Parable of the Ten Virgins
Who here likes to paint? Who here plays an instrument? Most musicians or artists have stories of awkward moments when they were performing. Funny or awkward.
The funniest I remember was when I was in a Christian rock band and we were starting a performance. The show was to start with a blast and the lead guitarist had just cranked up his amplifier. But his strap came loose as he reached to adjust the music on the music stand.
As a result the guitar dropped to the ground with an incredible noise, causing everyone in the audience to clasp their ears in pain. He then leaned down to pick up his guitar.
On the way back up his head hit the music stand really hard and his sheet music went flying all over the stage and audience. That was the funniest.
The most awkward performance was one time I was to play saxophone at a friend’s wedding. I was to play a 5 minute prelude and then the music for the processional on the sax.
I just had to wait for a signal to let me know the bride was ready and everything was a go. So at the appointed time I received the signal.
I started playing a mixture of jazz and classical melodies, most improvised. At the 5 minute mark I was signaled that the bride was not actually ready, and I was to keep playing.
Same at the 10 minute, 15 minute and 20 minute mark. Finally at 25 minutes, my mouth virtually numb and totally dry from sustained playing, I was signaled to begin the processional music on the sax.
I probably did ok, although people commented that I started looping, or repeating myself, after about 15 minutes.
That was the most awkward and the funniest moment I remember, and they happened because people who thought they were prepared were not prepared.
I’m sure many of us have stories ourselves of not being as prepared as we should have been. They say that inspiration is actually 9 parts preparation and 1 part inspiration. I think ‘they’ are right.
Today’s passages are all about the second Coming of Jesus. And the main passage I want to focus on from Matthew 25 is about being ready or prepared for the coming of Jesus.
I think I should say something first about the Second Coming though, because it’s not something we have talked a lot about here. Often in church we use the word: “Advent”. It comes from the Latin word adventus meaning "coming".
Put simply, the first Advent, or the first time Christ came to earth, we know He came as a baby in a manger. In just a few weeks we will be starting our Advent services, leading up to Christmas day when we mark the birth of Christ.
So the story of the Nativity and then the story of the Gospels is really all about the first coming of Christ.
When He was here, before He ascended to the Father, He talked a lot of the next time He would be coming to planet earth personally.
In the interim period, He promised that He would send His Holy Spirit, which He did send on the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit has been the presence of God, of Christ, to the Church and to all believers since He was sent.
But Jesus promised that He would return one day in glory. And so today’s passage is a call to examine ourselves, and its purpose is that we end up being ready. Being ready for Him ultimately.
But being ready for the return of Christ is everything to do with what we do today, how we prepare today, how we cultivate in our lives a deep readiness for His return.
That’s what we’re looking at today as we look at this parable, which is a response to a question asked of Jesus in Matthew 24:
1 Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. 2 “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” 3 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
So Jesus answers that question in a number of ways, including with the parable of the 10 virgins. Let’s break it down in order to better understand what Jesus is saying.
The Kingdom
Matthew 25: 1 “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.
Jesus is talking about the kingdom of heaven at the time of His return. The kingdom is the reign of God, the places and hearts over which Jesus’ Lordship is in control.
Jesus personalizes the kingdom here as elsewhere by getting us to focus on people who embody His kingdom or who represent His Kingdom.
Since Jesus is talking about the hearts over which Jesus has control and lordship, hearts cleansed and made pure by the blood of the Lamb, we can see that He is talking about Christians in this parable.
The Groom
The groom in this parable is none other than Jesus. Elsewhere in Scripture Jesus is referred to directly or indirectly as a bridegroom? From the beginning of Christ’s ministry, John the Baptist used the analogy of bridegroom and bride:
28 You yourselves can testify that I said, ’I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of him.’ 29 The bride belongs to the bridegroom . The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. 30 He must become greater; I must become less. John 3:28-30:
Paul used the analogy of the love of Christ for His church with a husband’s love for his wife. “Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.” Ephesians 5:24-27.
Revelation 19:6 Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: "Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. 7 Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. 8 Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear."
The Virgins
In the parable the virgins are waiting for the groom. Their name suggests purity. Purity of character perhaps, or at least we can say that they are focused on the bridegroom.
Their intent is to meet with the bridegroom. Throughout Christian history the 10 virgins in this story have been understood to be the church.
We’re not talking about those outside the church and then those inside the church, we’re not talking church-goers vs non-church-goers.
There isn’t a sound argument to be made for that. We’re talking here about the church, those who profess to follow Christ. That makes this parable all the more compelling.
Matthew 25: 1 “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4 The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps.
So we have 10 virgins in all who go on a journey. All of them are eager to meet the bridegroom. Half of them are prepared to meet the bridegroom. Half of them aren’t. 5 are foolish, 5 are wise. 5 took their lamps with zero fuel. 5 took their lamps along with jars of oil.
5 The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. 6 “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’
The bridegroom takes a long time to arrive and when he finally does show up, he comes at an unexpected time. It is dark. There is not enough daylight to light the path to the bridegroom.
For us, for Christians who await the return of Christ, or who await the day when we will see Him face to face at our death, we also do not know the day that that will happen.
In recent months Christians have made a lot of bad press predicting the day Jesus will return. Of course the days pass and then the embarrassment and the apologies start flowing.
The issue is not WHEN Jesus will return. The issue is not, should Christ tarry, WHEN we will die and meet Him face to face.
Focusing on WHEN can cause us to be obsessed with something that a) truly doesn’t matter and cannot be known by us and b) distracts us from the whole point of this parable.
The point is preparation. The virgins who took their lamps and no oil clearly did not know some important things. The first is what we’ve already talked about – we don’t know when Jesus will return or when we’ll face Him.
The second is that a lamp without oil is not a useful thing. A lamp REQUIRES oil in order to serve its function. The virgins who took their lamps and extra jars of oil understood that they needed to be prepared for the long haul, that they needed good fuel.
The Oil
Since this is a parable, an allegory…what does the oil…the oil itself, that state of having the oil mean?
Oil is a fuel. Most commonly, olive oil – easily available – was used in Jesus’ day. It is what keeps the lamp wick burning.
Without the oil, there may still be a wick, but the wick would either go out or burn super fast. So the oil is the part that keeps the light burning brightly.
What are some things that fuel the Christian life? [Prayer, Bible study, fellowship, deep engagement in community as a Christian – witnessing to the love of God and the cross of Jesus, the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit]
In a nutshell, if we’re to take this parable down to its essence and talk about what it means for us right here, right now, we can talk about the virgins representing perhaps two different approaches to faith. One is the “empty lamp” approach.
In a sense, when you think of an empty lamp, you can think of the bare bones of what a Christian is, the skeletal structure or outline of the way a Christian lives that distinguishes him or her as a Christian.
That might include regular church attendance, some level of participation in the life of the church. It would definitely include self-identification as a Christian, it might include acts of charity. That’s the positive stuff. The outward stuff.
For the empty-lampers, let’s call ‘em, there’s the same potential, the same access to the deeper life in Christ that everyone has in the church, the same availability of people to look up to, to follow others as they follow Christ…
Tthe same deep wellspring of life in the Holy Spirit to drink from, the same God to pursue and grow to know and the same Bible from which to drink the revelation of God.
But somehow, and for reasons known to these folks and to God alone, there is the decision not to go there. There is a level of satisfaction with the empty lamp, the bare bones of the Christian life.
Perhaps distracted by other things, other apparent sources of light, there is a choice to not pursue at a deeper level the things of God.
Or perhaps even though they are in the ‘Christian camp’ so to speak, they remain, in truth, unconvinced that Jesus is the only way to God.
They entertain that there are other ways to God, showing a lack of understanding and embrace of the gospel, and so they simply don’t have the passionate commitment to go as deep as possible in to their relationship with God.
Not having any oil, there is not much light there. Not much witness to the goodness of gospel, not much pointing people to Jesus.
The full-lampers, let’s call ‘em, have made different choices with the same potential. They have kept their lamps full of oil, or if they have gone dry, they have pressed in to God and known the replenishing of the Holy Spirit.
If they have doubted, they have worked through their doubts enough to have grown to doubt their doubts.
Now there’s an odd part to this parable. v8 “The 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.’
We might be inclined to point out that the wise ones are selfish here. Instead of giving the unprepared ones some of their stock of oil, they say they don’t have enough to share and point them to go and purchase some for themselves.
That might sound convincing, until we realize that this is a parable. And in the parable the oil represents the fullness of a life, the richness of a person whose character has been refined through deep desire for close proximity to God.
The oil suggests someone who through persistent pursuit of God in prayer and study of the Word, in worship and in fellowship and service to God and others, has prepared herself or himself for Christ’s coming.
This is a tough parable to teach on, and in fact in may be the first time I’ve preached on it. I’ve always considered it challenging, but not until I started to prepare this sermon did the full impact of this parable hit me.
What is essential to understand is that we live in the light and love of God’s grace. We are saved of course, not through the things we do, the prayers we pray, the amount of time we spend studying the Bible, our acts of kindness to others.
We are saved solely and completely by grace…undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour. When we believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, when we repent of those sins and turn to God, and receive Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, we have been saved.
This parable, I believe, is along the lines of another passage of Scripture in Philippians that we’ve studied before.
Philippians 2:12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed--not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence--continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
We trust in the finished work of the cross. We place our whole hope in Jesus Christ, and when we do that we experience salvation and we can enjoy that salvation, that restored relationship with God in full measure. But then we are cautioned.
We are cautioned here in the first 13 verses of Matthew 25, we are cautioned in the remainder of this chapter and elsewhere in Scripture…we are cautioned to not take for granted our salvation.
We are encouraged to work it out, to make sure that our faith has feet, to be sure that ours is a faith that expresses itself. Faith with no expression – no passion and no outworking, no deeds, is actually not the kind of faith that the Bible describes and that God wants.
James unpacks this for us in chapter 2 of his book.
16 If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. 18 But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that--and shudder.
20 You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless ? 21 Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did….26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
In a truly Biblical faith, what we believe and how we live that out in our actions is one thing.
We are born anew when we receive Jesus Christ, and we understand that this birth, like all births, is a beginning.
When we take in nourishment, when we start to crawl and then walk and then run, those are signs of growth. Those are signs of the reality of the new birth in our lives.
And then our light shines, and others are drawn to that light. And as they get closer to us they come to understand that that light is actually Jesus Christ in us, the hope of glory.
And as the story ends, we hear again: 13 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour”.
As we close, let’s revisit the passage that was read earlier from 1 Thessalonians. Let’s stand as we read.
1 Thes 4:13 Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. 14 We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage each other with these words.
Amen.
