Trinity 27

Matthew 25:1-13 – Trinity Twenty-Seven – November 20, 2016
Ten Virgins  ♫♫♫

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Five virgins went to heaven.  Five virgins went to hell.  All ten washed their sins away and received eternal life in the water of Holy Baptism that clothed them in Christ and made them pure.  All ten heard and learned the promises of the gospel, and in our day would have been confirmed.  All ten belonged to a good and respectable church.  All ten knew how a Christian should behave and look.  But only five of them believed the gospel.  The other five did not.  Those who believed the gospel went into the eternal wedding feast.  Those who did not believe were sent away forever. 

Last week, with the parable of the sheep and the goats, we learned how God distinguishes those who believe from those who don’t believe by how they treated and served Christ’s Christians here on earth.  Those who did not show love to Christ’s brothers did not show love to Christ.  This pertains to the second table of the law: “love your neighbor as yourself.”  Of all neighbors most worthy of our service, and of the greatest concern to our Lord, it is those who are of the household of faith – those who worship with us, confess with us, preach to us, correct us when no one else will, and care for our souls by the commission and command of our Savior.  It is those who receive with us the forgiveness of sins – our brothers and sisters in Christ.  God distinguishes his sheep from the goats by what they do and leave undone towards the least of his brothers.

This week, with the parable of the ten virgins, we learn how God distinguishes those who believe from those who don’t believe in another way: by how they treated the word of God here on earth.  Those who did not gladly hear and learn it did not love Christ.  This pertains to the first table of the law: “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5). 
In Luke 10[:27], when Jesus recounts this first and great commandment, he adds, “and with all your mind.”  God alone is God.  He who made us and who provides us all that we have is the only God there is.  He gives us our body and soul, our strength and mind and all things.  It is he alone who rescues us from sin, death, and hell, because it is he alone who took on human flesh and blood in order to atone for our sins.  He alone is worthy of our thanksgiving, praise, and devotion.  He tells us to render these things to him by hearing his word and keeping it – that is, by being on the receiving end of his undeserved mercy and kindness.  God distinguishes the wise virgins from the foolish virgins by whether or not they care enough about his saving grace to be mindful of where their salvation is found.  This is what it means to have oil for your lamp. 

Obviously, God sees the inmost heart.  God sees the faith which we cannot see in others and that others cannot see in us.  God does not need to look at our works of service toward one another in order to determine that we truly believe the gospel.  There is no tricking him.  Nor should there be concern in your mind that Christ will mistake you for one who did not truly believe on account of what you fear might be a poor resume.  Take heart.  He sees your heart – even as he judges your works accordingly.  

Likewise, God does not need to examine how alert you were in church or with how much gusto you sang the hymns or, for that matter, how often you came to determine how much you treasured the gospel.  He reads hearts, remember.  Going to church is not a good work that impresses God or earns his approval.  It is only a good work inasmuch as God desires to work in you what you are not able to work in yourselves.  And he does so solely and exclusively through the word that is preached and the sacraments that are administered by his command and promise.  Without the word and sacraments, you have no Holy Spirit and so you have no faith and your lamp is empty and dry and the darkness surrounds you.  But with his word and sacrament, through the forgiveness of sins and the preaching of Christ for you, you have the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son.  And with the faith he works in your heart, you are enabled to glorify the Father and the Son together with the Holy Ghost who enlightens your mind and fills you with the oil of gladness.  God sees the heart.  He sees inside the lamp.  But what is inside the lamp is manifested by the flame it supports – or the lack thereof. 

The point of both these parables – last week’s and this week’s – is not how we might persuade God that we are sincere and devoted.  No.  You cannot do that.  The faith anyone has is the faith that God himself has worked in him.  Christ knows his own; and his own know him.  What do we have that is not a free gift from God?  What is the point in flaunting our faith when it is God who gave us our faith to begin with?  No, the point of these parables is to preserve us from false faith, false security, and presumption.  In order to do this, God calls us to repentance and teaches us how to remain in his grace.  He teaches us not simply to look like Christians.  He teaches us to look into ourselves and determine whether we are Christians. 

St. Paul writes:

“Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? —unless indeed you are disqualified” (2 Corinthians 13:5). 

To take heart and embrace the gospel requires that we examine our hearts and recall what we need from the gospel.  How much oil do you have?  Do you know where to find it?  Do you care?  Are you satisfied with your appearance as a pure virgin – looking no different from the others who wait for the bridegroom to come?  Do you look and behave like just as much of a Christian as the person next to you?  Is that enough?  Is it enough that you belong to this church?  Is it enough that your doctrine is correct?  Is it enough that you have lamps with wicks?  So thought the five foolish virgins.  They did not take heart.  They did not test themselves.  They had no oil because the gospel was not worth their time and attention. 

… until it was.  But then it was too late. 

Jesus warns us.  This is not a warning about who might be among us who doesn’t really believe.  It is a warning to you who know you do believe the gospel.  You know that you have Jesus.  You know he is your savior.  You know that what you have been taught to believe is the truth.  You know that it is important to go to church and to pray and to do works of love toward others.  You know this.  And so it is precisely to you that Jesus is speaking.  “Watch,” he tells you, “for you do not know the day nor the hour.” 

Jesus tells us to stay awake.  As he said to his disciples in Gethsemane, “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41).  No one really likes to be warned when he is being careless.  It comes off as a bit presumptuous to tell someone else that what he is doing is foolish or harmful – especially today when everyone guards his individuality and autonomy as the most precious commodity he has.  People get offended as though you were imposing yourself and judging.  “But,” as St. Paul writes, “he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one” (1 Corinthians 2:15). 

If you do not want to be judged, judge yourself.  As it is written, “For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world” (1 Corinthians 11:31-32).  So ask: Are you not still in the flesh?  Do you not still have the same weakness that is common to everyone?  So did all ten virgins.  Every one of them struggled with the alluring distractions of the world.  Every one of them enjoyed light-hearted conversation and activities that took their focus off of that for which they were waiting.  Every single one of them was to remain awake and alert for the hour when the bridegroom was supposed to come.  But every single one of them fell asleep. 

We can praise the five wise virgins.  We can turn them into a great example to follow.  But it is not because they had some saintly quality that you and I lack.  They were sinners like you and me.  They were spiritually drowsy just like the five foolish virgins who waited with them.  One thing set them apart.  They brought extra oil.  They had examined themselves.  They had judged themselves and tested themselves.  They did not turn their noses at one another as they warned each other and urged each other to remain mindful of the bridegroom’s advent.  They were not too proud to be admonished by fellow sinners to hear the word of God and pay attention, because they knew how week their own faith was.  They knew how easily their lamps ran dry as they sought to contend with the darkness.  And so they took to heart the warnings they received and brought extra oil.  They knew where to buy it.  It was the same place that God had told them:

“Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price” (Isaiah 55:1).

Do you lack the works and devotion you would like to see in yourself?  Do you experience contrary feelings in yourself that challenge the gospel you have heard?  Do you find yourself being so distracted from your faith that you are unable to begin at any moment to speak out loud the good news of Jesus to whoever might be listening?  Then you only prove your weakness.  Join the throng of virgins who doze off when they should be watching and praying.  You are not so unique.  Examine yourself.  Your distractions and wandering thoughts are an opportunity for you to repent and return to the mercy of Christ.  Do you have oil?  Is Jesus Christ in you?  Or are you disqualified? 

Then consider him who was not disqualified.  Consider him who pleased his Father above all things – him who was born of a virgin to become our Savior – to fulfill the law in your place, to keep perfect watch, and to suffer and die to atone for all your sins.  Jesus was born of a virgin.  Yet his virgin mother’s own purity was found nowhere else than in the faith God gave her – faith in him who was incarnate in her own womb.  Her lamp, so to speak, was filled while she carried him for nine months – even as her spirit rejoiced in God her Savior.  But once she gave birth, how did she fill her lamp?  How did she keep her faith aglow?  By hearing and keeping the word of her Son and God’s.  That’s how.  As Jesus said, “For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother” (Matthew 12:50). 

The will of our Father is for us to be saved – for us to repent and believe that for Jesus’ sake all our sins are forgiven freely.  It is our Father’s will that we be constantly mindful of this – and when we doze off, that we return to where the gospel is preached and the body and blood of Christ are given as food and drink with no cost.  All ten virgins were depicted as virgins.  All ten had received Christ in their hearts by faith.  But five of them lost that faith – not because they failed to hold constant vigil, but because they lost interest in where the mercy of God was found for them.  They took for granted that they were Christians — until they weren’t anymore.  They stopped going to church.  They stopped paying attention to the hymns that were sung.  They stopped exerting their minds to follow the sermon that was preached to them.  They had their faith.  They had their Jesus.  And no one was going to tell them they didn’t.  But when the hour came and they trimmed their wicks, their hearts were filled with fear.  They had fooled themselves.  That’s what fools do. 

But we are not fools.  We are wise.  We are children of the day.  We know where to find the oil that keeps our faith aglow.  It is the oil of gladness, as the Scriptures say of Christ our Savior:

“Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You
With the oil of gladness more than Your companions.”
(Psalm 45:7, Hebrews 1:9)

He is anointed more because he has trusted more.  He who sweat blood in the Garden while you were sleeping kept watch until he commended his Spirit to God on the cross.  And so keeping his focus in earning your salvation, he remains alert and determined to wrestle for you and with you as you struggle to hold onto your salvation.  He who shall come in glory like a thief in the night, totally unexpected, comes in mercy here and in this hour where you can always expect him.  He fills your lamp with oil as surely as he filled Mary’s womb.  He warns you today because he loves you and desires your salvation forever.  He fills you today so that your joy may be full.  And you may enjoy that eternal joy even now: your sins are forgiven.  Amen.