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Ready To Meet Him

11.8.26 [Matthew 25:1-13] River of Life (24th Sunday after Pentecost)

Grace and peace to you who do not know the day or the hour, but know that your Christ is coming soon. Amen. 

Something old. Something new. Something borrowed. Something blue. For more than a hundred years, brides in our country have had this checklist to prepare for their wedding day.

Weddings are momentous occasions, loaded with checklists, customs and traditions. Some we recognize, but don’t expect at every wedding—like flower girls, ring bearers, and throwing rice. Others we expect to see on the big  day, like the exchange of rings, and a reception after the service or ceremony. You can get married without these traditions, but it would be strange to not have them.

Maybe, you’ve probably seen customs change. Nowadays, you might get an emailed invitation instead of something in your real mailbox. Now, couples have first-look photos instead of avoiding seeing each other until the procession. Now, cake isn’t the only option for dessert. Now, an open bar isn’t enough, you have to have a signature drink. Now, couples ask you to contribute to their honeymoon rather than getting things for their home.    

Our weddings are loaded with customs. It was no different in Jesus day. Today, in our Gospel reading from Matthew 25, Jesus uses one wedding tradition to teach us about being ready to meet him. 

In small villages and towns, weddings were a must-be-at event. But it didn’t all happen in one time or place. Very often, the groom would pledge to marry his bride by agreeing to terms about how much he would give her family. At that point they were legally married, even if they weren’t yet united as husband and wife. 

Once he had everything ready to take his bride home as his wife, the groom would go to the bride’s family home, meet with them, give them the mohar, the bride price, and receive a detailed list of dowry assets. Finally, he would come back home with his bride for a celebration with everyone from his hometown. That was the custom. 

The groom also expected he and his bride would be greeted with a celebration. That’s where these ten virgins, eligible maidens, come into view. They were part of the welcoming party. And Matthew tells us that while they had the same role, they did not have the same approach. 

Five were wise, prepared for a long night with extra oil for their lamps. Five were foolish, convinced they’d be fine with all they had.  

You know how the night unfolded. The groom took a long time in coming home. Maybe the delay was financial. Maybe it was emotional. We’re not told. But the delay was long enough that sleep set in. All ten of the maidens fell asleep. Then, at midnight the cry rang out, Mt. 25:6 Here’s the bridegroom! Come out the meet him!. 

Five were found ready and five were left scrambling. First, the foolish ones did what every student who forgot to do their homework tries to do. They wanted to skim off their more prepared peers. But the wise young women knew there wasn’t enough to go around. The groom would rather have five glowing torches in his procession than ten smoldering sticks. Go buy some for yourselves. 

But it was too late. While they were on their way, Mt. 25:10 the bridegroom arrived, the party began, and the door was shut. And despite all their pleas, it was too little, too late. 

This story is a parable, a divine illustration, where earthly events are used to teach us eternal truths. So what is Jesus teaching us? 

In the end, there is a stark difference between wise and foolish behavior. The wise are prepared to wait. They were ready for the moment. The foolish weren’t. Maybe they didn’t want to carry the oil. Maybe they didn’t think the groom would take that long. Maybe they figured they could borrow some if they needed it. We aren’t told why, because it’s not important. And that teaches us, too. Our excuses don’t matter.  

So often, when it comes to spiritual matters, we can get lulled into a false sense of security. We procrastinate because we think we have plenty of time. We have a foolish view of our time. We think: I’ll focus on my spiritual life later. I’ve got so much to do now, & I’ll have plenty of time later. I’ll get back to reading my Bible when things slow down. I’ll get back to praying regularly when I can finally catch my breath.  

Or, sometimes, we treat others that way. We see someone young drifting from the faith, and we think: They’ll come around. Give it time. We see a loved one turn their back on the truth and we think: It’s just a phase. They’ll figure it out, eventually. We hear someone openly mock our God, and we tell ourselves, I’ll talk to them about this some other time. Right now just isn’t right. The emotions are too hot. I’m not ready.  

But that’s not our only struggle. It’s not just that we think time is on our side. Sometimes, it’s that we foolishly think we are ready to meet him right now, but we don’t have the oil we need. 

Perhaps we think that when Jesus returns, he’s going to give us a pop quiz on the Bible. We think that all that matters is that we know the right answers to all his questions. But that’s not what makes us ready to meet him. This world is filled with people who know the Bible inside and out and yet are not ready to meet him. 

Or maybe we think he’s going to look for character references. We tell ourselves that, while we may have some folks who don’t like us, we’ve got more than enough witnesses who can testify to our goodness. We have the credentials—our membership at a church, a baptismal certificate, a conversion story, or a history of generosity. 

If we expect those things to have us ready to meet him, we won’t sleep well at night. Because if it’s a pop quiz, what happens when you get one wrong? If it’s character references, what happens when someone lets you down? If it’s credentials, what happens when your church falls away from the truth, or you can’t remember how you came to faith? What happens when your mind fails you or your resume is littered with mistakes? Will you ever know, for sure, that you have enough oil? That you are really ready to meet him? 

You can be ready. In fact, God wants you to be ready, so he gives you this story and all the oil you need to be ready to meet him. 

The oil you need is not more time. The oil you need is not perfect answers. The oil you need is not great references, impeccable credentials, or even a sparkling spiritual resume. The oil you need is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Not in a flashy, speaking in tongues way, but a simple trust that God’s Word is truth, that God’s Son is your Savior, and that God keeps all of his promises. That oil is not something you memorize, work for, or even deserve. That oil is a gift from God. God gave it to you because he wants you to be ready to meet him. God gave you his Word, so that you may know that Jesus is his promised Anointed One and that by grace, through faith, you might be ready to meet him. 

Here’s how Paul puts it. 1 Tim. 2:4 God, our Savior, wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. So he sent messengers to proclaim this truth. His Holy Spirit inspired prophets and apostles to record the living words of our Triune God so that we might know him and know what he demands. His Law exposes the wickedness of our hearts. Yet he calls us to repent of our sins of thought, word, and deed. He exposes that time alone is not enough. Our intellect and effort can’t fix our broken & depraved hearts and minds. We can’t rely on our friends to put in a good word. We need someone to supply the righteousness we lack. 

That’s why Jesus came. He came to get us ready. He came to live righteously, serve selflessly, and glorify God in everything he thought, said, and did. He died so that we might be made perfect. He paid for our sins of procrastination and pride. As he gave up his life, he gave us his perfect record. His perfection has been imputed to us, which means that when God the Father looks at us, he sees everything his Son thought, said, and did, not any of our sins. Then, after doing all that for us, Jesus gave us one last gift. His resurrection. 

By rising from the dead, he anoints us with the oil of gladness. We do not need to fear death or judgement. We have been cleansed. We have been renewed. We have been made ready. And God continues to keep us renewed and ready through his Word and Sacraments. In his Word, we see that God is wise, faithful, & loving. In Baptism, we know our Triune God as family. God the Father is our Father. God the Son is our brother. God the Holy Spirit is our Comforter. In the Supper, we know the precious price he paid for our sins and taste a bit of the blessed banquet in heaven. Holy Communion is a tasting of the Wedding Feast. 

It is through Word and Sacrament that God gives you an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It is through these means of grace that God gets you ready to meet him. And you are. You are ready to meet him, no matter how long he takes. You are ready to meet him, no matter how much pain and heartache happens in the meantime. You are ready to meet him, even if you fall asleep in death. You are ready, because he makes you ready to meet him. This is why we meet here week after week. This is why we, as God’s people, spend time in his Word on a regular basis. This is where we receive a fresh supply of our oil. And, because God is good and gracious, our jars overflow. 

Something old. Something new. Something borrowed. Something blue. Brides review this checklist to see if they’re ready for the big day. But you don’t need a checklist, you’ve got Christ. You have a Savior who lived for you, who died for your sins, who rose to life to give you victory and hope, and gave you his word that he’s coming back for you. He makes you ready, with an ample supply of his grace. We don’t know the day, but we know our Redeemer. We don’t know the hour, but we know he is our Savior. There is much we do not yet know, but one thing we do. We are ready, because he has given us all we need. His return will not be a moment of panic or last minute scrambling, but the beginning of a celebration that never ends. Amen.