She had a litter of kittens and I kept what appeared to be the wisest, most active. Unfortunately, other than her coloration, this kitten did not get the attributes of her mother. She could jump a distance of about 8 inches from the table to the couch and miss. She could knock over a full glass of water without even trying. And when the neighbor cat walked in front of the large sliding glass door, she repeatedly tried attacking that cat – bashing her head against the glass repeatedly, day after day. The neighbor cat even brought over another cat to watch my foolish cat. I named this younger cat of mine “Inspector Clouseau” for obvious reasons if you remember the movies. And she was far from delicate – Clouseau grew into a 16 pounder!
So for many years, I had a wise cat and a foolish cat.
In Matthew 25:1-13, Jesus tells of the wise and the foolish.
After speaking of the coming fall of the great temple of God in Jerusalem and the terrible end times, Jesus speaks again of the kingdom of heaven “at that time” and tells the parable of a set of wise and foolish girls who will be the maids at a wedding, ten in all. Their job was to have a set of oil lamps to provide light for a late night wedding. You see, in those days, after dark in that dry land, the night was very dark. There were no street lamps, people did not have porch lamps, no electric lights were found, there was no blue glow of the television in the window. Even candles were fantastically expensive, for they had to be made from beeswax, not cheap paraffin. And because it was Israel, there were few clouds in the sky to reflect any lights that burned in a nearby town. Therefore, the only lights after dark were fires, the stars, perhaps the moon – and oil lamps that burned olive oil or the fat rendered from cattle or sheep. Most ancient oil lamps looked like a covered gravy server with a wick laid in it. They were much dimmer than our kerosene-based oil lamps of today unless a large wick was used, which meant the oil burned quickly. But even that little bit of light made a difference, for remember that at night in ancient times, after the sun had set and the twilight had faded, it was dark!
The five foolish girls took their lamps with them, but no extra oil. The five wise girls took their lamps and an extra jar of oil. But the bridegroom was late in arriving and so all of the girls fell asleep.
In ancient Israel, it was necessary that a synagogue have ten people present for all festivities. Of course, at a wedding there would probably be more than that. The ten girls were to arrange themselves with their oil lamps on either side of the entrance to the house of the bride, five on either side, lighting the path. They would then follow the groom into the home and the door would be shut so that no one would disturb the ceremony.
It should be noted that these girls were all said to be virgins. This will become important later on.
At midnight, finally someone calls out: “Here’s the bridegroom. Come out to meet him!”
All the girls woke up and turned up their lamps. But the foolish ones had already burned their oil – their lamps were going out. So they asked the wise one for some oil. But the wise ones knew that there was only enough oil for their lamps to burn through the ceremony. They told the foolish ones – go to the sellers of oil and buy some oil.
While they were running to the oil sellers, the bridegroom arrived. The wise girls lit the path and went inside to the wedding banquet. And BOOM! The door was shut.
Later, the foolish girls finally got back from the oil merchants. “Lord, Lord, “they said, “open the door for us!”
But he replied, “Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.” They were left outside in the darkness, with their lamps slowly going out.
And Jesus ends the story with these words: “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”
Commentators throughout the ages have realized that Jesus was letting the girls in the story be the stand-in for His followers. He is the bridegroom, and He is pointing out that everyone of the time will fall asleep – they will die. But when He returns, perhaps after a considerable time, it will be time for a great celebration as everyone awakens from their death sleep. All of His followers are to be like virgins, pure and not committed to anyone else or any other god.
But some of His followers are wise and some are foolish. The wise think ahead. They take extra oil to keep their lamps burning when He arrives. The foolish don’t think ahead.
In this story, the oil is what is needed to keep the lights of the followers burning. And our lights are our witness, our passion, our love and respect of Christ the bridegroom who has not returned as the darkness has settled over the land. We KNOW HE WILL RETURN! The oil is our continued faith in Christ! The wise plan for a long night while the foolish do not plan. They hold onto their faith, no matter what! The foolish expect the bridegroom to arrive just as the sun is setting. But the wise realize that the bridegroom, a powerful and important leader, may be delayed, and plan accordingly. They plan to keep their lights burning throughout a long night.
But who are the foolish virgins? There are people who believe, and then when God does not answer their prayers in the way and in the speed they desire, they give up on God. There are also people who look at different signs and say, “Jesus will return within the next year.” My son Andrew, age 23, points out that the world has ended 5 times in his short life alone, if we listened to the people who publicly predicted the end. And when He doesn’t return on their schedule, they lose faith. Then, there are people who decide that they will wait for Jesus to return and then will believe that He is Son of God -IF He returns. All of these people will be like the foolish girls, who have used up their light, their hope, their passion, their faith, and died giving up. And they will knock on the door after Jesus returns and Jesus will reply, “Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.”
It is possible to declare your desire to follow Jesus and find yourself locked out at the end, despite what some people say. Our salvation is a journey, not a single decision, a life-long walk toward holiness and not just a simple one-time statement of belief. Paul points out that our life of faith is a marathon – not a sprint, or just a single event. We are to plan to keep our light of faith shining for the future, learning and studying, always striving to be pure and holy as we await the arrival of Jesus, the bridegroom.
Some people say “Once saved, always saved.” But this is not biblical, but is instead a slogan. The Bible specifically talks about keeping the faith until the end, about not falling away from the faith. Plus, there is our passage today: “Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.” At the other extreme, other people say that you must continually stay in a state of grace, walking a tightrope across the fires of hell, dying eternally with one misspoke word, one wrong deed.
But the historical church, particularly those who accept the interpretation of John Wesley such as the Methodist movement, have a long term outlook on salvation.
To us, our life is like a walk along a path through the forest. Belief and baptism are the gates into the forest and put us on the path, but they are not the end of the path – they are the beginning. We walk along the path toward holiness. Sometimes the path is wide and easy to follow – sometimes the path is narrow and difficult to see. We step on the path and sometimes step off the path, particularly where it is difficult to see. Sometimes we wander off the path, distracted by a wonderful blueberry bush – and then, after a while, we decide to go back to the path.
Accidents happen, we step off the path, but those accidents do not keep us from the path if we brought the extra oil with us for our lamp of faith to look for the path and find the path again. The important thing is that we are trying to follow the path that Jesus has made, looking for the path, for if we are looking for the path we will eventually find our way back onto it. If, that is, we hold onto our faith that Jesus is waiting at the end. And Jesus will be waiting for us at the end to greet us at the wedding of Christ and Church.
But it is possible to decide to leave the path and never again worry about the path. Our oil of faith has run out. We have turned our back on the path because it is too difficult, we cannot see it in the darkness of the forest, or we have decided to spend the rest of our life in a patch of blueberries and don’t ever desire to return to the path. That is when we are lost. That is when the door is shut to us. It is because of our foolish choice…If we wanted to find the path, we would, and Jesus would welcome us back. But some foolish people who followed the path for a while decide that they no longer want to follow the path – it is not an accident, they didn’t sin their way off the path, they decided. They chose to let their lamps run out and they chose not to bring the oil of faith with them. They didn’t plan to bring the oil and now they have run out of oil and when they awaken after death they will be shut out of the wedding.
Salvation, you see, is not an event, but a lifelong journey. “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling” Paul tells the Philippian church in Chapter 2 of his letter to them. Walk the path, find the path, lose the path, find the path again and walk the path. Jesus will welcome you back! Bring the oil of faith to light your way back to the path each day. [repeat]
By this parable of the ten virgins, Jesus is also telling us that He may be delayed and we should be prepared for a delay, yet be ready to stand up and welcome Him back. It is likely we will fall asleep or die before He returns. But we must be ready, with a sure stock of oil to refill our lamps when the trumpet sounds. Don’t give up! Have faith! Have your light filled to overflowing and an extra supply of faith ready for His return!
In another place, I Thessalonians 4, the Apostle Paul says that he has word from the Lord that those who remain alive will not be ahead of those who have died and now sleep, awaiting Jesus’ return. Paul says, “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. 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. Therefore encourage one another with these words.’
I’m not going to go into details about all of the back and forth of the end time, the details of the Book of Daniel and Revelation. For while the Left Behind books made popular one interpretation of Revelation, I know of at least five additional interpretations of Revelation, anyone of which may be right.
But I do know this. Follow Jesus, listen to the Holy Spirit, read your Bible daily until the end of your life and proclaim the Good News! That is how we refill our lamps with faith!
Proclaim that Jesus claimed to be God, was crucified dead and buried for that claim, but rose again and was seen by over 500 people in at least eleven different appearances and made us two key promises: First, that those who follow Him will receive a resurrection to eternal life, and second, that He will return again to claim His rightful throne. Have faith in this gospel throughout your life. Tell this to everyone you meet in life and your lamp will be shining brighter than a 400 watt LED lamp!
Saundra and I have moved around many times from house to house. One day, we moved to a new home near Loganville, GA. Clouseau, the foolish cat, lost faith in us. She walked away, never to return. We never found out what happened to her. Cato, though, the wise cat, continued to stick with us, traveling with us to our peaceful home on the Muskingum River near Lowell, Ohio. There, she was able to chase mice and moles and voles, living a beautiful life until she died, age 14.
You know, this week is Veteran’s Day. I don’t like to be partial to the service branches, for all six branches are important – Army, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, Coast Guard – and the Marines. But the Marines probably best understand the message of this sermon, for their motto is the message today. Semper Fi! Semper Fidelis. Always Faithful.
Follow Jesus faithfully to the grave – and He will faithfully take you beyond the grave.
Amen?
Father God,
I pray for the people of this church and all those watching and listening online and on the FM radio. I pray especially for those who have been feeling isolated or left behind. Let them feel Your presence beside them every day. Help them learn to listen to Your Holy Spirit and read Your Holy Scriptures, so they will recognize You have been with them every day and are ready to refill their lamps of faith every evening to allow them to travel through the long night, with bright lamps even at the end!
This we pray in the name of Jesus the Christ, Your Son. Amen
After speaking of the coming fall of the great temple of God in Jerusalem and the terrible end times, Jesus speaks again of the kingdom of heaven “at that time” and tells the parable of a set of wise and foolish girls who will be the maids at a wedding, ten in all. Their job was to have a set of oil lamps to provide light for a late night wedding. You see, in those days, after dark in that dry land, the night was very dark. There were no street lamps, people did not have porch lamps, no electric lights were found, there was no blue glow of the television in the window. Even candles were fantastically expensive, for they had to be made from beeswax, not cheap paraffin. And because it was Israel, there were few clouds in the sky to reflect any lights that burned in a nearby town. Therefore, the only lights after dark were fires, the stars, perhaps the moon – and oil lamps that burned olive oil or the fat rendered from cattle or sheep. Most ancient oil lamps looked like a covered gravy server with a wick laid in it. They were much dimmer than our kerosene-based oil lamps of today unless a large wick was used, which meant the oil burned quickly. But even that little bit of light made a difference, for remember that at night in ancient times, after the sun had set and the twilight had faded, it was dark!
The five foolish girls took their lamps with them, but no extra oil. The five wise girls took their lamps and an extra jar of oil. But the bridegroom was late in arriving and so all of the girls fell asleep.
In ancient Israel, it was necessary that a synagogue have ten people present for all festivities. Of course, at a wedding there would probably be more than that. The ten girls were to arrange themselves with their oil lamps on either side of the entrance to the house of the bride, five on either side, lighting the path. They would then follow the groom into the home and the door would be shut so that no one would disturb the ceremony.
It should be noted that these girls were all said to be virgins. This will become important later on.
At midnight, finally someone calls out: “Here’s the bridegroom. Come out to meet him!”
All the girls woke up and turned up their lamps. But the foolish ones had already burned their oil – their lamps were going out. So they asked the wise one for some oil. But the wise ones knew that there was only enough oil for their lamps to burn through the ceremony. They told the foolish ones – go to the sellers of oil and buy some oil.
While they were running to the oil sellers, the bridegroom arrived. The wise girls lit the path and went inside to the wedding banquet. And BOOM! The door was shut.
Later, the foolish girls finally got back from the oil merchants. “Lord, Lord, “they said, “open the door for us!”
But he replied, “Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.” They were left outside in the darkness, with their lamps slowly going out.
And Jesus ends the story with these words: “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”
Commentators throughout the ages have realized that Jesus was letting the girls in the story be the stand-in for His followers. He is the bridegroom, and He is pointing out that everyone of the time will fall asleep – they will die. But when He returns, perhaps after a considerable time, it will be time for a great celebration as everyone awakens from their death sleep. All of His followers are to be like virgins, pure and not committed to anyone else or any other god.
But some of His followers are wise and some are foolish. The wise think ahead. They take extra oil to keep their lamps burning when He arrives. The foolish don’t think ahead.
In this story, the oil is what is needed to keep the lights of the followers burning. And our lights are our witness, our passion, our love and respect of Christ the bridegroom who has not returned as the darkness has settled over the land. We KNOW HE WILL RETURN! The oil is our continued faith in Christ! The wise plan for a long night while the foolish do not plan. They hold onto their faith, no matter what! The foolish expect the bridegroom to arrive just as the sun is setting. But the wise realize that the bridegroom, a powerful and important leader, may be delayed, and plan accordingly. They plan to keep their lights burning throughout a long night.
But who are the foolish virgins? There are people who believe, and then when God does not answer their prayers in the way and in the speed they desire, they give up on God. There are also people who look at different signs and say, “Jesus will return within the next year.” My son Andrew, age 23, points out that the world has ended 5 times in his short life alone, if we listened to the people who publicly predicted the end. And when He doesn’t return on their schedule, they lose faith. Then, there are people who decide that they will wait for Jesus to return and then will believe that He is Son of God -IF He returns. All of these people will be like the foolish girls, who have used up their light, their hope, their passion, their faith, and died giving up. And they will knock on the door after Jesus returns and Jesus will reply, “Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.”
It is possible to declare your desire to follow Jesus and find yourself locked out at the end, despite what some people say. Our salvation is a journey, not a single decision, a life-long walk toward holiness and not just a simple one-time statement of belief. Paul points out that our life of faith is a marathon – not a sprint, or just a single event. We are to plan to keep our light of faith shining for the future, learning and studying, always striving to be pure and holy as we await the arrival of Jesus, the bridegroom.
Some people say “Once saved, always saved.” But this is not biblical, but is instead a slogan. The Bible specifically talks about keeping the faith until the end, about not falling away from the faith. Plus, there is our passage today: “Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.” At the other extreme, other people say that you must continually stay in a state of grace, walking a tightrope across the fires of hell, dying eternally with one misspoke word, one wrong deed.
But the historical church, particularly those who accept the interpretation of John Wesley such as the Methodist movement, have a long term outlook on salvation.
To us, our life is like a walk along a path through the forest. Belief and baptism are the gates into the forest and put us on the path, but they are not the end of the path – they are the beginning. We walk along the path toward holiness. Sometimes the path is wide and easy to follow – sometimes the path is narrow and difficult to see. We step on the path and sometimes step off the path, particularly where it is difficult to see. Sometimes we wander off the path, distracted by a wonderful blueberry bush – and then, after a while, we decide to go back to the path.
Accidents happen, we step off the path, but those accidents do not keep us from the path if we brought the extra oil with us for our lamp of faith to look for the path and find the path again. The important thing is that we are trying to follow the path that Jesus has made, looking for the path, for if we are looking for the path we will eventually find our way back onto it. If, that is, we hold onto our faith that Jesus is waiting at the end. And Jesus will be waiting for us at the end to greet us at the wedding of Christ and Church.
But it is possible to decide to leave the path and never again worry about the path. Our oil of faith has run out. We have turned our back on the path because it is too difficult, we cannot see it in the darkness of the forest, or we have decided to spend the rest of our life in a patch of blueberries and don’t ever desire to return to the path. That is when we are lost. That is when the door is shut to us. It is because of our foolish choice…If we wanted to find the path, we would, and Jesus would welcome us back. But some foolish people who followed the path for a while decide that they no longer want to follow the path – it is not an accident, they didn’t sin their way off the path, they decided. They chose to let their lamps run out and they chose not to bring the oil of faith with them. They didn’t plan to bring the oil and now they have run out of oil and when they awaken after death they will be shut out of the wedding.
Salvation, you see, is not an event, but a lifelong journey. “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling” Paul tells the Philippian church in Chapter 2 of his letter to them. Walk the path, find the path, lose the path, find the path again and walk the path. Jesus will welcome you back! Bring the oil of faith to light your way back to the path each day. [repeat]
By this parable of the ten virgins, Jesus is also telling us that He may be delayed and we should be prepared for a delay, yet be ready to stand up and welcome Him back. It is likely we will fall asleep or die before He returns. But we must be ready, with a sure stock of oil to refill our lamps when the trumpet sounds. Don’t give up! Have faith! Have your light filled to overflowing and an extra supply of faith ready for His return!
In another place, I Thessalonians 4, the Apostle Paul says that he has word from the Lord that those who remain alive will not be ahead of those who have died and now sleep, awaiting Jesus’ return. Paul says, “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. 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. Therefore encourage one another with these words.’
I’m not going to go into details about all of the back and forth of the end time, the details of the Book of Daniel and Revelation. For while the Left Behind books made popular one interpretation of Revelation, I know of at least five additional interpretations of Revelation, anyone of which may be right.
But I do know this. Follow Jesus, listen to the Holy Spirit, read your Bible daily until the end of your life and proclaim the Good News! That is how we refill our lamps with faith!
Proclaim that Jesus claimed to be God, was crucified dead and buried for that claim, but rose again and was seen by over 500 people in at least eleven different appearances and made us two key promises: First, that those who follow Him will receive a resurrection to eternal life, and second, that He will return again to claim His rightful throne. Have faith in this gospel throughout your life. Tell this to everyone you meet in life and your lamp will be shining brighter than a 400 watt LED lamp!
Saundra and I have moved around many times from house to house. One day, we moved to a new home near Loganville, GA. Clouseau, the foolish cat, lost faith in us. She walked away, never to return. We never found out what happened to her. Cato, though, the wise cat, continued to stick with us, traveling with us to our peaceful home on the Muskingum River near Lowell, Ohio. There, she was able to chase mice and moles and voles, living a beautiful life until she died, age 14.
You know, this week is Veteran’s Day. I don’t like to be partial to the service branches, for all six branches are important – Army, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, Coast Guard – and the Marines. But the Marines probably best understand the message of this sermon, for their motto is the message today. Semper Fi! Semper Fidelis. Always Faithful.
Follow Jesus faithfully to the grave – and He will faithfully take you beyond the grave.
Amen?
Father God,
I pray for the people of this church and all those watching and listening online and on the FM radio. I pray especially for those who have been feeling isolated or left behind. Let them feel Your presence beside them every day. Help them learn to listen to Your Holy Spirit and read Your Holy Scriptures, so they will recognize You have been with them every day and are ready to refill their lamps of faith every evening to allow them to travel through the long night, with bright lamps even at the end!
This we pray in the name of Jesus the Christ, Your Son. Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment