Scripture Reading Matthew 25:1-13 NRSVUE
“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten young women took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those young women got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise replied, ‘No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet, and the door was shut. Later the other young women came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’ Keep awake, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.
Meditation
How shall we live? This is the question at the beating heart of this parable. How shall we live while we are waiting?
As Jesus’ moves toward the end of his time on earth, he turns his attention to end of all things and times. The parable we’ve just shared normally shows up in the lectionary shortly before the beginning of Advent. However, Jesus shares it during Holy Week, as he is preaching in the Temple. The day is probably Wednesday, called “Spy” Wednesday, because it is the day Judas approached the high priests with information about Jesus, and was paid with 40 pieces of silver.
In chapter 25, Jesus tells three parables, and this is the first. Jesus is speaking of the final judgement, the moment when the kingdom of the heavens will be fulfilled. As scholar Rolf Jacobson puts it, it is the moment when God’s preferred outcome finally breaks into human life. As I put it, it is the great healing that will take place, to all God’s creation, humans included.
The setting is a wedding—or, more properly, the place where ten women are awaiting the arrival of the bridegroom. (The women are often referred to as bridesmaids, though the Greek word is “virgins”.)
The image of Jesus as bridegroom is present in all four gospels, as well as in the Book of Revelation. In the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus refers to himself as the bridegroom, in response to the question: “Why do the disciples of John and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples eat and drink?” Jesus’s answer is: the bridegroom is with them, meaning, himself. It’s a fascinating image, and one that bears echoes of a passage from Isaiah:
For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your builder marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.
~Isaiah 62:5
When God delights in his people, he is compared to a bridegroom delighting in his bride. The image suggests an intimacy between Jesus and his disciples.
Now, to the young women, or bridesmaids. They are waiting for the return of the bridegroom. They have been waiting for a long time. And, remember, Jesus had uttered prophecies indicating that he would return within the lifetimes of his initial followers. When Matthew is writing this gospel down, fifty years have passed, and no Jesus. Matthew is writing for those who are still waiting, as we are, nearly 2,000 years later.
In the parable, all ten of the bridesmaids are waiting, and become so drowsy, they fall asleep. But the shout arises—“Look! Here is the bridegroom!”—and they awake with a start.
Five of the young women have brought extra supplies of oil for their lamps, so they are able to kindle them quickly, and make ready to go into the wedding banquet. The others—called “foolish”—do not have extra flasks of oil with them and are rebuffed by those whose lamps are burning merrily. Go buy your own oil, they are told. And while they are out looking for the Ancient Middle Eastern version of 7-11, the bridegroom takes the wise young women into the feast.
Some observations: In this parable, Jesus does something he has told us not to do, under any circumstances: he has called someone foolish. What gives, Son of Woman? Is this a trap? Then, the “wise” bridesmaids refuse to share their oil with the “foolish” ones, resulting in five women who are not only late to the banquet, but who are refused entry when they knock, hearing the chilling words, “I don’t know you.”
Jesus urges us not to “fall asleep.” Jesus urges us, like good scouts, to be prepared. But suddenly we’re allowed to call people foolish and to not share our resources with those in need?
If this parable is about how to spend our time while awaiting the return of Jesus, why does Jesus seem to abandon the one thing he has been insisting on all throughout the gospel: to love one another, as God has loved us?
Here’s what I think: I think Jesus was dissatisfied with all the players in this parable, wise and foolish alike. The wise have fallen asleep, too. Maybe they’re cranky when they wake up, and that’s why they don’t share the oil with their sister bridesmaids. And… do they really need to send the so-called foolish ones to the Ancient Middle Eastern version of an all-night bodega to buy oil? Why not share the light? Surely pairs of women could have shared a lamp for the walk to the banquet.
Scholar Joy J. Moore reminds us to bring this parable into our own history as a nation. In a short while we will sing the wonderful African American spiritual, “Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning.” The song was certainly created in response to this parable, but it had an underlying purpose: it was a message among enslaved people to be ready for the moment when they might be able to fly to freedom. Sisters, don’t grow weary; brothers, don’t grow weary. Children, don’t grow weary, for the time is drawing nigh.
As with the original intent of Jesus, those who are waiting—for God’s preferred outcome, for the moment when freedom beckons—are encouraged to live well, to live in readiness. Readiness means, on the one hand, living the life God invites us to live—for Christians, a life of loving service to our neighbors. The lamp suggests we need to right tools for such a life: the tool of trust? the tool of hope?
Everywhere I go this week I’ve been taking about a Substack article by Liz Bucar, titled, “The Next Messiah Will Be a Sangha.” Sangha is word used by Buddhists, Sikhs, and Jains to connote “community.” The title of the article places change, whatever that may look like, in the hands of community. Messianic figures—Jesus excepted—are rarely the ones who make big societal changes. Far more often, it’s communities, much as the community we witnessed this winter in Minneapolis, stepping up to care for their neighbors.
In the article, Bucar recaps and lifts up an interview with Rebecca Solnit, who talks about the importance of community in moving us through difficult, turbulent times. Into the conversation come the concepts of optimism, pessimism, and hope. Solnit says that the problem with optimism and pessimism is that they both assume they know the end—how things will inevitably go. Which means, the optimist and pessimist are both off the hook for doing the work of community. Hope, on the other hand, doesn’t assume to know the outcome, but is convinced of the importance of doing that work—the transformative work of building community.
This was the kind of community enslaved people depended on for their lives and ultimate freedom. It is the kind of community that we can depend on, no matter where we are in the trajectory of “Is Jesus coming soon, or what?” It’s a community where we will share our lamps, our light, our fuel for creativity and action, with one another. It’s a community where “foolish” is not something for us to determine, but wisdom is surely a treasured goal. It’s the kind of community that recognizes, whatever and whoever it is we’re waiting for, we have work to do.
Thanks be to God. Amen.