Shining In The Dark
Friends, grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
It's time to be a little honest with with each other this morning. Alright, so I want you to think honestly about the question I'm about to ask you. And be prepared to to fess up a little bit. Are you scared of the dark?
Nobody's scared of the dark. Alright, I will be honest, alright? I can get scared of the dark. And I remember when I was a kid, for me, it was the basement. Our basement in our house was just pitch black. I remember if I was asked to go downstairs and do something, that was a terrifying experience. As I descended the steps into the abiss, I'd be thinking "oh no, anything could jump out at me." And my thought when I'm a little kid is that in the dark, what lurks there? Monsters. I'll be honest with you: as an adult, I still get a little scared of the dark, because I'm pretty sure that monsters are not real, but what am I scared about now as an adult?
I'm going to stub my toe. I'm going to stub my toe. I'm going to stub my toe. Anything could jump out at you, right? Are you scared of the dark? This parable is a little bit like walking through the dark, a little bit like going into your dark basement, because this parable is a little scary. It's it's full of darkness. But the twist is that the thing jumping out at you is not a monster, it's not a wall where you're going to stub your toe or a chair. It's Jesus. Jesus is what jumps out at you in the dark in this parable. Let's get some of the baics of this parable down. There are five wise women who are ready with their oil for their lamps, and they're ready, and they're waiting for the bridegroom to come at any time. And then there's five foolish women who had no oil for their lamps, and they're not ready for the bridegroom to come at all. And the bridegroom, he seems delayed, but when he returns, he's going to do it at any time. The bridegroom will come suddenly with little warning. Friends, the bridegroom is Jesus. And as the 10 women wait for the bridegroom to come back, we wait for Jesus to come back. And until he comes back, it feels dark, and it's a little scary, because we don't know when He's going to show up. And when Jesus shows up, some will be ready, and some will not. And when Jesus shows up, make no mistake. He's no longer going after that one lost sheep. When Jesus shows up, it's no more fun and games. When Jesus shows up, it's no more "knocking on the door and the door will be open to you." They tried that, and it didn't open the door. When Jesus shows up, He's no longer the God of second chances.
When Jesus shows up, that's it. Game's over.
When Jesus shows up, it's going to be a little scary if you're not ready. That's what this parable is getting at. So mabe it would behoove us to ask the question: what shines in the dark so that Jesus's return won't be so scary? Maybe the other way of asking that might be: how should I be ready? How should I prepare and be ready for the return of Christ? If you're going down those steps to that dark basement, and you don't have any light, maybe you could think about it this way: what shines in the darkness? I could tell that little kid version of myself what shines in the darkness is the truth. Do monsters exist? We're pretty sure they don't. No, they don't exist, right? That truth, that wisdom shines your way. What else shines your way is that you're focused. Maybe you know where the light switch is, and you're not going to get distracted. You're not going to try to do things that you didn't go downstairs to do. You focus on where that goal is, the lightswitch is. And also, what I tell myself and what I remembered as a kid was that even if monsters do exist, Jesus has your back.
That's what shines your way. For the wise Christian who prepares and who gets ready for the coming of Jesus, the Christian realizes that Jesus is the one who shines in the dark. He is the one that makes us ready. So, let's talk about what it means to be ready, and what it means to be foolish. See, the fool follows lies. To be foolish means to go after lies.
The wise believe in Jesus's Lordship and His coming. See, the wise women in this parable knew that the bridegroom was coming. They didn't know when, and so they prepared. Because they didn't know exactly when the bridegroom would come, they prepared to meet him at any time. And that's why they didn't share their oil. They knew if they shared their oil, they wouldn't have enough for when the bridegroom came back and they had a big wedding procession that they needed their lamps for.
They were focused on who the bridegroom was. They were the ones who prepared for his coming. The foolish women did not believe in the return of the bridegroom, because they didn't bring any oil with them. In fact, they believed that the oil was for them. Who were they worried about when they ran out of oil? The bridegroom and his wedding? No, themselves. They believed the lie that it was all about them. See friends, the foolish people did not believe in his return. They believed it was all about them. And that's what wisdom is. Wisdom believes what Jesus teaches about Himself and what Jesus teaches about you. Being foolish is not believing what He teaches.
As Lutherans, we have these two words that sum up what Jesus teaches about Himself and what He teaches about you. The first word is this big Lutheran word: "justification." Go ahead and say it: justification. That's all about Jesus, because justification is how you are saved. And justification is when Jesus calls you His. He calls you a saint, He calls you forgiven. Justification is all in Jesus's camp. He does all of it, you do zero. He does everything to save you. Being wise means believing what He says about Himself that He does it all. You contribute nothing to your justification. If somebody asks, how are you saved? You say, "Well, Jesus..." You don't say "well, I," because it's all Him. But we have the second word, in which we believe what Jesus teaches about us. We believe that second word called Sanctification. That's when we believe Jesus about who He makes us to be. Sanctification is living as if Jesus is our Lord and He's the Lord of all, and living as if He's going to come back. We say wow, Jesus has made me a saint. He's forgiven me. He's called me His. Alright, so if I'm a Child of God, how does that mean I should live, then? Friends, that that's you. That's the Holy Spirit working through you. That's you working with the Spirit to live a different way. Maybe a good way of thinking about this might be if you're home and your parents are out of the house, but you know they're coming back, you're going to live in a different way, right? You're going to say: maybe I won't make that mess, or maybe I won't invite those people over, right? Well, maybe I won't get that stuff out. Maybe I won't eat all the ice cream. If you're a kid at home, and your parents are coming back, you live a different way. Same thing for Christians. If we know our Lord is coming back, we live a different way. And when we are wise, and we live by the teachings that Jesus gives to us, and we believe the truth about the Lord who reigns over all things and the Lord who will be coming back, we'll be like the wise women in the parable. The truth of Jesus and his Word shines in the darkness.
Friends, fools are distracted. The wise follow Jesus's will for us.
See the wise women focused on why they were there. When the bridegroom was delayed, they were not distracted. They focused on why they were there in the first place. What's the reason you go to a wedding? Is it all about you? No. It's about the bride and the groom. The women were wise because they kept their focus. They weren't distracted. The reason they were there was to celebrate the bridegroom at his wedding. It was not about them. It was about him. The foolish women were distracted with fetching oil for themselves. The choice that they could have made was to say we ran out of oil but you know what? It's all about the bridegroom. So forget the oil. We're not going to look good. We're going to stay for the wedding. It's going to be all about Jesus. It's going to be all about the bridegroom. The foolish women were distracted. In fact, you can even say that they were doomed from the start. These foolish woman didn't even bring oil for the wedding. It was never about the bridegroom for them. It was all about them. Friends, fools live according to worldly philosophies and distractions.
Fools are the ones who are distracted by the things going on in the world. Fools are the ones who are driven by distractions. What drives fools? Fun, money, success. Maybe this week, politics.
If all you do is you're motivated by the distractions that the world offers to you, that's foolish. How to be ready: the wise person focuses on the truth of Jesus and how that changes how you live. Just like the wise women in the parable, they were focused on why they were there and they didn't let the distractions of the world or the things that they could get into change their focus. We as Christians focus on Jesus and the way of life that He gives to us. Maybe a way of asking this... you know as Lutherans, we don't necessarily like the question: "Do you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior?" because that makes it sound like justification is our work and not Jesus's work, but maybe we could ask this question instead: Do you accept Jesus as your Lord and Philosopher? The one who shapes your life, who changes your thinking? Maybe the question to ask might be this: Who does Jesus want me to be?
Our world constantly asks "who do you want to be?" We as Christians ask "who does Jesus want me to be?" Do you accept Jesus as your Lord and Philosopher? Jesus's way of living shines in the darkness of waiting.
Friends, fools sin. Alright, this might be where we actually have to fess up. Who in here is a fool? Yeah. Yeah, we all sin, right? Fools sin. But the wise, even though they're sinners, the wise trust Jesus. They confess their sin and they receive forgiveness.
That's what the wise person does to get ready. See, the foolish women in the parable tried to fix their own problem. They tried to get more oil for themselves. They were focused on themselves. They were not waiting for or even trusting the bridegroom. Look what the wise women did: the wise women knew that they only had so much oil and if the groom took too long, guess what would all go away? The oil. But they stuck around anyway, because they trusted the bridegroom. They trusted that he would have mercy on them, that they would still get into the wedding and so they waited. They didn't go off buying more oil, saying he might take a long time. They stuck around. We as Christians do the same. We don't try to fix our own sin problems as if we've got to get right before God before He comes back. We say, you know, what? We're going to trust Jesus to forgive us, to fix our sin problem. That's where first Thessalonians 4:13 comes in, right?
It says for since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep. Friends, we can die as sinners, and we can rest easy. We can rest in peace, right? Because as sinners, you'd expect to die, and you'd expect never to wake up again, right? Why would God wake you up if you've been a sinner? But that's why we call death - as Christians - that's why we compare it to sleep. Because we know what even though we die as sinners. we've got a God who died and rose again for us. He's going to wake us up.
He is the one who pays for the guilt of our sins. He's the one that overcomes our sin problem. Being foolish means trying to fix your sin problem on your own. Being ready means repenting of sin because Jesus forgives sin.
See, we make ourselves ready by making repentance a pattern of life. We repent of sin because we expect forgiveness for sin. That's why we as Christians daily remember our baptism and we receive forgiveness. That's what the church is all about. That's why we do church, because it's at church that we get the forgiveness of Jesus for our sins. That's what it's all about. Friends, the forgiveness of the bridegroom shines in the darkness of waiting. Friends, Jesus is coming. We don't know when. It could be at any time. And that means you need to be ready. Friends, Jesus does not want to be your last lifeline. He doesn't want to be your last ditch effort. Jesus does not want to be someone you plan on getting to know sometime later. That's not being ready, friend. But remember, Jesus is the bridegroom. And that's good news.
Check out what the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 5: 25-27. He compares Jesus to the groom of the church. We are the bride. Here's what it says: Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her that He might sanctify her. It sounds like he's getting her ready, doesn't it? Having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word - baptism, friends - so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor. He gets her ready without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. Who does it sound like makes you ready? Jesus. The bridegroom.
You are ready by trusting Him. His is who makes you ready. Jesus shines in the darkness of waiting. It's meeting the bridegroom before he even comes back. That's what makes you ready. Friends, believe that He is your Lord. Live like He's coming back, and trust Him to forgive you and to wake you up from the dead. He's coming. He's on His way. Be ready, dear Christian.
In Jesus's name, amen.