Sermon - Last Sunday of the Church Year 2021 - Matthew 25:1-13

The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins, Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow, 1788-1862

How wonderful it will be when Christ, our Bridegroom, returns and we enter with Him into paradise! That’s what our beautiful hymn of the day, which we just sang, is all about. Philipp Nicolai, the author of that hymn, was a zealous and staunch Lutheran pastor of the 16th century. After being driven out of his first parish by Roman Catholics, in 1596 pastor Nicolai became the pastor in a small town of 2,500 people called Unna in Westphalia, Germany. But the next year a plague broke out, and between July of 1597 and January of 1598, six months, 1,400 people died. Over half the town in just six months! At times he was burying more than 30 people a day.

Yet, it was during that time, while sitting in his office overlooking the church graveyard, which he said exuded an evil smelling vapor, that he wrote a 400 page book of consolation and hope titled Mirror of the Joys of Eternal Life. In that book he wrote the hymn which we just sang: Wake, Awake, for Night Is Flying. While the plague was definitely on his mind, the plague wasn’t the only difficulty people in Unna faced. 

War was never far away. They were under constant threat of being invaded during the war between the Dutch Republic and Spain. For example, in the winter following the plague, 1598-1599, the little town of Unna had to execute 300 Spanish soldiers. When pastor Nicolai got married the following year, he had great difficulty bringing his bride and children home because of all the marauding Belgian troops throughout the countryside.

Considering all of that, you can see why he would spend so much time contemplating the Joys of Eternal Life. The reason I tell you his story is so that you too may be encouraged to contemplate the joys of eternal life when life’s troubles rise to meet you. “For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.” 

We may not have the same trials as pastor Nicolai and the town of Unna, we may not be under constant threat of invasion by foreign troops or have a sickness which wipes out over half the town in less than a year, but danger and death, anxiety and tragedy still strike.

We’ve dealt with Covid for nearly two years now, and it doesn’t look like it’s going away any time soon. RSV and the flu have been bad lately, and we haven’t even gotten into their normal season where they get bad. Inflation has been really high lately so things have quite suddenly skyrocketed in price. As we enter into winter and need to heat our homes, utilities are predicted to go up in price, and in some places they’ve sent letters warning that there may be a shortage. Across the country people are losing their jobs because they’re refusing a medical treatment they’re ethically opposed to. Individually, we all have our own things weighing on our hearts.

So we may not have the same stressors and problems which the little town of Unna had a few hundred years ago, but we’ve got our own problems and worries today. For that reason, it’s good for us to ponder the joys of eternal life. Like St. Paul says, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” Today is the last Sunday of the church year, and so today we  look ahead to the last day when Christ returns.

Christ compares the last day to a wedding feast when the bridegroom has arrived and the guests enter into the great banquet hall. “At midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps...the Bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with Him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut.”

Nicolai writes that those calling out were watchmen: “‘Wake, awake, for night is flying,’ the watchmen on the heights are crying; ‘Awake, Jerusalem, arise!’ Midnight hears the welcome voices and at the thrilling cry rejoices.” Now, think about that for a moment, “midnight hears the welcome voices;” that’s weird.

What does a watchman do? He stays awake and watches over the town, and in case of danger or enemies he cries out to warn people of the danger. People are sleeping, but an enemy approaches in the night, so he cries out for people to wake up so that the men can take arms and the women and children can run and hide. Normally if the watchman cries out, you awaken in terror because something bad is about to happen. It’s like when you get that dreaded phone call at 2am; it’s not good.

But this is different, “Midnight hears the welcome voices and at the thrilling cry rejoices.” Why? “The Bridegroom comes, awake! Your lamps with gladness take!” The watchmen can’t even restrain their joy as they shout out with Alleluia! What’s more, this is weird too, “Zion hears the watchmen singing!” Watchmen don’t sing, they shout and holler and scream and make a racket to get your attention. But these watchmen are filled with such joy at seeing the Bridegroom that their voices can’t help but sing!

Their joy at seeing the bridegroom is contagious! When Zion hears them singing and their good news, “all her heart with joy is springing; she wakes, she rises from her gloom.” On the last day, dear Chrsitians, instead of troubles rising to meet you, you will rise to meet your Bridegroom who is near. Even if you’re dead and lying in a grave, you’ll rise from that gloom! Jesus will come down from heaven in glory and you will enter with Him into the wedding hall to eat the Supper at His call.

Here’s something incredibly powerful and comforting: when we have communion this is the Lord’s Supper, this is the wedding feast that we will enter into on the last day. We often call this a foretaste of the feast to come, which is true, but this isn’t just an appetizer, this is the feast! On earth we see through a mirror dimly, but through the eyes of faith we can perceive that this meager bread and wine is the body and blood of Jesus and is the feast which is prepared for us in paradise.

Tuly, your Lord is preparing a marvelous feast for you in paradise. Your Lord even tells you what He’s doing for you, He says: “Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress.” 

Now, Jesus in His parable doesn’t explain what happens with the five wise virgins once they get inside and the doors are shut. You would think that once you enter into the marriage feast, you’d gorge yourself on delicious and expensive food, but that’s actually not what happens right away. The final stanza of Nicolai’s hymn doesn’t even mention food or eating, because it’s all about singing! We see the same thing happen in the book of Revelation, once the saints get to the marriage feast in paradise they sing! When we get to paradise our hunger and thirst will be so eclipsed by our joy and glee that we won’t be able to help but burst forth in song!

All the heavens will adore Him, saints and angels will sing together in the choir immortal, before His radiant throne, while playing the most sublime instruments! On earth no eye has ever seen, nor ear heard, that which we shall experience in heaven for eternity. Therefore we will eternally sing hymns of praise and joy to our Lord. 

That is the great joy awaiting the wise virgins with lamps prepared and flasks filled with oil. That is the joy awaiting you. So while we children of the light wait here in this dark and depressing earth, “let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.” Let us encourage one another and build one another up in the Word of God and with the sacraments. Let us keep one another awake and alert when we grow sad and drowsy, so that we may together joyfully enter the wedding hall when our Bridegroom Jesus returns. 

The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins, Hierohymous Francken II, 1616