The Parable of the Ten Virgins 2

We’re talking about the end of the age, the signs of the Second Coming, and what it means to be prepared. In that context, we have four parables of Jesus to help us better understand the signs, the delay, and how we await his return. Last week, we began a study of the Ten Virgins parable found in Matthew 25. I’d like to read it again today, since we’re going to continue to discuss it. I’m going to read it from The Message Bible, which has a kind of fresh ring to it, just to keep you on your toes!

 “God’s kingdom is like ten young virgins who took oil lamps and went out to greet the bridegroom. Five were silly and five were smart. The silly virgins took lamps, but no extra oil. The smart virgins took jars of oil to feed their lamps. The bridegroom didn’t show up when they expected him, and they all fell asleep. 

 “In the middle of the night someone yelled out, ‘He’s here! The bridegroom’s here! Go out and greet him!’ 

 “The ten virgins got up and got their lamps ready. The silly virgins said to the smart ones, ‘Our lamps are going out; lend us some of your oil.’ 

 “They answered, ‘There might not be enough to go around; go buy your own.’ 

 “They did, but while they were out buying oil, the bridegroom arrived. When everyone who was there to greet him had gone into the wedding feast, the door was locked. 

 “Much later, the other virgins, the silly ones, showed up and knocked on the door, saying, ‘Master, we’re here. Let us in.’ 

 “He answered, ‘Do I know you? I don’t think I know you.’ 

 “So stay alert. You have no idea when he might arrive.” (The Message translation, Matthew 25:1-13) 

The traditional understanding of this parable is that it is about the oil, the delay of the bridegroom coming, and the two groups of virgins—five wise and five foolish. The wise were considered more righteous than the foolish. They had more oil, more of the Holy Spirit, they were more prepared. They were saved, the foolish were lost. Therefore, the moral of the story is clear. Accumulate your oil, which is the Holy Spirit, accumulate your righteousness so that you will be saved when Jesus comes. 

There is no clue of course in the parable as to how one should gather more Holy Spirit, or more oil or more righteousness. But if you don’t, you’ll be on the outside looking in. Just don’t be caught without enough oil. That’s the apparent conclusion of the parable. 

I see the parable quite differently. First of all, as I do when I read or study any biblical passage, I asked the questions: What does this say about God, and what does it say about God’s grace? Our natural inclination is to make religion about me, about my beliefs, and about my behavior, rather than to emphasize the message of Jesus and make religion about him. Second, if it has to be an expansion of our understanding about God’s grace, how does the story need to be reinterpreted or re-understood in that light? 

In other words, what does the passage really mean?

As mentioned last week, the story the parable is about how we wait for the Parousia, the Greek word used in the New Testament to refer to the Second Coming. That’s what the parable is about—more than it is about being ready. And it’s more about the fire in the lamps—the light—than it is about the amount of oil in them. 

The fact that all ten were virgins puts to rest an analogy of righteousness and wickedness. A virgin is pure, spotless, and perfect; and when it comes to self-restraint, self-denial and self-control, they are the tops. The only difference between the wise virgins and the foolish virgins is the amount of oil they had. 

Their lamps provide light. We are called to let our light shine. As we wait for the Second Coming we are to be light bearers. We are to dispel the darkness. But other than for food, the use of oil in the Bible is usually anointing for service or for medicinal purposes. Kings and prophets and priests are all anointed with oil for service. And the medical use of oil is mentioned in the Good Samaritan story. 

The oil is the Holy Spirit that propels us to do good works. We are to bear the light of goodness to dark places, we are to disseminate the fruits of the spirit: 

 If someone claims, “I know him well!” but doesn’t keep his commandments, he’s obviously a liar. His life doesn’t match his words. But the one who keeps God’s word is the person in whom we see God’s mature love. This is the only way to be sure we’re in God. Anyone who claims to be intimate with God ought to live the same kind of life Jesus lived. 

 My dear friends, I’m not writing anything new here. This is the oldest commandment in the book, and you’ve known it from day one. It’s always been implicit in the Message you’ve heard. On the other hand, perhaps it is new, freshly minted as it is in both Christ and you—the darkness fading away and the True Light already blazing!   

 Anyone who claims to live in God’s light and hates a brother or sister is still in the dark. It’s the person who loves brother and sister who dwells in God’s light and doesn’t block the light from others. But whoever hates is still in the dark, stumbles around in the dark, doesn’t know which end is up, blinded by the darkness. (1 John 2:4-11) 

While we wait for the Parousia we are to be in the service of others; we are to be doing good and loving others; in short, we are to be bearing light. But—this is the critical part—our bearing light does not make us ready. We are ready because we have been invited to the wedding. We are waiting because we had an invitation. Being anointed with oil is for service, not for salvation. We are at the wedding because of God’s eternal grace and his invitation to come, not because we have oil or a lamp or even light.

To wait for the Parousia is to be engaged in service to others and in goodness. It is a time to share God’s grace. The bridegroom will come, but not on a timeline. The signs say he will come, but not when he will come. The wise are wise because they came prepared to do good in the long run. The foolish are foolish because they “knew” that the bridegroom would come quickly. Of course, they were wrong. 

To be wise is to set aside any timeline and to weary not in well-doing. “For in due season we will reap if we faint not” (Galatians 6:9). It turns out that all ten had enough oil to get into the feast. When the cry goes out: “The bridegroom cometh!” all the virgins wake up and discover that their oil is low. (Some translations say that the lamps of the foolish had gone out. Some say the lamps were going out. The Greek word used here is the word for extinguish and it’s in the present tense. It means you could interpret it either way—that they were going out or that they had gone out. I’d argue that it doesn’t make a difference.) 

When the cry goes out, the wait is over. The groom has arrived. The door is open. There is light everywhere. Let’s get the party started! The lamp light of the ten virgins, which was so important in penetrating the darkness before the bridegroom arrived, is insignificant now compared to the brightness of his coming and the lights in the wedding hall. Whether they have excess oil, not enough oil, or no oil at all makes no difference. Everyone had enough oil to be there at the arrival of the groom. The amount of oil is not the criteria for entry to the feast. 

The criteria for entry is an invitation and an open door. This is, of course, God’s grace. We’ve burned our oil in the service of others. The wise had extra oil but it turns out they didn’t even need it. Nevertheless, they were ready for even more delay if that had happened. They had anticipated an indefinite delay. The foolish anticipated the imminent coming of the groom. They “knew” that he was coming soon. That was foolish. 

The wise were prepared to do good. They had not anticipated an early coming. The foolish were prepared for an early coming. They were not prepared for an extended service to others. The delayed coming exposed the foolish as unprepared to continue to do good. It also exposed the faulty thinking that the criteria for entry was doing good. Even still, the groom is here. He has arrived, the door is open, the wait is over. Grace was extended to all—to those with excess oil as well to those who as well to those whose oil was running out.

Being foolish has real world consequences. In Matthew 7, in the Mount of Olives sermon, Jesus talks about a wise man and a foolish man each building a house. The wise man builds on a solid foundation whereas the foolish man builds upon sand and his house falls down. Foolishness depletes resources for doing good. The oil of the foolish virgins is depleted. And the house and the belongings—the resources—of the man who built his house on sand are depleted as well. 

It limits our ability to bear light. We lack the fruits of the Spirit. But thank God, the consequences are not eternal. Salvation is by grace alone. The door is still open, the lights are still on. So let our lights burn while we wait for the Parousia. If we run out of oil, our influence and our doing good is hampered. We cannot penetrate the darkness as God wishes we would do. But by God’s grace, our salvation is not dependent upon our light. It’s not dependent on the amount of oil that we have. Light is for service, not for salvation. As we wait, we must not neglect that service. Oil anoints us for service. Grace anoints us for salvation. 

Both the wise and the foolish have the same misconception about God. It’s the same misconception that we have about God. The error that we believe is that God is counting how much oil we have as the criteria for getting into the wedding feast. In Matthew 25:8: “Then all the virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise: ‘Give us of your oil because our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered: ‘There will not be enough for us and for you. Go you rather to them that sell it and buy it for yourself.’” Can you see here the common misconception? The foolish know that God is measuring and counting the oil and that they don’t have enough and the wise know that God is counting and measuring the oil and they don’t want to be caught short. 

They both fail to see that they’re there by invitation, that they are being brought in through the open door. The moral of the story is that you need God’s grace whether you have buckets of extra oil or whether you’re down to your very last drop. Your service to others is heavily dependent upon the kind and the amount of oil that you have, but not your salvation. How much oil you have is important, it’s critically important. But it’s important for service, not for salvation. 

Although the wise and the foolish have the same misconception about God, the response to the open door is different. The foolish sealed their fate by turning away from the open door, turning away from the invitation, turning away from the light. They turn instead toward the darkness. So at midnight, with lamps flickering, running low on oil, they head out into the darkness to find oil. Note this foolishness: Heading out to try and find an open shop at midnight, in the darkness, in order for them to fix their own fire. Foolish, foolish indeed. 

While the parable doesn’t say so, it’s highly unlikely that they did find oil. At any rate, they returned to the wedding feast, still in the darkness. Now, however, they find themselves on the outside, like the elder son in the parable of the prodigal son who’s outside the party’s hub, the Father’s house where the party is going on, and like the man without a wedding garment who is thrown into outer darkness outside the wedding feast. These foolish virgins find themselves on the outside looking in. The door is closed, the chance for grace is finished. 

Attracted as they were to the darkness rather than the light, they remind me of the thoughts Jesus shared with Nicodemus:

 “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him. 

 “This is the crisis we’re in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won’t come near it, fearing a painful exposure. But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is.” (John 3:16-21)

But the choice is instead to turn toward the darkness. The darkness here is from Galatians 5:4-6. Being justified by the law, trying to fix ourselves is a fatal flaw. Holding on to the mistaken notion that being good is what saves us leaves us on the outside of the wedding feast in the darkness. Being good is the oil of service. It is highly important, bringing the blessing of good fruit to others and to penetrating the light in the darkness. This is highly important and desirable. But it is not, It turns out, the condition for salvation. 

So the foolish virgins arrive back at the hall with the door shut. In response to their pleading for an opening, they hear: “I don’t know who you are.” How is it possible that a God who knows everything would not know who you are? If we accept God’s grace, somehow he seems to know us. If we turn toward the darkness, we become unknown to God. What is it about accepting grace that makes us known to God? 

The verb “to know” here has a connotation of intimacy. In Genesis 4:1 Adam knows his wife, and she conceived a son and they named him Cain. And Mary in Luke 1 says to the angel, who comes to tell her that she’s going to have a baby: “How can this be, seeing that I know not a man?” God’s knowledge of ourselves is not a simple acquaintance—it is a close personal relationship. There’s something about receiving grace that enters us into an intimate bond between ourselves and God. 

We need God in our service to others. “If you have done it unto the least of these, my brethren, you have done it unto me.” That’s the value of service, of sharing grace. It’s a way that God gets to know us. 

So I’d like your thoughts this morning on the signs of the end, on what we learned from the parable of being ready, about waiting for the bridegroom to come, about oil and how much you need or don’t need, about the wise and the foolish, about turning toward the darkness rather than turning toward the light. What does it mean to be ready? What does it mean to be prepared?

Donald: Some random thoughts: 1. It seems that oil is to be accumulated, saved; whereas manna is just the opposite—gather just enough for the day. If more manna is collected than is needed, trouble ensues. 2. Trimming a lamp requires some skill to get the wick to burn evenly, without hotspots. A poorly trimmed wick creates a dim and smoky flame. A well-trimmed wick burns cleanly. 3. Half of the ten virgins were not prepared and half were unwilling to share. 4.  What type of personalities are likely to bring additional oil? Personality may play a role here. 

David: If the bridegroom had not come at midnight, but was delayed until maybe morning or the next night, they would all have run out of oil. This bolsters the argument that oil really has nothing to do with salvation,

Reinhard: Paul wrote:

 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. (Romans 8:9)

The refusal to share the oil came at the final decision time. Of course, as Christians, we have to help our fellow man, but not by helping them cheat at the final exam. Before we take the exam, of course we can share what we know, we can ask questions, but at the final moment there is no way for the oil to be given to the others. The key is readiness, preparation. The foolish virgins failed to prepare for the exam. 

It’s not just a matter of oil. It’s also a matter of how you trim the wick. Trimming the wick is making the oil burn in such a way that it burns bright and evenly. It’s not just the oil. The oil is not the only issue here. Yes, you must have oil in order to have your lamp illuminate, but you can not care for the wick in such a way that your lamp isn’t very effective.

So when Jesus comes at the end, people who maybe already know God but fail to prepare for his coming may receive grace. Everybody is invited, but there’s an associated responsibility to prepare the oil and this is the thing the foolish virgins fail to do. As Christian followers of God, it is important for us to remind each other that we have to have our oil, because we never know when the end will come, We might not be counted, we not might not be invited to the party. I think that’s what we need to remember, and then we need to share with our fellow men and women that we have to be ready with oil, because there’s no time to share it at the final moment. We should not take the invitation for granted. We have to prepare.

Don: Efficiency in using your oil. 

Sharon: I’m trying to think about oil and service in light of facing a 70th birthday. I’m wondering if there’s a correlation. When your life has been about service, do you eventually run out of gas? Or is this a supply that somehow the Lord Jesus keeps giving you until he takes your last pulse? Is this something I do? Or is it linked to the grace and the Holy Spirit’s work with me? Linking it to service is depressing when old age reduces the service we can give—when we run out of oil.

Don: In the story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath, her oil was never depleted. It was continuously replenished. 

C-J: I just turned 70 and I know my mind doesn’t work as quickly and my body gets tired. And I just think, “Oh, this is old news.” We just keep making the same mistakes with humanity. But I think it comes down to mentoring. You don’t need a whole lot of energy to mentor like you did when you were doing the work. I believe God orders our steps and we always are living a life of service, if we’re willing to see what God is presenting. 

So I don’t think we ever run out of the oil and the grace of God. It’s just that the duty will change, the responsibility will change. But God says we are a light to the world that is in darkness. And that goes even until our last breath, that we die without resistance or fear—that we die in peace. (I hope!) 

Anonymous: I was perplexed about this parable. I found it hard to understand and see all the details of it. Thank God, finally I saw a different view of it that made sense to me. I see that preparedness is not for the event of the Second Coming of Jesus. I think to be prepared, and to be vigilant, we should remember the story Jesus told about the owner of a house who, had he known a thief was coming, would have stayed awake and not lost everything. 

When I read Matthew 24, again and again and again, it struck me that most of the chapter is gloomy. Jesus is talking about bad things that will happen. He’s not saying anything positive. He’s talking about the darkness, desolation, deception, the false Christ, about dragging you to court. It’s all doom and gloom. It then struck me that Jesus had a purpose. Turning our eyes towards our enemy, Satan, and all his deceptions and what he’s been doing since Day One. No wonder every generation sees the Second Coming of Jesus Christ as imminent in its time. 

If I am aware of the negative things that are coming, or are already happening in the world, and am alert, vigilant, and conscious about these happenings, it would keep me up, so that like the owner of the house, when the thief comes, I can protect my house. It is practical, at least to me it makes more sense, to be ready for the bad things, rather than spend time dancing and being giddy about the coming of the groom when the wicked stuff is crawling towards me and I’m unconscious of it. I would be foolish not to have paid attention to it earlier, so that I could lean on God and ask for his Holy Spirit, which is the oil. 

Jesus said how much more our Father in heaven would give his Holy Spirit to those who ask Him, so we are to ask for the Holy Spirit every single day. That also ties in with Jesus’ words that when he sends us the Holy Spirit, it will remind us of all the truth. So if we are alert every single day, the Holy Spirit will lead our lives, will turn our minds, will make us vigilant and will remind us of everything we read in the Bible. That’s a lifetime style. It’s not a day, or one happening, or one event. It’s a lifetime. When we read the Bible, we get to know Jesus through his words and we depend and lean more upon him and we are filled with the Holy Spirit, which will take us.

Before that point, we will do his work as the parable says: When the master comes back and finds his servant doing what he what he was assigned to do to the end, he’ll be happy and tell him “Blessed it is that service.” So with the Holy Spirit in our lives on a daily basis, we continue to serve God and our fellow man, we are very conscious of, and alert to, the tricks Satan tries to deceive us with. 

We won’t be running out of oil. We will be ready even if we’re not paying attention, not focusing, not keeping our eyes completely on the Second Coming. The signs that Jesus gave us—all these gloomy signs—have spiritual applications as well, like the darkness and the sun and the moon. That’s the spiritual darkness, when people have no idea what’s going on. Many people live in spiritual darkness because they don’t know God. They don’t know Jesus, they don’t know the plan of salvation. They don’t know about grace. They just follow deception and falsity and lies. That’s one of the signs. 

I never understood what Jesus meant when he said that vultures gather where the carcass is. It reminds me of the parable that says when a man comes to Christ, when he when he sees the light, Satan is driven away and the heart of that man is cleansed and purified, but Satan goes to to the wilderness and when he comes back and finds that heart cleansed, he goes and brings seven more wicked spirits and stays in that heart, and then the end of that person is worse than the beginning. I think the relationship between the verse and this parable is that where Satan stays in the heart, it’s a carcass, a dead heart, a dead life. That person is living in darkness completely. So where are the vultures gathered? They are gathered in the house! We will see this at the end. We will see how many people live in darkness and have no idea because Satan has taken control of their life 

Donald: What personalities, or what demographic groups, are drawn to the light? Light is a physical thing; darkness is the absence of light. It’s not a thing. If you withdraw light, you have darkness. So what personalities, what demographic groups are drawn to the light? Why are we here this morning? Are we a demographic group? I’ll bet we are. Some members of my family whom I highly respect would not show much interest in any of this conversation. It doesn’t mean that they aren’t good people.

Are people who have an interest in God and in doing good and in accepting his grace more valuable than those who don’t? Are they blameworthy? What if you’re not a good reader and not interested in reading anything, let alone the Bible? So where do you get this nourishment?

Don: Where does your oil come from? Is that your question?

Donald: Some people seem to have oil, but it’s not rooted in the things we’re discussing here this morning, or as a group, that are drawn to this kind of time together. They’re good people. They’re people that are caring, loving, and honest. But it doesn’t seem rooted in a biblical base. Randy Roberts gave a sermon two weeks ago and asked where does goodness come from? Does it have to be morally right? 

We’re together and hopefully we’re expressing our thoughts in a way that will prepare us and help with our daily responsibility as we get old and tired and hand the reins to others. Is it equal for all people?

Don: God’s grace is equal for all people.

C-J: I think darkness does have an energy. It isn’t just either/or. I think energy is existing. In the context of what you were saying, we see the light but we don’t see the energy in the darkness, and that’s where the deception and other things are happening because our focus is in a different place. It alludes to predestination. “There’s a group of people who will receive the light and we get to go, but unfortunately, these other people won’t, but they’re good people.”

I have a problem with that because I believe God meets us where we are. I think we all agree that God’s grace is unlimited and shows itself in many different ways. So if I were a Daoist and I practiced that faith, God’s grace is there, even unto the ends of the earth. I think that the darkness produces its own reward. I just learned last night that one of the refugees I sponsored has become a drug addict, working off of the street. He cycled, he did really well, and it just broke my heart because I remember the potential in this human being, but his drug of choice is crack, and it’s just taken him again. 

I think that’s the dark energy. It’s not that he doesn’t know God. He grew up in a Coptic home, which is very close to the Catholic faith. He knows God, he loves God, he took his children to church when they were young—he and his wife. But this drug owns him. And he has this flaw in his personality that makes him susceptible. Wen stress comes, it calls him. I don’t think God faults him. Our DNA is not our destiny. He has a weakness, an Achilles heel. He knows that. But we can’t always win it. Drugs are like that. Deception is like that. It requires the trimming of the wick. 

People, places things. It’s a commitment to show up in God’s temple, to fellowship with like-minded people so that when we are in weakness, when we see what other people may not see—that dark hole, a place that had me in tears when it came to mind just yesterday, It was long, long ago, but I remembered that place. It takes a long time to crawl up out of that pit and never get close enough where you can fall back into that pit to guard the people, places, and things, the conversations, to be that light in the wilderness to speak the truth to people who are saying, “I don’t know”—even if they won’t receive it, to speak the truth. 

I told a young man to be a better father. If you want your daughter to make good choices, you need to be a better father. And I was specific about what that meant. I left a text message the next day for him, “How are you?” And he goes, “I didn’t sleep well.” That’s God doing the work. We are often only the tool, the instrument in God’s hand. And we have to leave it with God. It’s not for us to bear that cross. God might use us only in a small conversation. It doesn’t matter. We are always an instrument in God’s hand for his grace, his mercy, and other people help us—me—to trim my work. “You need to take care of this, Connie.” “I thought I was done with it.” “No, maybe not.” We have to be honest before God and God gives us community to not point the beam in my own eye but to say “God wants to heal that God wants to reveal all things so that we can be whole in relationships.”

David: I’d like to clear up what I think is a misconception about Daoism. You don’t really practice Daoism, which began as a philosophy and remains fundamentally so. Men turned it into a faith and it now has a priesthood and so on, but that’s a man-made, cultural artifact. It’s not a spiritual artifact. You don’t practice Daoism. You simply go with the Way. And as the very first passage read today told us, the most important thing is simply to follow Jesus. Follow the Way.

This is very relevant to Donald’s remarks concerning all the people who haven’t read the Bible. The millions of Chinese people who believe in Daoism, in simply following the Way, are doing just that. Are they without oil at the gate? I don’t think so. Again, the oil is spiritual. It’s the Holy Spirit, and everybody has it.

Donald: But how can you run out of the Holy Spirit?

David: Perhaps you run out by expending it in waiting for something that may never come. I made the point that the smart virgins with their extra oil would be no better off than the foolish virgins if the bridegroom was delayed for another day.

Don: Everyone has their limit.

Anonymous: David, do you equate the Way with Jesus?

David: Yes, I do. I believe that the Way that is spoken of in Daoism is exactly the same Way that Jesus talks about, which is him.  

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