Trinity 27

Matthew 25:1-13 - Trinity 27 - November 23, 2014
The Fullness of Heavenly Wisdom is Mine

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. 

Wisdom’s highest, noblest treasure,
Jesus, lies concealed in You.
Let me find in You my pleasure,
And my wayward will subdue,
Humility there and simplicity reigning,
In paths of true wisdom my steps ever training.
If I learn from Jesus this knowledge divine,
The fullness of heavenly wisdom is mine.[i]  Amen. 

This morning I’d like to talk about wisdom, what it is, and how we get it.  We consider the parable of the ten virgins.  There are five foolish, and five wise.  Foolishness is a terrible thing.  To be foolish is to be self-destructive and willingly ignorant of what is good for you.  It is to be stubbornly unconcerned with true righteousness.  The word in Greek is μωρός, where we get the word moron.  A spiritual moron is one who does not take the word of God to heart. 

Wisdom, on the other hand, is a beautiful thing.  The Greek word for wisdom is σοφία.  To have σοφία is to have full knowledge of what is eternally true.  It is to love what is righteous and to completely delight in what is good.  To have wisdom is to know Christ and his saving grace.  Wisdom is a gift from God because faith is a gift from God.  When our youngest daughter was born, Monica and I had this very truth in mind when we settled on her name.  Sophia Dorothy translates straight from the Greek: Wisdom is God’s Gift.  And so it is. 

When preparing for this text from Matthew 25 about the five wise virgins, I suppose I expected to find here this same word, σοφία or σοφός.  But I didn’t.  Instead I found a different word, the word φρόνιμος.  Now, I’m not going to make this complicated.  Don’t worry.  But I almost felt disappointed not to find that beautiful word σοφία here, but some other word for wise instead.  That was until it became clear the wonderful lesson being taught by our Lord’s choice of words.  Let’s consider just these two words, both of which have to do with being wise: there’s σοφία and also that other word, φρόνιμος, which you don’t really have to learn. 

When we talk about wisdom, as in σοφία, we are not talking about something that we do or something that we get good at.  We’re not talking about something that we can gain by our own cleverness or devotion.  Σοφία is not an activity, but a quality.  It refers to the truth of God’s word and the knowledge of salvation.  To have σοφία is to have true faith in Christ, who is himself the Wisdom of God – the Σοφία Θεοΰ.  It is as we just prayed: Wisdom’s highest, noblest treasure, Jesus, lies concealed in You. 

We who hear and believe the gospel are wise in this σοφία sense of the word.  We know Christ.  We bear his name.  St. Paul uses this word σοφία when he writes: “from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15). 

Scripture makes us wise by teaching us.  Scripture teaches us about Jesus.  The entire Bible serves this purpose of presenting Christ to those who have first been taught to mourn their sin and fear God.  As the Proverb says: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (Proverbs 9:10).  Here we see both the law and the gospel.  The law teaches us to fear God.  The Gospel teaches us to know Christ.  The law begins wisdom.  The gospel completes wisdom.  To fear God is the beginning of wisdom, because it prepares us for mercy.  Knowing Christ is the fullness of wisdom because he is the Holy One of God who reconciles us to the Father. 

To have true wisdom – σοφία – is to fear, love, and trust in God above all things. 

We fear God.  It is as we say in the conclusion of the 10 Commandments: “God threatens to punish all those who break these commandments. Therefore we should fear his wrath and not do anything against them.”  But have we not disobeyed?  Yet it is only when we consider the depths of our sin that we are prepared to recognize our need for mercy.  God prepares us.  He teaches us to fear him by teaching us his holy will and how we have sinned against it.  He teaches us to see the harm that our pride has caused ourselves, and the hurt that our selfish desires have brought upon others.  He teaches us to fear eternal punishment by disciplining us with the temporal consequences of our sin.  When life is rough and heartache abounds, God teaches you to examine how it might just be your own fault.  Fear God.  God permits hardship and loss and embarrassment and shame in your life so that you might recognize not just how much your sin reduces earthly enjoyment, but also how much your sin merits God’s eternal rejection.  God teaches this.  And only if you learn this has true wisdom begun in you, because God will only make wise those who first fear him – God will only receive such sinners who know and acknowledge their sin.

But to such sinners as these, God reveals his love.  And he teaches us to love him in return by giving us Christ.  Christ fulfills God’s holy will for us by bearing our sin.  And he teaches us to trust him as our Savior by crediting to us the obedience that he has rendered in our place.  This happens through the proclamation of the gospel.  Our sins are forgiven on account of Jesus’ suffering and dying and rising from the dead.  For Jesus sake, therefore, we are taught to fear, love, and trust in God. 

All of this makes us wise – wise in the σοφία sense of the word.  Wisdom is God’s Gift.  We do well, therefore, to take heed and take to heart what God is giving us.  We do well to make frequent use of the precious Sacrament of our Lord’s body and blood, because we know that this is where Christ delivers to us what he earned on the cross.  We do well to live in our baptismal grace by daily drowning our Old Adam in repentance and by rising again through the forgiveness of our sins as new men and women created in Christ Jesus for eternal life.  We do well to live as Christians who confess our sins to one another and forgive one another and speak the word of God with one another and receive both rebuke and encouragement from one another. 

And this is what it means to be φρόνιμος.  That’s that other word for wise that Jesus calls the five virgins who kept their lamps filled with oil – the ones who were prepared to enter into the wedding feast.  Фρόνιμος means to have a certain attitude.  It means to be mindful and watchful – to think about what you have.  If σοφία is a quality, then φρόνιμος is an activity.  It means to actively make use of the means of grace while you live this life.  We press toward glory.  This means that we look forward to when the fullness of heavenly wisdom will be ours.  But for now, we must depend on the foolishness of the message preached to us.  This is φρόνιμος.  We look forward to being completely freed from sin.  But for now, we must depend on the forgiveness of sins.  This is φρόνιμος.  We look forward to deathless and endless life.  But for now, we must depend on the death of Christ and the hope of the resurrection.  This is φρόνιμος.  We must live by faith – faith that is constantly fed – faith that does not grow bored with the Bread of Life. 

But many do get bored.  They are fools.  They are not φρόνιμος.  They imagine because they are members of the church that they have all the wisdom they need.  They are those who attend Divine service, but don’t pay attention to what is being preached or don’t think they need to agree with what God’s word says.  They are those who see no need to examine themselves and prepare for the Lord’s Supper, because they don’t really believe that they need what it gives.  They are those who, though they are baptized, see no need to daily repent and daily rise through the forgiveness of sins.  They are those who hold membership, but feel no need to come to church where the gospel is preached.  They are connected to the church.  But they are not connected to Christ. 

They’ve got their lamps.  They’ve got their wicks.  They pretend to be waiting with the rest of us.  But they have no oil.  They have no faith.  Why?  Because they don’t care.  That’s why.  They are not mindful of what they truly need.  They are spiritual fools – morons – because they imagine they have already attained to the height of wisdom.  But as St. Paul writes, “Professing to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:22).  They profess to have σοφία, but they refuse to be φρόνιμος.  They’ve become fools because they refuse to be watchful. 

To be watchful is to have oil.  And it is to know where this oil is found.  It is found where Christ serves us.  The oil is faith.  The oil is the Holy Spirit.  The oil is the gladness of the gospel.  It is all these things. 

We have all things, Christ possessing,
Life eternal, second birth,
Present pardon, peace, and blessing
While we tarry here on earth, 
And by faith’s anticipation,
Foretaste of the joy above,
Freely given us with salvation
By the Father in his love. 

All things are ours.  The height of wisdom – the fullness of wisdom.  It’s ours when we have Christ.  But because we still live in the flesh, we can only enjoy it dimly.  We have a foretaste of the joy above only through the gospel we hear.  We enjoy the σοφία of God only by being φρόνιμος – that is, only by holding dear the forgiveness of our sins and learning from Jesus.  Our wisdom as Christians is found in our desire for true wisdom in Christ.  And it is always granted.  And so it is only those who desire mercy while living who are prepared for the Bridegroom when he returns. 

St. Paul tells us to be watchful when he uses this same word φρόνιμος as a verb in Philippians 2: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (2:5), that is, think like Christ.  Have his attitude.  And think of what that attitude is.  He who is the eternal Wisdom of God took the form of a servant and came in the likeness of man.  He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death on the cross.  For us, the eternal Wisdom of God permitted himself to look like a fool.  And he did so to save us.  He did so to make us wise.  Christ is now risen and ascended, and will no longer be made to look like a fool.  God highly exalted him and gave him the name which is above every name. 

But we are not exalted.  We wait.   And while we wait, we assume the mind that our Lord had while he waited.  While we wait, we endure the scorn and mockery of the world just as Jesus did.   Heavenly wisdom is ours.  We have Christ.  But we make ourselves of no reputation.  We take the form of servants.  We assume the mind of Christ.  And like Christ, we are regarded as fools.  It is God who will exalt us as truly wise.  And so we wait for that.  In the meantime, we take refuge in the foolishness of the cross. 

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18).  And we will see this power.  We will see our hearts’ desire because God has taught our hearts what to desire right here where Christ fills our lamps with all the oil we need.  And having this oil that fuels our hope today, we will be well prepared to have shining lamps whereby we will follow our Lord into eternal joys when the Bridegroom comes again. 

Zion rejoices.  Zion is the whole Church.  It is all who have ever or ever will find refuge in the free forgiveness of sins for Jesus’ sake.  She is clothed in white robes.  She is pure and beautiful as a holy bride.  Zion rejoices.  All Zion rejoices.  That is why we are depicted as virgins in waiting.  We are the bridesmaids.  Just as no individual can believe for another – everyone must have his own oil – yet also we believe together.  We fill our lamps together.  We wait together.  We are counted as fools together.  And together we will be shown to be wise for having been served together by Christ.  Let us pray: 

Wisdom’s Fountain ever flowing
From my pierced Savior’s side. 
Grant that I be ever going
In this Wisdom to abide.
My thoughts and desires have yet nothing brought me
Except when I’m mindful of what Your death bought me.
Lord let me look foolish and counted the least
Till called forth by Wisdom I joy in Your Feast.[ii] 
                                                                         In Jesus’ name, Amen. 

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[i] Mix of TLH and LSB. 

[ii] JCP: on my way to church.