Are you ready? Ready or not, here I come! What does it take to get ready? To get ready for a grand party or celebration? Today is the third last Sunday in this present church year. Today we, again, emphasis our need to watch and pray, to be ready for Jesus’ second coming. Since the beginning of this present church year we have watched and waited for fifty Sundays. Since Jesus time on earth we have waited almost 2000 years. Since the Lord’s promise to send a Savior until His second coming we have waited some 6000 years. How much longer will we wait? We do not know, all we know is that we are to wait, to watch and to be ready. And just like we would not wait until the last minute to get ready for a great and grand party or celebration so we would not wait until the last minute to get ourselves ready for the Lord’s return.
In our text for this morning Jesus likens His second coming to a Wedding Feast. The events of a wedding feast in Jesus’ day happened in this way. First, there was the announcement of the betrothal. The proud parents announced that their children will be getting married. After this announcement there was the waiting period. The waiting period was that time that it took for the groom to build a house, a place of residence for he and his new bride. While he is getting their house ready the bride waited. She did not know the day or the hour that the groom would complete his work and so she was to be ready at any moment and at every moment. When the groom had completed their house he came to carry away his bride and then the wedding feast began. The wedding feast would last for at least a week. It would be a grand event in which the bride and the groom would be the central focus, celebrating their new lives together.
In a very real way we are the bride of Christ. God has announced our betrothal through his word at the death and resurrection of his son Jesus Christ. Jesus is the groom who is at this very time getting heaven ready for us so that He might return to take us to be with Himself in heaven. When He has heaven ready He will come to get us and take us to heaven to begin the great and grand eternity of celebration in heaven. Until then, we are to wait, expecting His return at any time.
To help us to better understand our place in this celebration, Jesus tells this parable of the virgins. Jesus says that there are ten virgins. The number ten is important, because the number ten indicates completeness, in other words, Jesus is telling us that the events of the last day will involve a complete number of people or all people. All people of all places of all times will be involved in the events of the last day.
Of the complete number of people, of all people, some of them, five are wise and some of them, five are foolish. The five that are considered wise are those who have an urgency about being ready and watchful for the grooms coming. They are seen as being vigilant. They are not expecting that the groom will take a long time in coming. They are not engrossed in other things, other things than being ready for when the groom comes. They are not thinking that the groom will not come until after their time on earth, rather they are thinking that he might come tomorrow or even yet today. They are simply hoping that they will be ready when the groom arrives.
How often do we see these people in our world today? They are not overly in grossed with the things of this world. They are not distracted by focusing their attention only on the things of this world as if this is all there is. Instead they are around anytime there is an opportunity for worship and for study of God’s Word. They volunteer to help and be of service in anyway that they can. They give of themselves first to the Lord and they have learned the joy of first fruits giving and tithing. They share their faith not only by speaking to others, but by the very way they live. They are not depending on themselves, but on Jesus’ mercy alone for their salvation.
There are five wise virgins and there are five foolish virgins. There are some people who are wise as we have said and some who are foolish. The foolish virgins are distracted by other things. They take their participation in the wedding for granted. They are unconcerned about being ready instead it is almost as if they do not believe the bridegroom is coming anytime soon. They simply show up, but they show up unprepared.
How often do we see these people in our world today? These people are those who are lukewarm in their faith. They make light of getting ready and being ready for when the groom arrives. They act as if it does not matter if they really are ready or not. They believe that it does not matter in whom or in what you believe, but that by simply believing in something or having a sincere faith in something that everyone will be saved. In reality they are not relying on God and His grace and mercy, rather they are relying on themselves and their own good nature. We see those who so engrossed in this world, working to “get ahead,” working to get to the top, working to amass the things of this world while being oblivious to the things of the world to come. There are even some who make a half-hearted attempt at thinking about the things to come, the coming of the Messiah, but the things of their spiritual life really do take a back seat to the things of this world. Church is important, but not to the extent that it gets in the way of the things of this world. These are the people who do not want to be bothered with volunteering to serve on any board or committee. They are offended when asked to make a commitment or when asked to tithe or give of their first fruits. They have the things of this world to concern themselves and do not have time for anything else.
And this is one of the devil’s greatest victories today. The devil is smart. He does not tempt you in ways he knows you will not fall. He does not tempt you to not go to church, because he knows that will not work. Instead, he has you believe that church and your faith life are important, after all you said that your faith was your number one priority, but then he fills your life and each day with so many things that you no longer have time for the things of God. You have your own meetings, clubs, and social organizations to attend. You have family reunions and business meetings that take you out of town. You have to run your children to their ball games, practices, recitals, rehearsals and the like. You even have ball games, camp outs, special events and the like on Sunday morning and, with the excuse that it is only one Sunday you will miss, you miss one Sunday, then another, and so on until you are out of the habit of attending divine service. Slowly, the devil pulls you away from Christ and the church. I have read that while it generally takes three weeks to form a good habit, that good habit can be broken in three days.
Getting back to the parable, as the parable continues, we are told that the Bridegroom is “slow” in coming. In his second letter, Peter reminds us that our Lord is not slow in the way we think of slowness, rather He is patient, not wanting anyone to be lost. He is slow because He wants to give enough time for all people, or as many people as possible to come to faith. Remember, God’s will is that all people are saved. Yet, God has given all people what we believe to be “free will,” except we know that our “free will” has been tainted by sin and the curse, thus there are some who continue to refuse God, who reject Jesus, who give up heaven. These are truly the foolish.
Finally, after waiting long enough, the Bridegroom comes. When the bridegroom comes that signals that the time of grace is at an end. When the bridegroom comes there are no more “chances” for those who have rejected and refused the Savior. When the bridegroom comes it is the wise who will be ready and the foolish who will not be ready.
In this parable we are told that the foolish have gone off to buy oil. The foolish are those who are thinking that this end time stuff is no big deal. They have not been concerned about being ready, instead they have concerned themselves only with the things of this world, thinking that the end will not come during their time. So, while the foolish are out, getting themselves ready, the bridegroom arrives. The time has come, the Savior returns. Those who are ready are the wise and they go in with the groom into the wedding banquet.
When the Foolish return they find that they are left out of the banquet. Certainly there must be a mistake, they are thinking. And so, they knock at the door, hoping to get in. But the answer at the door is “ Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.” Their faith never was in the Savior. Their names are not written in the book of life. Their faith was not in the Savior, but was in themselves. And so they are left out. The warning that we have is to, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”
This morning, as we approach the end of this current church year, we ask the question, “Are we ready?” Do we really believe that Jesus is coming again, and that He may be coming even in our lifetime? Or are we just biding our time on this earth? Are we concerned about where we will spend eternity? Do we believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven, as He tells us in His Word, or have we succumb to the thoughts of this world thinking that it does not matter what you believe as long as you believe sincerely enough? And so there is no concern or urgency for living the message and getting the message out. I guess the question we will want to ask ourselves this morning is, are we foolish or are we wise? Of course we are here and we will want to answer that we are of the wise and that is a good thing. I would encourage you to continue to look at God Word’s in answer to the question, are we ready or not?
We are foolish if we are thinking that there may be some other way to eternal life than through Jesus alone. We are wise if we understand the need to daily be in God’s Word in order to strengthen our faith until Christ comes again. We are foolish if we think that Jesus may not come during our life time. We are wise if we remain watchful, hoping and praying for Jesus to come again, soon. We are foolish if we do not continually take stock in our spiritual lives. We are wise when we see the need to daily grow in our faith and spiritual life. We are foolish if we rely on ourselves and think there is some way we can earn access to eternal life. We are wise when we depend, not on ourselves, but on Jesus alone for salvation. We are wise and we are ready when we put our complete trust in God’s grace, resting on faith in Jesus and His forgiveness.
If Jesus came today, would you be ready? If your answer is no, then now is the time to get ready and you do that through making regular and diligent use of the means of grace. And actually, it is God who gets us ready. He gets us ready as we remember our Baptism, as we confess our sins and hear His awesome words of forgiveness, that He tells us, “Your sins are forgiven.” He gets us ready as we read His Word, as we hear His Word, as we study His Word. And He gets us ready as we come to His Holy Table and dine on His body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. If you have ever wondered why I stress the importance of these means of grace it is because these are the very means that God has and uses to come to us to give to us all the gifts and blessings He has to give, faith, forgiveness, strengthening of faith, life and salvation. When we absent ourselves from these means we absent ourselves from the very means God has of giving us His good gifts and blessings. And like a pool of water with no rain and no way to be filled will eventually dry up, so too our faith, if not filled and refilled will eventually dry up and die.
Finally, if your answer to the question of are you ready is yes, praise the Lord and continue to keep yourself ready and encourage others to get ready, again, by making regular and diligent use of the means of grace. My prayer for each one of you is that the Lord will continue to work through His Word and Sacraments, as you make regular and diligent use of His means of grace, to get you ready and to keep you ready until He does come again so that when He comes again you may rejoice and say, to Him be the glory. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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