True love waits with enough oil (Matthew 25:1–13)

 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

CHRISTIAN INTEGRITY: Out of the abundance of the heart (Matt. 15:1-20; 12:33-37)

When you ask somene about what a Christian is, what do you hear? Goody-two-shoes? Unconcerned about current events and issues? Killjoy? Hypocrite? Narrow-minded? Exclusivist? Why do such definitions come?

Our churches today are plagued by an ancient spirit, a school of thought that has been a thorn in the side of the Christian faith since the first century. This is the Greek philosophy of dualism, which blossomed into the heresy of gnosticism. This philosophy states  that matter and essence are distinct from each other. Plato even spoke of the Ideal which is supremely superior to the physical objects that we have around us. This then gave rise to the gnoostic thought that the physical is corrupt and evil, as opposed to the spirit which is pure and good. Today, we see this still practiced by Christians in a different form: the separation of the secular from the sacred. We go to church, do quiet time, attend bible studies to feed our souls, but we do not see the need to translate that feeding into our “secular” lives. We are admonished to apply what we’ve learned in our daily lives, but as soon as we’re out the door we forget what we’ve learrned.

 

Witness: the importance of integrity

Christ gave us the mandate to make disciples of all nations. Thus it is important that we maintain our integrity so that the message we bear will be believeable. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:2-3 that we are the letter of Christ, written by the Lord Holy Spirit Himself and read by everybody. It may have been Nietzsche who said “If Christians act more saved, then I might have believed in their Savior.” What Paul said to the Jews could very well be said of us, “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” If we do not walk our talk, if our faith is not translated into the good works prepared for us (Ephesians 2:10), then our faith is dead (James 2:26) and God Himself is shamed and blaphemed for we are not only made in His image, but are His children.

But we are honest and sincere, we do want to be Christians of integrity, glorifying God in word and deed. But we can’t seem to do it right. How can we?

Being: the heart of integrity

First, we have to go back to the message that we proclaim: Jesus Christ became man and died on the cross to free us from sin and death, and rose again that all those who believe in Him would rise with Him into new life in Him. Jesus did not say follow these and those rules; He said “Follow Me.” Jesus did not call us to join a new religion; He called us into a new and restored relationship with Himself. Why then are we treating this new relationship as if it were a religion? Because we believe that only the soul matters, that missions is all about saving souls, never mind the temporal needs of people. From this belief in the ultimate importance of the soul comes the belief that once we’ve gone to church, given our tithes, attended Bible study, and performed our church ministries we have done all that is needed to nourish our souls and bless the heart of God, and now we are free to do as we please.

Now we raise that all-important question: What is it that we are pleased to do? What do we enjoy doing? The answer to this question is what tells us what is really in our hearts. Jesus makes a telling comment to the Pharisees in Matthew 12:33-37: A tree is known by its fruit. Good men bring out good things from their heart, and evil men bring out evil things from their hearts. And out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. I would endeavor to say that out of the same overflow the eyes see, the ears hear, the hands move and the feet walk. What we say and what we do naturally shows us what we really believe, over what we say we believe. For as the soul prompts, the body moves. Now based on what we love to do and love to speak about, what is really in our hearts? Who are we?

Christian integrity, then, is simply being a Christian. If you had been born again by the Spirit of God, if you had accepted Jesus’ offer of salvation, if you have submitted to the lordship of God in all areas of your life, if you are seeking to know Him, to love Him, and be like Him, then living a life of Christian integrity is automatic, for you are simply living out what you are and what you truly believe.  If you are truly a Christian, then you live as one who had been saved from sin, and hates sin and what it does to people. You live with a consciousness of God’s compassion towards you and thus extend that same compassion to others. You live with a knowledge of what sin did to you and thus treat others kindly and compassionately, familiar with their struggles from personal experience.

Christian Integrity: integration of all under God

In the eyes and the life of the Christian, Christian integrity is the integration of both the secular and the sacred under the lordship of Christ. A Christian is a follower of Christ whether she is in a church setting or in a secular setting. The values of a Christian does not change whether she is doing church ministry or working in an office.  The Christian does everything for the glory of God, whether it be work, studies, hobbies, ministry or recreation. Why? Because the Christian is a child of God regardless of where she is, what she is doing, or whom she is with.

But Christian integrity does not mean sinlessness or faultlessness. It means even in sin and fallenness a Christian is a child of God, easily admitting to failure or fault and seeking forgiveness.  A Christian of integrity is not a Christian without sin, for that is impossible this side of eternity. A Christian of integrity is a Christian who follows Christ such that, even when she falls, she gets up and continues to follow Him.  A Christian of integrity is not one who no longer sins, but one who refuses to let her occasional sins define her.

If you feel you are not living a life of Christian integrity, one of two things could be the problem: Either there is something wrong with your relationship with God, or there is something wrong with what you believe the Christian life is supposed to be. Thus it is all-important to ask this question: Who is God to me, as opposed to who He is supposed to be to me? Am I a child of God? If so, why aren’t we alike? From this we can work on being a Christian by seeking to follow Christ. And as that relationship grows, so will we spiritually, socially, physically, and psychologically.

Note: This message was given at the 6th College Summer Break Camp held by Passionate Community for Christ, Inc. (PCCI) last April 2011 at Ifugao academy, Kiangan, Ifugao Province.

Unfairly Treated Workers (Matthew 20:1–16)

Every Labor Day, we see labor groups marching on the streets, demanding for higher wages, better working conditions and more benefits. Sometimes they would call for the rollback of the prices of basic goods. Why do they do so? Are our workers really unfairly treated? Given that a lot of our workers are just contractual and thus are not given the benefits of full-time regular workers like SSS, health plans, vacation leaves, and sick leaves, we can say yes. Given that many workers are paid for less than they should given their skills and education, we can say yes. But are all instances of unfairness evil?

The “Unfairly” Treated Workers

In Matthew 20:1-16, we see Jesus telling the parable of the laborers in the vineyard because of the pride shown by the rich person and by Peter in the previous chapter. Jesus said that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who went out to look for laborers to work at his vineyard. This means that the rest of the story wil reveal how God, as king, will treat those who would follow Him. He found some at 6am and agreed that they will be paid one denarius each for a full days’ work, which is what was the going rate during those days. He went out again at 9am, noon, 3pm and 5pm to hire more workers and promised them to be paid what is right. At the end of the day, he paid each worker the same amount, regardless of how much time they spent working. Those hired first complained that they were unfairly treated because they were paid the same wage as those who worked for only one hour! But the vineyard owner said that he wasn’t being unfair, but simply being generous.

            Looking closer at the parable, notice that he only negotiated with the first group, agreeing to pay them the minimum wage of those days. This is because these workers are the most able, the most qualified, the most hireable--thus these workers can command their wages. The later hirings hung on the promise that they will be “paid what is right.” If these day workers have not been hired yet at the time the vineyard owner came to them, then that means they weren’t that qualified. And being promised to be paid what is right means the best that they can expect is a wage based on how much time they spent working. Given that they weren’t hired before the vineyard owner came, they can’t demand much. Still, some wage is better than no wage. Now, who was unfairly treated?

The Economy of God

Who of these workers do you feel is unfairly treated? The answer to that question reveals how we view God and how we relate to Him. I confess that I feel that the first workers were unfairly treated. Shouldn’t those who work more be paid more? Isn’t Christ encouraging laziness in having the vineyard owner pay everybody equally? Yet God showed by this passage that I am wrong. The first workers were treated fairly because they were paid exactly what they agreed to be paid. The landowner kept his word. The workers who were paid the same for less work are the ones who are unfairly treated, because they were paid more for the work that they did. And all because they believed in the promise of being paid right.

            This then is how God treats us. God is a just God. He will never shortchange anyone. He will give to all what they deserve. He will not withhold from anyone the good that is due to them. But beyond this fair treatment, God is free to be unfairly generous. He will give to those He would like to give, but he would never hold back what good is deserved.

The Scandalous Grace of God

 This “unfairness” extends even to the salvation that He purchased for us at the Cross. How do you think would James and John feel when they, who walked with Jesus and worked in His ministry and supported Him and preached in His name, came into the Kingdom much later than did the convicted robber who was crucified together with Christ? How would you feel if you have served in church at the various ministries and yet the person you hated the most goes on to also be with God because at the last minute before she died she put her faith in Christ? Think of the worst person you know, historical or personal. Can you truly accept that Christ died to save such a person? Could you bear the thought that there is a very real possibility that you will be with this person for all eternity with the God you love?

            But this is the love of God, that “while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly…while we were sinners, Christ died for us…while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son” (Romans 5:6,8,10). When we look at it, no one really deserves God’s love and salvation. When we look at ourselves we are undeserving of God. But God still extends His love and His salvation to us, just as He extends it to our enemies. When we are to be truly honest, we are all 9am, noon, 3pm and 5pm workers, completely depending on the promise of God because we know that if He gave us truly what we deserve, we will not survive.  Here then is the good news in this parable: God in Christ is a gracious and generous God. If we follow Christ and labor in His vineyard, the LEAST we can expect is what we deserve, equal to the amount of work we put in. But knowing that our God is a generous God, He will give us more than what we deserve “according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19; see also Romans 10:12). God is not our employer who gives us only what we are due, but our Provider who gives us according to His riches, His generosity, His graciousness, and His love.

Challenge:

Brothers and sisters, let us who believe in in the mercy of Christ also extend such mercy to all around us. Let us remember that none of us deserve Christ’s love, and may this thought give us the perspective we need to extend His grace and love even to those we would rather see in hell. Let us accept that it is only by His grace one can be saved, and thus rejoice when the most wretched of people, even people who have hurt us, come to put their hope and faith in Christ and are thus saved, and break bread with those who once broke us. 

*preached as a Labor Day message last 1 May 2011 at Jesus Christ our Hope and Redeemer Church, San Mateo, Rizal