Matthew 25:1-13
‘Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a shout, “Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.” Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.” But the wise replied, “No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.” And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, “Lord, lord, open to us.” But he replied, “Truly I tell you, I do not know you.” Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.
Blog Discussion Question: What made the foolish foolish, and the wise wise?
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5 comments:
This seems like it should be such an obvious parable, but maybe there is more it than what I see. The foolish were foolish because they were not fully prepared for the coming of the bridegroom. However, the wise were wise because they had their lamps fully prepared for the bridegrooms coming; they planned. Such as with the wise we will not know the exact hour of our Bridegrooms coming, so we need to have enough 'oil' in our lamps to be fully prepared when He does arrive.
With all these "kingdom of heaven" parables, we get a glimpse of what Jesus is talking about...won't it be a wonderful surprise when we really find out the reality of heaven????? Of course, the sorting out of the good and the bad doesn't cheer us...but, as Pastor jerry states, "We're baptized into the waters of His love!" So stated, we have an obligation to live in that blessed love each day!
GOT OIL! Ok not so original. I notice the foolish came with NO oil and the wise HAD oil. Scripture makes no mention of the difference in oil holding capacity of the lamps. And they are lamps, not graduated cylinders. The parable makes clear that purchasing or borrowing oil is not optional...you need to have it.
Immediately after the baptismal waters were splashed on each of our children, the pastor moved to the altar and opened a flask of oil (it didn't have much in it). The pastor's finger then dipped a small amount of oil and made the sign of the cross on each of their foreheads. It was at this time, he said,"_________ Child of God, you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever." Then with that small amount of oil, he said "Let your light so shine!" You do need oil and I am thankful I GOT OIL (an abundant promise). I am not conerned about timing, His promise is FOREVER.
I confess that I am not fully aware of the place of maidens and lamps at wedding feasts...I am sure that is of import in understanding the gist of what Jesus is saying. But, with that confession behind me, the reason that I asked the question that I did is because Jesus ends the parable with the admonition to "stay awake". It seems in the parable that all the women fell asleep...it says "all".
The point that I am making is that Jesus did not say, "Make sure you have enough oil," he said, "make sure that you stay awake." I doubt that there is any correlation between staying awake and running out of oil...that is, I doubt that if they had stayed awake they would have doused their lamps and been able to save oil...did the "foolish" ones run out of oil as they slept and would have noticed it was waning if they had stayed awake?
What would have happened if they had stayed awake, noticed they were running out of oil, and as they went to get some the bride groom came? After all, Jesus says the point is that we know neither the day or the hour.
Ok....who's got any thoughts?
So if the point was for all to stay awake and women were focused on the oil I would have to stay they were worrying about things that they need not worry about. It seems if they were awake and without oil, they would still would have been in the presence of the bridegroom and alert of what to do next. Maybe sometimes in our worrying, we lose focus on the very thing we are waiting for. For those worried about getting more oil, they were the foolish, as all that was necessary was for them to wait and be alert.
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