Introduction
With all of the hoopla of the failed prophecy of Harold Camping and his Family Radio ministry (May 21, 2011, the End of the World? 'Judgment Days' That Have Come and Gone - ABC News), I am reminded of this message I delivered in June 2009. I eagerly await for Messiah Yeshua. May He come soon, even now....
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Who among you here would like to see Jesus now? Who among you here would want Jesus to come back now, and reign for all eternity? Why not? Let us look at a parable that addresses this situation.
The coming of the groom is a time of joy (v. 1)
Who among you here have relatives or loved ones abroad? When you receive news that they are coming here for a visit, what do feel? Do we not feel excited that this loved one is coming? And because that person is coming, what do we do? Do we not prepare the room where she will stay, plan where we could take her, clean up the house, plan the meals?
Let’s take it one notch higher. To the men who are married, do you still remember the time when you waited for your bride at the altar, and the great joy you felt when you saw her walking down the aisle towards you? For the wives, do still remember your arrival, and as you enter, you see the man you are to marry waiting for you at the altar? How did you feel? How different did it feel from when you were just meeting for a date?
This is the kind of anticipation that the virgins, who were the bridesmaids, were experiencing. They were excited! Maybe the bride is their close friend or relative, maybe even a sister. And they were excitedly waiting for the man who will marry her and so complete her joy. The groom is not coming for an accounting, nor for judgment, but for love and a celebration of that love that is to be joined. This is a happy occasion, not a fearful one.
Weddings in the time of Jesus
To help us better understand the situation, let us look at the marriage practices of the time of Jesus. During that time, marriages were arranged by the parents of both the groom and the bride. The man may have chosen the bride, but it is the parents who do the negotiations. Then they are betrothed and they are wed soon after. On the night of the wedding, the groom and his groomsmen leave his house and parade to the bride’s house, where the wedding ceremony takes place. Then they all go to the groom’s home where the celebrations will be held. The wedding celebration lasts for three days up to a week, depending on how long the newlyweds can supply food and wine to the guests. All this during a time of great oppression; weddings are a welcome break from the hard life, and here the people really have a good time.
Here, we can see a parallelism with our own relationship with Christ. Christ is the bridegroom, and we the Church is His bride. We are now betrothed to Him and we are His, but He has yet to come to claim us fully. And when He does, it is a celebration of cosmic proportions.
The bridesmaids sleep (vv. 2–4)
There are two kinds of bridesmaids here: the wise who packed extra oil and the foolish who did not pack. The foolish are those who are so excited about the coming of the groom they cannot think of anything else.
But the wise are those who are also excited, but are realistic enough to see what could happen and prepared themselves. By packing extra oil, they are in effect saying, “We are here for the groom no matter how long it takes.”
Looking at the wise bridesmaids, did they prepare out of duty, or obligation, or out of love? I honestly believe it is out of love that they have done so, love for the bride whom they serve, and for the groom whom they wait for. Isn’t it that we would go to great lengths for those we love without even a second thought?
But the bridegroom was delayed in coming. The excitement wears off and the bridesmaids — all of them — fell asleep. Waiting can get very boring, even when the one we are waiting for is someone we love. Similarly for us who wait for the coming of Christ, as the months and years pass, we cannot help but fall asleep. We get bored, frustrated, discouraged. We even fall into sin.
The bridegroom comes (vv. 6–13)
The groom and his party finally comes, parading to the bride’s home for the ceremony. Thus the arrival would be announced. The bridesmaids get up and trim their lamps to light the way for the groom and his groomsmen. But they all saw that their lamps were going out. The wise take out the oil they packed and refilled their lamps. The foolish ones asked for some from the wise but the wise only packed enough for their own lamps. So they went off to buy from the dealers (At midnight?! Good luck!). While the foolish were gone, the groom and his party arrived and the wise were there to meet them. They performed the wedding ceremony and they all left for the groom’s home where they celebrated, and the doors were shut. The foolish bridesmaids, after finally getting some extra oil, proceeded to the groom’s home but he does not know them, since they were not there to meet him.
In the same way, it is not those who “prayed to accept Christ as their Lord and Savior” who will be saved, but it is those whom He sees are trusting Him as their Savior and are following and obeying Him as their Lord when He returns. It is those who love Him so much that they eagerly await His coming and wish it was now, but they are also ready for a long wait, coming into a closer relationship with Him in spirit through prayer and the Word, and working hard in the tasks that He has entrusted to them.
Notice that I put the relationship first, for it is this relationship that drives us to work hard and faithfully for Him. It is our love for Him as manifest in our desire and preparedness for His coming that is important. It is not that we are perfect when He arrives, but that we are working to become like Him. And if we do not want to do this, if we don’t feel like preparing for His coming or, worse, we don’t want Him to come yet, we had better take a long hard look at our relationship with Him and what He really means to us.
Challenge
As we partake of the Lord’s Table, let us remember what Christ did for us on the cross so that we could freely come into His presence now and have fellowship with Him in the Spirit. Let us also remember that, as we eat of the bread and drink of the cup, we are having a taste of the heavenly banquet that Christ promised He would eat with us when He returns. It will be a celebration like no other, for it will be a celebration of the greatest love finally fulfilled!
*Preached as a sermon on 7 June 2009 at Jesus Christ Our Hope And Redeemer church, San Mateo, Rizal
*Preached as a sermon on 7 June 2009 at Jesus Christ Our Hope And Redeemer church, San Mateo, Rizal
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