Everyone likes a good wedding—well, almost everyone. From Prince Charles and Lady Diana, to Prince Frederick to Mary Donaldson, or Prince William and Kate Middleton, royal weddings are the fare of both TV and women’s magazines. Every now and then TV soaps have a wedding, and all of them seem to boost the ratings. Sometimes the wedding of a grandchild is the thing that is keeping an ailing grandma alive, at least humanly speaking.
Now, what is the high point of the wedding? I am speaking of weddings in modern Western cultures, because that is what I know about, as you do. Where is there the most anticipation? Is it not when the bride appears? She has arrived at the church, smiling and beautiful, decked in white. And there is the groom, nervously waiting for her at the end of the aisle, shedding a tear.
Or perhaps it is where they say ‘I will’, or where they are pronounced man and wife, or where he kisses her, or when they walk out with the party to be showered by confetti or rice or rose petals (if the wardens allow it), or as has become increasingly popular, to a cascade of bubbles. But whatever point is the high point, the bride has to be involved.
So it is interesting that this is a parable of a wedding when no bride is mentioned. In fact, the bride is irrelevant to the story and the focus is on the bridegroom. For this parable is a wedding with no bride—at least, there is no bride mentioned, though we are meant to assume her. But in this parable, the focus is on the arrival of the bridegroom. Now, in our culture, it is not unusual for a bride to be a little late. You expect ten minutes or so to be within the realms of acceptable or fashionable lateness. It allows for the suspense to build, and latecomers to see her entrance.
But here it is the bridegroom whose entrance is long awaited, and he is very late, later than any bride I have heard of, except a runaway bride. Verses 5 to 6:
5The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. 6At midnight the cry rang out: “Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!” (NIV)
Certainly no bridegroom would get away with that nowadays. But waiting for the bridegroom are ten virgins. They are girlfriends of the bride. In the culture to which Jesus came, the first century Jewish culture of Palestine, it is the groom, not the bride, who makes the grand entrance, and the virgins, or bridesmaids, wait along the way to greet the groom and escort him into the wedding banquet.
But we are also told that five of the virgins are foolish and five are wise. They all took lamps so they expected him to be late, or to come at night. But five took extra oil in a jar so that they would douse with oil the simple wick wrapped on the end of a stick, the lamp, and it would burn for 15 minutes or so. But five virgins didn’t bring the oil, which meant that the wick would be immediately burned up and the lamp would go out.
Now, all the virgins fell asleep, both the wise and the foolish, so preparedness is not to prop your eyes up with toothpicks while you wait. Rather, the wise virgins slept knowing that, when they arose, they would have oil, and the foolish, well, they are foolish, so we don’t know what they were thinking or whether they were thinking at all. But we do know that what they tried when they woke up didn’t work. Verses 7 to 9:
7Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8The foolish ones said to the wise, "Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out." 9“No," they replied, "there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves." (NIV)
The foolish ones didn’t think ahead, and the wise realize that they only have enough oil for themselves. So the foolish virgins’ requests are rejected: “There is not enough. It is too late. Now is too late to ask.”
They are horrible words, aren’t they? These are words of rejection. But they aren’t the most horrible words of rejection in the passage, for there is a sharper rejection. Look at verses 11 and 12:
11Later the others also came. “Lord, Lord,” they said, “open the door for us!” 12But he replied, “Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.” (NIV)
But he was the bridegroom, and these were bridesmaids. What does he mean, “I do not know you?” Well, here Jesus is picking up on something he said earlier, in Matthew 7:21-3, that “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evil doers.’”
Friends, in this parable, Jesus speaks of the future, his second coming, which for us also is future. Friends, Jesus has promised that he will return, for Jesus is the bridegroom, and the time of his coming, prior to his wedding feast, will be a time of both acceptance and rejection.
This Risen Jesus Christ will come back to earth at a time he is least expected. And we watch for him, not by propping our eyelids open with matchsticks, not by looking and forgetting to sleep, but by being ready now, so that we can sleep easy. It is a paradox. We watch by being ready, but by being ready, we don’t have to watch anymore. We can relax.
So here is a warning for us. Verse 13:
Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.
Dear friends, we must be ready for Jesus’ return. We don’t know when it will happen, but there are things we can do now to be ready. We can repent and believe. To repent is to change our minds about God and about ourselves. God is God, and we are his creatures, which means that we submit ourselves to our good creator and redeemer. To believe is to trust God’s word and works. He promises to save all who come to him and he has acted to save us in history. He sent his Son to die and rise again. So, friend, that is how to have our oil jars full, by repenting and believing.
Amen.