Pentecost 23 – Series A – Proper 27 (November 12, 2017)
“Check Your Oil” (Matthew 25:1-13)
Do
you remember the days when you could easily tune up the engine in your
automobile? This was before they started
putting all kinds of complicated computer gadgets in our cars. Nowadays, I don’t dare touch anything under
the hood for fear of voiding my warranty.
Having said that, both our cars now remind us when it’s time to change
the oil. A polite little reminder
appears on the dashboard display, “Time to change your oil,” or something along
those lines. Previously, you had to
periodically pop open the hood, pull out the dipstick, and check the oil level
and the color of the oil. If the oil
level was too low, you needed to add some.
Checking your oil was extremely important. Running out of oil would be disastrous. Your engine will seize up and will probably
be damaged beyond repair.
Running
out of oil was disastrous for five of the women in today’s Gospel reading. Not motor oil. They ran out of oil for their lamps. They were part of a wedding party for a
friend of theirs. It was their job to
wait for the groom to arrive. Then, they
would travel to get the bride at her home.
There, the bride would be lifted up on a litter and be carried in a
festive procession after sunset to the place of the wedding feast.
They
had one problem. They were
unprepared. They did not expect the
groom to be so long in coming. They all
got drowsy and fell asleep. Their lamps
burned and burned and burned while waiting for the groom who, for some reason, was
delayed. But they forgot to bring along
flasks in which to carry extra oil to keep feeding their flames. At midnight, they were roused from their
sleep. The groom was on his way. Line up.
Pick up your torches. Go out to
meet him as he approaches. But the
flames of those foolish females were fizzling out. They asked the wise women for some of their
extra oil, but were refused. There would
not be enough for everyone. The only
option would be for the foolish ones to go find an oil dealer and buy some for
themselves. But would there even be
anyone open for business at this time of night?
While
they were gone to find more oil, the bridegroom arrived. The wise women who were well-prepared went
with the groom and into the home where the wedding feast was being held. Some time later, the other women returned,
but it was too late. The door was
shut. They could not enter. Now, you’d think to yourself that this would
be no big deal. Let them in, right? So they were unprepared. What’s the big deal? I mean, after all, the original intent was
for them to be in the wedding festivities, right? They went with the bride to her bachelorette
party (if they had those in those days, which I doubt), they bought their
dresses at the Jerusalem Nordstrom’s, went to the wedding rehearsal, got their
hair all gussied up at the salon ... they did all they were supposed to do ...
except make sure that they had enough oil.
But their being unprepared to take part in the procession must have
terribly offended the groom ... so much so that when the women called out,
“Lord, lord, open to us,” he acted as if he didn’t even know them. How devastating. How disastrous. They should have checked their oil.
Our
Lord Jesus ends this parable with this solemn warning, “Watch therefore, for
you know neither the day nor the hour.”
This whole section of Matthew’s Gospel deals with Christ’s return on the
Last Day and the Final Judgment. Jesus
wants us to watch for his return. He
wants us to be prepared, because he has not given us the exact time or date on
which he will be coming back. But we
know from other parts of Scripture, such as today’s Epistle reading from 1
Thessalonians 4, that our Lord’s Second Coming will be sudden and it will be
very public: “The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command,
with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.” (1
Thess. 4:16)
So
have you checked your oil? In the Bible,
anointing with oil sometimes signified being filled with the Holy Spirit. God continually pours his gifts into our
hearts and fill us up through the means of grace ... Baptism, the Lord’s
Supper, Absolution, the Word of the Gospel.
You might call them the “funnels” through which God pours his Holy
Spirit into our hearts. He fills us with
faith in Christ. He anoints us with
grace and favor. He lavishes us with
forgiveness now and the guarantee of salvation in the life to come.
So how’s your
oil? Are you making use of God’s means
of grace so that your lamp of faith will be full when Jesus, the Bridegroom,
returns, and the eternal wedding feast begins?
Or will you have to make a last ditch effort to get filled up when it
looks as if he’s on his way? If so, then
it will be too late. You cannot rely on
the faith of others to get you into the banquet hall. Not your parents. Not your grandparents. Not your casual acquaintance with other
members of the church. Not your name on
the membership roll. And if you try to
get filled up at the last minute, it will be too late. The doors will be shut. And no matter how much you cry out, “Lord,
Lord” .... the Bridegroom will act as if he never knew you.
But even when our
lamps are filled – even those of us who have been anointed with the Holy Spirit
in Baptism, those of us who have been given the gift of faith in Christ –
sometimes we get lazy and complacent. We
get sleepy like the women in the parable.
The Bridegroom is delayed. It’s
late. It’s been over 2,000 years. I’m tired.
Maybe I can just rest a little, not be so concerned with the way I live,
the things I do and say, not make such a big deal out of being a
Christian. I’ll have time to shape
myself up before Jesus comes back again.
But will you have time? The
trumpet call could sound at any moment.
I’m afraid that much of the Church today has fallen asleep. Instead of listening for the trumpet call of
God, the Church has listened to the siren song of accommodation and
compromise. We often live just as the
rest of the unbelieving world lives.
You’d be hard pressed to see any difference in the way some Christians
live compared to unbelievers. We are
afraid to boldly proclaim Christ as the only way to heaven. We hesistate to affirm the biblical model of
marriage in a culture that no longer fully accepts it. We are more worried about taxes and health
care than the health of our souls. We often
act as if we really don’t trust God to take care of us.
Whether we have
drifted off to sleep, or whether we have failed to be faithful in our use of
Word and Sacrament so that God can “top us off” with the oil of the Holy Spirit
and faith ... either way, we must repent.
We must repent and turn to our Savior who never grew lazy or complacent
as he lived here under the Law, totally obedient to God the Father’s will,
always watchful for ways to help and heal and give hope to those in need. In the Garden of Gethsemane ,
Jesus told the disciples who were with him to stay awake, to watch and
pray. They didn’t. They fell asleep. But Jesus stayed awake, praying in
preparation for his impending passion.
He was arrested and forced to stay awake all night long, dragged between
Caiaphas and the Council and Pilate, beaten and mocked and finally nailed to
the cross. And there at the cross, Jesus
faced the judgment that you and I deserve.
With the weight of the world’s sin upon him, Jesus suffered God’s wrath over
sin in our place. Having finished his
work, he finally was able to “sleep” ... not in a soft, cozy bed, but in a
rock-hewn tomb. But three days later, he
woke from the sleep of death, publicly declaring his victory over sin, death,
and the devil. After visibly appearing
to his followers for forty days, he then ascended into heaven to take his place
at the right hand of the Father, with all rule and authority over all creation. He removed his visible presence from us, but
that does not mean he is no longer present.
Remember how he promised, “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of
the age” (Matt. 28:20). Jesus is with us
even now. Jesus will be with us today as
he gives us his Body and Blood. But one
day he will come again in glory, every eye will see him (Rev. 1:6), and he will
judge the world with justice and righteousness.
Through the death
and resurrection of Jesus, our sins are forgiven. When we hear this Good News, and as we pass
through the waters of Holy Baptism, you and I are awakened from our slumber of
spiritual death and given new life. Now,
we can be watchful and ready for the end of the age. We don’t need to fear the final judgment,
because Jesus has been judged in our place.
The just and righteous demands of God’s Law were met for us in
Christ. And when the end of the age is
finally here – whenever that day may be, whether tomorrow or next week or next
year or perhaps even before my sermon is finished – when Jesus returns on the
Last Day, and that great eternal marriage feast begins, the doors will not be
shut to us. Our lamps will be burning
brightly, but not because you and I have earned the oil or were able to
purchase it with our good works. No, our
lamps will be burning brightly because God has graciously given us an ample
supply in Word and Sacrament. And we,
the Church – the Bride of Christ – will meet our Bridegroom who is coming in
the clouds. “The dead in Christ will
rise first. Then we who are alive, who
are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord
in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore, encourage one another with these
words.” (1 Thess. 4:17)
And always remember
to check your oil.
INI
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