Sermon Audio

It’s the end of the church year. Following the observance of the Festivals of the Reformation and All Saints, the church finds itself in the last two or three Sundays of the year, before the first Sunday in Advent. Appropriately, our attention turns to the end of all things, the return of Jesus Christ to judge the quick and the dead, and the resurrection of all flesh.

This year, we have three weeks to focus on the end of time. For the past two weeks, in the Gospel lessons, Jesus told us what to look for, as He references the abomination of desolation from Daniel (cf. Matthew 24:15-28), and what to expect, as the sheep and goats are separated on the last day—the sheep to everlasting life and the goats to everlasting torment. (cf. Matthew 25:31-46) Today, however, the word Jesus gives us is watch or wait. These things are going to happen, Jesus says, but for you who hear this, watch. “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.”

There is a wait before Jesus returns. No man knows when Jesus is going to return, and anyone who tells you that he has figured it out is lying to you. Not even any angel knows when Jesus is going to return. And here’s the real kicker: not even Jesus Himself knows when He will return. As He said once before: “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Mark 13:32) But, what He and the angels know, and what He promises us is that He will return. “Therefore, watch...”

Watch bears with it a measure of preparedness. You watch for something you expect. And, if you expect something, you prepare for it. A mother and father who know that they are expecting watch for the signs of the birth of their child. They prepare themselves for the birth, taking classes or reading books so that they know what to expect and what to do when the time comes for the child to be born. They prepare their home for the arrival of the newest member of their family—clothes, furniture, diapers, wipes...everything in order and waiting for the child to come. And they watch for labor to begin and, perhaps, the “water to break.”

This is what Jesus tells His listeners as He compares the kingdom of heaven to ten virgins who went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were wise and prepared themselves for an arrival at a time they did not know. The other five were foolish and simply waited unprepared. They all know the bridegroom was coming, but they didn’t know when. The five wise virgins were prepared for an arrival at anytime by having oil for their lamps, should the bridegroom arrive at an unexpected hour. The other five did not. Finally, after nightfall, the bridegroom arrives, so the five wise virgins trim their lamps and go out to meet him. The foolish virgins had no oil for their lamps (that they had lamps at all is a wonder), and they begged to have some oil from the wise virgins. Hoping not to run out, they denied the request but sent them to buy some for themselves (that shops would be open at such an hour is also a wonder). While they are out, the bridegroom arrives, they enter into the wedding hall, and the doors are shut. Since the foolish virgins were not prepared, when they arrived they pleaded to be let in, but the bridegroom responds, “Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.”

“Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.”

Now, call this a parable if you like; it certainly bears a resemblance to a parable. Like a parable, Jesus uses it to make an analogy: “The kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.” Like a parable, not every detail of the analogy is important; as I alluded to earlier, why would the foolish virgins bring lamps and no oil and why would a shop selling lamp oil be open as such a late hour? Not important! What is important is the wait and being prepared for the wait. Jesus is comparing the wait for His return to a custom familiar to His day: the wait for the wedding reception. Today, we can understand that to a point, too, as the guests assemble at the reception location waiting for the wedding party to arrive. In Jesus’ day, the crowds awaited the arrival of the bridegroom, and when he arrived, the crowds went into the banquet and the doors were locked so that no uninvited and unknown guests could crash the party.

It should not be shocking that Jesus uses a wedding banquet to compare to the coming of the kingdom of heaven. Jesus is the Bridegroom, even as the Scriptures describe Him (cf. Ephesians 5:25-32, et al), and He is coming at a time that we do not know, like a “thief in the night.” (cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:2, 2 Peter 3:10) We even speak of the kingdom of heaven as being the wedding feast of the Son of God to His Bride, the Church. So, the analogy in today’s text is not too far from the truth. Therefore, as we wait for the Bridegroom to appear, our wait is likened to the wait of the virgins.

But there is where the similarity of reality and the analogy ends. Beyond the waiting, you cannot be compared to the virgins in the analogy. There is no significance in the number of virgins or that half were prepared and half were not. What Jesus is pointing us to the the waiting and the watching. You are the Church, the Bride, and as members of the Bride, you wait and watch for the coming of the Bridegroom to claim His Bride to Himself. “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.”

It is very easy to become dismayed at the waiting. Why does the Father tarry in sending the Son? What does it mean that He is delayed? As you have often heard me say, the Church’s life-long prayer has always been (and will continue to be), “Come quickly, Lord Jesus.” Yet, throughout history, the Church has always expected the coming of the Bridegroom. The Apostles, as they wrote the New Testament letters, expected to see Jesus return in their lifetime. And what if He had? Well, we would never have been around. We would have no existence. We would have no part in everlasting life. This is one of many beautiful paradoxes of Christianity: We continually pray, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus,” and rejoice that the Father is patient in send His Son, delaying the end for the benefit of others who would find a place in God’s kingdom of grace, those alive now yet outside of the kingdom as well as those yet to be born. “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.”

The waiting is very difficult. The longer our days go, the longer it seems that the Father tarries. The temptation is to question whether the Father still cares to send the Son, whether the Bridegroom still cares enough to come again, or whether the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost even really exist. And the temptation has allies, as the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh seek to allure us away from the waiting and watching in order to “eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” So, the virgins fall asleep, indicative that the waiting is wearying, especially as it continues on and on and on—almost 2000 years, now, we have been waiting. So, the instruction from Jesus bears repeating, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.” “But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:8-9)

Unpreparedness, then, can be likened to unbelief. The word is repeated throughout the Scriptures: the day and hour of Jesus’ return is unknown. That He is returning is known. He has promised it, and there has never been a promise that God does not keep. He sent His Son once, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to fulfill the law and offer Himself as the once-for-all sacrifice on the cross in order that we might be call the children of God. He kept the promise, and makes another: “Jesus will return like a thief in the night.” “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.” If you are not prepared for His coming, then you do not trust that the Father will keep His promise to send His Son again.

But you are prepared. How? From outside of yourself. You are gathered here by God the Holy Ghost to confess your sins and receive absolution. You hear the Word of God, read to you and into you and taught to you. You receive the Son’s body and blood, come to you also as a sign of His promise to return! You are kept by God in the one true faith to life everlasting. You are reminded again and again of Jesus’ promise to return, even as you confess week in and week out, that you “believe in one holy Christian and Apostolic Church,” that you “acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins,” and “look for the resurrection of the dead, And the life of the world to come.”

Make no mistake, your oil, you preparedness, is provided for you. Just as the wedding guests have the wedding garment provided for them (cf. Matthew 22:1-14), so you are prepared by the work of God, the Holy Ghost, to meet your Bridegroom when He comes. Why? Because “you were washed...you were sanctified...you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God,” (1 Corinthians 6:11) your robes have been made white in the blood of the Lamb, shed for you for your forgiveness, life, and salvation. And, as you continue to receive Him as He comes to you now, so you are continually prepared to meet Him when He comes again in the clouds to judge the quick and the dead.

And once He does arrive, there will be no time to make preparations. When He is arrived to judge the quick and the dead, there will be no oil to be had, no time to trim your lamps. Therefore, if you are unprepared—if you reject His preparation of you, His forgiveness for your sins, His life for you death—then if and when you beg to be let in to the Wedding Feast that has no end, you will hear the Bridegroom say to you, “Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.”

But, so that He would know you, He tells you, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.” And He brings you here where He is present as you are gathered together. Today, we receive a foretaste of the feast to come. Today, you hear Jesus and receive Him and are prepared by Him so that when the watchman calls out, “Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!”, you are prepared to go out and meet Him, as St. Paul wrote:

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18)

Dear Baptized, Jesus is coming. Indeed, Jesus is come! He is here, now, preparing you to meet Him when He comes in the clouds. And so, you wait and watch, ready for His return, eagerly expecting it, because you are forgiven for all of your sins. “Come quickly, Lord Jesus.”