Most of Jesus’ parables are aimed at telling us about the kingdom of heaven or what it will be like when that kingdom arrives. Now this passage begins with the phrase, “At that time, the kingdom of heaven will be like,” and then he goes on to describe a scene from a very typical Jewish wedding at the time of Jesus. Now here are a few things that you need to know about a Jewish wedding at the time of Jesus. First off, the father of the groom is the one who sets the date for the wedding. He sets the day and the time and then he tells no one – not even his son and not even his wife. When the time arrives, the father goes to his son and says, “Go and get your bride, we are going to have a wedding.” Everyone is told to be ready. Everyone can guess about when the wedding will happen because of certain signs, but no one knows for sure. The second coming of Jesus is often described in terms of wedding imagery. The church is the bride, Jesus, the son of God is the groom, God the father is the father of the groom, who sets the time and the date of the wedding and then tells no one – not even the son. Not even Jesus knows when he will return. And in the case of Mathew 25 the attendants of the bride, in other words the ten virgins, represent us, the church and the lamp oil represent our faith. Half of them were wise – they kept an eye on their oil and made provision for it. In other words, they minded their faith. The five who were foolish did not keep track of their oil, did not mind their faith and they lost out. Now this parable speaks to Christians of all generations and it says this – the son of God is coming. Mind your faith because you do not know the hour he will come. Only the Father knows the time, so be ready. That is the single point of this parable.
But, let’s take a look at some of the faith lessons in this parable. First off, there are some things in life that we cannot borrow and faith is one of them. Faith is the most intensely personal experience of our life. Other people can help us to walk toward faith, they can pray for us, they can encourage us; but in the end, faith is something that we have to embrace for ourselves. It cannot be borrowed. The five foolish virgins in this story represent those who think that they can rely on someone else’s faith. It’s kind of like the man in one church who told me one time, “My wife handles the religion in this family.” In other words, he thought he could borrow his wife’s faith whenever he needed it. Not true, faith cannot be borrowed.
The second faith lesson is that sometimes some things cannot be put off until the last moment. It’s not that the foolish virgins did not want to be part of the wedding; they genuinely wanted to be part of the celebration they just had not given any forethought or planning.
When I encounter someone who is spiritually apathetic, it’s not because they don’t want heaven, they just don’t want the preparation and the forethought that’s required. And that brings us to the third and final faith lesson; it’s the issue of readiness. When Christ returns and God holds his grand celebration, will you be ready? I’ll be the first to admit that this theme has been abused over the years by Christians and cult leaders alike but the truth is friends there is an element of judgement in this parable. When the foolish virgins arrive, we’re told that the door is shut and it is not to be opened again and the parable ends with this advice, “Therefore, keep watch.” What does it mean to be watchful?
Let me tell you a story. I want to tell you the story about my best friend in high school. His name is Mike and Mike was born with cystic fibrosis, which means he was going to have a short lifespan and he would be lucky to make it to age 30. But, Mike was feisty and he was a fighter and he was going to make the doctors eat their words. Mike was also a little bit wild. If he was going to have a short lifespan then he had to squeeze in a whole lot of living in a short amount of time. Consequently, Mike was a lot of fun to be around. Mike and I grew very close. We were like brothers. We both worked part-time at the Dairy Queen and we were often times scheduled together and during the slow times in the evenings we would have long conversations and we would share secrets with one another and we would hold those secrets. I have told Mike things that I haven’t told anyone else. We would also talk about faith and Mike would scoff.
Well we went off to college. He went to a state university and I went to a small private Christian college. We caught up with each other once again at his graduation party. We talked about our future. We were both going to graduate school. This time he was going to a different state university to get a Master’s degree in statistics and I was going to seminary and of course the subject of faith came up. Well over his four years of college he had become even more stubborn and more convinced that faith was just a crutch and a fantasy. So, I asked him, “Mike what will it take to convince you?” Well, he said my Mom and Dad got divorced a number of years ago. My Dad remarried shortly after the divorce, but since that time my Mom has had no one in her life and she’s very lonely. So, you pray to your God – and I remember how he pointed his finger at me and he said it in a tone where he was almost daring me – he said, “you pray to your God that my Mom can find a man to be in her life.” So, I did.
After graduate school, we both moved around a little bit. Eventually, he settled in a city in Iowa and I was living in a small town close to that city and so we met for lunch. We began talking and we caught up with each other. Turns out he had lived in Chicago. They were trying to sell their house in Chicago and buy their current house. They were paying two mortgages and it was really breaking the bank on them.
The housing market in Chicago at that time was dead. Throughout the conversation once again the matter of faith came up and I asked about his Mom and he said yes, she met this wonderful man and she is very, very happy and I said well I guess that makes a believer out of you. No, he wasn’t going to do that. He dared me again – he said – you pray to your God that our house in Chicago will finally sell – then I will believe.
A year went by and we met at a class reunion. We talked, got caught up and I asked him about the house and he said it had sold. It sold a week after we had lunch together when I prayed for that house to be sold. I said, “Mike that’s two in a row.” No, he wasn’t going to believe.
We also talked about the fact that they were trying to adopt a child. Because of his cystic fibrosis they were unable to conceive a child. The adoption agency was reluctant to even take their application because of Mike’s shortened life span and the fertility clinic was really not holding out much hope for them. Daring me once again he said, “You pray for the adoption,” and I stopped him. I said, “No Mike I am not going to do this anymore. You can’t ride around on the coattails of my faith. You need to be the one to pray and see the results. That is the only way you will believe; you have to do the praying now.”
We moved around once again after that. Mike died at the age of 41 – far beyond what the doctors had projected. I knew about his death six months after it happened so I was not able to be at the funeral, but the Mother of one of my friends sent me his obituary.
I read his obituary and it talked about his very full and very colorful life. But I am hopeful because of what I read at the end of the obituary. It said that he was survived by his wife, Jo Ellen, and his daughter Leah. I checked into that. It turns out they did not need the adoption agency, and they did not even need the fertility clinic. That tells me that there just might be hope that Mike was finally convinced and that makes me hopeful that he and I will meet up once again. When time comes to an end and we meet up at the wedding feast of the lamb, we will get together and we will laugh and laugh and laugh for eternity.
Be watchful friends. Own your own faith. Don’t rely on the preacher to read God’s word to you. You have to get into God’s word. Yes, sometimes we have to have other people pray for us, but we also need to do our own praying as well. And don’t just send money to missionaries and expect them to then do the task for you. By all means, send money to the missionaries – they need it desperately – but recognize that you too live in a mission field and as a believer you are called to minister in a mission field where you are planted. Don’t rely on some far-off missionary that you send money to take care of it for you. You have to own it for yourself. And that friends is what it means to be watchful. Amen.
