Matthew 25

¹ “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. ² Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. ³ For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, ⁴ but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. ⁵ As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. ⁶ But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’⁷ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. ⁸ And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ ⁹ But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ ¹⁰ And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. ¹¹ Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ ¹² But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ ¹³ Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

It is fascinating how often theology and theological concepts are picked up via popular songs and movies and stories. And it is fascinating and troubling to see how often some of these concepts are misinterpreted by our increasingly secular culture. Take, for instance, Johnny Cash’s popular and theologically-rich 2002 song, “The Man Comes Around.” It is a song about the coming of Jesus and it is just positively shot through with biblical images. I mean, bible images are just stacked one atop another in this song! In the refrain, Johnny Cash mentions that “the virgins are trimming their wicks.”

Now, if you grew up in church you likely knew that this line has at least something to do with the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25. But I was curious to know what others thought of these lyrics and the other lyrics of the song and so I searched online. It was…amazing! A large number of listeners sexualized these lyrics and took them in the strangest directions. Some took offense at what they saw as the politically incorrect message of this line and argued that the lyrics violate the tenets of the latest version of gender orthodoxy in our country. Some thought he was talking about women needing a man. A few had a general notion that he was talking about something out of the Bible.

Pretty amazing and troubling stuff! But this image of the virgins and their lamps is a powerful image and Jesus uses it to make some very important points. We need, in short, to get this right!

A lack of preparation to meet your maker is foolish and disastrous.

One of the most clear points of the story of the ten virgins is that a lack of preparation to meet your maker is foolish and disastrous. This is spelled out quite clearly the parable itself.

¹ “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. ² Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. ³ For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, ⁴ but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.

There is some discussion about whether or not all ten of these virgins are Christians, with the five foolish virgins being simply unprepared or perhaps disobedient Christians. I am going to argue that they are not, on the basis of the conclusion of our text and the language applied to them, most notably that of the door being shut to them and of Jesus not knowing them. They might perhaps be viewed as what the Puritans used to call “carnal professors,” meaning those who professed to be believers but who were truly not. They are, after all, counted among the virgins “who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.”

Many earlier commentators saw the oil as a symbol of faith. That is not without reason. The wise truly believed. They had the oil of faith. The foolish virgins did not. They had lamps. They did not have oil. They had a show of faith, the externals of faith, but, ultimately, it was not saving faith.

What is the basis of some of these virgins being called “wise” and some being called “foolish.” Simply this: whether or not they carried “flasks of oil with their lamps.” Whether or not, in other words, they were prepared.

It is the height of foolishness to be unprepared to meet Jesus, unprepared for the moment when you will step into eternity.

I remember hearing about a barber who was a Christian man but who truly struggled with how to witness to people. He wanted to be able to share the gospel with people, but he lacked the courage to do so. One day, however, he determined that this was the day he would bear witness to Jesus. His nerves got the better of him the first part of the day and so he said nothing to his first few customers. Then he determined to do it: he would witness to his next customer! When the next customer came in the poor barber was all nerves and tremors and quivering voice. He kept clearing his throat as he lathered the man up for a good shave. He lathered him up and leaned him back and as he prepared the straight razor for the shave he said to himself, “This is it! Here I go!” And then, with trembling voice and noticeably-shaking hand, he held the quivering straight razor above the man’s throat, looked him in the eye, and said, “Bob, are you ready to meet your maker?”

The poor customer looked at the barber, looked at the razor in his trembling hand, and then bolted from the door still wearing the apron and the shaving cream!

It is a funny story, but it presses home a most important question, and one that the foolish virgins did not themselves answer: Are you really ready to meet Jesus when He comes? Are you prepared? Do you have the oil of faith, or just the outward show of an empty lamp?

The return of Jesus will be unexpected.

Next, Jesus asserts once more what He made so clear in Matthew 24: nobody knows when He will come. His coming will be unexpected. We can read the signs and have a general sense, but we do not know the day or the hour. Here is how Jesus communicates this in the parable:

⁵ As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. ⁶ But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’⁷ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps.

The bridegroom being “delayed” and the virgins “all” becoming “drowsy” and sleeping should not be overly-spiritualized. This is a parable, not an allegory. Meaning, not every single detail has a meaning. Normally, parables have one primary meaning and the details of the story are just vehicles to press that meaning home.

In order to get at the unexpectancy of Jesus’ return, He depicts the bridegroom as delayed and the virgins as sleeping. Then, dramatically, “at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom!’” Then the virgins arise and prepare their lamps. Here is Johnny Cash’s lines: they “trim their wicks.” That is, they trim the wick of their lamps to the appropriate length, removing the previously burned component of it so that the flame will be healthy and the right size.

The reference to “midnight” as the time of Jesus’s return is interesting. That word has an intriguing biblical pedigree. “Midnight,” for instance, is one of the possible times of return mentioned by Jesus in Mark 13.

³⁵ Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning

Sometimes in scripture, “midnight” is depicted as a time of catastrophe. For instance, in Exodus 12:

²⁹ At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock.

In Job 34, Elihu says:

²⁰ In a moment they die; at midnight the people are shaken and pass away, and the mighty are taken away by no human hand.

And sometimes, in scripture, “midnight” is depicted as a time when godly and good and miraculous things happen, as in Acts 16:

²⁵ About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, ²⁶ and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened.

So, too, in Psalm 119:

⁶² At midnight I rise to praise you, because of your righteous rules.

And this is consistent with Jesus’ use of the language of “midnight” in our text. Both good and bad things happen at midnight. Worship and praise come to the wise virgins. Judgment and doom comes to the foolish virgins. But let us be sure of this: nobody knew that He would come at midnight, only that He was coming!

Prepare yourself, then, with a faith that truly believes and a heart that is truly expectant!

There will be no bargaining and no successful begging when He returns. It will be too late.

There is also a note of finality to the appearance of the bridegroom. First, we see the foolish virgins attempt to bargain, to no avail.

⁸ And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ ⁹ But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’

We might wonder why the wise virgins simply do not share. Are they being stingy? Why are they being so unhelpful? John Dyer writes helpfully about how he had to come to change the way he thought of these lamps and of how his new understanding opened this text up to him.

When you first heard the “Parable of the Ten Virgins” in Matthew 25, what kind of lamp did you imagine the women holding?

Until recently, I had always pictured a curvy golden one like the genie’s lamp from Disney’s Aladdin. Imagining the women holding those big lamps in both hands, I always wondered why the five wise women couldn’t share a little of their oil with their unprepared friends. Then recently I met with Mark Bailey, president and professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, and he showed me an authentic first-century oil lamp that had been donated to the seminary. Instead of the smooth, impressive lamp I had pictured, he handed me a humble, rough little object not much bigger than a deck of playing cards.

Cradling the tiny lamp in my hand, it dawned on me that it could only hold a few ounces, and it would be almost impossible to share oil from one lamp to another. In that moment, I imagined myself as one of the waiting women that night, and I could feel the weight of Jesus’ admonition to be prepared for the bridegroom’s arrival.[1]

So these are tiny lamps. There is simply not enough oil to go around. But, in terms of the Kingdom truth of the parable, the point is clear enough: There will be no bargaining and no successful begging after He returns. It will be too late.

The foolish virgins run to purchase more oil, but, in their absence, something most tragic befalls them and their plight.

¹⁰ And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut.

What devastating words: “and the door was shut.” It brings to mind the words of Genesis 7 and the sealing of the ark.

¹⁵ They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. ¹⁶ And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in.

Just as they had bargained with the wise virgins, they now beg Jesus to open the door.

¹¹ Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ ¹² But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ ¹³ Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

This, too, is devastating: “Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.”

Jesus has used this language before, in Matthew 7.

²¹ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²² On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ ²³ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Here is why I believe the foolish virgins must ultimately be seen as unsaved, as lost. This is what Jesus says to those who have rejected Him: “I do not know you…I never knew you.”

There is, then, a warning here for the lost: If Christ returns and finds you without saving faith, you will be lost, outside, condemned for all eternity. The opportunity to be saved is now! Choose Him now!

But this parable is also sweet and good news! For it tells us that we can be saved and that the door, through Jesus, is open to us! We can meet the coming Bridegroom and be welcomed into the marriage feast of the kingdom! So the believer grieves over the lost and pleads with them to be saved. But we praise the name of Jesus for His saving and glorious grace!

David Koyzis has drawn attention to

Philipp Nicolai’s immortal 1599 text: Wachet Auf, Ruft Uns die Stimme, translated into English in the mid-19th century by Catherine Winkworth as Wake, Awake, for Night Is Flying. Inspired by Jesus’ parable of the wise and foolish virgins in Matthew 25: 1-13, it describes the coming nuptial feast in which the Bridegroom arrives to receive his bride, summoning the wise virgins who have been ready and waiting for this moment:

“Wake, awake, for night is flying,”
The watchmen on the heights are crying;
“Awake, Jerusalem, arise!”
Midnight hears the welcome voices
And at the thrilling cry rejoices:
“Oh, where are ye, ye virgins wise?
The Bridegroom comes, awake!
Your lamps with gladness take!
Hallelujah!
With bridal care
Yourselves prepare
To meet the Bridegroom, who is near.”[2]

I love that:

With bridal care
Yourselves prepare
To meet the Bridegroom, who is near.

And to this we say, “Amen!” and “Hallelujuah!”

 

[1] https://www.christianitytoday.com/behemoth/2016/issue-51-june-23-2016/object-can-be-worth-10000-photos.html

[2] https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2009/12/wake-awake-for-night-is-flying