Preparing for the Party 062010
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Parable M7 Sermon Notes June 20, 2010
Title: Preparing for the Party
Text: Matthew 25:1-13
Big Idea: We prepare to meet Jesus Christ by trusting him and loving those around us.
Prop: oil
Janell was expecting Jeff to show up for their date. She was dressed up and waiting patiently. However, by the time he was an hour late, she figured she had been stood up. So, she took off her makeup, put on her pajamas, grabbed some chips, the cookies and some pop and sat down to watch TV with the dog. As her favorite show was just coming on, the doorbell rang. She opened the door. It was Jeff. He stared at her wide eyed: "I’m two hours late, and you’re still not ready?" (Jeff and Janell Youngbluth are now actually a married couple.)
Have you been in situation where you were not ready?
As a first year undergrad student, I was sitting in my introduction to philosophy class. It was the second or third class in the course. The professor Dr. Robert Roberts (his real name) turned to me and said, “Ken would you like to give the presentation on Plato’s Republic?” I hadn’t read it. So, I paused and said, “At the start of the course you said, we could take one pass during the semester. I going to take mine now.”
On a date, or for school, at work have you ever been unprepared?
Most of the time being unprepared may be embarrassing at the moment, but--inconsequential long term.
But there is one day that we do not want to fail to prepare for. The most important day of our lives. The day we meet God face to face—either through his returning to earth in the second coming of Jesus Christ or through our meeting him through the door of death.
Jesus in his parables in Matthew 24 and 25 gives us a heads up, an advanced warning on how to get ready for the most important day of our lives.
This morning as we continue our series in the parables we’re going to look at the parable of the Ten Virgins or the Ten Bridesmaids.
Please turn to Matthew 25.
Let me give you the context. The parable is set in a series of four parables all of which describe the second coming of Jesus. The first parable features an irresponsible servant in a household. The second parable (the one we will be focusing on) describes ten virgins (or bridesmaids). This is followed by a parable of people who’ve been entrusted with talents money. Finally there is the parable of the sheep and the goats.
This morning as I said we’re going to look at the parable of the virgins (I know the term virgin in this context sounds strange. The word virgin in Jesus’ world could refer to either a woman who had never slept with a man or to a young woman. There is overlap in the terms because in Jesus’ day a young unmarried woman was typically a virgin, i.e. someone who had never slept with a man).
Please turn to 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, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 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!'
7 "Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8 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.'
10 "But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.
11 "Later the others also came. 'Sir! Sir!' they said. 'Open the door for us!'
12 "But he replied, 'Truly I tell you, I don't know you.'
13 "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.
Jesus uses the setting of a wedding for his parable to describe his second coming.
Today, in a wedding ceremony the focus is clearly on the bride. As we were getting ready for our wedding, I told Sakiko, it doesn’t really matter what I look like on our wedding day, because the focus is not on the groom. It’s on the bride, her dress, her processing the down the aisle.
But, in weddings in the Ancient Near East the groom was the focus of the wedding. Everyone in the wedding waited for the bridegroom to come to the home of the bride. The groom has already negotiated a dowry price for his bride with her parents; he’s returned to his father’s house to prepare a beautiful wedding room for his bride; and then he would makes the journey back to his bride’s family home.
Unlike today, where weddings usually take place in the afternoon or late morning, weddings in ancient times took place at night.
The bride didn’t know the exact time when her groom would arrive. So the bridesmaids were to wait for the groom. When they saw the groom coming, they would let the bride know. She would slip into her dress, come out to meet her groom and the groom would lead the whole group back to his father’s home for the wedding. Because this was taking place at night the members of the wedding party would carry torches (sticks with oil drenched rags) to illuminate the streets at night and also to create a sense of festivity and bright celebration for the wedding procession as they made their way to the groom father’s home.
In the parable, the groom is late and the foolish bridesmaids didn’t have enough oil for their torches. They asked those with enough oil if they could borrow their oil, but the wise women said no. I know this sounds cold. Selfish. But, they knew if that they shared their oil that none of the torches would have enough oil to last for the wedding march. The ceremony would be ruined. So the foolish bridesmaids go to try and buy oil, but the groom comes when they are gone and they miss this procession to the groom’s home with the singing and dancing and the wedding ceremony itself. Having missed the most important parts of the wedding, the foolish bridesmaids are not admitted to the feast which would typically last a week.
In this parable the bridegroom represents Jesus and the bridesmaids represent us.
God is preparing a wedding party for us.
We get a description of God’s party in Isaiah 25:6-8.
6 On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare
a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine—
the best of meats and the finest of wines.
7 On this mountain he will destroy
the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
8 he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears
from all faces;
he will remove his people's disgrace
from all the earth.
The LORD has spoken.
At this wedding party, the Lord himself will be our host and a perfect bridegroom. The food will be perfect: only the best of meats and aged wines. People from every nation will be there, whose sins have been washed away. There will be undiminished joy--unlike earthly weddings and parties--there will be no disappointment at all, for he will wipe away all the tears from our faces. This is a feast, a party you won’t want to miss.
In the parable:
There are five wise bridesmaids and five foolish bridesmaids. Five had oil for their lamps and five did not. Five were prepared and five were not.
As I said, we can see from the context of the passage that the groom’s coming clearly represents the second coming of Jesus Christ. In the verses before and the verses following this parable… we see Jesus speaking about his second coming.
The Bible teaches us that history is moving along a line with a target--like an arrow. The culmination of history will occur at the second coming of Christ.
When Billy Graham was preaching in Vancouver in 1984, he spoke about the return of Christ and he said he didn’t know when Christ would return, but he said, as far you are concerned you will come face to face with Christ the day you die. The Bible says in Hebrews 9:27 that a human being is destined to die once (BTW, the mortality rate among human beings is still 100 %). A human being is destined to die once, but after that to face the judgment.
A person can be ready. Andy Beh is our fabulous pastor of children’s ministries at the Kits site. He’s in his 20’s. His dad only fifty-two has been diagnosed with an advanced form of sinus cancer. Humanly speaking, it looks like he only has a few months to live. Of course, if it’s his time to go, he will miss his family dearly, but I spoke to Andy this week and he said with a glow on his face… my dad trusts God and is ready to go to God. I know Andy’s dad has been a person who’s lived most of his life trusting God and loving the people right around him. Andy remembers how as a boy his dad would carry him to kindergarten on his shoulders and back from kindergarten on his shoulders and how now he often takes time pray with Andy, his mom, and younger brother. His dad doesn’t want to leave his family, but if God calls him home—he’s ready.
Are you ready? How can we become ready?
According to the parable, we have to have oil. What does the oil represent? We don’t know for certain. But, if something is unclear in Scripture, the best way to interpret something that is not immediately clear in the Bible is to look at the context. In the context, oil seems to indicate being prepared to meet God by having a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Who were the ones who were finally rejected in the parable? Who were the ones who are excluded from the groom’s presence—from God’s presence? According to vs. 12, they were the ones who did NOT know the groom, the ones who did not know Jesus Christ. Notice what the groom says in vs. 12. He says to those rejected, “I never knew you.” This statement, I never knew you sounds harsh. Ultimately, it leads to banishment to an existence without God, to an existence apart from all that is good, beautiful, and life-giving, an existence without God, which by definition is hell.
Dallas Willard, the respected philosopher and writer on the spiritual life, in an interview with the journal Conversations recently said:
Hell is not something God enjoys. He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to everlasting life. That is His wish. God is not trying to keep people out of heaven; he is trying to get them in, and I believe that He will admit anyone who, in His judgment, can stand it – and I’m not being funny. That is deadly serious. For God, this isn’t play time. This business of being in heaven is very serious indeed. If you got there and found you didn’t like God – well, actually, most people don’t like God – that would be a problem. In heaven you’re going to be right up against Him, constantly, forever. You have to be ready for that. People who don’t like God enough to seek Him and spend time with Him here are very likely to find heaven utterly agonizing.
The way you and I prepare to meet the groom one day in the future is to seek Jesus Christ now, to come to him, and to spend time with him.
My friend Michelle says:
You are on the VIP guest list for God’s party, the greatest party of the universe, and he doesn’t want you to miss out... Accept his invitation now while there is still time (don’t put it off; there will come a day when it’s too late, as it says vs. 10 when the door is shut). You can’t earn your way into this party. Jesus Christ already secured you a position in the party that will take place forever in heaven when he died on the cross, in your place, paying for all your sins. He did this to guarantee you a place at his party. Those who do not accept his invitation will be left out in the cold, in the dark – just like the foolish bridesmaids. Each day that you are alive, you have the opportunity of a lifetime. Accept his invitation while there is still time…
We prepare to meet God by trusting Jesus Christ, and loving those around us.
Earlier, I asked what does the oil symbolize? It not immediately obvious, but conservative commentators tend to say the oil symbolizes trusting God, the liberal commentators suggest oil symbolize love, but the best answer in the context is oil represents a trust in God that leads to love. Real faith according to the Scriptures isn’t just faith in some idea about God, but real faith means trusting in a person, in Jesus and when we really trust in Jesus, we will love those around us.
As we look at the context, as we look at the later part of Matthew 25, Jesus offers another parable that also speaks about his second coming and defines more what the oil is. The parable of the Sheep and the Goats…
In parable we read:
31 "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Jesus shows us that on the final Day of Judgment all the people of the world will be gathered… a sea of people… The biggest crowds I’ve been part of have been the huge gatherings for fireworks on balmy summer nights on English Bay…. At the end of time, we will be part of an endless sea of humanity as the every person who has ever lived is gathered together by God. As a Palestinian shepherd would separate the sheep from the goats into separate enclosures at night, so the Son of Man will separate the sheep from the goats. The “sheep” are those who are on Jesus’ right and Jesus called them “blessed of my Father” and will receive the inheritance of the Kingdom prepared for them since before the creation of the world.
These blessed people will be separated from the “goats.” Those on his left are the goats who will be banished from the presence of Jesus Christ into an existence without God, separated from all that is good, beautiful, and life-giving.
To the blessed ones on his right, Jesus will say, “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you looked after me. I was in prison and you came to see me.” And the righteous ones will say, “When did we see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you in prison and visit you?” And Jesus will reply, “When you did it for the least of these my brothers and sisters, you did it to me.”
Those who are ready to meet God are those who have trusted God and as a result love those in need around them.
This judgment may sound hard, but with God’s friendship it is something ordinary people with God’s help we can do.
John Chrysostom, one of the church fathers from the 4th century, points out that Jesus in this parable does not say “I was sick and you healed me; I was in prison and you sprung me loose.” Jesus simply says, “I was sick and you took care of me; I was in prison and you visited me.” Healings and prison liberation are wonderful, but on the final exam what keeps most important is not that “you healed me, but that you came to me, not that you sprung me from prison, but that you were there and cared for Jesus (who was there in the distressing disguise of a sick person) and you visited him in prison (as Jesus was there in the distressing disguise of a prisoner.)”
The parable after the parable of the bridesmaids sheds light on how to be prepared for the final judgment and sheds light, as well, on what it means to be prepared.
In the story just before the parable of the bridesmaids, Jesus speaks about a man who’s calling it is to feed and care for the people in his master’s household. The master then goes on a long a trip and servant figures, “What my master doesn’t see, he doesn’t know…” So instead of feeding the people in his master’s house he beats and abuses them… and then unexpectedly the master returns. The servant is thrown out of the house, which symbolizes God’s home. Part of what it means to be prepared to meet the master means that we love the poor (Mother Teresa said Jesus comes to us in the distressing disguise of the poor), but part of what it means to prepare to meet God is to love those who are our family members and friends who may be in need right around us.
My wife Sakiko and I have been so impressed by our neighbors in their 70’s. Bob the husband who died last year and his wife Lorraine—they didn’t have kids of their own, but care in simple ways for nieces and nephews for the people in need right around them—including us (leaves to be raked). Sakiko, thinking about this couple, remarked, “I know that they are not necessarily making an impact on thousands and thousands of people, but I think people are great who really care for the people right around them.”
Being ready to meet God, oil, comes by feeding and caring for those in your household, a dad changing a diaper child, a mom patiently teaching a child to read, someone caring faithfully for an elderly parent in complete obscurity—those will count come judgment day. Part of the reason Andy’s dad is ready to meet God is because he trusts God now, and because he’s really cared for his family and the people in need right around him.
Are you ready? Are you seeking God? Are you growing in your trust of God. Are you caring for those in need right around you?
My friend Michelle used to work in investment banking with Goldman Sachs on Wall Street.
Her second day on her job was September 11th, 2001. She says, “I really just can’t describe the horror of what it was like to experience that day in New York City. I distinctly remember wearing a face mask and rushing home by foot over the Brooklyn Bridge. Everything was covered with this ghostly white soot and the city reeked with the smell of burning metal and death. The remains of the Twin Towers were smoking behind me, and no one knew if the attacks were really over yet or not. In that horrific moment, I remember thinking, ‘If I were to meet God right now – am I really ready?’ And the honest answer at that time was no. I was a Christian. But at that time, there were many areas of my life that I knew I had not fully surrendered to God. And I knew that I would be ashamed if I had to face him right at that moment. The experience transformed me and I made some very important changes in my life after that.”
Even if Jesus doesn’t come in our lifetime, the moment we die we will face the groom of the parable, Jesus, face to face.
In 2 Peter 1:10-12 we read:
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling… and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 2x
Pray:
Are you trusting God for the forgiveness of your sins and trusting him for each part of your life?
Out of that trust in God, are you caring for the people around you? Don’t put this off, commit now. There will come a time the door is shut, when it is too late.
Closing comment:
There are many reasons to confirm your call to trust in Jesus Christ…
But I love what Robert Farrar Capon says, as he comments on this parable. He says, “This is a serious parable alright. When all is said and done, we’re scared silly with the finality of the judgment. We need to take a deep breath and let out a laugh. Because what we’re watching out for is a party… and that party is not down the street… it’s already present within us… in our basement, and it’s coming up the basement stairs.” Capon says, “ God is not so like our mother-in -law, coming to see if the wedding present China is chipped… But he’s more like our funny uncle, with a Salami under one arm and a bottle of wine under the other…. We need to watch for God as it would such a pity to miss the fun…” 2x.
Possible benediction verse:
John in Revelation 19:9 writes: “Then the angel said to me, ‘Write: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb' ! "
Parable M7 Sermon Notes June 20, 2010
Title: Preparing for the Party
Text: Matthew 25:1-13
Big Idea: We prepare to meet Jesus Christ by trusting him and loving those around us.
Prop: oil
Janell was expecting Jeff to show up for their date. She was dressed up and waiting patiently. However, by the time he was an hour late, she figured she had been stood up. So, she took off her makeup, put on her pajamas, grabbed some chips, the cookies and some pop and sat down to watch TV with the dog. As her favorite show was just coming on, the doorbell rang. She opened the door. It was Jeff. He stared at her wide eyed: "I’m two hours late, and you’re still not ready?" (Jeff and Janell Youngbluth are now actually a married couple.)
Have you been in situation where you were not ready?
As a first year undergrad student, I was sitting in my introduction to philosophy class. It was the second or third class in the course. The professor Dr. Robert Roberts (his real name) turned to me and said, “Ken would you like to give the presentation on Plato’s Republic?” I hadn’t read it. So, I paused and said, “At the start of the course you said, we could take one pass during the semester. I going to take mine now.”
On a date, or for school, at work have you ever been unprepared?
Most of the time being unprepared may be embarrassing at the moment, but--inconsequential long term.
But there is one day that we do not want to fail to prepare for. The most important day of our lives. The day we meet God face to face—either through his returning to earth in the second coming of Jesus Christ or through our meeting him through the door of death.
Jesus in his parables in Matthew 24 and 25 gives us a heads up, an advanced warning on how to get ready for the most important day of our lives.
This morning as we continue our series in the parables we’re going to look at the parable of the Ten Virgins or the Ten Bridesmaids.
Please turn to Matthew 25.
Let me give you the context. The parable is set in a series of four parables all of which describe the second coming of Jesus. The first parable features an irresponsible servant in a household. The second parable (the one we will be focusing on) describes ten virgins (or bridesmaids). This is followed by a parable of people who’ve been entrusted with talents money. Finally there is the parable of the sheep and the goats.
This morning as I said we’re going to look at the parable of the virgins (I know the term virgin in this context sounds strange. The word virgin in Jesus’ world could refer to either a woman who had never slept with a man or to a young woman. There is overlap in the terms because in Jesus’ day a young unmarried woman was typically a virgin, i.e. someone who had never slept with a man).
Please turn to 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, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 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!'
7 "Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8 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.'
10 "But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.
11 "Later the others also came. 'Sir! Sir!' they said. 'Open the door for us!'
12 "But he replied, 'Truly I tell you, I don't know you.'
13 "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.
Jesus uses the setting of a wedding for his parable to describe his second coming.
Today, in a wedding ceremony the focus is clearly on the bride. As we were getting ready for our wedding, I told Sakiko, it doesn’t really matter what I look like on our wedding day, because the focus is not on the groom. It’s on the bride, her dress, her processing the down the aisle.
But, in weddings in the Ancient Near East the groom was the focus of the wedding. Everyone in the wedding waited for the bridegroom to come to the home of the bride. The groom has already negotiated a dowry price for his bride with her parents; he’s returned to his father’s house to prepare a beautiful wedding room for his bride; and then he would makes the journey back to his bride’s family home.
Unlike today, where weddings usually take place in the afternoon or late morning, weddings in ancient times took place at night.
The bride didn’t know the exact time when her groom would arrive. So the bridesmaids were to wait for the groom. When they saw the groom coming, they would let the bride know. She would slip into her dress, come out to meet her groom and the groom would lead the whole group back to his father’s home for the wedding. Because this was taking place at night the members of the wedding party would carry torches (sticks with oil drenched rags) to illuminate the streets at night and also to create a sense of festivity and bright celebration for the wedding procession as they made their way to the groom father’s home.
In the parable, the groom is late and the foolish bridesmaids didn’t have enough oil for their torches. They asked those with enough oil if they could borrow their oil, but the wise women said no. I know this sounds cold. Selfish. But, they knew if that they shared their oil that none of the torches would have enough oil to last for the wedding march. The ceremony would be ruined. So the foolish bridesmaids go to try and buy oil, but the groom comes when they are gone and they miss this procession to the groom’s home with the singing and dancing and the wedding ceremony itself. Having missed the most important parts of the wedding, the foolish bridesmaids are not admitted to the feast which would typically last a week.
In this parable the bridegroom represents Jesus and the bridesmaids represent us.
God is preparing a wedding party for us.
We get a description of God’s party in Isaiah 25:6-8.
6 On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare
a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine—
the best of meats and the finest of wines.
7 On this mountain he will destroy
the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
8 he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears
from all faces;
he will remove his people's disgrace
from all the earth.
The LORD has spoken.
At this wedding party, the Lord himself will be our host and a perfect bridegroom. The food will be perfect: only the best of meats and aged wines. People from every nation will be there, whose sins have been washed away. There will be undiminished joy--unlike earthly weddings and parties--there will be no disappointment at all, for he will wipe away all the tears from our faces. This is a feast, a party you won’t want to miss.
In the parable:
There are five wise bridesmaids and five foolish bridesmaids. Five had oil for their lamps and five did not. Five were prepared and five were not.
As I said, we can see from the context of the passage that the groom’s coming clearly represents the second coming of Jesus Christ. In the verses before and the verses following this parable… we see Jesus speaking about his second coming.
The Bible teaches us that history is moving along a line with a target--like an arrow. The culmination of history will occur at the second coming of Christ.
When Billy Graham was preaching in Vancouver in 1984, he spoke about the return of Christ and he said he didn’t know when Christ would return, but he said, as far you are concerned you will come face to face with Christ the day you die. The Bible says in Hebrews 9:27 that a human being is destined to die once (BTW, the mortality rate among human beings is still 100 %). A human being is destined to die once, but after that to face the judgment.
A person can be ready. Andy Beh is our fabulous pastor of children’s ministries at the Kits site. He’s in his 20’s. His dad only fifty-two has been diagnosed with an advanced form of sinus cancer. Humanly speaking, it looks like he only has a few months to live. Of course, if it’s his time to go, he will miss his family dearly, but I spoke to Andy this week and he said with a glow on his face… my dad trusts God and is ready to go to God. I know Andy’s dad has been a person who’s lived most of his life trusting God and loving the people right around him. Andy remembers how as a boy his dad would carry him to kindergarten on his shoulders and back from kindergarten on his shoulders and how now he often takes time pray with Andy, his mom, and younger brother. His dad doesn’t want to leave his family, but if God calls him home—he’s ready.
Are you ready? How can we become ready?
According to the parable, we have to have oil. What does the oil represent? We don’t know for certain. But, if something is unclear in Scripture, the best way to interpret something that is not immediately clear in the Bible is to look at the context. In the context, oil seems to indicate being prepared to meet God by having a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Who were the ones who were finally rejected in the parable? Who were the ones who are excluded from the groom’s presence—from God’s presence? According to vs. 12, they were the ones who did NOT know the groom, the ones who did not know Jesus Christ. Notice what the groom says in vs. 12. He says to those rejected, “I never knew you.” This statement, I never knew you sounds harsh. Ultimately, it leads to banishment to an existence without God, to an existence apart from all that is good, beautiful, and life-giving, an existence without God, which by definition is hell.
Dallas Willard, the respected philosopher and writer on the spiritual life, in an interview with the journal Conversations recently said:
Hell is not something God enjoys. He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to everlasting life. That is His wish. God is not trying to keep people out of heaven; he is trying to get them in, and I believe that He will admit anyone who, in His judgment, can stand it – and I’m not being funny. That is deadly serious. For God, this isn’t play time. This business of being in heaven is very serious indeed. If you got there and found you didn’t like God – well, actually, most people don’t like God – that would be a problem. In heaven you’re going to be right up against Him, constantly, forever. You have to be ready for that. People who don’t like God enough to seek Him and spend time with Him here are very likely to find heaven utterly agonizing.
The way you and I prepare to meet the groom one day in the future is to seek Jesus Christ now, to come to him, and to spend time with him.
My friend Michelle says:
You are on the VIP guest list for God’s party, the greatest party of the universe, and he doesn’t want you to miss out... Accept his invitation now while there is still time (don’t put it off; there will come a day when it’s too late, as it says vs. 10 when the door is shut). You can’t earn your way into this party. Jesus Christ already secured you a position in the party that will take place forever in heaven when he died on the cross, in your place, paying for all your sins. He did this to guarantee you a place at his party. Those who do not accept his invitation will be left out in the cold, in the dark – just like the foolish bridesmaids. Each day that you are alive, you have the opportunity of a lifetime. Accept his invitation while there is still time…
We prepare to meet God by trusting Jesus Christ, and loving those around us.
Earlier, I asked what does the oil symbolize? It not immediately obvious, but conservative commentators tend to say the oil symbolizes trusting God, the liberal commentators suggest oil symbolize love, but the best answer in the context is oil represents a trust in God that leads to love. Real faith according to the Scriptures isn’t just faith in some idea about God, but real faith means trusting in a person, in Jesus and when we really trust in Jesus, we will love those around us.
As we look at the context, as we look at the later part of Matthew 25, Jesus offers another parable that also speaks about his second coming and defines more what the oil is. The parable of the Sheep and the Goats…
In parable we read:
31 "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Jesus shows us that on the final Day of Judgment all the people of the world will be gathered… a sea of people… The biggest crowds I’ve been part of have been the huge gatherings for fireworks on balmy summer nights on English Bay…. At the end of time, we will be part of an endless sea of humanity as the every person who has ever lived is gathered together by God. As a Palestinian shepherd would separate the sheep from the goats into separate enclosures at night, so the Son of Man will separate the sheep from the goats. The “sheep” are those who are on Jesus’ right and Jesus called them “blessed of my Father” and will receive the inheritance of the Kingdom prepared for them since before the creation of the world.
These blessed people will be separated from the “goats.” Those on his left are the goats who will be banished from the presence of Jesus Christ into an existence without God, separated from all that is good, beautiful, and life-giving.
To the blessed ones on his right, Jesus will say, “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you looked after me. I was in prison and you came to see me.” And the righteous ones will say, “When did we see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you in prison and visit you?” And Jesus will reply, “When you did it for the least of these my brothers and sisters, you did it to me.”
Those who are ready to meet God are those who have trusted God and as a result love those in need around them.
This judgment may sound hard, but with God’s friendship it is something ordinary people with God’s help we can do.
John Chrysostom, one of the church fathers from the 4th century, points out that Jesus in this parable does not say “I was sick and you healed me; I was in prison and you sprung me loose.” Jesus simply says, “I was sick and you took care of me; I was in prison and you visited me.” Healings and prison liberation are wonderful, but on the final exam what keeps most important is not that “you healed me, but that you came to me, not that you sprung me from prison, but that you were there and cared for Jesus (who was there in the distressing disguise of a sick person) and you visited him in prison (as Jesus was there in the distressing disguise of a prisoner.)”
The parable after the parable of the bridesmaids sheds light on how to be prepared for the final judgment and sheds light, as well, on what it means to be prepared.
In the story just before the parable of the bridesmaids, Jesus speaks about a man who’s calling it is to feed and care for the people in his master’s household. The master then goes on a long a trip and servant figures, “What my master doesn’t see, he doesn’t know…” So instead of feeding the people in his master’s house he beats and abuses them… and then unexpectedly the master returns. The servant is thrown out of the house, which symbolizes God’s home. Part of what it means to be prepared to meet the master means that we love the poor (Mother Teresa said Jesus comes to us in the distressing disguise of the poor), but part of what it means to prepare to meet God is to love those who are our family members and friends who may be in need right around us.
My wife Sakiko and I have been so impressed by our neighbors in their 70’s. Bob the husband who died last year and his wife Lorraine—they didn’t have kids of their own, but care in simple ways for nieces and nephews for the people in need right around them—including us (leaves to be raked). Sakiko, thinking about this couple, remarked, “I know that they are not necessarily making an impact on thousands and thousands of people, but I think people are great who really care for the people right around them.”
Being ready to meet God, oil, comes by feeding and caring for those in your household, a dad changing a diaper child, a mom patiently teaching a child to read, someone caring faithfully for an elderly parent in complete obscurity—those will count come judgment day. Part of the reason Andy’s dad is ready to meet God is because he trusts God now, and because he’s really cared for his family and the people in need right around him.
Are you ready? Are you seeking God? Are you growing in your trust of God. Are you caring for those in need right around you?
My friend Michelle used to work in investment banking with Goldman Sachs on Wall Street.
Her second day on her job was September 11th, 2001. She says, “I really just can’t describe the horror of what it was like to experience that day in New York City. I distinctly remember wearing a face mask and rushing home by foot over the Brooklyn Bridge. Everything was covered with this ghostly white soot and the city reeked with the smell of burning metal and death. The remains of the Twin Towers were smoking behind me, and no one knew if the attacks were really over yet or not. In that horrific moment, I remember thinking, ‘If I were to meet God right now – am I really ready?’ And the honest answer at that time was no. I was a Christian. But at that time, there were many areas of my life that I knew I had not fully surrendered to God. And I knew that I would be ashamed if I had to face him right at that moment. The experience transformed me and I made some very important changes in my life after that.”
Even if Jesus doesn’t come in our lifetime, the moment we die we will face the groom of the parable, Jesus, face to face.
In 2 Peter 1:10-12 we read:
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling… and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 2x
Pray:
Are you trusting God for the forgiveness of your sins and trusting him for each part of your life?
Out of that trust in God, are you caring for the people around you? Don’t put this off, commit now. There will come a time the door is shut, when it is too late.
Closing comment:
There are many reasons to confirm your call to trust in Jesus Christ…
But I love what Robert Farrar Capon says, as he comments on this parable. He says, “This is a serious parable alright. When all is said and done, we’re scared silly with the finality of the judgment. We need to take a deep breath and let out a laugh. Because what we’re watching out for is a party… and that party is not down the street… it’s already present within us… in our basement, and it’s coming up the basement stairs.” Capon says, “ God is not so like our mother-in -law, coming to see if the wedding present China is chipped… But he’s more like our funny uncle, with a Salami under one arm and a bottle of wine under the other…. We need to watch for God as it would such a pity to miss the fun…” 2x.
Possible benediction verse:
John in Revelation 19:9 writes: “Then the angel said to me, ‘Write: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb' ! "
posted by Shigematsu at 4:47 PM
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