“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”[i]
Introduction
So much of our encounter and journey with Christ feels passive. God comes to us: God’s Son is born among us, lives with us, dies as one of us, is raised by divine power, and ascends to be on God’s right hand to advocate for us. As Protestants we believe our faith is received as a gift from God by hearing the word of Christ and believing it by the power of the Holy Spirit. Our membership in the body is based on hearing (in whatever form that occurs) our name called and God giving us the Holy Spirit so we don’t royally 🚒 everything up. Even our existence in time is addressed by God: our future is secure because of what Christ did on our behalf, in our stead; so, too, is our past secured, washed clean as we are adopted as Christ’s siblings, receiving on his past. We are given divine righteousness because we are, according to the Second Testament witness, in union with Christ by faith; what’s his is ours and what’s our is his all through imputation.
The most active role we have within this story about God seems to be as foils to what God is doing or trying to do in the world. I won’t belabor that narrative, we all where it leads (Good Friday). We get it wrong; God gets it right. We exclude; God includes. We hold everything and everyone captive; God liberates everyone and everything. We are indifferent; God is love. We bring death; God brings life. So it goes. Even when we are exhorted toward neighbor love, we end up, again, the foil. Given explicit directions on how to love God and neighbor, we make those things about us and find ourselves all knotted and coiled up that we cease to be any earthly (or heavenly) good and need rescue. We’re cacophony; God is symphony.
Caught in this existential and narrative binary, it’s no wonder that Gospel passages like the one we read this morning present a bit of a check in the spirit, a drop of the gut, an…oh 💩… But the good news is that the gospel passage has a practical offering to give us, if we are willing to be both humble and honest…
Matthew 25:1-13
In chapter 24, Matthew tells us that Jesus left the temple (v1) and sat down on the Mount of Olives (v3). When his disciples came to him, he tells them about the end of the age (vv3-8), coming persecutions (vv9-14), desolations of the sacred (vv15-28), the coming of the son of humanity (vv29-31), and the need to be watchful (vv32-44) and faithful (vv45-51). Thus, we can assume that our gospel passage is part of these things he tells his disciples on the Mount of Olives.
Jesus begins,
Then the reign of the heavens will be like ten maidens who took their own torches and went to meet the bride groom. Now, five of them were foolish and five were sensible. For the foolish ones took their torches and did not take with them olive oil. But the sensible ones took olive oil in vessels with their own torches (vv1-4).
By describing the ten maidens, five of whom are foolish and five who are sensible, Jesus is moving the disciple’s focus from the signs of the times toward what to do between now and then. Considering what Jesus had (just) been describing, we can be sure that the disciples have them some anxiety. So, Jesus soothes that by switching to practical ways the disciples can navigate life for the time being:[ii] vigilance.[iii]
Jesus uses the imagery of ten maidens (bridesmaids) who go out to meet the bridegroom. According to custom, the bridegroom would be met in such a way and escorted by the bridesmaids to pick up the bride and then take them both to the wedding feast.[iv] For the disciples this made sense. It was both custom and Jesus has already used both “bridegroom” and “wedding banquet” imagery to talk of himself and the eschaton.[v] It would also make sense to hear Jesus break the maidens up into two groups one wise and one foolish. Even though we might bristle over calling some of the maidens foolish (or “silly”), for the disciples, it was a “conventional device used in wisdom literature.”[vi]
The foolishness and sensibility of each group is determined by the presence of a vessel of oil for the portable, outdoor torches the girls used to welcome and usher the bridegroom to the bride. In most cases the bridegroom would have shown up when expected; in that case, all the maidens would have been just a group of bridesmaids doing their job, lovely lamps all aglow![vii] However, Jesus has a point for the disciples, something to take away. So, he goes on,
But while the bridegroom was delayed all the maidens fell asleep and were sleeping. But in the middle of the night an outcry happened, “Behold! The bridegroom! Come out to meet him!” Then all those maidens were awakened, and they trimmed their own torches. But the foolish ones said to the sensible ones, “Give us from your oil because our torches are going out!” But the sensible ones answered, saying: “Never! No, it will not suffice for you and us. Go to the ones who sell and purchase more for yourselves!” And while they were out to purchase oil the bridegroom came and the prepared maidens entered with him into the wedding, and the door was shut. Now, later, the remaining maidens came, saying: “Lord, Lord, you open [the door] to us!” But the bridegroom answered and said, “Truly I say to you, I have not known you” (vv5-11).
The story is told. Then Jesus tells his disciples the moral: Therefore, you keep watch because you have not perceived the day and the hour (v13). Thus, the disciples now know what to do: keep alert, watch for the coming of the bridegroom, and don’t…fall…asleep…oh wait a minute…
That’s not the point; or, rather, it’s not that simple.[viii]
Looking at the parable there’s tension between the content of the story and the moral. The maidens do fall asleep, all of them—both foolish and sensible. So, the rejection of the five foolish ones isn’t because they didn’t stay awake; and the moral about “keeping watch” isn’t about not falling asleep. It all comes down to preparedness[ix] and readiness.[x] The “keeping watch” that Jesus exhorts his disciples toward is a watchfulness that occurrs way before the maidens left the house with the torches. Five of the maidens thought, Well, just in case something happens, maybe I should bring extra oil for the torch… These torches—carrying sticks with bundled cloth at the end[xi]—would only burn, once soaked and lit, for a quarter of an hour. It is possible that the foolish maidens did not light their torches until they arrived at the meeting spot; but, once they fell asleep after having lit their torches, there’s no way the torches would have stayed lit, they would’ve burned out. Thus, when the bridegroom’s arrival is announced, all the girls wake up and relight their torches. Unfortunately, the torches would go out immediately because the oil had been used up in the initial burn. The sensible maidens, having brought their jar of oil with them, can resoak their torches and light their torches successfully. The foolish maidens had no such oil; thus, why they demand oil from the prepared five and say that their torches are going out.[xii] For the foolish maidens, it is their lack of foresight and preparedness that causes them to miss the closing of the door to the wedding feast and endure the judicial verdict of the bridegroom, Truly I say to you, I have not known you; they are locked out. Those who were prepared entered the wedding feast; those who weren’t did not. Thus, Jesus concludes with an exhortation to “stay awake,” or rather, be prepared because you do not know when the bridegroom comes and you can’t prepare at the last minute and no one else can help you.[xiii]
Conclusion
This is a hard word Jesus gives to his disciples; but preparedness and foresight will be crucial to the disciple’s survival after he’s gone and the survival of the fledgling church that will follow in his resurrected and ascended wake. Remember, parables aren’t meant to be comforting;[xiv] they are meant to bring the hearer and the ideology of the kingdom of humanity into a collision with the Word of God, the Gospel, the reign of God. According to Matthew, Jesus wants his disciples to embrace that their discipleship is a life-long endurance journey; it’s not a last-minute thing. Jesus wants his disciples to know that to follow him means to hear the divine Word so deeply that one can do nothing else but follow by faith and with love; there’s no waiting until the last minute—that’s not how relationships of love work, right?[xv]
And it is all about love.[xvi] Pulling this parable through the concept of love, those who love the bridegroom will prepare by having more oil. Just like a mom and her extra-large purse. Love is so oriented toward the beloved that the concerns of the beloved are the concerns of the one who loves. Therefore, if it is dark out, the lover brings not only a torch but enough oil to keep it lit until the beloved shows up. The lover is humble and honest that they do not know when the beloved will show up, so they will take all the precautions they need to take.
So, for us, in 2026, this preparedness for the arrival of the bridegroom looks not like constant prayer and worship or seeking to be pure and holy, isolated from those who are not. Rather, it looks like having our eyes and ears so fixed on Christ that we can, right now, hear him call us. It looks like being honest about who we are and that we need Christ, that we can’t do this “salvation from ourselves” thing on our own. It looks like regular long looks in the mirror and brave self-inventories to see where we are and how far we’ve strayed from the image of Christ whom we are supposed to emulate. It looks like release of our own western autonomy and return to the Cross from where we begin every day. It looks like regular and consistent care and love for God that is nurtured through prayer and worship but doesn’t end there. It looks like the love of God taking hold of us by faith every day and moving us toward our neighbor in loving deeds for their wellbeing and God’s glory. This is what it means to “keep alert”: being regular humble Christians who are honest about who they are and what they need, those who are ready and able to light their lamps to bring light where there is darkness at a moment’s notice.
[i] LW 54:157-158; Table Talk 1590.
[ii] Anna Case-Winters Matthew Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible Eds Amy Plantinga Pauw and William C. Placher (Louisville: WJK, 2015), 274. “Jesus’ next teachings serve to redirect the disciples’ focus of attention. The important thing is not the signs and the times—as preoccupied as the disciples (and we ourselves) may become with such matters. It is far more important to know what to do between now and then. Such a focus of attention delivers the faithful from anxiety on the one hand yet can deliver them from apathy on the other.”
[iii] Case-Winters, Matthew, 274. “The example and the three parables that follow all reflect the situation of ‘not knowing’ and focus attention on vigilant waiting, faithfulness, preparation, and diligence.”
[iv] Case-Winters, Matthew, 275. “In the wedding customs of first century Palestine, it was common for the bridegroom to be escorted by such a company of bridesmaids/virgins to the home of the bride. They would then escort the couple to the house where the wedding and the wedding feast were to take place.”
[v] Case-Winters, Matthew, 275. “The earlier motif of Jesus as the bridegroom (9:15) and the eschaton as a wedding banquet (22:2) is picked up once again here.”
[vi] Case-Winters, Matthew, 275.
[vii] Ernesto Cardenal, The Gospel in Solentiname, translated by Donald D. Walsh (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2010), 479. “‘I’ve wondered about one thing: why does the bridegroom of this parable get to the feast so late? The appointed time must have been earlier, since the girls who were waiting for him fell asleep. I think it must have been because the feast, for some reason, was delayed. This seems to be trying to tell us that the marriage of God and the people has also had a delay in history. We don’t know why, and it will take place later than it was programmed. And that’s why we’re still int eh darkness of the night, sleepy, hungry, cold, waiting for the bride and groom to arrive and for the feast to begin.’”
[viii] R. T. France The Gospel of Matthew The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Gen. Ed Joel B. Green (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007), 949. “But the story does not develop as the call to vigilance in 24:36-51 might have led us to expect: the sensible girls did not stay awake while their companions slept. All were equally disappointed by the delay, all fell asleep, and all were equally taken by surprise by the eventual shout.”
[ix]Cardenal, Solentiname, 475. “I said … in the parable the girls weren’t reproached for having fallen asleep. It seems that, once the bridegroom didn’t come, there was nothing to do but go to sleep. What is says is that some had good supply of oil and others didn’t.”
[x] France, Matthew, 946. “The second parable about being ready adopts a more social setting for its story. Weddings provide one of the high points in village life, and the question of who was an was not included affected one’s social standing.”
[xi] France, Matthew, 948-949. The “torches” “…would be bundles of cloth mounted on a carrying stick and soaked with oil. The jars held the oil into which the torch was dipped before lighting. A torch without a jar of oil was as useless as a modern flashlight without a battery.”
[xii] France, Matthew, 949. “We do not know whether the torches had been lighted when the girls first set out, but, if so, they would not have stayed burning while they slept; even a well-soaked torch would not burn for much more than a quarter of an hour…So the sensible girls now had to resoak and light their torches, while the attempts of the silly girls to light theirs were of course futile…as they lighted the cloths they immediately went out again, having no more oil to keep them burning.”
[xiii] France, Matthew, 947. “But the point is simply that readiness, whatever form it takes, is not something that can be achieved by a last-minute adjustment. It depends on long-term provision, and if that has been made, the wise disciple can sleep secure in the knowledge that everything is ready.”
[xiv] France, Matthew, 949. “…in a parable things do not always happen according to real life, and the hard-nosed realism of the sensible girls invites the reader to reflect that spiritual preparedness is not something that others can provide for you: each needs their own oil.”
[xv] France, Matthew, 950. “The comparatively trivial lapse of a failure to be provided with oil has come to symbolize an ultimately false relationship; they are not part of Jesus’ true family (12:50).”
[xvi] Cardenal, Solentiname, 477. “I: ‘I suppose that when all of humanity loves one another, then we’ll have the wedding of humanity with God, which is love: the marriage of God with the people, as it has been said here. But this parable also makes us see that inhumanity there are those who love and those who do not love, those who unite humankind and those who divide humankind. Some enter and the others stay outside, and the door closes.’”
