It's always been hard for me to hear good news in Jesus' parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25:1-13. I've been thinking about it a lot lately, feeling that it's especially important for us now. I share the following reflections-- inviting you to share yours.
Jesus’ parable of the ten virgins who went out to meet the bridegroom invites rapprochement with the church as bride waiting the imminent return of Jesus as bridegroom (2 Cor 11:2; Eph 5:25-32; Jn 3:29; Rev 19:7; 21:2, 9, 17.) The number of virgins and their differentiation between “wise” and “foolish” has always unsettled me, suggesting that individual attitudes and practices matter, and that groups will be distinguished from the whole. Jesus means to put people into a crisis, inspiring them (and us) to be ready for his return, the subject of the preceding chapter (Matt 24:42-51). Jesus means to provoke us to ask: “Am I one of the wise, or am I among the foolish, and what’s the difference?” The reader wants more information about what distinguishes the ready from those who risk missing out, and what that might mean for us now?
Both the five wise and five foolish are labeled virgins, an idealized state likely identifying them as religious insiders. And yet all ten virgins fall sleep while waiting for the delaying bridegroom. All wake up at the midnight shout: ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him’ (same term as in 1 Thes 4:17). Each of them takes their lamp and goes out to meet the bridegroom.
Whether they have oil to keep their lamps from going out so they can be fully present at the bridegroom’s advent is what distinguishes the wise virgins from the foolish. The wise virgins have enough for themselves, but not enough to share. They tell the foolish virgins to go and buy oil for themselves from the dealers. While they are off buying oil the bridegroom arrives, enters the wedding feast with the five wise virgins and the doors are shut.
Later the other virgins also came, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he answered, ‘Truly I say to you, I do not know you.’
The lack of oil leading to the five virgins exclusion could not represent people’s not calling on the name of the Lord nor lacking in good works. The virgins use perfect prayer protocol, saying “Lord, Lord, open to us’—evoking earlier in Matthew 7:21:
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons, and in your name perform many miracles.’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.’
Doing the will of God involves intimate communion with Jesus, as described as the following text from Matthew 7:24ff that informs our passage (also see Luke 13:25-27). Jesus identifies “everyone who hears these words of mine, and acts upon them” as a wise person who builds their house on the rock, and those who do not hear his words and act as foolish. Hearing Jesus’ words and acting on them is somehow related to having oil in your lamp—which is linked to hosting God’s presence through being filled with the Holy Spirit.
In the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint) the term here for lamp (lampas) is related directly to the presence of God (Gen 15:17; Ex 20:18; Ezek 1:13; Dan 10:6), as is oil (elaion), which was used to keep the lamps (different word laxnos) lit continually in the tabernacle and temple, signifying God’s Presence (Ex 27:20; Lev 24:2; Num 4:9, 16). This term is used extensively in the Septuagint for offerings and anointing people—another sign of God’s presence that consecrates and empowers (Ex 29:2, 7, 21; 30:24; Lev 8:10-12).
In Luke/Acts the visible sign of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was a tongue of fire on each person gathered (Acts 2:3). Paul describes the Holy Spirit as enabling believers to have intimate communion with God as Father (Rom 8:14-17, 26-27), and John describes the Spirit as God’s active presence inside believers (Jn 14:17), remind believers of Jesus’ teachings (Jn 14:26; 15:26-27) and guide them into all truth (Jn 16:13-15). Matthew’s Jewish readership certainly would have made these connections, recognizing in Jesus’ parable a call for each individual to be filled with Holy Spirit, a comforting sign of intimate communion with Jesus that is needed for endurance and to recognize and be recognized when he returns, and Jesus warns of how easy it is to not endure:
Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of my name. At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another…. Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved (Mat 24:9-10, 12-13)."B
Knowing and being known by Jesus through being inhabited by the Spirit are more attractive and possible for the poor and excluded than compliance with religious practices or activism. Being filled with the Spirit is critical to keeping faith for anyone going through hardship, whether they’re jail inmates, the homeless or people struggling with illness or family conflict—and Jesus himself is the one who gives the Spirit.
Following the wise virgins’ advice to go buy oil from the dealers rather than putting all their attention on the bridegroom kept the foolish virgins from being present to enter the feast. For the inmates I work with the dealers offering distracting comfort are often literal drug dealers or sexual partners, but they can just as easily be spiritual books, anointed conference speakers, theological discussions or Christian community. Wisdom says we must keep our eyes fixed on the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit and fire (Mat 3:11)-- the coming bridegroom Jesus himself.
The heart of Jesus’ parable is a call to be oriented fully towards Jesus himself, who is wisdom, imparts the Spirit and is coming to save us. “Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour” (Mat 25:13).
Thank you, Bob, for pointing to and illuminating these scriptures. It IS Wisdom to take this to heart.
Posted by: jan | September 22, 2010 at 01:34 AM