Got Oil?

 Read Matthew 25:1-13

We know that there is a sorting at the end of the age. We want to be in the group that is told to come and get their inheritance.

We know there is an accounting at the end of the age. We want to hear well done, good and faithful servant.

We know there is a banquet in heaven as the Bridegroom and the Bride are joined in eternal union. We want to be there.

We don’t want to hear you wicked, lazy servant.

We don’t want to hear depart from me you who are cursed into the eternal fire.

We don’t want to hear the words I don’t know you.

I don’t know you!

The disciples wanted to know what life would be like at the end of the age. What was coming?

Jesus responded with a parable about a huge celebration that is to come. He compared it to a wedding banquet. People know weddings. There was feasting and celebration, and it often went on for days. People usually drank a little too much.

It was a big deal. You didn’t want to miss it.

You don’t want to miss it!

The parable uses the wedding as the part of the parable known to people of that time. It was a big deal, not just for the bride and groom, but for the community. It was a big deal.

But sometimes, there was waiting. After the groom had prepared a place for the bride and groom to begin their new lives, he would go and claim his bride. People knew when he went to claim her and the anticipation began. There was waiting.

How long that waiting period was might vary and was not published weeks or months in advance.

It didn’t pop up on your Google Calendar. There was no app to remind you. You waited.

There was waiting. Ten young maidens came and waited along the expected path of the groom and his bride. All brought lamps.

Only five of these young ladies brought a container of oil, and only five were ready if this waiting took a while.

It did.

Everyone fell asleep. When the clamor of the arrival woke them, five found that they were out of oil. Five trimmed their lamps, added oil, and were ready for the wedding party's arrival.

Five were ready. They entered the banquet and joined the celebration.

The first five sent the second five to get their own oil. It might sound harsh, but some things you have to get on your own.

So, is the oil our discipleship or our salvation? I think we see it mainly framed as our salvation here.  We are ready for Christ’s return because we have received the gift of salvation. Is that it?

We repented and professed. We trusted, and we continue to trust, that the promises of our Lord are true. We wait faithfully upon the Lord.

We are prepared to wait faithfully upon the Lord.

The other two parables in this chapter are more about living out our salvation. This one is about repentance, belief, and faith that our Master will come and claim us.

Do we have oil?

If we have repented, professed with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe that God raised him from the dead, then we have oil. Our lamps are full. Our oil can is full. We are ready.

Our place in this celebration of the ages has been reserved.

If we take this parable as stand-alone instruction, we might never learn discipleship. We would know the gift that came in Jesus's blood, but we would have no response to it.

But as you have been reminded so many times, we are to take the full biblical witness and apply it to our lives as we respond to this gift of grace received in faith. There is no cherry-picking.

If we live by this parable alone, we cry out Maranatha daily. Come, Lord Jesus, come. Get me out of this place!

We who are not content just to be saved, but must somehow respond to this incredible gift, move on to discipleship.

We know that discipleship is a necessary response from anyone who has repented and received the gift of salvation. It is reflexive. It is our first nature. It is our fruit and the evidence of our salvation.

Because our oil won’t run out, we are ready to respond to our Master's call to put his words into practice.

Your salvation is assured. You have oil enough.

Your response calls you to be known as a disciple of Jesus by your love.

We can sing Blessed Assurance. We are saved. We have oil.

We can anticipate the Lord's coming and the celebration that will follow, but for now, our oil should be evident in our lives.

Our oil should be evidenced in our lives.

Let us live as people who know that tomorrow is not promised but eternity is.

Let us live as people who know they will never hear these words from the Lord.

I don’t know you!

Live as people who know that tomorrow is not promised but eternity is.

Amen.