Be Ready Part 2 Series

Jesus is coming again. Each day is one day closer to that Day. Jesus give many warning about that day.

Matthew 24:42 “Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.

In His Olivet Discourse, Jesus talks about the perilous times that wait for us as the time of His coming draws closer. As we have discussed over the last few week, it matter little if Jesus actually comes or he grants us our last heartbeat. Either way, we will meet Jesus, either in the fruition of our salvation or in Judgment. Either way, we do not know when that day will be.

As we have discussed, these parables (Matthew 24:43-25:13) tell us that the time of Jesus’s coming may be sooner than expected, or later than expected. In all cases, Jesus’s coming will be unannounced and unexpected. So Jesus tells us to “be on the alert.” The NIV say “keep watch.” As we will see in today passage, this could just as easily be translated in context as to “be prepared” or “be ready” which is the sermon title of this message.

These parables about being ready all have the element of salvation for those who are prepared and ready. Judgment is in store for those who are not. In all of these parables, it was never a matter about mere belief about Jesus. The characters in these parables all knew the time was coming. Last week, in Matthew 24:43, the head of house knew the thief would be coming and in Matthew 24:45-51 the evil servant knew the master would be returning. Today’s parable about the 10 bridesmaids, all of them knew the bridegroom was coming. The question is not about belief but of preparation. Are you ready?

Matthew 25:1–13

This parable is quite a realistic portrayal of the typical middle-eastern Jewish wedding, still practiced in many villages today. A wedding was an event for the entire village. The following story is told by a visitor to Palestine many years ago:

“When we were approaching the gates of a Galilean town,” he writes, “I caught a sight of ten maidens gaily clad and playing some kind of musical instrument, as they danced along the road in front of our car; when I asked what they were doing, the [driver] told me that they were going to keep the bride company till her bridegroom arrived. I asked him if there was any chance of seeing the wedding, but he shook his head, saying in effect: ‘It might be tonight, or tomorrow night, or in a fortnight’s time; nobody ever knows for certain.’ Then he went on to explain that one of the great things to do, if you could, at a middle-class wedding in Palestine, was to catch the bridal party napping.

So the bridegroom comes unexpectedly, and sometimes in the middle of the night; it is true that he is required by public opinion to send a man along the street to shout: ‘Behold! the bridegroom is coming!’ but that may happen at any time; so the bridal party have to be ready to go out into the street at any time to meet him, whenever he chooses to come. ... Other important points are that no one is allowed on the streets after dark without a lighted lamp, and also that, when the bridegroom has once arrived, and the door has been shut, late-comers to the ceremony are not admitted.”[1]

Jesus takes this scenario of a typical wedding and compares it to the Kingdom of Heaven.

Matthew 25:1 “Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.

“Virgin” in the Greek means young unmarried girls, or in context of our passage today we could very easily call them bridesmaids for their part in the wedding procession. As I had mentioned in the example, having a lamp or torch was necessary. All 10 of these bridesmaids had their lamps and the lamps were ready to meet the bridegroom. The bridesmaid were the same except for one thing:

Matthew 25:2 Five of them were foolish, and five were prudent.

Five were “foolish.” The Greek word “m?ros” where we get our English word moron. It means to be stupid, or devoid of wisdom, lacking sound judgment.

The other 5 prudent, or in some translations, wise, or sensible, meaning they have good common sense. How so?

Matthew 25:3–4 For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, 4 but the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps.

We need to be careful about over analyzing this. There are those who feel we must allegorize every element in the parable. There are those who say the oil represent the Holy Spirit and others say the oil means good works. I believe the oil stand for oil. I’m trying to not read too much into this story.