Bible Text: Matthew 25:1-13 | Preacher: Pastor Andrew Richard | Series: Trinity 2020 | Faith in Jesus is a living thing that must feed on the Word of God, and if it does not feed, then it dies. In the passage immediately before today’s Gospel reading, Jesus warns that pastors had better be feeding his people properly, if they value their lives. “Who then is the faithful and wise servant,” Jesus says, “whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
So pray for Pastor Preus and me, and for all pastors, that we would do our duty well, as Christ says elsewhere, “Feed my sheep.” Pray that we would be commended and not condemned on the Last Day, since it says in James 3, “we who teach will receive stricter judgment.” Pray that men would not abuse the Office of the Ministry so that Christ’s dear people for whom he died will receive their food.
This food is what Christians need, and this food is at the heart of today’s parable, the parable of the ten virgins. The image shifts in today’s parable from receiving food to receiving oil, but the point is the same: being ready to receive Jesus on the Last Day is all about receiving his Word now. Let us heed this parable with the “bridal care” of which we sang in the hymn, so that we are ready for the Last Day.
“At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.” Christians are called virgins for two reasons. First, because Christ has purified us, as it says in Ephesians 5, “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” Christians are virgins first of all because Christ has made them such by the washing of water with the Word, that is, by Holy Baptism.
Second, Christians are virgins because they do not commit adultery with the world, but remain faithful to Christ their Bridegroom. This doesn’t mean that Christians no longer sin, but it does mean we don’t follow the way of the world. It says in James 1 that pure religion is “to keep oneself unstained from the world.” And it’s not as though this were disagreeable to us. Having been cleansed and purified by Christ, wallowing in the mud does not hold its former appeal. I suppose our sinful nature still identifies in some perverse way with the muck and mire of the world. But we are no longer defined by that sinful nature, but by who we are in Christ, and as Christ’s virgins we don’t care a whit for what the world has to offer.
The virgins are carrying lamps. More specifically, at the beginning of the parable the virgins are all carrying lit lamps. Jesus spoke of lit lamps in Matthew 5, in the Sermon on the Mount, “Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” So the light from the lamp is good works. But a lamp does not generate light of itself. Light comes from a flame. Nor can a lamp generate a flame of itself. A lamp only has a flame when it has oil. When the lamp has oil in it, then the flame burns and gives off light.
In the parable, the lamps represent the virgins themselves. They have received oil, which is the Word of God. The Word of God kindles faith and feeds it, just as oil feeds the flame. And just as the flame gives off light, so also faith shines forth in good works. If you cut off oil from the flame, the flame dies. So also, if you stop feeding faith with the Word of God, faith dies, and that’s the point of the parable.
Now among the ten virgins there is a distinction. “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.” The fools have misunderstood how lamps work. They supposed, “Well, it’s lit now. Therefore it will always be lit. I don’t need any more oil.”
But faith is not an inanimate object that remains unchanged over time. If I put a rock in the middle of the floor and didn’t do anything with it for a week, and we checked on it next Sunday, there would still be a rock in the middle of the floor. But if we left the candles on the altar burning for a week and checked on them next Sunday, we would not find them in the same state in which we left them. We would find them unlit, dark, and cold.
Faith is a living thing that must feed. It’s not enough that at one point in time I believed. If I want to remain a Christian then I must continue believing, and that means I want to continue hearing the Word of the Gospel that saved me in the first place.
All ten virgins started as Christians. They all had the oil of God’s Word, which fed their faith, which in turn shone forth the light of good works. If the Last Day had come immediately, they all would have been saved by faith in Jesus through the Word that they had received.
But it says, “Since the bridegroom was taking his time, they all became drowsy and fell asleep.” The Last Day did not immediately come. It is now nearly two thousand years since Jesus ascended into heaven. We have all become drowsy and fallen asleep, not in the sense that we’ve all died, nor in the sense that we’ve returned to our former sin, but in the sense that the Last Day will come upon us the way an alarm clock comes upon someone who’s sleeping: even though you know it’s coming, it comes suddenly and shockingly.
Now we welcome the coming of the day of Christ. We long to depart out of the night of this world. But Jesus makes the point in the parable that when day dawns, there’s no more time for doing nighttime things, like lighting lamps. When he comes, there’s no time left for hearing the Word and believing. Either you’ve kept hearing the Word of Christ and thereby kept faith’s flame aglow, or you’ve stopped hearing the Word and faith has died. When the Last Day comes, those who believe no longer face the danger of falling away. But on the other hand, when the Last Day comes, those who have fallen away will have no opportunity to return.
“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.” Those with lit lamps can heed the cry and meet the Bridegroom. Those who have faith will rejoice like we sang in the hymn, “Zion hears the watchmen singing / And all her heart with joy is springing. / She wakes, she rises from her gloom.” But the foolish, who thought it sufficient that their names were on the roster of a congregation that they had stopped attending, who thought it good enough that they had been confirmed when they were young, who could rattle off the Apostles’ Creed or Lord’s Prayer but through neglect of the Word no longer actually knew how to confess or pray – the foolish will panic on the Last Day, and it will be too late to do anything about it. They cannot heed the call.
The foolish try to find a workaround, “Give us some of your oil!” But no one can believe for another. The wise say, “Go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.” “Go to the servants whom the master set over his household to give them their food at the proper time. Go to the preachers of the Word. Get oil, and believe.” The wise virgins point the foolish to the place they had been going to get their oil. But on the Last Day the oil dealers can deal no more and the oil shops are closed.
And as the foolish were going to get what could no longer be gotten, “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.’” They know the right words to use, but they do not actually believe that Jesus Christ is Lord. And Jesus is not willing to do anything for those who believed in him once upon a time. There is no consolation prize, no partial credit, no half year in heaven, half year in hell by turns. They might as well have never believed in the first place. “But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’”
Jesus concludes, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” Perhaps it seemed strange hearing that command at the end of the reading and then being told, “This is the Gospel of the Lord.” What Gospel is there in commandments? But Jesus’ warnings to us show his love for us. Many false teachers have gone out, saying, “Once saved, always saved. If ever you’ve believed in Jesus, you will enter into the marriage feast.” But that’s not true, and Jesus defends us against this false doctrine in today’s reading. Just because a fire is lit now does not mean it will always be lit. A fire needs fuel in order to keep burning. Faith needs the Word in order to stay alive.
And we see the grace of Christ in his eagerness to get this Word to you. He sent out apostles and evangelists, he has ordained pastors and put this little oil shop close to you so that you can come and receive. This is simply a continuation of the grace that Christ showed us on the cross. He wouldn’t become man, die for the sin of the world, rise from the dead, ascend into heaven, and then hide his light under a basket. Rather, through the proclamation of the Gospel he makes his light shine before men, so that we see his good works of redemption and glorify his Father in heaven.
When Jesus says, “Watch therefore,” he simply means “come and hear the Word.” And he provides through that Word, without money and without price, the forgiveness of sins, eternal life, his own body and blood, all the riches of heaven, safe passage through a dark world, and a warm welcome into the realms of light. Nothing on earth can match the Gospel of the Lord, either in its grace or in its benefits.
And now let us bring this Church Year to a close by reflecting on Jesus’ words, “and the door was shut.” The day is coming when, by the grace of Christ, we will enter the marriage feast and the strife of this world will be over. The door will close in the face of sin, death, the devil, the world, our corrupt nature, and the fires of hell. Then there will be a feast full of joy and jollity. We will be truly carefree, and can let our guard down, and can rest from our labors. There will nevermore be tears or pain or weariness, but we will be with our Bridegroom forever. Would that that day were today! And if not today, then tomorrow. And if not tomorrow, then the next day. And if it should be a week, then we’ll gather here again to receive oil for our lamps through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.