1 “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4 The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5 The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.”
6 “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’”
7 “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’”
9 “‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’”
10 “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.”
11 “Later the others also came. ‘Sir! Sir!’ they said. ‘Open the door for us!’”
12 “But he replied, ‘I tell you the truth, I don't know you.’”
13 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”
In our verses for today, the Lord Jesus continues His discourse on His second coming and the end of the world as we presently know it – this was His farewell sermon of caution, red flagging us to watch and be ready. He urges us on to the utmost care and diligence in awaiting His return. Today is the first of three parables the Lord gives relating to our constant care to be prepared for His arrival. Luke also records the Master’s warning of readiness as well as stating our sure reward for obedience to His command:
35 “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 36 like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. 37 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. 38 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night. 39 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” Luke 12:35-40 (NIV)
We discover in our parable today of the ten virgins that they all were awaiting the arrival of the Bridegroom yet not all possessed the same character. Jesus tells us five were wise and five were foolish. There are some who profess faith and even worship beside us in our churches yet their characters are vastly different in God’s sight. One is either wise or foolish in the affairs of their soul. True faith is wisdom yet sin is folly or quite frankly, insanity as all sin carries with it a death sentence. To consistently choose to sin is to choose a death to something and is foolish indeed. Jesus gives us no middle ground – no walking the proverbial fence - we are each called to make clear decisions. Remember Jesus’ Words:
30 “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.” Matt 12:30 (NIV)
“There are thousands of people who have had some form of emotional experience that they refer to as conversion but who have never been truly converted to Christ. Christ demands a change in the way you live – and if your life does not conform to your experience, then you have every reason to doubt your experience!” Billy Graham
Next, Jesus tells us the foolish virgins took only enough oil to make their lamps burn for the present. Many make a firecracker show of their professions – emotionally charged - only to quickly dismally fizzle. They perhaps intended to walk in a manner worthy of the Gospel and to meet the Bridegroom with a “Well done, good and faithful servant!” ringing in their ears yet there remains no change in their life. They walk the same way, they talk the same way and they behave the same way before their professions. If it looks like a dog and it sounds like a dog, it probably is a dog no matter what profession it barks out. Jesus calls these hypocrites – those who wear a mask – verbally claiming faith yet their hearts remain as dark as river mud. Carrying the lamps of profession in their hands for a present show yet having no Holy Spirit within – neither able to live what they profess nor able to make provision for what is to come.
Our Lord then speaks of the wisdom of the wise virgins who brought oil along with their lamps. They carried good principal within - being filled with the Holy Spirit – enabling them to continue on in their profession and be ready for His return. This should cause us to examine our own lives as well. Are we prepared for His sure coming ��� will we be found wise in the Spirit’s power or foolish in our own “power” of vain confidence and conceit regarding our goodness? The lamps of the hypocrites of this life will go out and the door will be shut. Hopes will fail and comfort will be gone. There will be no getting something from someone else. We all stand before the Judge alone. Many seek admission to heaven when their time of opportunity has passed as Esau who afterward desired to inherit the blessing yet was rejected though he sought the blessing with tears. The time for preparation for all is the present.
“Don’t slack off seeking, striving, and praying for the very same things that we exhort unconverted people to strive for, and a degree of which you have had in conversion. Thus pray that your eyes may be opened, that you may receive sight, that you may know your self and be brought to God’s feet, and that you may see the glory of God and Christ, may be raised from the dead, and have the love of Christ shed abroad in your heart. Those that have most of these things still need to pray for them; for there is so much blindness and hardness and pride and death remaining that they still need to have that work of God upon them, further to enlighten and enliven them. This will be a further bringing out of darkness into God’s marvelous light, and a kind of new conversion”. Jonathan Edwards