“Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom." -Matthew 25:1
“For your husband is your Maker, Whose name is the LORD of hosts; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, Who is called the God of all the earth.
“For the LORD has called you, Like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, Even like a wife of one’s youth when she is rejected,” Says your God.
Because you have been baptized into the One who has the words of eternal life, He is sounding the words of eternal life into your ears this day, so that you do not miss out of the marriage feast of the Lamb in His kingdom which has no end. Therefore He speaks of the ten virgins to you, five of them wise, five of them foolish.
You know you live in an age when you can send instant messages all around the world. O how anxious you become as you consider who is reading those messages, how they will respond, and when they will reply.
Thus your heart and mind are drawn away from your husband, the LORD Your God Who made you and all the heavens, not in haste or cheaply, but out of His tender mercies from of old.
You know you live in an age when you can travel hundreds of miles in a relatively short time. O how anxious you become as a simple stop light cycles for a minute or two, preventing you from reaching your goal while slow idiots and fast maniacs test your soul as well.
Thus your heart and mind are drawn away from the LORD your God as you stew in anxiety, rather than rejoice and give thanks to your Father in heaven Who has brought you into His kingdom so that you grow in the grace and knowledge of your LORD Jesus Christ, your true husband. The growth He desires for you is neither instant, nor quick, nor cheap.
You know you live in an age when, and in a place where, you can go to the store to buy foods of all kinds and enjoy them with little thought, yet that short wait in the grocery line is like torture, isn’t it?
So your heart and mind are drawn away from your Father in heaven, who over a relatively long period of time has prepared that food for you. You open that bag of chips and devour it without thinking where that food truly came from, and how long it took for it to reach your mouth. It took at least a full growing season. You would prefer to live by bread alone.
You know you live in an age when, and in a place where, you can cast a vote for your national leaders on Election Day and know the results before you go to bed. O how you twitch with anxiety if the answer is not quickly forthcoming as to who will rule over you in this earthly life of labor.
Hear my prayer, O LORD! And let my cry for help come to Thee. Do not hide Thy face from me in the day of my distress; Incline Thine ear to me; In the day when I call answer me quickly.
It is not that quickness and haste are necessarily bad things. It is that quickness and haste are most often your flesh’s way of doubting God, Who is called the God of all the earth, to Whom every king and kingdom and nation will bow, Whose purpose they will serve, whether they know and believe it or not.
And so He, your true husband, patiently teaches you and makes you ready to receive with thanksgiving everything that comes from His hand, whether it be food and drink, house and home, land, animals, and all you have. He patiently teaches you because He is patient. He tarries. The place He prepares for you, His Holy Bride, is not going to be shabby.
There will be no shortcuts. No. Full satisfaction will be made. True, everlasting, eternal life is to be Yours in His Name. Not substitutes or quick fixes will do.
Sacrifice and offering FROM YOU, dearly beloved, He does not want or desire, but He has prepared a Body for you. A husband. In the scroll of the book it is written of Him that He, and He alone, is given to do the will of the Father for you. That means He and He alone, will take away all your sin and serve as your righteousness before God the Father.
Instant messaging, driving, fast food, and national elections – these are but a few of the things that easily draw you away from your true Husband. Your Maker, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Your flesh is willing to abandon Him, but the LORD has called you like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit.
He calls to you this day and speaks His Word saying, “Not so fast. Slow down. I have set all of time and all of eternity before you as a great wedding, to be followed by a great wedding feast. These things take time. I am tarrying, but I have gone to prepare place for you and I will return for you with a shout, so be ready, for I do NOT want you to miss out on my wedding.
Do not grow weary. Do not fall asleep, but listen continually to my voice. Keep your lamps full and ready at all time with the oil of gladness.
The oil of gladness. It is THIS oil, first given to anoint your Christ Jesus, through which justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. It is THIS oil with which He anoints you, so that justice and righteousness are not things for you to fabricate for yourself, but to receive and to practice just as sealed upon you and into you who are baptized, married, and wedded into His Holy NAME and life and body and blood.
After all, this is a wedding. Not just any wedding, but God’s wedding to you, His holy Bride, the Church which has been from the beginning and will endure into everlasting eternity.
The expense for it is His very own body and blood, given and shed for you. This body and blood were not prepared in haste and without thanksgiving, but were prepared from the very beginning with thanksgiving to the Father who sent Me to claim you as His bride.
Where your heart and mind draw you into the idolatry of instant self-gratification, lust, and greed, His righteousness from of old calls you to reject yourself and instead come under His loving discipline as His disciples.
Idolatry is your old practice. Idolatry is your ongoing problem. It is not a quick fix. It is not a cheap fix. It is, again, a wedding in which the husband of the bride invests all He has at the behest of the Father. His life. His possessions. Everything. In teaching you these things He sets before you ten virgins who take lamps to go out and meet a bridegroom.
One wedding. Ten virgins. Five of them foolish. Five of them wise. From this you may know that your dear LORD Jesus Christ is speaking of the whole and entire creation, both before and since the fall into sin, because the number 10 is the number of completeness. If I told you once, I told you ten times.
That they are split into five foolish and five wise is plainly to say there will be a judgment. While all ten virgins are longing for the day of the LORD, the foolish ones are rejected. “I do not know you,” says the Bridegroom.
What a horrible pronouncement. What a sad occasion. Made in the image of God, but rejecting the image and receiving in due course the result of rejecting that image and instead adopting any and every image that satisfies the lusts of the flesh, having a lamp that is empty and thus worthless when it was most needed.
So your dear LORD Jesus does not want you to be lost. He wants to know you and wants you to know Him, so He speaks this Gospel to you as a way to wake you up and keep you alert as you enter into the last Days. He wants your lamp to be full of the oil of gladness, which is found in hearing and receiving His Word of the Gospel, wherein He makes known to you and imparts to you His own righteousness, procured through His own obedience before the Father while occupying the same flesh and blood as you.
Virgins meeting a bridegroom with lamps. While it may sound strange and look strange and not be in accord with your own understanding of what a wedding should look like and what a wedding is all about, the simple fact and explanation of it is this: You who have been baptized into a royal priesthood are the recipients of God’s grace and favor in and through Christ Jesus, and as such your lamps are full, and as the oil burns in your lamps while going out to meet the bridegroom (which He has given you to do day by day) you call upon Him in every trouble, pray, praise and give thanks, knowing that you are His and He is yours, both joined together in the holy matrimony of His holy body and blood, given and shed for you.
You know by experience and this day are being taught, that He tarries. He waits. He seems so far off. As if He is not thinking of you or does not care for you. O but He most certainly, dear Holy, unblemished Bride, hidden in the unblemished Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world. It is just that, while He comes daily and richly through His Word and promise, He has yet to come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.
That, beloved in the LORD, is the ultimate wedding feast, when He comes again in glory to judge both the living and the dead.
It is because you are nearing the end of the Church Year and the end of Days as you know it, that our dear LORD Jesus Christ points to this final fulfillment of all things, and slaps you into consideration for what matters most, both now and always: that you cling to His promises continually and not grow lax. That you avail yourself of, that you place yourself into, the hearing of His Word and His Supper, because these things are your oil.
Can you think of any occasion where it is good to run out of oil? Motor oil? Olive oil? Corn oil? Nearly all the oils of creation are good and made for our blessing.
The oil of God’s Word and promise of the Gospel is the oil that makes and keeps ready YOU, who have inherited (not earned or purchased) the kingdom of heaven through the very bridegroom who is coming to meet you both here in this place today, and very soon as this age draws to a close.
