Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Gospel according to Matthew, the 25th chapter:
“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
These last three weeks of the Church year begin to take a dark turn. We have just celebrated in our church the reclamation of the Gospel in the Feast of Reformation Day. We are saved by grace through faith alone by Christ. We have His assurance that we are His. And we celebrated the feast of All Saints, looking at the care our Lord has given to our loved ones who have passed on from this mortal coil, this vale of tears into the beginnings of eternal life with their Savior, Jesus Christ, and with the whole entire Church for eternity.
But, now we turn our eyes to the sky and we begin to see the darkness. We not only see our sun setting earlier and earlier, but our world begins to grow colder and colder. We wonder if this is the end of days. This world and all that is in it is beginning to die off, trees shedding the leaves that were so healthy this summer, grass becoming brown and stained, dirt becoming hard and unforgiving. Is this the end?
The Church looks to the sky to see. The Church looks to the Word to see. And we see that we are ever nearer the end. Each day we live is a day closer to the end of time. Each moment that passes brings us closer to the Last Judgment. Is it any wonder we look to the latter days as the sun grows ever more dim?
That is why our passage this day from the Gospel of Matthew seems so dim, so dark. It happens at night. It happens that people are left out of the Kingdom of God. How is this Gospel? How is the Gospel of our Lord a seeming celebration that there will be those who are shut out of the doors of the Kingdom, missing the marriage feast of the Lamb? How is this Gospel? How is the darkness here good for us to hear?
In this way: this parable is not about the foolish virgins. It is about Jesus. Let me tell you how this usually goes: this parable is usually told to warn people about how they need to make sure they have enough of something so that they can be sure they will be in the kingdom of heaven. Oil. Works. Love. Spiritual preparedness, whatever that means. You better have enough of it or you’ll be shut out. That’s how they read it.
But is that what Jesus is saying here? Is Jesus saying be prepared? No, not quite. He says “watch,” “stay awake.” He doesn’t say to get your affairs in order. He doesn’t say to make sure you do enough. He says to watch, because you never know when the bridegroom is coming. That’s the purpose of this parable, to teach us that our Lord may return at any moment. Even a moment when He seems very late.
That’s what’s happening here. You see these ten virgins were selected to be the bridesmaids of the wedding. That’s pretty typical for this time. Now, they didn’t have weddings in Jesus’ time like we have them today. There were no $5,000 dresses. There were no party favors. There were no reception halls. There wasn’t really even a liturgy like we have today. What they did have was food. The wedding was centered around food. Everything was centered around the feast, and the wine. It was a good time.
The bride would be waiting, probably at her parents’ house, and the groom would arrive to take her to be his wife. He would arrive at the house, be escorted in by women would who dance, and yell, and show everyone that the joyous occasion of a man coming to take his bride to be his and his alone forever had begun. Then the party would begin, and after feasting for a good long time, the entire community would see and say that this couple, this wonderful marriage, has begun. The bride, a woman given by her parents to a man who has given great wealth to gain her love, would go with her new husband, and would dwell together forever. That’s marriage.
So these virgins today were there to spark off the wedding feast. That’s expected. They brought lamps, showing light, life, God’s Word, to the feast. Also very typical. The lamps were there mostly for show, especially since the bridegroom was scheduled to arrive, most likely, in the early morning to get the feasting started.
So, what’s not typical is that the bridegroom is late. Gentlemen, what would happen if you just happened to show up 16 hours late to your wedding with no word, no phone call, no messenger of any type? Probably not good, right? But this bridegroom did just that. None knew when he was coming. He was later than expected.
This is our Lord. We have expected our Lord since He ascended into heaven. We have expected the end of days since the day after He left our vision. But He is late. Our crucified and risen Lord is late. He has not yet come. And we wonder where He is. And we begin to wonder if He will ever show up. And we begin to fall asleep, that is, we die. In fact, all men, all of us who are expected to welcome our Lord will fall asleep, die, unless He returns first. But He has not returned. He has not yet come again. And so many saints, and many who are not saints, have fallen asleep.
And that’s our other key to this passage. The foolish virgins, the silly virgins, the moronic virgins, are the unbelievers. They are not wise. They are not illumined to the truth of God’s Word. They are not prepared, this is true. It’s almost as if they don’t care when the bridegroom comes. But, the wise virgins, ah, the saints of Christ, they have been prepared. They thought there was a possibility the bridegroom would be late, so they brought oil to light their lamps at night. They wanted to make sure the wedding place could be seen. But this oil is not the point; it is only there to show us the difference between the saints of Christ and the unbelievers. Yet, for all, sleep touched them. And they died.
All have died, for that is the wages of sin. Sin has killed them. But, our Lord is a great and wondrous Lord, and so with the cry of command, “Come out to meet the bridegroom,” our Lord has issued the cry of command that all people should rise from their graves, rise from their slumbers. Our Lord commands us come, and so we do.
But, what happens? Our virgins here adorn the lamps with the garland and the flowers and pour their oil into it. But when the foolish virgins look for their oil, they discover they have none. When they look to the very thing that will welcome the Lord, they realize that have none at all. So, they look to the wise, give us some of your oil.
But the wise say no. Their oil is only enough for them. They cannot share it. They will not share it. They sound so mean. They sound so uncaring. So we must ask, what is this oil that lights the lamp of God’s Word? It is baptism. You are baptized and so your oil will continue to light God’s Word in front of you. Your Word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path, yes? God’s Word is good and right, but without the light of faith, the light that has been given to you in your baptism, it is useless. It is folly. It is foolish. It is a stumbling block for the Jews, and folly for the Gentiles. The Word of God is offensive to those who cannot see.
And this faith that you have been given in your baptism, it is yours. It cannot cover another person. Your faith cannot save any other person, for it has been given to you by the Holy Spirit to point you to Christ, to bring you to His Kingdom, to wash you in His blood, to save you for everlasting life. It is yours to steward, yes, but it is yours. You cannot give this to the foolish; your faith is not yours to give, for only the Spirit brings faith, in fact, through the Word, through Baptism, strengthened through the Supper.
The wise virgins know that they cannot give to the foolish their faith. They know they cannot give them light to light the way. But the wise know exactly who these foolish virgins are, here at the end of time. The foolish virgins have already damned themselves. Damnation is all our doing; if we are to be sent to hell, it is because we have asked for it. These wise virgins are not trying to trick the foolish virgins, but they give the foolish exactly what they ask for: if you do not have the oil of faith, if you do not have the light of God’s Word, then why don’t you go and try to buy it, try to work for it?
Why don’t you work for your salvation? Why don’t you work to be saved? Why don’t you work to get into heaven? That’s what the foolish think go on. And that’s what the foolish today believe happens. God will save me if I’m a good person. All religions lead to the same place because they all tell us to be moral people. I’m generally a good person, or at least I’m not as bad as that guy!
Foolish people, who has bewitched us? Who has deceived us into thinking such things? Who has given to us the foolishness of this world and put it into the place of Christ? Our works will not save us. Our works are sinful, done with sinful hands and hearts and minds. Our works are rubbish. Our works, the oil we are trying to buy, will go out in our lamps like flash paper, there one second and burned up and roasting the next.
Our works, the oil we try to light our own lamps with, are no good. Only the oil of faith can bring us to our Lord. Only that will prepare the way of the Lord. Praise be to God that He has given the means by which all men would be saved. Praise be to God that He has washed you in His blood. Praise be to God you have enough oil to see you through your sleep and to rise up at the cry of command and light your lamps. Praise be to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
You even get the picture of our good and gracious Lord, that had the foolish virgins not run off into the night to get by on their own works, had they stood at the gate for the bridegroom, forlorn, downcast, with empty hands, pleading for the groom’s forgiveness for having no oil in their lamps, no joy in their salvation, that He would have yet welcomed them in, and given them the first place as they lead the bridal processional in. Our Lord is merciful, and He has pity on all men, desiring all men to be saved, desiring all the virgins to come into His wedding feast.
But, that’s not what happened. The foolish virgins took off into the night. They wanted to be all pretty and gussied up by what they could provide for the bridegroom. But they missed His arrival. They missed Jesus coming. And so they were stuck outside. They were stuck outside the gates of heaven, and when they tried to enter, the bridegroom would not let them in for He didn’t know them. They weren’t waiting for Him; they went off to do it on their own.
This is us. We want to do it on our own. We want to get to heaven by our own works. But, by faith, we know this is not the way. By faith, we see our sin. By faith, we see we deserve to go to hell. By faith, we see Jesus. By faith, we see Him crucified for us. By faith, we see that Jesus has taken our punishment. By faith, we look to this Jesus to save us. It’s not because you turn your heart to God that you are saved. That’s foolish. It’s because Christ has turned His heart to you and to all that anyone is saved.
And so our Lord has saved us. He has welcomed us into His wedding feast. We have it here at this altar, though, sadly, not today. That feast is ours. There He strengthens us until we, too, fall asleep. There He strengthens us each time before we die so that we may be welcomed into His Great High Feast. There He strengthens us for the resurrection, so that we may wake from our slumber and see that our faith has preserved us through until the end.
You see, this parable is not really about these foolish virgins, though we often see them the most, or we pity them the most, or we identify with them the most. It’s about the bridegroom, Jesus. It’s about how our Lord may be late to our eyes, but it is in His time that He will return. This is Gospel, for our Lord promises to welcome us into the feast! Though the days grow dark and cold, the Gospel light will keep us warm, it will keep you who have been made wise through faith warm, with your path lit. It will keep your lamp burning, so that Jesus knows right where to come.
And come He will. He will come to your grave, reach in, and bring you out. He sees your faith, dear saints, dear virgins. He sees your faith, despite our doubts, despite our sins, despite our trying to pour our own oil in the lamps. He sees your faith, and He shall come to you, O Church. Immanuel, our Lord Jesus Christ, God with us, will come and be with you forever. God’s Word says so, God’s Word has claimed you in the waters of Baptism, it has claimed you and strengthened you in the Lord’s Supper. We need not fear the darkness. We need not fear being unprepared. You are prepared, for you have been washed, you have been fed. That is your oil, dear Saints. And it is only oil that will never, ever run out. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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