in recognition of those with whom they were dealing. You need to go get your own oil. You need to realize what is at stake here. You need to wake up, get out of your business as usual mode, and do what the
Lord requires of you!
Let’s roll the clock back 2,500 years
from the first telling of this parable. Noah,
worked on the ark for a long, long time and people scoffed at him, but beyond that, they
went about their business as usual. You
think after 25 years or 50 years, people would stop labeling this man as crazy
and start asking, “Just what is he getting ready for?”
Matthew’s 24th chapter is what I call Eschatology for Fishermen.
The Parable of the
10 Virgins follows this short course on end times. What’s in this chapter? Many signs of the end of the age for one
thing but also the fact that people will continue to live in a business as
usual mode. It’s just another day.
Some people will continue living—existing—as
if there is no accounting for their lives. They
know that there is. They may say
otherwise and their lives say otherwise, but people know that they must account
at some point; but denial comes easy when you believe
the world’s version of anything or everything.
Who would haul a lamp around with them
and not bring any oil? Someone who is
vested in the world’s version of everything—someone just going about business
as usual.
Remember how this parable begins, “At that time,
the Kingdom of Heaven will be like…”
What is the antecedent here? Eschatology for Fishermen or the short
course on end times—Jesus is talking about his Father’s kingdom at the end of
this age.
Some will be living in it and ushered
into the next age ever so naturally.
Others will have never known it and can only wonder about what they
missed.
We may wait a very long time to see
the end of the age but everything that we do for the rest of our lives is done
in obedience while maintaining readiness and it is done with urgency. Obedience
and readiness are for our own good, but urgency is for those who may one day
hear the words, “I do not know you.”
If we have the heart of Christ—that
divine heart being shaped inside of us—then we will not hesitate to tell those
that we know who do not know him, to go at once and buy oil for yourselves. Deliver the gospel to them.
Do not think that your salvation
covers them. “He’s with me,” isn’t going
to get it. You know him or you don’t. That’s the sort of thinking that says, “I’ve
earned my salvation and can do what I want with it.”
And for those who know him, we make
him known from now until kingdom come—this kingdom that will be a part of the
age to come. Urge those who do not know
God and his Love that goes by the name of Jesus to repent and believe the good news.
We are wise. The days are evil. We are ready.
We are obedient. We keep watch. We live in God’s kingdom now. When Jesus comes back he is going to catch us
doing exactly what he told us to do—love one another. We are ready.
Some are not. They are foolish. They are disobedient. They do not keep watch. They live in a
business as usual mode.
We love them, warn them, counsel them with
truth spoken in love, but we do not subsidize their foolishness.
Go and buy oil for yourselves. This
is a message of love. This is not being
harsh or unkind. This is a message of
love.
Let me frame this one last way. What if Jesus sent you to answer the knock at
the door and said tell the people knocking—perhaps someone you know—that you do
not know them. Would you not rather share
the gospel one more time or with one more person or for one more day than
deliver this message?
I do not know you.
If we are truly living in God’s
kingdom now, we don’t desire God’s exclusion of anyone. You can’t give anyone your own salvation, but
you can lead them to the one who holds theirs.
The time to do that is now. We
are ready for the day of his return, but so many are not.
While we won’t speak in parables to
the lost of our age very often, we need to have ears to hear this parable and
find ways to tell the foolish and apathetic and ambivalent to go and buy oil
for themselves.
We are called to take the message of
salvation to the lost, many of whom are foolish, and we are called to do
this—our lampstands shining brightly with God’s love—until the end of the age.
Amen.
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