Proper 27 A
All In, Some Out
St. Matthew 25:1-13
9 November 2014 – Redeemer
Who is the main character in the parable of the 10 virgins? The 5 wise bridesmaids? 5 foolish bridesmaids? Nope. The parable centers on the bridegroom, who for most of the story isn’t even in the story. What is the main event in the parable? Is it shopping for the bridesmaid dresses? Getting matching shoes? All the girls getting their nails done at the spa and having their hair done? No. None of that. The main event is the arrival of the groom.
The bridesmaids had nothing to go on. They couldn’t see the bridegroom. He wasn’t there, counting down the minutes or giving the signal that all was ready for Him to take his bride home. All they had was His Word. I’m coming. Be ready. It could be any time.
It’s a parable of the Church, our lives as Christians. Christ is hidden from our eyes. We cannot see Him like Peter and Thomas did in the upper room or like Paul on the road to Damascus. The Church waits on Jesus and all we have is His Word.
With this Parable Jesus calls us to be made ready to enter into His wedding feast when He brings His bride home.
Ten Bridesmaids are going to the wedding. Let’s be clear they are all going to the wedding. They’re in. They ordered all their dresses from David’s Bridal in one of those new fancy colors – you’d call it green – they called it Verde. They knew the groom. He told them he was coming – they’re planning on being there.
The Kingdom of Heaven is intended for everyone. The bridegroom Jesus wants everyone in. He came into the world for sinners and you qualify. Every one of you who has coveted your neighbor’s wife or husband, who has compared your parents to your friend’s parents and found your’s wanting. You who have who lured and tempted people away from friendships and marriages and workplaces for your own pleasure and benefit. Jesus came into the world for pastors who grumble about their congregations and yearn for the successful church down the street and for people who have roast pastor for lunch every Sunday noon. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. You shall not, but you have again and again and that means you ought to be out – no green (excuse me – verde) gown for you, no invite for you, no wedding party festivities, but your Father in heaven does not want you out. He wants you in. Christ Jesus came into the world for sinners because He wants you in.
Remember this wedding is all about the Groom. This is a great cultural difference between us and New Testament in Israel. In the days of Jesus the wedding was all about the groom, the bride’s great claim to fame was her husband. The Kingdom of heaven is all about heavenly bridegroom – Jesus. But everything about Jesus is for His bride – He isn’t groomzilla – demanding His proper place and that everyone makes sure He gets His recognition. He in fact is often a groom in hiding, hiding under His work, service, and love for His beloved. His birth was no great affair to the eyes -born in a barn, to a poor virgin, in little Bethlehem. His mom came from backwater Nazareth. His life was no great show of might and power. The first time He is publicly recognized as the Groom is also the first time He is seen with His bride – loose prostitutes, thieving tax collectors, and abusive soldiers. He shares the muddy waters of the Jordan with His bride. Can you imagine the gossip at the Jordan that day. He’s with her, really? I thought He was better than that. What does He see in her? Yes, there were moments when this groom had the world at his feet – when He fed the 5000 or raised the dead, but whenever He talked about the wedding, the crowds fled. Why would He unite Himself to sinners? Why would He suffer such a marriage and bear the curse of her? The answer is simple and silly, miraculous and mysterious – He loves her. He loves you.
At His birth, baptism, and cross, Jesus chose to unite Himself to you – in the flesh, in your sin, in your stead. This heavenly bridegroom does not live for Himself, but lives and dies for His bride – so that everyone, so that each one of you, so that all ten bridesmaids, the whole, complete, totality of sinners might be in.
But they don’t all get in, do they? Back to the 10 bridesmaids standing there in their verde gowns. It was an afternoon wedding, but they all brought their lamps – a fashionable accessory. But here we see the distinction – five 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. Remember – all invited, all in, yet there is a difference, not because of the groom, but because of foolishness.
Here is the distinction – five bridesmaids thought everything was going to go exactly as planned. Afternoon wedding. We’re in. Don’t worry about it. Why drag along a jug of oil? Who wants a gallon jug of olive oil dangling off her wrist? We know the groom. Everything will be OK. Don’t worry. Five other bridesmaids knew that anything could go wrong. The limo might get a flat tire. The groom might stop at the pub for a drink with his friends. Yes, it was a four o’clock wedding, but you never know. So they brought oil and not a dainty little travel size container that fits discreetly in their Prado bag, but the two liter, bulk jug from the restaurant supply section at Coborns.
The five foolish virgins knew Jesus. The five wise virgins believed in Him. Jesus makes it quite clear that the five foolish virgins “took no oil with them.” Not a drop. Not even in their lamps. Nothing. No faith, no trust, no grace, no forgiveness and therefore no way in. They didn’t not believe. Why not? Didn’t they know that things never go as planned? Weren’t they aware of the time change and the fact that it got darker an hour earlier? Didn’t they want to get into the greatest party ever thrown? Why? We don’t know – there usually isn’t an answer for foolishness. Why wouldn’t people want their sins forgiven? Want to live forever? Who knows?
It is not your sin or your sins that keep you out of the wedding feast – it is unbelief. It is treating Jesus like a fashionable accessory that looks good dangling around your life as long as He doesn’t inconvenience you. As long as He doesn’t insist on being in every picture. As long as He is a nice, quiet, submissive little groom, then Jesus is fine.
Repent and believe. He wants you in. He’s given you everything you need to be ready. He’s taken your sins, died your death. He’s washed you in baptism. Covered you with forgiveness in the Absolution. Fed you the appetizer of heaven in the Lord’s Supper. He’s filled you full of His gifts, His love, His mercy.
Faith is not convenient. Sometimes it’s a challenge to lug around His grace – it gets in the way when we want to sin and becomes a burden when we don’t want to forgive. The world may well deem us Christians foolish, but we’ll bear the mockery because foolish is exactly what Jesus is and Jesus does. He takes us sinners to Himself by loving us to death and then loving us to life when He comes again. In Jesus Name. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
8 November 2014 anno Domini