Living Prepared: A Meditation on Matthew 25

Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, 

which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.

And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.

They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:

But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.

While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.

And at midnight there was a cry made, 

Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.

Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.

And the foolish said unto the wise, 

Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.

But the wise answered, saying, 

Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: 

but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.

And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; 

and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: 

and the door was shut.

Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.

But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.

Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour 

wherein the Son of man cometh.

Jesus’ parable of the wise and foolish virgins sits in the midst of several parables He uses to teach people about the Kingdom of God, and specifically about His second coming at the end of the age.  There is a Bridegroom, Jesus, who has promised to come at the end of the world, to judge justly the living and the dead of all times and all places, and gather into His eternal banquet hall all those who abide in Him and His Word by His grace through faith.  Those who abide in Him by grace through faith, whether they are alive at His coming or have already passed into His heavenly kingdom through earthly death, meet Him as their Savior.  Those who refuse to abide in Him and His Word, who have despised, ignored, repudiated, or rejected Him for some other worldly fixation, will meet Him on that last day as their inescapable Judge.  These are the only two eternal fates which Jesus describes in all His recorded teachings, and to which all the Old Testament Prophets and the New Testament Apostles bore witness.  Whether we meet the Lord on the last day of the world, or the last day of our earthly lives, we can only meet Him as either our Savior or our Judge— either according to His Gospel, or according to His Law.

The point of the parable of the 10 virgins is that no one knows the day or the hour of the Lord’s return, and that the wise will live prepared for His coming, while the foolish will cavalierly ignore it.  The same kind of analogy applies not only for the end of the whole world, but for the end of every individual’s world when death finally comes to meet them.  Like the end of the world, no one really knows when their earthly life will end, and they will be summoned before the God of all creation to give an account of the life they were given.  People can either live their lives prepared to meet their Maker and the eternal destiny which that meeting will prescribe, or they can live as if they are ignorant or disinterested in it.  Across Jesus’ parables about His Second Coming, He is clear that being prepared to meet Him is to abide in Him and His Word through living faith and repentance, reflecting divine love toward their God and their neighbors.  To be unprepared is to discard the Word of God, ignore His Law and His Gospel, living rather in their pride, lust, violence, and selfishness.  Jesus tells us that to live prepared to meet Him by faith and repentance is wise, because the grace He has won for us by His life, death, and resurrection has secured for us a blessed place in His Kingdom, and that He pours out this grace of forgiveness, life, and salvation freely through His Word and Sacraments, daily administered in His Holy Church throughout the world.  He also tells us that to be unprepared to meet Him is foolish, since apart from His grace won for the world at Calvary and lived out in the fellowship of the faithful, every soul stands accountable before God according to the perfection of His eternal Law— a Law which reveals every person to be corrupt in their nature and in their lives, justly condemned to the fires of hell, forever tormented and imprisoned together with the devil and all the evil angels.  The Gospel of Jesus will save every soul which clings to Him by living faith, and the Law of Jesus will condemn every soul which refuses His grace through willful unbelief.

And so the Word of Jesus comes to us again this day, calling all people to be wise rather than foolish, for our Creator has sought every soul in His loving compassion, that none would be lost.  He who creates and sustains every soul which shall ever be born into this world, sent His only begotten Son to suffer and die for the whole world, that He might meet every person as their Savior rather than their Judge.  Hear Him call to you today, that you might leave behind the ways which lead to death and eternal destruction.  Hear His Word of grace and abide in Him by the faith He so freely gives to you by His Holy Spirit, that you may meet Him forgiven and free, no longer standing under the Law by the merits of your own selfish works, but in the righteousness imputed to you from Jesus.  Hear His Word call you out of the ways of death, offering freely to you the grace which prepares you to meet Him in mercy and hope, for the sake of His own sacrifice in your place upon the Cross.  The hour is late, and His coming is already foretold as an hour no one knows, whether it is the end of your earthly life or the end of this whole world.  May the Word of the Lord make you wise by His Spirit, that faith and repentance may keep you in the grace of His Gospel forevermore, and that you may meet your Maker on that last day as your loving Savior rather than your inescapable Judge.  Amen.