Sermon - Last Sunday 2023 - Matthew 25:1-13

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

Equipped for the long night of waiting

1. Since Jesus isn’t coming immediately we are called to endure a time of waiting

2. We endure by being equipped with the oil of the Spirit, which is gifts of the Spirit

3. Now all who claim Christ’s name will be saved if they don’t endure

4. But those who endure shall be welcomed into the heavenly marriage feast

Homesteading, so to speak, is gaining in popularity in recent years. This isn’t a new phenomenon, since there was a big Back to the Land movement in the 60’s and 70’s, and before that around the years of World War II many Americans were encouraged to produce their own food in order to help with the war efforts. While some folks were successful and continued this lifestyle for decades, many people didn’t make it beyond a year. Moving to the country and producing all or the majority of your food and what you need, subsistence farming, turned out to be harder than what they expected, especially when they had no prior experience and grew up living in the suburbs. Of particular difficulty was surviving winter, when everything freezes and nothing grows and you have to live off of what you managed to store up. Many people were just not equipped for the long winter.

This is similar to what happened in the parable of the ten virgins. “Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.” The foolish were not equipped, but the wise were equipped for a long night of waiting. Since Jesus isn’t coming back immediately, we are also called to endure a long night of waiting.

None of us know when Christ is returning. That day “will come like a thief in the night.” We know that Jesus is going to come back again, that much is certain, but when He’s coming back we simply do not know. If you’re not prepared for Christ to return, then that day will be a surprise, and you’ll be caught unaware. But if you’re prepared and equipped for Jesus to come back at any moment, then that day won’t surprise you, and you’ll gladly greet Him and enter into the marriage feast since you were expecting Him all along.

So how are we to be equipped and prepared for Christ’s coming? How are we to endure the long night of waiting? We endure by being equipped with the oil of the Spirit, which is the Spirit’s gifts. The wise virgins trimmed their oil lamp and filled it with oil from their flasks. St. Paul says, “Let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.” In other words, we endure this long night of waiting with the gifts of faith, hope, and love as received by the Holy Spirit.

These gifts of the Holy Spirit aren’t just a one and done sort of thing, since they’re kind of like oil. Oil burns up as it’s used. Some types of lamp fuel will evaporate or go stale with time, and no longer be useful. You have to maintain your supply of lamp oil otherwise it will run out and you’ll be left in the dark. Likewise with faith, if it’s not maintained and regularly received by the Spirit, it will run out. If you don’t use your faith, it evaporates. We saw this with 2020, where especially those christians who were irregular in attendance prior are now rarely ever in church. They weren’t constantly receiving the supply of faith from the Spirit, so that when a trial came upon them, they didn’t have the faith to endure it. 

But those christians who were coming regularly before, and who continued to come when it was difficult, actually have stronger faith now than before. Receiving the Holy Spirit’s gifts is what enables a Christian to endure this long night of waiting. Without the Spirit’s gifts you starve in the middle of winter like a poorly prepared homesteader. But with the gifts of the Spirit you will receive what is necessary.

But what are we talking about concretely? The lamp oil in the parable is somewhat vague, and I think very intentionally. It’s meant to be broadly understood that the oil which we need to endure is all the things of the faith, all the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It can include reading the Bible, attending Divine Service, remembering your baptism, receiving the Lord’s Supper, praying with your family, doing personal devotions, having theological conversations, living in a God-pleasing manner, avoiding the devil’s traps, singing God’s praises in hymns, memorizing scripture, meditating on Bible verses, it’s a long list of things! God sustains our faith on Sunday mornings, and throughout the week. When the Spirit works in our lives through these things our faith is strengthened and our metaphorical oil flask is filled.

The reason that these things matter so much is because it’s a matter of eternal importance. If you do not have faith when Jesus returns, you don’t get to enter into the eternal marriage marriage feast, you don’t go to heaven. In the parable after the five wise virgins entered, the door was shut. “Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’” Even though they called on the name of the Lord in the end, they weren’t saved. Thus, not everyone who claims to be a Christian will go to heaven.

This parable is written for Christians, it’s written for the church. Because outwardly all ten appeared the same, they were all virgins and so outwardly looked pure and innocent. All ten of them had oil lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. All ten of them fell asleep and awakened. All ten of them trimmed their lamps. All ten of them called upon the name of the Lord. The only difference is that five had oil and five did not, five were wise and five were foolish.

The warning here is that just because someone claims to be a Christian and looks the part doesn’t mean they will necessarily be saved. If you aren’t regularly receiving the oil, God’s gifts, which build and sustain your faith, then you won’t be saved. This is a harsh word, I know. It’s not spoken lightly. Just because someone was baptized or confirmed doesn’t mean they will be saved. Instead, they must continue to live in their baptism as a child of God, believing that He is their Father, daily. Just because someone’s name is on a membership list doesn’t mean they’re going to heaven. Instead, they must be a member of the body of Christ, connected to other Christians in a local physical assembly, receiving God’s gifts. Just because you sit in a pew doesn’t mean you’re saved. Instead, while sitting in the pew you must believe, trust in, and cling to the words which you’re hearing and that word must have an impact on you the rest of the week.

Perhaps that sounds difficult to do, maybe even impossible! Well with God all things are possible. Enduring the trials of this life are impossible for us without God’s grace. None of us are strong enough to endure on our own. We are all poor miserable sinners, dependent on Jesus’ cleansing sacrifice for our salvation. This is why we gladly receive the oil of faith from the Spirit so that we may endure these many trials and tribulations.

God’s word is given to keep us in the faith on the straight and narrow path, to encourage us and strengthen us for the fight, to comfort us and give us joy when we are downcast. Our baptism is a constant comfort that God is our Father who will rescue us. The sacrament of the altar is the medicine which gives us new strength. Absolution is the new start we have after we’ve fallen. Other Christians encourage and build us up when we’re weak. The daily prayers help us to always realize God’s sustaining help throughout the day. The daily Bible readings give us wisdom from God and reveal Him to us.

So keep a steady supply of oil, my friends! If you’re getting discouraged, look ahead to the joy which awaits you. There is a new heavens and a new earth. There is a marriage feast in paradise awaiting you. There you will be glad and rejoice forever. There will be no more weeping or sadness, no more death or illness, no more violence or injury. You will have an eternal home, a land which cannot be taken from you, a land without enemies, but only friends and family. Like the most joyous of wedding feasts, there will be laughter and singing and merriment forever. Just wait, soon the Bridegroom will return, your Lord Jesus will come back, and He’ll take you with Him into the wedding feast. You can almost hear the cry at midnight: “Here is the Bridegroom! Come out to meet Him!”