1 Thessalonians 5:1–11
St. Matthew 25:1–13
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
When our Lord returns in glory, the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. These virgins are the bride’s attendants, whose job it was to greet the bridegroom as he was coming from his parent’s house to his bride’s home. Then they would join the wedding procession to the new home that the bridegroom had prepared for his wife, and there the party would begin. In this parable, Jesus is talking about the Church, not people of other religions, outside the Church. All ten ladies are virgins carrying lamps—they all look the same. These ten maidens represent members of the Church: they appear outwardly pure, they bear the name Christian. But not all outward members of the Church are true believers. These ten virgins are not all the same.
Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. The simple meaning behind the terms foolish and wise is unbeliever and believer. But there’s more to learn from these terms. This Greek word for foolish is actually where we get our word, “moron.” Bet you didn’t know that Jesus calls people morons. It’s quite an insulting word to us, but it’s a good word. If we think someone is a moron, we don’t mean someone who just lacks knowledge. Ignorance can be educated—you can learn new things if you want to. But we would say a moron is someone who’s not street-smart. They lack common sense: like not bringing oil. It’s nighttime, you’ve got lamps, and you don’t bring oil? Pretty dumb.
But the truth of the parable is that sin is stupid and sin makes us stupid. We know there are bad consequences to sin. We know God is not happy with us when we’re careless or go ahead against better judgment and sin anyway. But being sinners, we convince ourselves that we are right and we refuse to be corrected. The moronic virgins and people like them are not uneducated people, they are stubborn. They do not want to learn from God’s Word. They do not want to admit that they are wrong, that they have failed, that they need help and that they need to learn something new. Not wanting to repent of sin, and not wanting to learn from God’s Word, is foolish. It’s as foolish as bringing lamps with no oil.
The other five virgins are called wise. The Greek word here for wise also means “sensible or thoughtful.” Again, we’re not talking about book-smarts. You don’t have to study a lot and know a lot of facts in order to be wise. But it means you want to learn, you want to be a better person than you are now, and you are open to being changed. The best meaning for the word is actually “prudent.” This word Jesus uses is one of the four human virtues. The classical Greeks identified four virtues that are necessary to be a good human: justice, courage, self-control, and prudence. Being prudent means that you care about future things. This could be something big, like saving for retirement, or something small, like bringing oil for your lamps when waiting for the bridegroom.
These five wise virgins were prudent—they were ready for difficult circumstances. They were ready to admit they might be wrong about the Bridegroom’s arrival. Maybe they thought he would arrive sooner, but he was delayed. These prudent ladies planned ahead. Prudence—looking forward to the future, planning for and caring about the future—this is the virtue that listens to Jesus’ warning: Watch… for you know neither the day nor the hour. This means that the wise person wants to prepare now for Jesus’ return. You want to learn what He has to teach you in His Word. And you’re open to being corrected. You know you’re a sinner, so when you hear yourself being judged and your sin condemned, your first reaction is not to take offense or be outraged and storm off, but you repent. You want to turn away from your sin and try to do what God expects. You know you have failed and so you also want to do better. Most importantly, you want to get what Jesus offers now in His Word and Sacraments, so that you will be ready when He comes.
That last part really is the most important, because your prudence is not enough. Your effort to be on guard against sin, your work to prepare and obey God’s commands—that isn’t enough. All ten virgins became drowsy and slept, even the prudent ones. You have failed, and you will fail again. You can’t make yourself ready by your own power. And the church you belong to can’t do it for you either. Just playing the part, showing up once in a while or helping out when the congregation needs something—that won’t be good enough when the Bridegroom shows up. You need something else. You need something more than justice, courage, self-control, and prudence. The Christian Church recognizes that those human virtues are good and true, but we also recognize that the Bible tells us something else. We need the theological virtues: faith, love, and hope.
What we need is the oil for our lamps. In an oil lamp, the wick needs to be in oil—that’s the fuel for the fire. With no oil, the wick would burn up very quickly and go out. But with the oil, the wick burns slowly, brightly, steadily, because the wick is drawing up the oil so the flame is feeding on the oil. For us, in the Kingdom of Heaven, the oil is God’s Word and Sacraments: the Holy Scriptures and the preaching of those Scriptures that create faith by the power of the Spirit and instruct us in the life that is pleasing to God; Holy Baptism, the Name of God joined to the water that washes our sins away and gives us new birth as God’s children; Holy Absolution, the declaration of the forgiveness of sins spoken aloud so that you may be certain of God’s grace and have a good conscience before Him; and the Holy Communion, the feast of Christ’s true body and blood that forgives sin, enlivens faith, strengthens love, and saves us for eternity. These are where and how we get the oil for our lamps. These are the holy things that the flame of faith must feed on. Without this holy oil of the Word and Sacraments, our faith would sputter and go out. But with this oil, the flames of faith, love, and hope can burn brightly, all through the long night of waiting—waiting for our Bridegroom to arrive.
Now the fact that we need this oil and can’t do without it on our own means that it is really the Lord Himself who makes you ready for His coming. While our prudence is necessary, it’s not the thing that saves us. While our faith, love, and hope are necessary, these also are not why we are saved. We are made ready for Jesus’ return, we are saved, because He died for us and rose again; because He loves us enough to deal with our sin, to rebuke us and to forgive us; because He speaks to us and He is faithful to His promises.
In the Epistle, we were told that the Lord provides us with the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. There’s those three theological virtues again. Our Lord gives us the gift of faith in Him, and He kindles in our hearts the gift of love for our neighbors. He also inspires in us the sure and certain hope of His return on the Last Day. We know the future that has been promised to us. Christian hope is the greatest prudence of all: not merely working and planning for the future, but confidently trusting in the Lord who will come again to rescue us from every evil. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep (alive or dead) we might live with Him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.
Do not be foolish and do not confirm other people’s foolishness. But be wise for yourself and for one another. Encourage your fellow Christians to live a holy life in keeping with God’s Word. Build up your fellow believers by speaking and singing that Word to them, and by praying for them. Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit, soul and body, be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it (1 Thessalonians 5:23–24).
Come quickly + Lord Jesus. Amen.
