Last Sunday of the Church Year + Matthew 25:1-13 + November 26, 2017

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

1)         Ten virgins wait for the Bridegroom to arrive. He has already married his bride. Now He comes to take her to her new home. In Jesus’ day, when a man and woman were pledged to be married, they were legally married at that moment. But they did not immediately begin living together. The bride went back to her parents’ home while the groom went back to his home and made it ready for his new wife. Then one evening, the man would gather his attendants, form a procession, and go to his bride’s home to fetch her and bring her to her new abode, where Bride and Groom, family and friends, and all their attendants would feast in joy over this life-long union between man and wife. That is what these ten virgins are looking forward to. They know the Bridegroom is coming that evening so they get their lamps and wait at the home of their newly married friend. All ten have lamps. All ten wait in eager anticipation. All ten become drowsy when dusk turns into darkness and darkness turns into night. Although all ten wait for the Bridegroom’s arrival, only five are wise. The five wise virgins knew that if the Bridegroom was delayed at all, the oil in their lamps would not be enough, so they “took oil in their vessels with their lamps.” The other five virgins that await the Bridegroom are foolish. What makes them foolish is that they think they are prepared for the Bridegroom when in reality they are not. They “took their lamps and took no oil with them.” When at midnight the cry comes “Behold, the Bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!” the wise virgins, having fuel for their lamps, are ready for the joyful occasion. The foolish virgins awake to realize their oil is gone. The occasion of rejoicing becomes occasion for fear and regret. When they arrive at the house of the Bridegroom the door was shut and the Bridegroom sternly answers their pleas, “Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.”

2)         The parable is a picture of the church in the last days, for Jesus says, “Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.” The Bridegroom is Christ. St. Paul says in Ephesians 5:25-27 that Christ, “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.” Christ has betrothed the church to Himself. He has washed her in the waters of Holy Baptism and cleansed her from her sin. He has married the church, though He has not come to bring her to her heavenly home. On the day of His appearing He will take His holy bride to her new abode, the one St. John foresees in Revelation 21:2, “the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” On that day the union of Christ and His bride, the church, will be consummated and all the baptized faithful will dwell with the Triune God forever. At that eternal wedding banquet the Lord “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4). On that day, the words of God in Isaiah 62:5 will be fulfilled, “as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, So shall your God rejoice over you.”

3)         This is the heavenly banquet which all Christians eagerly anticipate, for the baptized are the ten virgins. But Jesus makes a distinction between Christians when He says, “five of them were wise, and five where foolish.” What does it mean to be a foolish Christian? He says, “Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them.” The foolish virgins are unprepared for the Bridegroom’s return, though they think they’re prepared. The wise, on the other hand, come prepared to wait for the long haul. “The wise took oil in the vessels with their lamps.” All ten virgins wanted to enter the wedding banquet. But five of them, half of them, assumed that the Bridegroom would come quickly and would not delay. The other five hoped He would come quickly, but knew that He might be delayed. The five wise virgins get for themselves more oil lest the Bridegroom arrive to find them without any. What is this oil which Christians need for their lamps? The oil is faith. Faith is the only thing that makes one ready for the return of the Bridegroom when He comes in glory to take His bride to her eternal home. The oil of faith is not simply information, knowing the articles of the Christian faith. Faith is a heartfelt confidence and trust in God’s Word, that it is not only true, but that it is true for the individual. Faith clings to God’s Word in the Gospel. Faith believes the promise that “whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Faith treasures the Word of God and is sustained by it.

4)         The oil of faith, is not your own work. It is the work of God the Holy Ghost. Like oil in a lamp, it is something that, when used, is consumed and so must be continually replenished. The foolish virgins assumed that since they began with a little oil in their lamps, it would last them until the Bridegroom arrived. They did not account for the fact that oil, when used, is consumed. So it with faith. Faith is the oil of our lamp which must be continually replenished by the Holy Ghost. How does He replenish our faith? Through the Word and the sacraments. This is how He initially creates faith in all our hearts, through the Word and Baptism. He uses those same means of Word and Sacrament to replenish our faith, to sustain our faith, and to increase our faith. The foolish virgins are those who begin as Christians and assume that they don’t need to ever replenish their faith. They imagine that if they had faith yesterday, they will automatically have faith today and every day until the end of their lives. But the only way for faith to last a lifetime is if it is continually, daily, refueled through hearing the Word of God purely preached. That is how God pours more oil into our burning lamps. He strengthens our faith when we partake of the Lord’s Supper, for there He nourishes our faith with His true body and true blood, forgiving our sins and giving our faith another Word to hold onto. Foolish virgins imagine that their lamp can last until their dying day without God daily adding the fuel of the Gospel. So they neglect reading the Word and meditating upon it. They neglect the Sacrament and hearing Christ’s absolution. They imagine that if they believed at one time they will always believe no matter how they treat the gifts of God.

5)         As wise and foolish virgins are different in life, so they have different ends. Those who are prepared, those who keep their lamps burning with a continual supply of oil through faithful use of the Word and Sacraments, will enter the heavenly Bridegroom with joy. They will enter into the heavenly banquet hall, the New Jerusalem, the new heavens and the new earth where “the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind,” where “the voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in here, nor the voice of crying” (Isaiah 65:17,19).  The foolish virgins, those who rely on a faith long extinguished through neglect of the means of grace, will find the door of heavenly banquet hall shut, never to be reopened. They will be like those virgins who say, “Lord, Lord, open to us!” The Bridegroom will say to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.” Jesus said something similar in Matthew 7:21-23. “Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'” This is the fate of those who do all sorts of things in Christ’s name and to Christ’s glory, but do so without the oil of faith burning in their lamps, for “without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Hebrews 11:6).

6)         This point in the parable, that five were wise and five were foolish, is a stern warning to Christians. Half of the virgins were unwise, unprepared, and left in the darkness. This does not mean that before Christ returns fifty percent of those who call themselves Christians will not truly be Christians. But it does mean that a large portion of visible Christendom will be found to have been foolish virgins throughout their lives. We live in age where cultural Christianity is the dominant religion, where people say they believe in Jesus but seldom darken the door of a church. Ours is an age when one can confess faith in Christ but neglect reading and meditating on the written Word of God. Ours is an age in which doctrinal differences are downplayed in the name of love for one another, so that the purity and clarity of God’s word is denied in the name of not offending those with false beliefs about Christ. Ours is an age when the marks of the church are no longer believed to be the Word purely taught and the Sacraments administered according to Christ’s institution. Instead the marks of the Church are imagined to be vibrant youth programs, social circles of friends, and opportunities to volunteer for various causes. We live in an age when many think they are wise virgins, relying upon their good works and their good intentions, while neglecting the Holy Ghost’s means for replenishing the only thing that true matters: faith in the pure gospel. As the earth grows old and the false church thrives, Jesus’ words in Luke 18:8 seem to apply all the more: “When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”

7)         “Watch, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.” Keep your lamps burning bright. Get oil for your lamps while it is still day. For when the Bridegroom finally arrives it will be too late to replenish the oil of faith. Watch, therefore. Be wise and stay close to Christ’s word purely taught. Stay close to the Sacrament administered according to Christ’s institution. Abide in the Word so that you “gladly hear and learn it” in those few places that have been blessed with the pure gospel. The Bridegroom soon will call to everlasting bliss, joy and gladness those whom He finds ready, those in whom He finds true faith.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.