Sermon: Who Are the Wise?

Delivered at Monaghan United Methodist Church in Greenville, South Carolina on November 12, 2023

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Who Are the Wise?

Audio Version

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Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this.  Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.  Five of them were foolish, and five were wise.  When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.  As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept.  But at midnight there was a shout, “Look!  Here is the bridegroom!  Come out to meet him.”  Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps.  The foolish said to the wise, “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.”  But the wise replied, “No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.”  And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut.  Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, “Lord, lord, open to us.”  But he replied, “Truly I tell you, I do not know you.”  Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

Matthew 25:1-13 (NRSV)

I wanna love because You loved
I wanna give because You gave
I wanna reach my hand out to the lost
Because I know Your hand will save

From “Only You Can Save” by Chris Sligh

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells a parable about ten bridesmaids who are waiting with a bride for the arrival of her groom.  For some reason, the groom and his entourage are delayed, and all of the bridesmaids fall asleep while they are waiting.  Finally, at midnight, word comes that the groom is on his way.  Five of the bridesmaids, who had the forethought to bring some extra lamp oil with them, prepare their lamps so that they can go out and meet the groom.  The other five bridesmaids have already run out of oil, so they ask the more prudent bridesmaids if they can have some of theirs.  The more prudent bridesmaids tell the unprepared bridesmaids that they don't have any oil to spare and then suggest that they find someone who can sell them some oil.¹

While the unprepared bridesmaids are trying to obtain some oil for their lamps, the groom arrives, and the festivities begin.  When the bridesmaids arrive at the location of the wedding celebration, the door is already locked, and nobody will let them in.  Their lack of preparation has cost them the party.²

I have always struggled a bit with the Parable of the Bridesmaids.  I think it's pretty clear that the lesson Jesus wants to convey is that we need to be prepared like the prudent bridesmaids so that we do not miss out on what God is doing.  For me, what is difficult to understand is not the point of the parable but rather the parable itself.  I'm no expert when it comes to planning weddings, but I've attended enough of them to know that, in our culture, weddings are planned out thoroughly, down to the most minute detail.  I have never attended a wedding that didn't start on time.  I know that a groom who is late to his own wedding will find himself in the proverbial doghouse before he even says, “I do.”  I have never had to bring a source of light to a wedding reception, and I have never heard of a bridesmaid who missed a wedding because she had to go out and buy flashlight batteries.

To our modern, Western ears, this parable might sound strange or even contrived.  Without an understanding of the culture of this parable's original audience, we might find ourselves asking questions that distract us from the main point.  Why is the groom so late to his own wedding?  Does every bridesmaid really need to have a lamp of her own?  If the more prudent bridesmaids cannot share any of their oil with the unprepared bridesmaids, can they not at least share the light of their lamps with them?  Why has the wedding planner not considered setting up some lanterns so that everybody can have sufficient light?

One thing I've come to appreciate about Jesus' parables is that many of them are based on real-life scenarios.  In Jesus' own time and culture, it is not outside the realm of possibility that someone might have actually found herself in a situation not unlike the one described in the Parable of the Bridesmaids.  Of course, most people can relate to a story in which somebody misses something due to a lack of preparation.

In Jesus' day, marriages are arranged either by parents or by matchmakers.  After a bride and a groom are officially engaged, they enter into a betrothal period.  Though the two live apart during this time, their marriage is already legal.  During the betrothal period, the bride learns about taking care of a household, while the groom prepares a place for them to live.  Once the betrothal period is over, the groom and his groomsmen go to the home of the bride's parents, and the groom finally takes his bride home with him so that they can begin their life together.  When the groom arrives, the bridesmaids proceed with the bride, the groom, and the rest of the wedding party to the couple's new home.  The wedding celebration is essentially a week-long feast at which the bride and the groom are treated like royalty.  It is the kind of event that nobody wants to miss.^{3 4}

Though the groom is obligated to send a messenger ahead of him to announce that he is on his way, there is no way to know for certain when he will actually arrive.  He might arrive during the day, or he might arrive during the night, so anyone who wants to get in on the wedding celebration must remain alert and ready.  To be absent when the groom arrives is a breach of etiquette that will exclude a person from the festivities.  It is also worth noting that nobody is allowed to be outside at night without a lamp.⁵

By the time the unprepared bridesmaids in the parable have obtained some oil for their lamps, they have missed the arrival of the groom and the wedding procession, and, when they arrive at the location of the celebration, they are met by a locked door.

There are some important life lessons we can glean from this parable.  Scholar William Barclay points out that, in the same way that the unprepared bridesmaids are unable to purchase oil in the middle of the night and still make it to the wedding celebration on time, we will not be able to make some preparations in the eleventh hour.  Barclay also points out that, like the scarce lamp oil the more prudent bridesmaids cannot share, there are some things in life that cannot be borrowed from another person, like faith and character.⁶

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I suspect that most of us tend to study the Bible in bitesize pieces.  When we study the Gospels in particular, we might focus on one parable, teaching, miracle, or encounter at a time.  Sometimes taking a step back in order to gain more of a big-picture view of the biblical text can reveal truths that we might miss when we read the Bible more episodically.  Something else I've come to appreciate about Jesus' parables is that, if Jesus tells numerous parables in rapid succession, we are probably meant to hear them together and ponder them together.

The Parable of the Bridesmaids is just one in a series of parables Jesus tells in a section of the Gospel of Matthew that is sometimes called the “Olivet Discourse.”⁷  At one point during the week preceding the Crucifixion, as Jesus and the Disciples are leaving the Temple in Jerusalem, the Disciples make a comment about the buildings surrounding them.  Jesus ominously says, “Truly I tell you, not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”  Later that day, the Disciples, who are disturbed by what Jesus has told them, approach Him on the Mount of Olives and ask Him about it.⁸  Jesus then tells them about events yet to come, including the chain of events that will ultimately result in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman Empire a few decades later.⁹

Jesus also speaks of His own return following His crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, and, in this context, He begins speaking in parables, all of which follow a similar pattern and have similar themes.

First, Jesus tells a parable about a servant who is put in charge of his employer's entire household, including the management of his fellow servants, while his employer is away.  This servant has a choice to make.  He can choose to be responsible by faithfully doing what he has been trusted to do, or he can choose to be irresponsible by living large off his employer's estate while abusing his fellow servants.  Suppose the servant's employer returns before the servant expect him to return.  If the servant is found to be acting responsibly, he will be commended and rewarded by his employer.  On the other hand, if the servant is found to be acting irresponsibly, he will be in serious trouble with his employer.¹⁰

With this first parable, Jesus establishes a pattern that His subsequent parables will follow.  In each parable, an important person is absent for an indeterminate amount of time.  A second person or a group of persons has a certain responsibility in the first person's absence.  This person or persons then have make a choice regarding how they will carry out the duties entrusted to them.  How well they carry out their tasks will be brought to light whenever the absent person returns.  For those who faithfully carry out the duties entrusted to them, there will a cause for celebration, but, for those who fail to carry out their duties, there will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

In the first parable, the absent person is a rich man; the person who has a responsibility is a trusted servant; his duty is to take care of his employer's household in his employer's absence; and the choice he has to make is between carrying out his duties faithfully and abusing his trusted position.

Jesus then tells the Parable of the Bridesmaids.  The absent person in this parable is the groom; the people with a responsibility are the bridesmaids; and their duty is to keep the bride company until her groom arrives, to greet the groom when he finally does arrive, to accompany the happy couple to the wedding celebration, and to party like it's AD 99.  In Jesus' day, successfully carrying out this particular duty means being ready to proceed to the wedding celebration at night, and this means having enough oil to keep one's lamp burning.

Jesus goes on to tell a parable about a rich man who entrusts large sums of money to three of his servants before he heads out on a long trip.  To one servant he gives five talents; to another he gives two talents; and to another he gives one talent.  Two of these servants aggressively put the money entrusted to them to work, and they both get a one-hundred-percent return on their investments.  The servant who was only given a single talent, is not quite as bold as his colleagues, so he buries the money entrusted to him.  When the rich man returns, he commends that two servants who made him more money and gives them greater responsibilities, but he rebukes the cowardly servant and dismisses him.¹¹

In the Parable of the Talents, the absent person is once again a rich man; the people with a responsibility are his servants; and their responsibility is to faithfully put to use the talents that have been entrusted to them.

The choice presented to all of the servants and bridesmaids in these three parables is a choice we all must make on a daily basis.  It is a choice described repeatedly in the Book of Proverbs,¹² in which we read, “The wise will inherit honor, but stubborn fools, disgrace.”¹³  It is the choice between being wise and being foolish.  The wise servant takes care of his employer's household, but the foolish servant abuses his trusted position.  The five wise bridesmaids make preparations so that they will not miss the wedding celebration, but the five foolish bridesmaids miss the celebration because they are unprepared.  The two wise servants boldly invest the talents entrusted to them, but the foolish servant buries his talent like a coward.

I suspect we all realize that these parables aren't really about ancient wedding customs and investment banking.  In the words of biblical scholar N.T. Wright,

Ultimately, the wise person is the one who respects and honours God, and the fool is the one who forgets him.  But their wisdom and folly work themselves out in a thousand different ways in daily life, in business, in the home and village, in making plans for the future, in how they treat other people, in their honesty or dishonesty, in their hard work or laziness, in their ability to recognize and avoid temptations to immorality. ¹⁴

Each of us has been given responsibilities to carry out as we await the return of our Lord, and each of has a choice to make in regards to how we will carry out our responsibilities.  We can be wise, or we can be foolish.

So, who are the wise?

The story Jesus tells next – a story that is both beautiful and dreadful – is commonly listed among His parables, but it might actually be less of a parable and more of a revelation of things to come.  Every week, when we recite the Apostles' Creed, we remember that, after Jesus was crucified and resurrected, He ascended to Heaven to take His seat at the Father's right hand, and we remember that “from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.”¹⁵  We could also say that He shall come to judge the wise and the foolish.

Jesus says that, when He, the Son of Man, returns to take His place as the true King of this world, people of all nations will be gathered around Him.  He will then separate the wise from the foolish in the same way that a shepherd might separate the sheep in his flock from the goats.¹⁶  The King will say to the wise people at His right,

Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.¹⁷

The wise will not remember seeing the King in need, so He will say to them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”¹⁸

The King will say to the foolish people at His left,

You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.¹⁹

Like the wise, the foolish will not remember seeing the King in need, so He will say to them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.”²⁰

The wise among us are not mere do-gooders.  They are people who love God with all their heart, soul, and mind and who love their neighbors as they love themselves, just as Christ has commanded us.²¹  To love God is to love God's children,²² and to serve Christ is to serve the people with whom He directly identifies, our neighbors in need.  Love is not a warm fuzzy feeling about a person.  Love is not merely wishing a person well.  Love is a personal investment in the well-being of another person.  To love our neighbors who are hungry is to give them food; to love our neighbors who are thirsty is to give them water; to love our neighbors who are lonely is to befriend them; and to love our neighbors who are sick is to help them to heal.  In the words of John Wesley, “They who do not thus labour, do not love.”²³

Jesus warns the Disciples that, in the difficult days ahead of them, “many will fall away” and that “the love of many will grow cold,” but He also assures them that, “anyone who endures to the end will be saved.”²⁴  If Christ is the bridegroom and if we are the bridesmaids, then the “lamp” we are called to keep burning is our love for God and neighbor.  Whatever lies ahead of us, our responsibility is to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.  May we wisely do what Christ has called us to do.  May we love as Christ has taught us to love.

Amen.


Notes:

1. Matthew 25:1-9
2. Matthew 25:10-12
3. William Barclay.  The Parables of Jesus.  1990, Westminster John Knox Press.  p. 133
4. Rob Bell.  Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections Between Sexuality and Spirituality.  2008, Zondervan.  pp. 169-170
5. Barclay, p. 134
6. Barclay, pp. 136-138
7. Wikipedia: “Olivet Discourse”
8. Matthew 24:1-3 (NRSV)
9. Matthew 24:4-44
10. Matthew 24:45-51
11. Matthew 25:14-30
12. N.T. Wright.  Matthew for Everyone, Part 2.  2004, Westminster John Knox Press.  p. 129
13. Proverbs 3:35 (NRSV)
14. Wright, p. 129
15. Wikipedia: “Apostle's Creed”
16. Matthew 25:31-33
17. Matthew 25:34-36 (NRSV)
18. Matthew 25:37-40 (NRSV)
19. Matthew 25:41-43 (NRSV)
20. Matthew 25:44-46 (NRSV)
21. Matthew 22:37-40
22. 1 John 5:1-2
23. From John Wesley's notes on 1 Thessalonians 1:3
24. Matthew 24:10, 12-13 (NRSV)

The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins was painted by William Blake in the early 1800s.