Jesus comes with all his grace
Comes to save a fallen race
Object of our glorious hope
Jesus comes to lift us
This wonderful hymn of Charles Wesley captures the central
message of Christian hope – Jesus comes with all his grace. It is God who acts and it is God alone who
draws into deeper that relationship of divine eternity. I often remind myself that the answer is Jesus,
the answer is always Jesus.
But then Jesus tells his disciples a story, a parable, which
leaves me bamboozled: the story told to us from Matthew’s gospel is one of
those stories. How do we hear this story
as a story that is filled with God’s grace?
Let’s listen to the story a little more closely and consider
what might be going here.
Now Jesus was teaching the disciples, he was critiquing the
Pharisees and he was speaking about the return of the Son of Man. The ideas seem to overlay one another as they
coalesce in this parable of the 10 bridesmaids.
The story tell us about 10 bridesmaids who are waiting to
meet the bridegroom. It is my understanding
that part of the Jewish tradition of the time that bridegroom would come to the
house of the bride’s family where the party would continue and the marriage
would be consummated.
The task of the bridesmaids was to welcome the bridegroom
when he arrived.
So all 10 turn up, they have lamps which we can safely
assuming are filled with oil and burning and they begin
their vigil waiting for
the bridegroom to come.
Now Middle Eastern schedules of the ancient world were not
unlike the schedules of some cultures that we can still encounter. Unga and I sometimes speak about Tongan or
Pacific time. Basically it means you
turn up when you turn up, which, of course, for some of us who are punctuality
perfectionists can be more than a little aggravating.
So the bridesmaids wait... and they wait... and they wait...
and they collectively doze off. All 10 of
to sleep!
Suddenly there is a fuss and a flutter as the figure of the
bridegroom approaches. Now is their
moment, now is their time!
But the oil has run low and an issue arises and becomes
somewhat ironically enflamed.
Five of the bridesmaids had brought extra oil whilst five
had not – they were out and they needed more.
So the five who had run out turn to their sisters, their friends, their
family and they say please share, give us oil for our lamps, keep them burning.
But the wise ones say no, there is not enough to go
around. No, we have ours and we are
going to the party.
Now I have to say at this point on so many occasions I have
heard this parable spoken about I have been told that I should be like one of
these wise ones and have extra oil for my lamps, extra faith maybe, extra
preparedness – whatever it means.
But I have to admit on reading the parable again I do not
want to be associated with the wise ones in any way shape or form.
In Matthew 5:40-41 Jesus teaches, “If anyone wants to sue
you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go
one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do
not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.”
At the heart of Jesus messages lies a generous God who
invites us to generosity even at great cost to ourselves. I can’t
but help think of Paul’s second letter to the Philippians in which we find
the great kenosis hymn. Kenosis is about
self-emptying; Jesus empties himself of all to share in our existence.
The example and behaviour of the so-called wise ones to me
is abhorrent. There is almost an air of
smug self-satisfaction as they go off to the party. We got in because we are wise. Do they not care about those left behind?
Those outside? Those who are excluded? Their sisters? Their friends?
How often has your heart broken with the notion that someone
that you love might be excluded from the loving kingdom of God because they did
not have enough faith, knowledge, commitment?
Is this the God we encounter in the scriptures? In Jesus?
At this moment the wise ones appear to me more like the Pharisees
that Jesus is often criticising.
What happens to those women left waiting outside? They act.
They did not sit idly by and give up, they race off to the market in the
middle night and somehow find someone to provide them with more oil. In the middle of the night! Their lamps were
already out so they find their way through dark streets to get what they need
and they return. What an effort!
They return to the house of the bride and they knock on the
door equipped and ready to help the party arriving in their own time but the
way is shut. The interaction sounds so
final, so condemning.
The other bridesmaids came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’
But he replied, ‘Truly
I tell you, I do not know you.’
How does this fit in any way, shape or form with what Jesus
teaches in Matthew 7?
‘Ask, and it will be given to you;
search, and you will find;
knock, and the door will be opened for you.
For everyone who asks receives,
and everyone who searches finds,
and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
The way remains shut!
Inside are a group who refused to do what Jesus taught –
share generously, even if it means your own suffering. Outside is a group who are experiencing
rejection despite their last ditched efforts to knock on the door, which Jesus
said would be opened. How do we make
sense of this situation?
Jesus sums up the parable with these perplexing words:
Keep awake therefore,
for you know neither the day nor the hour.
Were you listening carefully? This hit me like brick this week. Jesus does not mention oil nor the wisdom or
folly of those who bring extra or those who fail to.
Jesus critique is for those who fall asleep. Remember verse
5, As the bridegroom was delayed, all of
them became drowsy and slept. I can
just hear Paul saying to the Romans in his letter, “All have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God!”
Jesus dire warning to the disciples is to stay awake – to be
ready for what is hand, to be engaged with his presence, as the presence of the
kingdom of heaven.
I wonder does anyone remember what happens in Matthew 26. In the next Chapter of Matthew, Jesus shares
the last supper with his disciples and then heads out to the Garden of Gethsemane
to pray. He takes Peter and James and
John and asks them to wait for him and stay awake with him as he prays. The disciples, who had not long before heard
the story of the wise and foolish bridesmaids and the injunction to stay awake,
go to sleep.
They go to sleep as their master struggle with his fate and prepares
for the ending of his life. Three times
Jesus has to awaken the disciples, they were not ready, and the third time it
is tell them that his betrayer is at hand.
What a perplexing scene we are left with. Bridesmaids inside that seem selfish,
bridesmaids outside excluded, disciples who fall asleep.
Where is hope?
In Matthew 27 we are told about another door that is shut, a
stone rolled by Joseph of Arimathea across the tomb of Jesus. A door closed; a barrier between life and
death, between the incarnate God and the creation. This door is the most impenetrable
of doors. How can we rise above these
perplexing questions?
Matthew reports that three days later Mary Magdalene and the
other Mary go to the tomb and as they approach there was an earthquake and an
angel descending from heaven who opens the tomb. Inviting the women inside he tells them, ‘Do
not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is
not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.’
We have been wise and we have been foolish, we have been
asked to stay awake and we have slept yet the promise of God’s love remains:
Jesus comes with all his grace
Comes to save a fallen race
Object of our glorious hope
Jesus comes to lift us
It is not the extra oil, it is not running off into the
night to get the oil, it is not knocking on the door and it is not even staying
awake that makes the difference. It
Jesus himself who burst forth into new life, risen from the dead, the opens the
doors and reawakens us – God is with us, God desires the best for us, God
invites us to celebrate with the bridegroom as he shares his life with us.
Stay awake and be alert for the presence of the risen Lord
is with us. Thanks be to God.
Thank you for your post on this lesson! I found it particularly refreshing and helpful. I am faced with preaching on this lesson in the morning, so it is on my mind.
ReplyDeleteThe Rev. Dr. Jeff Sells
St. Paul's Anglican Church
San Miguel de Allende, Gto, Mx
stpauls.org.mx
Thank you, thank you, thank you. All I have read and reflected upon, until now, has remained focused upon preparedness, in some way, and it has not fit well with my understanding of the radical grace we know in Jesus.
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