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Matthew 25:1-13
This is a beautiful church to get married in and some of you sitting here were married in this church. Weddings can be an exciting thing and weddings can be a hornet’s nest for a pastor doing the wedding ceremony. Every pastor has a story or two about his/her favorite and/or strangest wedding. A couple of weeks ago some pastor’s from our Presbytery got together for fellowship. Our Presbytery Executive Curt Karns asked us to share some funny story about worship. After a while we began to tell of wedding stories and it seemed everyone had one.
As you know, a particular tradition in weddings that is common in many cultures, including ours, is the playfulness that develops in regard to playing pranks. All of you who are married or have attended a wedding can probably tell a story about a funny thing that happened during the ceremony or at the reception or when the couple was going off to their honeymoon spot. It is all done in fun and good sport and makes the wedding festivities seem more like a party.
Tim and I have performed many wedding ceremonies over the years and we have our share of stories. One particular wedding we did in California in the heat of the summer, 100 degrees, was a very formal garden wedding. We were in our black robes, the wedding party in tux's and formals. As the ceremony ended and the bride and groom were to walk down the isle to Pachelbel's Canon in D, the brother-in-law who was responsible for the sound system, put on Queens "Another One Bites the Dust”. I think that was just what that wedding needed.
In another wedding, Tim and I were offered a "get out of jail card" free from some deputies of the local Sheriff's Department, if we cooperated in their little prank. We were doing a wedding for their friend who was also a deputy who was marrying a woman from our congregation. At the end of the service when we gave the final blessing, Tim held their hands together as the bestman quickly pulled out handcuffs and clasped them around the couple. Off they went down the isle handcuffed together.
At Tim’s and my wedding, at the end of the ceremony, the part when it is customary to kiss the bride, Tim whipped out a fan and we kissed behind it. What a surprise to everyone, especially me. His brother Tom, coming from Japan, had given the fan as a wedding present the night before and in the Communion Table there was a little slit, perhaps for a microphone, and Tim hid the fan. No one knew. The photographer didn’t even get a picture of it, it happened so fast. And yes, this is the same fan! There are many different traditions that go with a wedding but all of them are a time of great celebration and joy.
There are many other stories, but what I really want to share with you this morning is a prank that evidently was very common in Palestine during the time of Jesus' life. A wedding in Jesus' time was an event to be talked about for months afterward. The festivities went on for days. Feasting, dancing and revelry were the order of the day. And a high point was the coming of the bridegroom.
According to William Barclay in his commentary, this was the prank, so to speak. Before the wedding festivities took place, the bridegroom was to come for his bride to escort her to the party. While the bride was waiting, she was kept company by her bridesmaids as they waited expectantly for the groom. One of the great things to do, if they could, was to catch the bridal party unaware of the approaching groom. And it was even better if they caught the bridal party napping.
So the groom would sneak up on the wedding party and try to catch them off guard. If successful, the lively prank would be remembered for years. Often the bridegroom would arrive unexpectedly, in the middle of the night. Therefore those waiting for the bridegroom kept lamps near their side. They couldn't go out in the street at midnight unless they had a lamp. And if the bridegroom stole away the bride without the bridesmaids knowing it, once the door was closed for the party it wasn't opened again for anyone. Those caught outside were victims of the practical joke and had to suffer the consequences.
So this is no odd story Jesus tells in this passage of scripture this morning about ten bridesmaids waiting for the coming of the bridegroom. He is telling it just as it probably happened many times to those around him. Several of the disciples may have been married. Quite probably they had pulled the same trick, arriving in the middle of the night, closing the door and then enjoying the fact that some had been caught outside. And so here was Jesus, taking something they were all familiar with and said, "This is what the kingdom of God is like." I imagine they were all ears.
Jesus said, "The kingdom of God can be compared to ten young maidens who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of the young women were foolish, and five of them were wise. Dr. Dale Bruner in his commentary on Matthew points out that Jesus categorizes these women intellectually. We are told five were foolish. We must recognize as Christians that some spiritual decisions can only be described as foolish. For instance, the decision to be a Christian, but not too much of a Christian (which is close to the heart of this parable's meaning), is described as a foolish decision. In this parable, the reason we know five made an unwise decision is because five of them took lamps, but no extra oil. The five wise maidens took lamps and also flasks of extra oil.
We see here two kinds of bridesmaids which can describe two kinds of Christians. On the one hand there are those eager who direct their life to Jesus' return, the judgment day. And then there are those Christians who believe in the day of judgment but who do nothing to prepare themselves for it. We know and must constantly remind ourselves that belonging to the church is no substitute for behavior. We may have a lamp, that is, membership in the Church, but no oil or deep faith and a relationship with Jesus Christ.
At midnight came the cry, 'Here comes the bridegroom. Go out to meet him!' Then all ten young women rose and trimmed their lamps. The five foolish ones said in consternation, 'Our lamps are going out! Give us some extra oil.' The wise replied that there would not be enough for all, and that the five had best go to the dealers and buy more.
While the five were away, the bridegroom came. Those who were ready to receive him went in with him, and the door was shut. Later the other five came. 'Let us in,' they pleaded. 'No, it's too late, the party has already started.'" Jesus concluded this parable by saying, "Watch, therefore for you know neither the day nor the hour."
In this parable Jesus reminds the hearer to prepare now for the coming of the kingdom of God. What could be more tragic than two words, "Too late." The first lesson of Jesus' return at the day of judgment is that we can be too late. In the period of grace, before his return, "ask, and you shall receive." In the period of judgment, at the return of Christ, "ask, and you ask too late."
When Jesus told this parable, he was looking squarely at the people around him. "You'd better watch out. The kingdom of God is among you. If you don't wake up, it will be too late; and how tragic that would be." There will come a time when the kingdom of God will have slipped through our fingers and we will be too late if we do not make preparations now.
In this parable the groom was announced. The young women sprang to their feet. Five were not prepared. The other five had made their preparations. Taking time to prepare for the coming kingdom is one of the important lessons in this parable.
This parable warns us that there are certain things which cannot be obtained at the last minute. It is far too late for a student to be preparing when the day of the examination has come. It is too late for a person to acquire a skill or a character if he does not already possess it when some job is offered to him. In the same way it is easy to leave things so late that we can no longer prepare ourselves to meet with God. We never know when our life will be snatched away from us. To be "too late" is a tragedy that cannot be undone.
There was a father and mother who were sharing with a group their relationship with their teenage boy. They said, "Our boy is a joy to behold. The Lord certainly has blessed us. Our family life is so happy and his senior year in high school is going so well." Now you know that these circumstances didn't happen overnight. It took many hours of investing in their son in order to be well prepared once their son became a teenager.
Another couple asks these people "what needs to be done to have that sort of family life?" They responded, "Well, we didn't start when he was 18. We took him to church when he was 12. We made sure he attended Sunday school when he was 10. We listened to him when he came rushing home from school at 8. We lived through his silences and loved him still when he was 14. It took a lot of years of preparation to come to this point."
Several years ago I visiting a woman who was dying of leukemia, a woman who was two years older than myself. During the month before she died, we had some very good conversations. One of those times she asked me, "Well, is there anything I need to do before I die?" And I told her that this was the time to bring closer to her life and say goodbye to everything that she held dear. Not everyone knows the time of their death and can prepare so completely as she did. But what her question was really asking was tied to her meeting God after she died. How do I prepare myself to meet God. Fortunately for her, her faith had been a part of her life that she chose to live out and not just believe. Her preparations were made many years before so she did not have to panic at this last month of her life.
So it is with the kingdom of God. When our personal day of judgment comes, we don't suddenly discover a marvelous relationship with our Lord. It takes preparation. We strengthen our faith weekly at worship; we build our relationship with him daily through prayer and study. Then, when the Lord comes, we are ready and eager to meet him. Our lamp is burning brightly, with fuel purchased far in advance. And with the bridegroom, we go in, into the eternal kingdom of God, the eternal celebration with our Father in heaven.
The second lesson of the return of Christ is this: we can't borrow. Verses 8 & 9 state: "And the foolish said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.' But the wise replied, 'Perhaps there will not be enough for us and for you; go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.'
This is not selfish of the wise and thoughtful maidens. They feel a responsibility to meet the bridegroom should he come. The request of the foolish is this: Let us depend upon your oil to meet the bridegroom -- or in other words: let us depend on your faith, ride in on your coat tails, in order to enter into the kingdom. We cannot always be living on the spiritual capital which others have acquired. There are certain things we must win or acquire for ourselves, for we cannot borrow them from others. On the judgment day there can be no relying on others; there can be no more looking to the sustaining fellowship of the church. Now suddenly everything is terrifyingly individual. We cannot borrow the faith of the church or others to get us into the kingdom.
So much of what life gives us is unpredictable. We have learned by now that sprinkled in among the predictable elements of human life are its unpredictable incidents. Mingled with the comforting routine of our ordered lives come the cataclysmic occurrences -- our private earthquakes, incidents that smash our careful plans and destroy our security; events that in a blinding moment reshape the whole course of our future. Sudden sorrow can sweep down like a flood. It has been said no person has more religion than he or she can command in an emergency. The crises of life are sudden and shocking. Woe to the person with an empty lamp. Woe to those who are caught without oil in the lamp of their soul. When a crisis is upon us, we cannot borrow that power that sustains us. It is our years of preparation before that that gets us through.
In the sudden day of Christ's return, in that unexpected hour, no one can give us faith and strength we do not already possess. We must make preparations to gain faith and strength and thus fill the lamp of our souls ahead of this day of reckoning. In Jesus' words, "Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” No one knows the day nor the hour when a crisis may come, whether it be a life shocking event or the return of Christ.
A man had a vivid dream that he was going to die. Vaguely connected with the dream was the number seven. He awakened in a cold sweat. I imagine we would too. At the moment, he was convinced that he would die in seven _______, but seven what? It was hardly seven seconds, for that had already passed. Could it be seven minutes? He climbed out of bed and knelt in earnest, repentant prayer, asking God to forgive him and receiving the knowledge of forgiveness that only the truly repentant ever find.
When the seven minutes were up and he was still alive, he decided it must mean seven hours, and he spent the time in prayer and in the study of God's Word. When the seven hours passed without incident, he thought for sure it must be seven days and determined to spend them in unselfish service to his God.
On through seven weeks, seven months, and seven years, he lived the life of a new man in Christ. Only after the seven years had passed was he convinced that his dream had no foundation and by that time he no longer had the yearning for the old life again. The story ends there. But I say that man did die in the first seven seconds. Because what was living now was a new man, his old self had passed away.
The kingdom of heaven is like ten maidens who sat by the road in the middle of the night. Five were left in the dark. The kingdom of heaven is like that. We can't borrow somebody else's oil, and we can't use somebody else's faith. We can't make our preparations in the middle of the night, we have to prepare for the coming of the kingdom now. And thank God, we probably have more than seven seconds, or seven minutes or even seven days to make our preparations. But, maybe not. Jesus reminds us from this scripture we better get on with it because some day there will come a time when it will be TOO LATE! Amen.
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