The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Young Women Matthew 25:1–13 13/8/17
Last week we looked at the Parable (a story with hidden meanings and purpose) of the Unjust Judge and the Widow. I said how useful it is when studying the parables of Jesus – as indeed any of his teaching - to ask ourselves at least these three questions. What does the parable tell us about God and his ways; what does it tell us about us in relation to him and to our fellow human beings; and what will my response be to what I have learned from the parable?
In today's parable Jesus takes an event his listeners would be very familiar with - a village marriage - and creates a story from which (if his listeners’ hearts are in the right place, that is, really wanting to know the truth about God and about themselves) they will be able to discern, something (not everything but something) of how God wants us to live, of what life is like in his kingdom, the Kingdom of Heaven.
Just a little about the ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ as we begin. The KOH is not just what is happening in Heaven now; it is not just about how things will be when we die; it is not just about how things will be when Jesus returns: it is very much about what can happen and is already happening in the lives of those in the here and now, both those who love the King and want to live by his perfect rules and those who, for whatever reason, prefer to be the king in their own lives or who are not really willing to make the effort to find out about the true King's perfect kingship. (The parable of the Sower, for example, is another and much more well-known parable which considers how people react to Jesus’ words to them.)
It is when we welcome Jesus into our lives, acknowledging his rightful place there as 'King', and allow his Holy Spirit and his teaching (both theological and moral) to direct and guide our lives that we shall already be tasting, participating, in the KOH. Not perfectly of course because we have yet to be made perfect! But a real taste, a real, rewarding, and liberating glimpse it is!
(Perhaps some of you have seen the film ‘The Kingdom of Heaven’, a highly fictionalised story about the surrender of Jerusalem in 1187. In the film, the good, Christian, king Baldwin of Jerusalem explains to a would-be knight that the Kingdom of God is in a man’s heart and mind and is shown in one’s deeds of love and courage on behalf of others. He obviously knew his parables!)
The scene in our parable this morning focuses on the preparation for a wedding banquet in Jesus' day. So already you and I, being modern westerners living 2000 years later and 2232 miles from Jerusalem have a problem about understanding exactly what is going on. Weddings are done very differently still in the Middle East today. Let me put you in the shoes of Jesus’ first audience.
The wedding banquet is set to take place in the bridegroom's home. He has set off to collect her from her parents’ house and return for the feast. When she is ready she is placed in all her finery on the back of a horse or mule and taken back to the bridegroom’s house by the most circuitous route possible so that he can show her off to everyone in the area. How long that will take no one can possibly accurately tell!
Among the guests are 10 young women (bridesmaids?) waiting at the bridegroom's home. It is night, so they each have a lamp for safety and to guard their reputations. They carry the lamps not so much to be able to see as to be seen: they are well brought up young ladies!
But 5 of them have not prepared properly; they have not brought extra oil with them; they are therefore ‘foolish’. (Most interestingly, Jesus in this parable has chosen, surprisingly and counter-culturally, 10 women to represent those who have been following him. It is yet another example of Jesus in the Gospels raising the profile and therefore the standing of women to that of equals in the KOH. (That the Church by the 4th century seems conveniently to have played such equality down under social pressures is not something to be proud of!)
Suddenly the cry goes up (v 6) 'Look, here is the bridegroom!' They have no oil; they demand some from the wise; the wise wisely tell them to go and buy some. (It would not have been a problem to do so.) But by the time they return the door has been shut; they cannot get in. Jesus' original listeners would have viewed the foolish also as lazy and rude, deserving, by their own fault, to be left outside.
So what's it all about? What is Jesus teaching his listeners here in this parable? What can we learn about God and ourselves? What will be our response?
As regards God, the first thing to remind ourselves of is of course who the story-teller is? This Jesus who constructed the parable is the one who, uniquely, is able to reveal to us the things of God. He it is we can believe because of who he is – God himself in human form teaching us about himself and his Kingdom. True Christian doctrine (what we believe about God) is always concerned with revelation, not speculation; the revelation of God in the person and teaching of Jesus Christ. This may seem to be stating the obvious: but more and more we need to remind ourselves of this because there are those, even sadly within the Church, who would deny this, who would want to speculate, or who would want to change what God has revealed about himself and about humanity in Jesus.
This parable is also a reminder – and there are several parables with the same theme, so it must be a very important truth Jesus wants us to understand – is that, although no human knows when his Second Coming will be, he will return. The bridegroom in our parable will return; but what will he find when he does? Last week’s parable ended with Jesus wistfully asking and challenging us, ‘Will he find faith when he does return?’ And so here in this parable, where his followers, his disciples, are represented by the 10 young women, will he find them properly ready to welcome him? Have they prepared for the long haul that discipleship entails? Or have they been, as half of them were, lazy and uncommitted?
The parable is undoubtedly expresses Jesus’ concern for faithfulness not only in the future but also in the present. Time and time again we see Jesus sad and frustrated by the lack of readiness on the part of many – especially the religious elite – to receive the KOG when it arrives. It had arrived in him and he had proved it by his teaching and his miracles; yet many refused him then as they still do today. NOT because of lack of evidence but because of other priorities and demi-gods in their lives; those things that tempt us or blind us to the truth and beauty of the one true God and the Kingdom into which he invites us. I come across too many who are happy to believe in God – but only on their terms or not at all. Unsurprisingly their God bears little or no resemblance at all to the God Jesus revealed!
Finally – or almost finally! – what about verse 5? Some will say, ‘How very unchristian of the 5 wise not to share their oil!’ Well, that’s an easy way of avoiding the blame; and also of avoiding the truth that Jesus is telling us here.
The faithful rightly share and borrow many things in life from each other. But the oil here represents our faith and the measure of preparedness our faithfulness. We cannot rely on someone else’s faith; we cannot have their faith; we can only have our own, just as our discipleship – the way we demonstrate our faithfulness – can only be our own. (As a famous Aussie clergyman on leaving church once said when encountering a non-churchgoer in the street who mockingly asked the clergyman to ‘Say a prayer for me!’ He replied ,’Sai it yerself, yer lazy b*****!’) Faith and faithfulness cannot be borrowed.
Too much modern Western Christianity is more about religion than it is about faith and faithfulness; too much about my comfort than about my calling; too much about ‘God on my terms or not at all’. This parable challenges all of us to be properly prepared in expectation of the bridegroom’s return. Jesus will return – we do not know when – and he will welcome those whose lives have shown both faith and faithfulness in him and to his calling. How are your lamps at this time?
