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“Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’ Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.”
This is Your word heavenly Father, sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is Truth. Amen.
Fellow redeemed: Who gets to go to heaven? Do you go to heaven because you are better than those who don’t? What does Jesus say to you in today’s text? What is the single quality He mentions in the parable which speaks of whether a person is pure or not?
“Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins…”
Now you know that half of the group were shut out of the wedding, by which Jesus is saying that many shall be shut out of the Kingdom of heaven. But look at who Jesus divides, between those who get in and those who don’t. They are likened to “ten virgins.” Ok, so what can you do with that? Without anything to modify it, ‘virgin’ is simply untouched, and pure. Nothing about the moral character of the ten decided whether or not they would be included in the marriage.
Now think, is there a word which describes our moral condition before God? There are: ‘Fallen.’ ‘Sinner.’ and how about ‘Dead!’ In the sight of God these are the words which describe every son and daughter of Adam and Eve. Born into a fallen condition, you have continually added fault and sin to the list of reasons why you could never approach a holy God or enter into His Kingdom of Life. If you look to yourself there is nothing to give you any comfort, and much indeed to terrify your honest self-examination. And your neighbor is like you. We all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God. According to the quality of your person and work, you may not come near God, and you have no good reason to hope for anything but eternal separation from Him. And that means that you are dead already, and may only anticipate the endless horror of eternal death and hell.
No, I don’t want to go on about it. Rather I commend to you your own darkest fear regarding your true moral condition, and your own memory of the sin you know yourself to be guilty of. The Law of God has been inscribed upon your heart, and it preaches your damnation to you more loudly and eloquently by half than any pulpit-thumping accusation from me could manage. Indeed, it would perhaps be easier on you if I just listed sins which you may have done, for then you could sit there and suppose I’m talking about the fellow over there. But your own heart stings you with your very own failings and evil thoughts and words and doings. Consider that sermon well.
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But remember what I said earlier about the characters in Jesus’ parable? Nothing about the moral character of the ten decided whether or not they would be included in the marriage. And Jesus says that the Kingdom of Heaven may be likened to what He here describes. If nothing about the moral character of the ten makes the difference (they were all virgins, after all) in the parable, then we must conclude that nothing about your moral character makes the difference as to whether or not you will be included in the Kingdom of Heaven (all of humanity, every one of us is a sinner, after all). So the common wisdom that good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell isn’t true. If it were true, all of us would go to hell, for all have sinned and fall short of the Kingdom of God!
So how then may you be brought into the Kingdom of Heaven, if it isn’t how good you are?
“Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.”
Jesus is telling us this parable, likening the ten virgins to the Kingdom of Heaven. He is telling us that some are going to be ready when the moment comes for the Groom to arrive. Those who aren’t ready ahead of time will not gain access into that Kingdom. Jesus has chosen imagery that we must take note of. The setting of the parable is a marriage. The virgins are in waiting for the coming of the Groom. Elsewhere in Scripture the Church is named the Bride of Christ, and He, her Groom. The virgins in this parable would be those outwardly associated with the Bride, that is, with the Church. No man may judge the heart of another. We only can judge by appearances. As you know, looks can be deceiving! We see those who appear to be in the Church in the world today. And we should have no doubt that where the Word of God is proclaimed, and the Sacraments are rightly administered, that there are people who are in the Church truly, but so long as we remain in this world, the fact is that there are others who only, for whatever reason, have chosen to associate themselves with it for appearance’ sake while remaining apart from it.
I want to stress here that none of us has the ability to judge the heart, and so it is not given to any of us to say that this one is a believer, but the other one isn’t. That declaration is only to be made reluctantly, where the sin is blatant, and in the face of stubborn unrepentance. In fact most of the time the false brethren cannot be seen for what they are in the Church Militant. In fact it may well be that those who appear least good, least holy, only minimally Christian among us may be very close to our Lord indeed! and fighting such a struggle, carrying such a cross against temptation, that none of us may ever understand. When you consider such folk, remember that you do not know what you cannot see, and pray the more for them, that the armies of the heavenly host may rally to their cause and uplift them in their trouble!
Saying that the Bride is the Church and the Groom our Lord Jesus, the Virgins are those identified as being in the Church visible, both true and false, I could go on to note that the oil for their lamps is oftentime seen as a reference to the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit, who enlightens our hearts and minds through God’s Word and enables us to receive and hold it in saving faith. And here you would be right in saying that the analogy breaks down because the foolish virgins who didn’t have any spare oil went to get some from the merchants, albeit too late (although it is interesting to see that in the text it doesn’t actually say that the foolish virgins were successful in getting any when they went shopping). But that’s how it is with parables or any kind of illustration, really. At a certain point, if you push it too hard, it breaks down. We need to remember what Jesus’ point is in the parable of the virgins and only take it so far. His point is plain: the wise virgins enter into the joy of the wedding, for they already had the oil needed to wait for the arrival of the Bridegroom.
Jesus is true God. Seeing your lost condition in sin, He loved you so that He entered into your condition, taking on your flesh and being born of the blessed Virgin to live and suffer under the Law perfectly in your place, and though He had no sin of His own, He became sin for your sake, and was cursed, for cursed is every man that hangs upon a tree. So He obeyed the loving will of the Father and was crucified, dying in your place, so that you might live in His, a royal and eternal heir of the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus provided for this gracious deliverance from eternal death in sin to eternal life in holiness and grace to be delivered to you through His Word, where He has promised the Holy Spirit, that is to say the fullness of God through His Third Person should abide to fill you with the Gifts won for you by Jesus, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. And the Holy Spirit washes you into this Faith and Life, cleansing you from filth and death in Holy Baptism, and here it is right to speak of you, dear Christian, as in Christ a Virgin, in the sense that you are pure and cleansed without spot or wrinkle in His sight.
Jesus appeals to you by means of the parable of the Virgins that the moment to be ready for this glad eternity in Him is right now. He, our wondrous Groom shall return at a moment of His own choosing, and without warning beyond what you hear in His Word. Now is the day of your salvation, now the day His redemption, Grace, and Spirit are available in abundance to be obtained in His Word and Sacrament for you. When the Last Day comes, or when death suddenly comes calling, there shall be no more time. Now is the time. Be wise, therefore, and a keeper of the Word and Gift of the grace of Jesus in sincerity and truth. Do not be like the foolish, who think it enough for the moment just to tag along and be in the company of the Church as it is seen here in the world. Cast off your pretensions and stop lying to yourself for there is no time but this time, and there is no moment in the future you may be assured of, but the coming of Jesus, and the Judgment of all mankind. That will be no time to be scurrying about, trying to at last obtain what no longer is present for you, and so be lost forever!
Here it is: you are my fellow redeemed, for Jesus has given Himself for your sake. You have life in Him. His Word has been given to you, and you have heard it. You have been baptized into Christ, and His Spirit has met you there. Abandon all if needs be, but cling to the Faith given you. Here is your safe harbor, your full and unending supply of oil, your new heart of flesh to replace the burnt out stony heart of sin. Your sin is forgiven in Christ. You are undone and made new. And soon you shall see Him as He is, and Jesus shall wipe every tear from your eyes, and you shall abide in His presence, in the joy of His eternal wedding feast, forevermore a beloved Child of the Living God. Jesus is coming soon, and the Bride rejoices, and the virgins with her, ‘even so Lord, come quickly!’
The Peace of God which passes all understanding guard your heart and mind through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
