When you were baptized, the ceremony announced that you were in the company of the Ten Virgins from today’s gospel (Mt. 25:1-13): “Receive this burning torch and keep your Baptism blameless, so that when the Lord comes to the wedding you may go forth to meet Him and enter with the saints into the heavenly mansion and receive eternal life.”
The five wise virgins, the liturgy is saying, are those who kept their baptism blameless. That’s not something we can easily see. In the parable, they all look the same. They are all called “virgins,” they are all waiting for the bridegroom together, they are all carrying lamps, they all fall asleep. Yet five are wise, and five foolish. Which are you among – the wise, or the foolish?
What is wisdom? The Lord Jesus says, “Everyone … who hears these words of Mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” The foolish man is the one who hears the words but pays no attention to them, that is, does not take them to heart and hear them as being spoken to him. “Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it” [Mt. 7].
The wise man, the wise virgin, the one who keeps his baptism is the one who keeps on hearing the Word of God. The Bible begins and ends with a marriage; in the beginning, our first parents are united in holy matrimony, and at the end, God in Christ unites Himself to His people, as a Bridegroom to the bride. The horror of this story is that there are some who are absent and unready at the Bridegroom’s arrival, at the Lord’s return.
And when will He come? “The Bridegroom was delayed,” the Gospel says. We do not know the hour of His coming. Why? Why has He not come yet? Because He wants to fill up the number in His kingdom! God loves the birth of children, He wants more to be baptized, more to return to their Baptism, more to hear His Word of Absolution, more to be rescued from bondage to empty things!
St. Peter puts it this way:
The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. [2 Pt. 3.9f]
And so we wait, knowing that He will keep His Word, that He will come again to judge the living and the dead. We wait as the company of the Ten Virgins waited in the parable. “But while the Bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.” That is, none of them knew the day or the hour. It’s not that five of them were trading on insider information, and so they were stocked up on oil.
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What is the oil? There seems no end to the opinions about what the oil is: good works, the law, the Word of God, steadfastness (as opposed to temporary enthusiasm), faith. One thoughtful Christian mentioned to me the other day that the oil could be repentance.
I wonder if it isn’t all of this put together. The Word of God preaches to us the law, it drives us to repentance, the Word preaches to us the Gospel, producing faith, which is never without good works. In other words, what we have are those who stay in Baptism, the baptism which drowns us in repentance and lifts us up from the water to walk before God in a new life. The wise virgins know they need a continual supply of the gifts of God, while the foolish virgins have a dead faith.
In the end, they try to buy what cannot be purchased. “Go to the sellers,” the foolish virgins are told. We don’t know what happens to them, other then they end up lost, out in the dark, and locked out of the wedding. It’s already started, but it will only increase in the coming weeks, this message that you must spend money to make the holy days “meaningful.” The American Christmas is not itself the problem; all year long, we are tempted to think that life is about what we purchase, and that happiness is simply a transaction away. Placing our trust in what is temporary, we will lose what is eternal. Lasting joy will not come through what you can purchase, but through being in the company of the faithful when Christ the heavenly bridegroom announces the beginning of the wedding.
So what will it mean to keep watch? St. Peter says it is to be watchful for the assaults of the devil: “Be sober, be vigilant, for your enemy, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him! Stand firm in the Faith!” The war is long and hard. He tempts you to sin—to cast away your chastity, to go against your marriage vows, to act unethically, to be proud and judgmental, to be lazy in prayer and meditation on God’s Word. Arm yourself with the LORD’s Word – fill up your lamp with it, lest through your neglect the flame of faith be extinguished.
Stay awake. Be ready. For the door, once closed, cannot be reopened. The foolish virgins cried out, “Lord, Lord, open to us!” but not everyone who says to Jesus, “Lord, Lord,” shall enter the kingdom of heaven. Watch therefore, and pray always.
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To miss the Bridegroom is to miss out on everything, to miss the whole point of our existence. The Lord is coming to “make all things new.” With repentance and eagerness, let us watch for Him at the end of this Church Year, at the end of our lives, and at the end of the world.
Our great hymn today has a beautiful sacramental rhyme in German that the Lutheran Service Book captures brilliantly. Now come, Thou Blessed One, Lord Jesus, God’s own Son, Hail! Hosanna! We enter all the wedding hall to eat the Supper at Thy call. The Lord’s Supper is the pledge and beginning of the heavenly wedding feast. Stay close to this Supper, repent of your many sins, and believe what Jesus says here to you.