Let us pray…
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.
As we begin to turn the corner toward the end of the church year, we have three weeks of parables from Matthew’s gospel. Jesus is speaking in the time between his triumphal entry into Jerusalem and his crucifixion, in what we know as his final discourse.
Remembering that the original audience hearing Matthew’s gospel is hearing these parables more than 30 years later, after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D., and more than a generation after Jesus’ ascension, is important. The people in the early church were living in a time of what Karoline Lewis has called, “disappointed expectations.”
During Jesus’ earthly ministry, the expectation was that after his ascension, the second coming would happen quickly. And it hadn’t.
Two thousand years later, it still hasn’t, and we share their experience of waiting for Christ’s return,
of uncertainty and perhaps even disappointment.
And two thousand years later, I would add: ambivalence.
I would guess that many twenty-first century Christians don’t live with a present expectation of Christ’s imminent return, even as we have confidence it will happen someday.
The parable we have today about the ten maidens is about how we wait.
It is not about being wise or sensible or being foolish or stupid. The young women in the parable were all invited to be part of the wedding celebration. They all came with their lamps prepared to wait for the bridegroom. And when he was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept.
These were not modern bridesmaids who are in their 20s or 30s. These “maidens” would have been mere girls, maybe eleven or twelve years old, too young to be married, and so they were invited to help with the celebration.
If you have ever taken a forgotten lunch or gym clothes to a middle school student, you can appreciate how remarkable it was that even half the group thought to bring extra oil.
The parable isn’t about the oil either. If we reduce it to an allegory where the oil is faith, then we contradict Jesus’ own teaching in Matthew 17:20 when he tells the disciples:
…if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.
And, if we equate the oil with faith, then we must reckon with what it means that those who have “enough” refuse to share their treasure with others who don’t. It’s not a good look.
And it also turns faith into a commodity, something to bargain or barter with, or that we can purchase for ourselves.
But we believe that Christ dwells in our hearts through faith, as we are rooted and grounded in love. (Ephesians 3:17) And it is Christ who keeps us in faith, not anything we do by our own reason or strength. (explanation of the Third Article, Luther’s Small Catechism)
What we share with the maidens in the parable
and with the early Church who were hearing this parable
is that we are all waiting
for Christ to come,
for God’s kingdom to be realized here on earth.
Later in Matthew, we will watch the disciples wait for Jesus as he prays in Gethsemane on the night of his arrest, and like the women in our parable, their eyes became heavy and they slept. (Matthew 26:43)
In his gospel, Luke exhorts his listeners instead to be like those waiting on their master to return from a wedding banquet so that they can be ready to welcome him home. (Luke 12:35)
And while our psalm today calls out to God, “do not delay”, Psalm 27 urges us to be strong, take heart and wait for the Lord.
We are waiting, but not as ones who do not know what to expect because we are waiting with full confidence in God’s promises.
God promises that the Kingdom is coming.
We do not need to be anxious, distracted or worried.
But even when we are,
God promises that God is with us in the waiting;
we are not alone, but have the Holy Spirit who is our advocate, our comforter and helper.
Following Christ,
we are called to be ready to help bring about God’s kingdom,
trusting not in ourselves,
but in the trust-filled relationship we have as children of God,
waiting with hopefulness and eagerness,
and lighting the way
for the celebration that is coming.
Amen.
