“Bridesmaids” Matthew 25: 1-13

  “What are you waiting for?” Have any of you ever heard that phrase? Have any of you ever said that phrase? Let’s be honest - we are not a people who actively enjoys waiting. We would like what we want and now, please. Yet, waiting is part of life. 

And not just part of our everyday, routine lives. I’m not just talking about waiting for kids to get home from school. Or waiting for the workday to end. Or waiting in line at a store. We also wait in our spiritual lives - wait for Christ’s triumphant return. 

By 50CE - only 20 years after Christ’s resurrection, the early church also had folks in it that were tired of waiting. Even with Jesus saying that no one knows and the day or hour of his return. Even with Peter and Paul’s teaching on the unknown element of the timing of Christ’s second coming. By 50 CE folks were getting restless.

But Jesus in this parable is predicting just that. He knows that God’s view of time (what is call kairos - heavenly time) is different from our earthly view of time in terms of days and hours and minutes (called - chronos time). What we see as a delay in Christ’s return, is just as much a part of God’s perfect timing as when God sent Jesus in the form of a babe over 2000 years ago. 

So Jesus tells this parable - one of the last that he will tell before his arrest, death, and resurrection. And in this, one of his final messages to his disciples, he is tells them the story of a bridegroom. 

Last week we sat with a parable about weddings that was difficult to understand. This one too may appear to be difficult, but for different reasons. For here, its aspects of culture that we need to unpack to more fully understand what Jesus is trying to communicate to his followers. 

The bridegroom has been delayed. The period of engagement in Jesus’s time was typically a year. But before the wedding, there may be last minute details of the marriage contract that were hammered out between the groom and the bride’s father. It could very well be that this was the reason for the delay that we find here. 

So the bridesmaids need to wait for the grooms return in order for the wedding to take place. When night falls, they break out their lamps, which required both a flame and oil - something to keep the flame lit. 

Two things happen because the groom is taking so long. First, everyone, all ten of the bridesmaids fall asleep. Yet, that doesn’t seem to be a problem in the parable itself. Except that for five of the bridesmaids, they wake up and realize that it was actually a lot later then they had anticipated, and as a result there had not been enough oil in their lamps to keep the flame going. 

They try to beg oil off of the five bridesmaids that still had some - but they didn’t have enough for both themselves and these other five in need, so their only recourse is to go to buy some. Only when they were away, in search for more oil for their lamps, that is the moment when the groom returned and the wedding festivities began. When they returned and found the banquet in process, no one would open the door for them so they could join in. 

Jesus knew that what would be perceived by his followers in a human sense as his delay in returning would be a problem from the very beginnings. So he offers these words that on one level amount to “stay ready”. But here we are almost 2000 years later - asking some of the the same questions as those first believers - now what?

We need a space to honor that question, church. Because our desire for Jesus’s triumphal return is real. We see the suffering around us and we are ready for it to end. But God is not yet ready to send the Son to return because there are still people he drawing to himself and bringing salvation to. Whenever folks tell me that they wish Jesus would come back today - I get it. I, too, yearn for that. But then I think of those I know who have not yet chosen the love of Jesus Christ and found salvation in him, and my heart breaks. And in that heart break is a reminder to trust in God’s timing alone, even in the midst of my yearning. 

While we have the question of “now what?” that may be rooted in deep distress and the realization that this world is not yet as God intended, I think there is also a gentle answer that we get from God to act - to get moving. To see our waiting as an active act of faith. 

Because we know the end of the story in many ways, friends, because it is contained in our Holy Scriptures. And as a result we live in the midst of human suffering knowing the hope that is to come. Envisioning a new day and the new creation. Knowing that there is a great wedding feast waiting on the other end. And that should cause us to live differently. 

And that way that we live differently is not a call to live callously. To be assured in our own salvation and not care about the souls of anyone else. No, we live our lives in anticipation of what is to come and praying that the Holy Spirit draws people into God’s kingdom until that time comes and uses us to be part of that sharing of hope, grace, love, and truth. 

The tension that this parable highlights is between preparing for the future and living in the present. And I’ve got to tell you, we don’t always live this out well, Church. We can get so caught up in the present - our day to day living - that we don’t live in a spirit of holy anticipation of what is to come. Or we can live so much in the unknown of the future, that we fail to proclaim God’s Kingdom in the here and now. 

And in both scenarios, we aren’t truly investing in the Kingdom of God. 

We need to live into that tension while trusting Jesus. 

Which raises another question for us in this parable - what does investing in God’s Kingdom look like today? It looks like being a disciple of Jesus Christ. Communicating with him in prayer. Being part of a community of faith. Serving in a way that reflects and shares the heart of our Savior. It means growing closer to him, day by day. Spending time in the Word. Sharing the faith with people who do not yet know. Raising up the next generation. It means being faithful with each and every thing that God has given us. 

I’m curious Church - how can we be part of that work in the waiting? Kingdom investing work? How can we help each other stay vigilant and prepared in this time of waiting? How can we live into the tension of the present and the future? In other words, how can we be faithful followers of Jesus Christ until he comes again, even if we do not know the day or the time? Amen.