Trinity 27

Matthew 25:1-13- Trinity 27- November 20, 2011 

  While We Wait, We Watch with Joy

The marriage of a man and a woman is a common image in the Bible for the relationship between Christ and the Church.  St. Paul writes in his letter to the Ephesians, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, [that’s Baptism] that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.”  The Church is not beautiful on her own.  Christ makes His bride so beautiful by forgiving her her sins. 

When a husband and wife are married, they become one flesh.  So also we, who by faith are members of the Church, are also members of Christ Himself.  By loving us, Jesus teaches us what true marriage is.  This one-flesh relationship between the Church and her Lord is a mystery that we will not fully understand until the Day when Christ returns.  Then He will welcome all believers – both those who have died, and those who will yet be living – into the heavenly banquet hall to celebrate the wedding feast of the Lamb that has no end.  Christ is returning for His Church.  It is His love for His holy bride that compels Him.  The parable that we just heard about the Ten Virgins describes this future event. 

In the time and place that Jesus told this parable, wedding customs were quite a bit different than ours.  Instead of running off alone on a romantic honeymoon, newlyweds would stick around and be treated like king and queen right there in their own home.  And the celebration would last for several days.  You might think of the wedding at Cana where Jesus turned water into wine – because they had run out of it – because they had drunk it all.  A wedding banquet was a fantastic party that people would look forward to with great joy. 

But no one knew exactly when it would begin, because no one knew the exact hour when the groom would come.  Whether during the day or in the middle of the night, all the bridesmaids had to be ready to welcome him with joy.  It was unacceptable for them to come late, and they couldn’t go walking the streets at night without a light.  So in order to get into the banquet, they had to keep their lamps burning.  This means that they had to have more oil than what their little lamps could themselves contain.  You can see why Jesus called those five virgins foolish who brought no extra oil with them.  They were not prepared. 

And then the groom arrived, and their lamps were going out.  They needed oil fast, but they couldn’t get it fast enough.  It was too late.  The joy and celebration within the wedding hall would last and last and last; but these five foolish virgins would remain outside, and their sorrow would last just as long. 

The meaning of this parable is clear enough once it’s explained.  The oil is the Gospel; it is the word of God and the sacraments that give to sinners what Jesus earned.  Through these means of grace alone, the Holy Spirit ignites the light of faith in our hearts.  This faith delights in and longs for the very grace and mercy that the Gospel and sacraments give.  Just as fire lives on oil, so faith lives on the word of God. 

The wedding feast represents the eternal joys of heaven.  What makes heaven so great is that Jesus is there.   He is there with His Church whom He has purchased with His own blood.  Her sin and sadness He has removed forever, and He has joined her to Himself.  What God has joined together nothing will rent asunder. 

The ten virgins represent the entire church on earth of all time that has gathered around the word and sacraments.  They wait in anticipation for the coming of the Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, whose arrival will mark the consummation of the eternal relationship that has begun here on earth through the water and the word of Holy Baptism.  While we wait for the second coming of Jesus, we make constant use of the means by which He cleanses us from our sins –— we continually listen to the Gospel that saves us.  WHILE WE WAIT, WE WATCH WITH JOY.   

The means of grace are the marks of the church.  This means that the true Church is identified by where the Gospel is preached faithfully and the sacraments are administered properly.  Now, if we identify the Christian Church by these outward marks, then we can also identify Christians by outward marks.  Since we can’t see inside anyone’s heart, Christians are identified by their reception of the means of grace.  When Christians go to church, they make a confession about who they are and what they need.  We confess our sins; and we confess that the Absolution that the pastor speaks to us is from none other than Jesus Christ who took those sins away.  We confess our weakness and our need for mercy; and we confess the power of God’s word to give us the true body and blood of Jesus in bread and wine for the forgiveness of all our sins.  There is nothing more precious than that which makes us Christians. 

Jesus teaches us how to prepare ourselves for His second coming.  And it’s really pretty simple.  We are to treasure and guard the means of grace.  That’s what Jesus commanded His Apostles: “Go and make disciples of all nations, by baptizing them, and by teaching them to observe, that is, to keep, to treasure, all these things which I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always even until the Day that I return.” 

In our parable, there were five foolish virgins and five wise virgins.  The five foolish virgins were baptized.  But they were not clean.  They heard the forgiveness of sins pronounced and preached.  But they did not have their sins forgiven.  They received the body and blood of Christ in the Lord's Supper.  But they did not have life and salvation.  They were members of the church, but they were not.  How can this be?  Faith lives on the word of God.  If we do not take seriously God’s word, or our need to receive what it promises, then our faith dies.  That is what happened with the five foolish virgins. 

This happens when Christians who have been taught the Gospel neglect the means of grace that save them.  “Oh I know the Gospel. It is in my heart. But I don’t need to hear it as often as you say.”  But watch, for you know not the day nor the hour.  What made the five virgins so foolish was not that they never had any oil.  Oh, they had it.  But they were foolishly satisfied with the meager amount of oil that their own lamps could contain.  This is exactly what Jesus is warning us against. 

We need to hear the word of God.  We need it often.  We need Jesus to give to us constantly what our hearts cannot contain.  The Gospel of God’s free grace never fails to satisfy our deepest need for mercy.  At the same time, this desire is never fully satisfied until it is filled forever in heaven. 

These five foolish virgins relied on the virtue of their status as bridesmaids, while ignoring their need for more oil, just as false Christians rely on their status as members of the Church while ignoring the word of God.  When the church loses her love for the word of God, she ceases to be the church.  Likewise, when a Christian loses his interest in hearing and learning and talking about his Christian faith, it means that he has run out of oil.  His wick has dried, and he needs to seriously consider what God has to say to him so that his faith may once again burn before it is too late. 

The five wise virgins were wise on account of the fact that they listened to the word of God – they held it sacred and they gladly heard and learned it.  They heard that they were sinners.  But instead of arguing and bickering like a contentious and bitter woman, they listened and humbly submitted like a godly wife to her husband.  They patiently awaited the appearance of the bridegroom.  And in their submission, they learned what true wisdom was.  These five wise virgins learned and received with utter delight the joy of their Lord who finally came to wash their sin away, and welcome them into paradise forever.  But first they had to WAIT WHILE THEY WATCHED WITH JOY.  

Christians hate their sin.  If you don’t hate your sin, you won’t look forward to heaven, and so you won’t prepare.  But if you do hate your sin, if the corruption of your heart grieves you, if your failure to live a pleasing life for your God causes you pain, and if the condemnation of the law is a hard word to hear, then you will love the Gospel.  You will love the Gospel because it is in His kind and most certain word of pardon that Jesus covers your shame with His own righteousness, even as He directs you to where He took your sin upon Himself so that He, and not you, might suffer the exposure to His Father’s most condemning judgment on the cross.  When you see this, then you will love the oil that keeps the light of faith glowing, and you will want more than what your heart can contain.  In this way, you too learn true wisdom. 

We look forward to heaven just as eager bridesmaids look forward to a wedding feast.  Of course the analogy can only be pressed so far.  Oil was a very practical necessity for the ladies in waiting in our parable.  But the word of God that we hear is not just some ingredient in our eventual joy.  No, the peace of all our sins forgiven through the Means of Grace today is a foretaste of what we will experience in heaven forever.  It is a pleasure to have this oil in store, because it is the oil of gladness whereby the Holy Spirit anointed Christ to be our Savior, and with which He anoints us to be saved. 

WHILE WE WAIT, WE WATCH WITH JOY.   We will rejoice in the marriage feast of the Lamb and His holy bride the Church.   We are the Church.  We are His bride. 

From heaven He came and sought her to be His holy bride;
With His own blood He bought her, and for her life He died. 

But here is another place where the analogy of Jesus’ parable seems to break down.  The parable depicts us who wait for Christ’s appearing, not as a beautifully adorned bride, but as her bridesmaids who celebrate the coming of a groom who looks like He will be wedded to someone else.  Always the bridesmaid; never the bride.  But let this not be said among you. 

We celebrate today as we gather around the Gospel, and as we approach the altar to receive a foretaste of the joy above.  No one here has experienced greater joy.  But we will.  Our joy is not complete.  Right now it looks like we celebrate the promises of the Gospel as outsiders waiting for the consummation of the love between a distant Lord and His distant bride.  Although we don’t look like Christ’s glorious Church, that is exactly what Jesus calls us.  St. Paul tells us, “For now we know only in part and we prophesy only in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away” (1 Cor. 13:9-10). 

Those five wise virgins represent us who right now wait and watch in the dark and in our drowsiness with our lamps of faith dimly burning.  But even now our Lord comes to serve us as His one and only bride whom He loves so dearly, the Holy Christian Church.  And though it seems that He is delaying, when He comes, all our divisions, all our sadness, all our inadequacies, and pain, and all of our sin will be gone forever, and we will appear with Him to be with Christ forever, adorned and beautiful – just as He has described us in the clear and certain words of forgiveness that bring us such joy today.   Until then, we continue to wait, and watch and pray for our Lord to come.  Let us pray. 

Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life: 
such a way as gives us breath,
such a truth as ends all strife,
such a life as killeth death.

Come, my Light, my Feast, my Strength: 
such a light as shows a feast,
such a feast as mends in length,
such a strength as makes his guest.

Come, my Joy, my Love, my Heart: 
such a joy as none can move,
such a love as none can part,
such a heart as joys in love.                 

Come, come Lord Jesus, come quickly.  Amen.