The Kingdom of God | The Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids

So friends, our teaching scripture today comes from

Matthew chapter 25 verses 1 to 13.

Matthew 25:1–13

It says then the Kingdom of heaven will be like this. 10

young women took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 5

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 young women 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 in with him to the wedding banquet, and the

door was shut. Later the other young women 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. This is the word of the Lord.

We gave my 5 year old daughter Edith a Bible for Easter this

year. A real Bible, not a storybook

Bible or some other collections of verses or themes.

The actual Bible. She keeps referring to it as a

grown up Bible, which we subtly try to correct because of the

mistaken assumption baked into that declaration that the Bible

is somehow more for adults than it is for kids.

Because that's totally and entirely false.

Now, this particular Bible, covered in blue faux leather and

yellow shooting stars, is the New Life version, not to be

confused with the much more popular New Living Translation,

both of which are biblical paraphrases.

That means instead of something like a literal word for word

translation of ancient Greek and Hebrew texts upon which the 66

books of the Bible were recorded, the translation is in

a paraphrase. Less word for word and more idea

for idea. It would be like if I said

dinner's ready to my family rather than I have prepared food

and it is available for your consumption.

I just said the same thing twice.

But the first way, the colloquial way, is actually much

clearer, although the second way is more concrete and conceivably

could be the word for word translation of some other

languages. Expression of gather to eat in a

common space with other people for the third time today.

The NLV paraphrase utilizes 850 unique words plus proper nouns.

Most words it uses only have one meaning and distances.

Measures and money are phrased in such a way that they can be

understood whether 1 is in the metric, imperial, or some other

kind of system. Thus, what if a woman had 10

pieces of money and loses one of them?

Not a woman has 10 silver coins and loses 1.

I had never heard of the NLV before, but we came across it in

an Indianapolis half Price book over spring break last month.

It's a translation originally prepared in 1969 for Indigenous

populations in Canada for whom English was a second language.

And you can see how the translations limited number of

unique words could be of particular benefit in that

context. I will also say just as a

bracket aside, the translation as far as I can tell had nothing

to do with like the Canadian like residential school system,

although of course, missions is always complex, going all the

way back to the book of Acts. But it's this great beautiful

translation. And here's the thing, similar to

how sidewalk curb cuts were originally designed for people

who utilize wheelchairs, but they really help everybody,

including other folks with mobility related disabilities,

stroller pushers, people carrying lots of stuff, people

moving stuff, kids. The NLV was designed for people

for whom English is a second language, and it is incredible

for use with young readers and other kids.

And so we've been reading the Bible together at night.

And unlike most parents who start in a normal spot, say one

of the Gospels or Genesis or maybe even the selection of

Psalms or Proverbs, we started in Daniel.

I believe we got there that first night because there was a

page with a picture on it in the book of Daniel.

So I read that page and then I read Daniel one.

And we kept going because Thomas pointed out that there's some

really cool narratives right there at the beginning of

Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego get thrown into the

fire by the king and they walk out alive.

Daniel gets thrown into a lion's den by the king and he walks out

alive. Great stories.

And after those stories, Daniel gets a little weird.

It gets very weird. If you have never read

apocalyptic literature with A5 year old, it's really something

indeed. On our seventh night reading

Daniel Daniel Chapter 7, Daniel has a dream of four large

Daniel 7 · chapter mention

animals coming up from the sea and none of them are like normal

animals. There's a lion with wings like

an eagle, a bear like creature with ribs between its teeth, and

a leopard with four heads and bird wings, and another fierce

animal with 10 and then 11 horns.

The ancient of day, God, God's self takes God's throne.

The 4th beast is destroyed, the others lose their power and one

like the Son of man approaches and there is a declaration of a

Kingdom that will never be destroyed.

This is apocalyptic literature that speaks of the Kingdom of

God proclaimed over and over in the New Testament, proclaimed by

Jesus himself who is referred to as the Son of Man, just like in

this epic bizarre scripture. It is a whale of a bedtime story

and I was thrown for a loop hearing it for the first time

through this new to me translation.

It prompted some good questions and discussions.

Edith was taken with the horns and I had to explain the concept

of metaphor which is a tall order for a young child.

I made a peace sign with my fingers and I said what does

this mean? And she said, be quiet, which is

what it means in an elementary school.

And I was like, yes, yes, the fingers represent something

else. And here in this passage, the

crazy animals, some of what's going on, it represents

something else. She thought for a while and then

we got into a discussion about the Father in Jesus in which I

did my very best to explain the Trinity without committing any

heresies, which is a little hard to do because that is the kind

of thing Thomas would be much better at.

But he had fallen asleep. It was great and it was really

hard. Today's parable is a little bit

like that. It is great and it's hard now.

Now, parables are always a little hard, unless we flatten

them into neat boxes with one-dimensional moral lessons.

They're often a little short. They are often meanings that can

be observed from different angles and different points of

view. They are commonly simple stories

in that what's going on could conceivably be illustrated with

stick figures, no reference sheet required to keep up with a

bunch of names or complicated plot lines.

And yet, inside of straightforwarded narratives are

profound truths that tell of the character of God and God's good

Kingdom with layer after layer of meaning.

Now we can turn parables into what we want, pull it out as

some kind of truism or a basic fact around which we can design

our lives. But the stories themselves

resist compacting like an accordion.

They pull and fold. They can move in One Direction

for a moment, but that's never all that's going on.

Today's parable is one that never made any sense to me until

suddenly it did a little bit. And I'd like to invite you to

hold that tension with me present in this parable that

Jesus told. And as we do remember this, the

gospel story told over and over and over throughout Scripture

and demonstrated to this day through the Spirit of God who is

with us, is one of God, forever leaning toward humanity and

indeed all creation. It is a story of love and

redemption and flourishing over sin and separation.

It is told through the story of Israel, the person of Jesus, his

life in ministry, death and resurrection, and the crazy days

of the early church. The love of God is for everyone,

especially the suffering. God leaves the 99 sheep for the

1, shares a table with the tax collector, heals the sick,

spends time with the scandalous. These truths are told in

individual stories in the Bible, and they are baked into the

themes of the whole structure. So in light of that, what do we

do with the parable of the 10 bridesmaids, a story that begins

then the Kingdom of heaven will be like this and ends with five

bridesmaids shut out from a wedding banquet saying Lord,

Lord, open to us and the bridegroom responding, truly, I

tell you, I do not know you. This too is the word of the

Lord. This too tells of the Kingdom of

God. Spirit, help us understand.

Let's go back to the beginning of the parable.

Then the Kingdom of heaven will be like this. 10 young women

took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 5 of them

were foolish and five were wise. When the foolish took their

lamps and they took no oil with them but the flask, 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 of those young women

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, who had better go to the dealers and buy some for

yourselves. And while they went to buy it,

the bridegroom cream and those who were ready went with him

into the wedding banquet and the door was shut.

Later the other young women 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. This parable is giving left

behind vibes. But if that's where your mind

goes to 1st, I'm going to invite you to pause and remember that

parables are not one-dimensional moral lessons that exist for the

point of scaring us. And for whatever truths, harder

truths or otherwise, that exist inside of these words of Jesus,

those truths exist inside of the gospel story and the love and

the hope therein. So let's chip away at it.

This is part of a wedding scene. The visible characters are 10

young women, 10 bridesmaids, sometimes called the 10 virgins,

5 are called foolish, 5 are called wise.

There are people who sell oil called dealers, and there's the

groom. The women are waiting.

Waiting in this kind of scene would not have been unusual

because weddings, before wedding ceremonies would begin, there

was extended negotiations related to the dowry, which was

a significant cultural and economic transaction known to

take a while. And so the bridegroom's delay

isn't because the groom has lost track of time.

It's not a statement on his perception of the importance of

the wedding or nerves or anything like that.

It's part of the process. At the conclusion of the

negotiations, the bridegroom would come to the bride's home

and join his bride in possession to procession to the groom's

home for the wedding. And now the the bridesmaids,

they had an important role in this procession.

They accompanied the bride, and being centuries before Thomas

Edison invented the light bulb, centuries before lamplighters

processed through city streets with long poles illuminating gas

lights in the evening and snuffing them out in the

morning, the bridesmaids role in carrying light was critical.

There was moon and there were stars and there was darkness.

The ancient lamps the bridesmaid carried were torches that

functionally illuminated the way to the wedding, supporting safe

passage on dark streets, signifying ceremony and

celebration. It's still common for

bridesmaids to process at weddings, but walking the 30

feet from the back of the sanctuary to the altar is not

the same thing. Though the idea that there are

particular roles for actors within weddings expected to be

carried out in specific ways, that's familiar to us.

If it isn't, Emily Post would have run out of things to write

in her column a long time ago. Did you hear the bridesmaids all

get to choose their own dresses Now it just has to be the same

color. It's rude to ask for money, but

if it's going to the honeymoon fund or a deposit on the House,

it's OK. The mother of the groom wore a

white skirt and thought it was OK because it wasn't a white

dress. Some of these traditions evolve

over time, some more quickly than others, like having a photo

booth at a wedding reception or the love millennials once shared

for decorative burlap and Mason jars, the bride sporting chucks

with her wedding dress. Other traditions also evolve,

but much more slowly and reverently.

For example, a wedding without wedding rings, even simple ones,

would be quite unusual for us. And so in this ancient parable,

Jesus speaks of five bridesmaids, that is, five young

teenagers who neglected to fetch sufficient oil for their lamps.

What scandal? What shame?

What would their mothers say? And the bride who is not named

in this story, She would have had to have been there.

I wonder if her not being named is because within the context of

a wedding, we're apartment to turn our attention toward the

bride, and she's not the point here.

In my middle school band, there was a page in our books that

offered the definition of harmony, explaining that it's

what happens when two or more notes are played simultaneously

and produce a pleasant sound together, like AC and AG.

And my band director always railed against the printed

definition and then would then play the two most dissonant

notes he possibly could play together.

And he would. And she would say that's harmony

too, It's just one that we don't like.

This parable has a few things going on inside of it at the

same time, and some kind of sound like dissonant notes

blaring on a piano like a toddler banging instead of a

artist composing. One note, particularly to an

ancient audience, is that of the five bridesmaids who are failing

at an essential duty. 5 bridesmaids without enough oil.

Another one perhaps super loud to us peace loving moderns

familiar with the kingdom's reach towards all people and the

Lord's compassion. Why can't the bridesmaids with

oil share their oil? The five foolish bridesmaids did

leave to fetch oil, and they came back looking to join the

party. They remedied their heir, and

there was a real consequence to that.

There's a problem, but they have come back and appear to be

seeking to make right what they can.

Why are they not extended grace? In another parable, that of the

prodigal son, a foolish young man runs away, spends all of his

father's wealth, then eating slop amongst the pigs.

He realizes he could eat better in his father's house, and he

goes home and his father runs to meet him and throws him a party.

If that story is true, why are these women shut out at the

door? Friends, both the parable of the

10 bridesmaids and that of the prodigal son tell of the Kingdom

of God, and both demonstrate God's character.

Both for us and the seeming contradictions is OK.

Both are for us and the seeming contradiction is OK.

These stories mean something. But like what I was saying

earlier about how the same thing can be said in so many different

ways, even a single sentence or phrase in a Bible translation,

the parables themselves stand together on their own and they

fit together. And how we understand.

Jesus tells the parable of the 10 bridesmaids just shortly

before his crucifixion. We are in Matthew today, but

piercing the stories together between the Gospels and drawing

on the book of John. It is just a few days after

Jesus mourned the death of his friend Lazarus, wept alongside

Mary and Martha, and raised Lazarus from the dead.

It is a few days after his triumphal entry into Jerusalem

on Palm Sunday. Here at the Mount of Olives,

Jesus teaches his disciples who have privately asked him about

the coming destruction of the temple and the sign of the

coming age. Jesus is teaching and it is a

kind of an escalated moment. Lazarus's resurrection is in the

immediate rear view, but so is Jesus flipping tables in the

temple. Direct public criticism of

self-serving religious leaders in the establishment.

And of course, other healings. Notably, and not at all out of

character for Jesus. Jesus doesn't directly answers

his disciples question about the temple's destruction or the sign

of the coming age. He answers their questions by

telling stories and quoting books that are now part of the

Old Testament, like Daniel 7. There was, wait here, a desire

for understanding urgency. Do you all know what it's like

to speak with wisdom to a room that is desperate?

A certain kind of populist speaker will use the desperation

to whip the crowd into a frenzy, get them hanging on every word

and, like a coach swinging in a circle, a baseball attached to a

rope for a child to hit as part of batting practice.

Whatever it is that the crowd is anxious about stays proximate.

Their hurt and fear stay right there with them, and so does the

speaker holding the rope with a ball that won't ever go anywhere

at all. That's not what Jesus does.

He recognizes the seriousness of what is being asked of Him.

He sees the disciples in front of him and he knows that they

are reaching to understand. He knows what's coming in a few

days and holding it all there, he uses the disciples question

to redirect their attention to where it needs to be.

The theologian Stanley Howerwass explains it this way.

According to Jesus, the disciples tasked is not to

anticipate the end of time, but rather their task is to learn to

endure even under persecution. All the disciples need to know

is the new age has begun in Christ.

This is what Jesus is teaching about in Matthew 24 and 25.

And so we have this string of stories about staying awake and

keeping watch. The faithful and unfaithful

servant, the 10 bridesmaids, the parable of the talents, the Son

of man, judging the nations and separating the sheep from the

goats. Where the King says come you are

that are blessed by my father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for

you from the foundation of the world.

For I was hungry and you gave me food.

I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.

I was a stranger and you welcomed me.

I was naked and you gave me clothing.

I was sick and you took care of me.

I was in prison and you visited me.

And the Lord has asked, when did we do this?

Truly, I tell you, just as you did to the least of these who

are members of my family, you did to me.

We are misreading the discourse if we think of it as primarily

focused on the when of future events.

Jesus is directing their attention to the here and now

and teaching them how to occupy this precarious moment.

The Kingdom is here. They have seen it.

It is never going away and it is not all the way here yet.

Indeed, there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

There is lost grief and ache that does not subside.

Jesus says this two days before Pilate washed his hands and

gives into the wayward demands of the crowd in a state

sponsored lynching. Jesus's death on the crossed.

The parable of the 10 bridesmaids is weird, but the

point is not live on thy tip toes and do not make a misstep.

For you do not know the day or the hour, and so sit with

trepidation and do your good works because you don't want to

be a foolish girl or worse yet, one of those goats.

In chapter 25. When we make this the lesson of

the parable, I think we're doing a version of exactly what Jesus

was trying to steer his followers away from.

It's a way of focusing on the when we might not be charting

stars and drawing a horoscope, but it's kind of like that, just

with a little bit of extra religious guilt and performative

good works. There are layers and layers and

layers of meaning packed within Matthew 24 and 25.

There are powerful, dissonant stories that make us a little

uncomfortable, and they are swept up within commentary in

which Jesus says he is the Son of Man.

He connects for his hearers. Ancient apocalyptic prophecy

connected it to himself in the Kingdom, in the space and time

that they're occupying together in that moment.

But here's the thing. We're still waiting.

Jesus died and Jesus rose and we're still waiting.

The Spirit of God descended at Pentecost and is with us and we

are still waiting. I think Jesus word about how to

wait and how to prepare still has bearing for us.

Last year. Last year we lost a baby.

A long anticipated, much desired child whom we had prayed for for

years. Now maybe this is an experience

you can relate to. Maybe you have a friend you've

seen go through something like this.

If not, maybe you can imagine. But the experience of

anticipating a child and looking for the signs in your own body

is the most urgent lived experience that I know of a when

question. It was like it lived half an

inch below the surface of my person and reached all the way

down to the depths of my soul. It's consuming and painful.

And there was a moment when I couldn't bear it any longer,

where I had expressed the true fullness of rage and hurt and

loss and longing. And then I stopped there, and I

let the silence sit on top of the moment.

And then I returned to that same spot over and over and over and

over, 99% of the time in total silence with God.

Now. The longing never went away.

The loss was never diminished with a proof text, Bible verse

bow. And though I now rock a six

month old baby girl to sleep at night, there was no promise.

And yet somehow I was changed in that spot.

It was the most aware that I have ever been of the pull

between the already and the not yet of God's Kingdom.

And my role was to sit there, eyes fixed on the literal

horizon ahead of me, which may as well have been the face of

God looking back at me. So when the floor fell out from

underneath me and the baby was gone, I experienced the fullness

of that loss, directly hedging, no cover and self protection.

And somehow it was everything that it truly was and it was not

everything. I don't know how to explain it

any other way. I knew carnivorous emotion and

it did not kill me. And the only prayer with words

that could get out, the only thing that brought me comfort,

was the final phrase of a litany that Thomas wrote that we prayed

100 times leading up to the pregnancy.

My soul was anchored in that prayer.

In all we do. May we be found watching and

waiting for your Kingdom. It's not even scripture, but

that image of being found. While watching and waiting, I

thought of the bridesmaids, the wise ones who were found by the

bridegroom and inside the doors at the wedding banquet, praying.

Those words were like a promise that I would be found.

And though I still watch and wait, the Kingdom is coming.

Eventually I remembered how I had gotten there, the days of

quiet that I held while sitting with every emotion associated

with longing for this child. And I realized that there is no

way I could have accessed this promise that God's Kingdom is

still coming, that I was sitting inside the door with the

bridegroom the way that I was. Without the formation that

happened and the way that I eventually learned how to wait,

I wouldn't have been able to get the oil later.

In the same way, when the bridegroom says keep awake,

therefore for, you know, neither the day nor the hour, I don't

think it's a threat. I think it's Jesus looking ahead

at the cross, imploring his disciples to wake up and take

seriously everything that he has taught them to join him in the

Kingdom work where, in the words of the theologian Kate Buller,

Jesus undoes every guarantee that in loving him we will not

lose friends. Time can pass without any real

waiting. We have an incredible ability to

distract ourselves. There are literally millions of

hours of content, more things to be addicted to than can be

enumerated. And if that doesn't work, gosh,

there's always like the dirt on your laptop or the household

project someplace to go. We have the amazing ability to

always find something. But here's the thing, Waiting

isn't passive. It is always formational.

What is it forming in you? It can be painful and reflect a

reality that is far from the joy, life, and freedom of the

Kingdom of God. But it is what Jesus himself

experienced and what he urged his followers to in an

intentional embodiment, and one of the last conversations he had

before he died. We do wait.

We experience suffering and we observe it, but we never have to

wait alone.