Pastor Dan Eddy

Matthew 25:1-13

What are we preparing for?

11-13-11

In the Name of the One Who has always been and Who will always be, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Weddings are fun, festive occasions. Some of my favorite memories in life have come attending weddings, from the marriage ceremony to the reception.

But let’s admit the worse part is waiting for the bride and groom and the wedding party to get to the reception. Who has had to wait the longest? 1 hour. 2 hours. Anybody longer? How long did you wait?

Not fun, is it? You get bored, antsy or a little a both. You get hungry. Let’s admit some of the “people” assigned to sit at your table can be grating. It can get so bad that you just want to give up and go home.

The waiting can be the hardest part.

Okay now you get the flavor or our Gospel reading for this morning from Matthew 25. To help people identify with Him and His instructions for their lives, Jesus used parables…an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.

So here it is a few days before Christ’s crucifixion and Jesus is preparing His followers for the End, not the end of His life, the End of all time…the Last Day…Judgment Day. He wanted them prepared for the End or least the end of one’s life on Earth, whichever came first. He didn’t want them falling away from the faith. So, He spoke three parables in a row to help them look for the signs, have the right attitude, and know what will specifically happen on the Last Day. This is the second parable in that series. These parables are here to help you today.

Now in Jesus’ day here’s how getting married worked. The groom went to the bride’s father and asked for his permission to marry his daughter. Or, the groom’s father arranged with the bride’s father for his son to marry the other father’s daughter. Then the bride and groom would first meet with the Rabbi to get married in every single respect except one…they didn’t consummate their marriage until 6 to 12 months later. In fact this is so foreign to our way of thinking that many of our English Bibles say that Mary and Joseph were engaged. But it was in this interim that Mary got pregnant.

Then when that day came…the groom would leave his mother and father, go to the home of the bride’s parents, and the wedding ceremony occurred there. Then he would take his bride to his home, where, what we would call, the wedding reception, the marriage feast would occur, which by the way went on for days, not just hours. Then the marriage was consummated.

Okay, so now you have the setting for our parable. As you may know in Jesus’ parables people and things signify something greater. So here’s who’s who and what’s what in the story.

Everyone who has been baptized into the faith or who has faith are the 10 virgins; members of the church. That would be you. The number 10 symbolizes completeness. All have been given faith in Christ but the ones who aren’t prepared are not making it to the next life in Heaven with our bridegroom, who is Jesus, because they have no oil.

The oil to fuel the lamp is grace from the Holy Spirit, originally given at your baptism, continuously given through the proclaimed Word and in the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Olive oil was used to fuel these lamps so the light from the lamp or torches symbolizes the good works that come from our faith. Or as Jesus said Matthew 5:14 ESV “you (meaning believers in Christ) are the light of the world.”

So the ten virgins sat around waiting for the bridegroom; that symbolizes where we are today. We are waiting to meet Christ in Heaven…and a life of 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 or 90 years can seem like an eternity to wait. In the meantime, we can get so absorbed in this life that we doze off and keep sleeping when it comes to thinking about the next life.

And from the Church’s perspective 2000 years seems a long time to wait for Jesus to come back to Earth in the flesh to end this world and live in the next world with all its physical purity. We’re tempted to doze off and keep sleeping thinking the End is really never going to happen. In fact some churches have stopped teaching that there will be physical life after the End of time. Their oil has run out.

So the question today is, “Are you prepared for the End?” “Do you have your oil?”

And in many parables Jesus exaggerated things to make a point. Here the people who brought no oil and only their lamps seemed utterly foolish. It’s like trying to drive your car a long distant when the gas gauge is on empty with no intentions of filling the tank. It’s like wearing a windbreaker coat when the forecast calls for a blizzard. It’s like being baptized into the church and hardly ever coming to worship, having no desire to read your Bible, or spending little time praying to God. This causes an being apathy toward Christ, an ignorance of His Word, and a denial of the Church’s teachings, not really believing His promises, getting so caught up in this life…careers, family, money, school, hobbies…you don’t keep your eye on the End. You’re not staying alert. Your lamp only runs on the residual oil soon to have no fuel for light. As a result, you are left unprepared.

Well the Holy Spirit is here to tell you today Jesus Christ is worth the wait. He is worth preparing for. Actually, He is helping you prepare for Heaven, if you let Him.

There’s no worse feeling than not being prepared. How many times have you taken a test in school and failed because you didn’t study for it, or study the right material? How many times were asked to do something at work and you didn’t know what to do?

We can recover from those, but when we’re is not prepared for the End….when grace has run out because we don’t really want anymore until it too late…believe me on Judgment Day there’s a lot of people who will want oil for their lamps but it will be too late like it was with the 5 foolish virgins. The door to Heaven will be shut for eternity as they will be left out of the everlasting celebration. God no longer considers them as His children. I pray that is not you.

The text is emphatic. The foolish virgins can’t have the believer’s oil because you can’t believe on somebody else’s behalf. You can only encourage them to be prepared today as we all wait for the End.

Let your confession of sins and the absolving of your sins replenish your oil help you again to keep continuous watch for your Savior to arrive for the wedding reception.

You see in a way you were married to your bridegroom the day He died on the Cross. That’s the day Jesus made an agreement with His Heavenly Father to take your hand in marriage. The day that spiritual marriage happened was the day you were baptized. And this marriage will be “consummated,” if you will, in the life to come…where the everlasting celebration will occur.

Jesus proved to His Heavenly Father He is worthy to be your bridegroom because He was victorious over death. The promise of this divine marriage has been sealed with faith. And so we wait, serving others, and preparing ourselves and them for the spectacular wedding reception.

Are you prepared for the End? Do you have your oil? Your bridegroom is coming soon.

Jesus Christ is worth the wait. He is worth preparing for. Actually, He is helping you prepare today for Heaven, if you let Him.

Because can I be honest? A number of people don’t want you to believe that Christ will come back to End time, to end this creation, to recreate the heavens and the Earth to be perfect. Why? Because many people like this life too much to give it up. They’ve doze off and are fast asleep when it comes to Heaven.

It’s the Church’s mission here in this congregation is to prepare people for the everlasting wedding reception. That’s why ministry is for people in all stages of their life, but especially at the end of their life. It is so important. It’s why we show our light.

Can you imagine what would happen if we didn’t? How do you think saints here at CLC would have faired if we weren’t there as a congregation to help them prepare for the end….beloved believers like Joe Francis and Dick Lesher. The Holy Spirit used this congregation to make sure they had plenty of oil as they waited to see their Savior. And do you know what one of the biggest challenge people face at the end of their lives? Needing assurance that Jesus Christ really loves them and has forgiven their sins.

That’s why you support full-time pastoral ministry here in this congregation. That’s why we have a parish nurse to help in that endeavor. That’s why we have Smiling Ministry and others here caring to let them know we are here preparing them for the spectacular celebration ahead.

Because, Jesus Christ is worth the wait. He is worth preparing for. Actually, He is helping you prepare today for Heaven.

God’s blessings for great preparations, with plenty of oil, as we wait in hope for our bridegroom to return, to celebrate for eternity. Amen.