Loving God, you call us into relationship with you through Jesus and invite us to know you well enough to recognize you in any time and place.  Keep us firm in our faith by the power of your Spirit, and empower us to live as your people; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

    When people first heard Jesus telling this parable, some of them might have been rolling in the aisles with laughter.  It’s almost like part of a joke that begins, “These girls were so foolish,” and then the question, “How foolish were they?”  They were so foolish that when they were asked to be bridesmaids, they brought along torches for the procession, but no oil.  (Ba dum bum)

    Of course, for many of us, we might not get it.  For us, it requires at least a passing knowledge of what bridesmaids were expected to do in those days and why they would need to bring oil with them.  The thing is that for Middle Eastern weddings in those days, the groom would come, often close to midnight, to the bride’s house.  There would be a torchlight procession from the bride’s family home to the groom’s family home, and once there, the wedding would take place.  The bridesmaids would be expected to grab their torches and accompany the bride to the wedding.

    The torches would be sticks that had material wrapped around one end.  The material would be soaked in oil and then lit.  Most of these torches would burn for about 15 minutes at a time, and then you would need to add some more oil.  And so, for the five foolish bridesmaids in the parable, the entire story is like a comedy of errors.

    First off, they bring their torches with them, but no oil.  It’s not that they have forgotten to bring extra oil with them.  They have brought no oil at all!  Secondly, rather than going to get some oil while the bridegroom delays (which he always does), they sleep.  Then, when the bridegroom finally does arrive, and their torches are already going out, they go to try and find somewhere to buy oil – at midnight!  Of course they’re not going to be able to find any!

    In the end, it is not surprising that they miss the entire procession and arrive to find the door already shut.  However, it is at this point in the story that the laughter suddenly becomes deadly serious.  The people listening to Jesus might have been thinking - “Ha, ha.  Lesson learned.  Now they’ll be let in late.”  However, the end of the story is an absolute shocker.  They are not only late, but too late.  The door does not open, and the bridegroom says to them, “Truly I tell you, I do not know you” (Mt. 25:12). It is an ending that invites us to stop laughing at these foolish girls and start looking at ourselves.  It is an ending that invites us to start asking questions.

    Would Jesus ever close the door to us and say, “I do not know you”?  Are we somehow sleeping through life and totally unprepared to meet our God?  What is it that we miss out on when we mosey along with minimal effort?  Is this parable just about the end of all things, or are there other things we might be missing out on now?  What exactly are we doing with the lives that we have been given on this earth?

    The thing is that so much of Jesus’ earthly ministry involved open invitations: “Come to me...” (Mt. 11:28).  “Blessed are the poor in spirit...” (Mt. 5:3). He welcomes the blind and the lame and the sinners.  He says, “Let the little children come to me” (Mt. 19:14).  And then there are the passages like today’s parable where people come and want to come in, and Jesus says to them, “I do not know you.”

    There are two other passages that are similar - one in Matthew, and one in Luke.  In each case, there are people who want to come in, but the response is either, “I never knew you,” or “I do not know where you come from” (Mt. 7:23; Lk. 13:25).  And so, there is this note of warning that shows up every so often, in the midst of the open invitations.

    When we think in terms of the parable that we heard today, the ones who were refused entry had made no effort whatsoever to prepare themselves.  They may have shown up, but beyond that, they certainly didn’t take their duties very seriously.  In the related passages, in one case the people say all the right things but don’t act according to God’s will, and in the other case they ate and drank with Jesus, but still he doesn’t know them.

    Whereas sometimes the question gets asked, “Do you know Jesus?” or “Do you know the Lord?”, the question suggested by this parable is just the opposite.  “How well does God know you?”  We’re not talking about the knowledge that God has of us simply by virtue of being our Creator and having formed us in the womb.  Instead, we’re thinking more in terms of, Have we been keeping in touch with God?, and How close is our relationship with God?

    This is, in fact, the best suggestion I have seen as to what the oil in the parable might represent.  It is our relationship with God that gives us the power to let our lights shine.  It is our relationship with God that prepares us to meet him.  It is also as we open ourselves to God’s presence and power in our lives that we become willing recipients of God’s grace and love.

    What, then, can we learn today from those who are wise?  From related passages we learn not only to hear what Jesus says, but to do it.  This comes from our relationship with God and is part of letting our light shine in the darkness of this world.  At the same time, we learn in this parable that sometimes it is okay to say “no”!  It is not okay to allow your own relationship with God to suffer - even for the sake of another.  It is a relationship that you are going to continue to need, and it is the power behind your light.

    And so, continue to pray and to worship and to study the Scriptures and to gather together with other people of faith.  Continue to nurture that relationship that God initiated with you through Jesus Christ and continues to sustain by the Holy Spirit.  Continue to learn from Jesus and to let your light shine.  Continue to share God’s love with all people.  None of us know when our turn to meet God will come.  However, when God knows us, we have nothing to fear, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Lent 4 (NL 1)                                Matthew 25:1-13
March 15, 2015
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

© 2015 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved