Last Sunday morning before church, I was sitting drinking coffee and I saw something I hadn’t seen in over a year, snow. I love the snow. The flurries made my heart skip a beat. The first flurries of the year make me feel like an eight-year-old. I just want to go outside and run in it. Snow means winter and I love winter, except cold starting my car. You know the sinking feeling, when you heard the sound of that slow start on a cold morning, not sure if it is going to get going, maybe even the clicking of a dead battery. After many dead batteries in my life, I decided to buy a jumper starter for our car. It has been wonderful. I have probably only needed to use it twice in the last five years, but it was a lifesaver at those times. The trouble with it is, it only works if you have it with you, fully charged. It needs to be ready to be used. But it is kind of a pain to lug around everywhere (it’s bulky) as well as charging it every night. Sometimes, I am tempted to leave it behind or forget to charge it, but I know the time I do my car won’t start and I won’t be ready. Since I know this is a possibility, I try always to have it on me, fully charged. Being ready means having what you need when you need it. There is nothing worse than not having what you need when you need it.
In The Gospel today, Christ teaches his disciples the same lesson. They are sitting on the Mount of Olives just a couple of days before his crucifixion and Christ wants to prepare his disciples for his second coming. As he teaches them, he reveals that being ready for his coming is more than just watching for it but having what you need when he comes back. He wants them to make sure they have what they need. They should always be ready for his second coming, because they won’t know when it is too late.
Jesus uses a story about ten virgins, today they would be called bridesmaids, waiting for a groom. In this group of ten virgins, five are wise and five are foolish. The wise show their wisdom by being ready for the groom to arrive anytime (possibly even being delayed); they bring extra oil. The foolish show their foolishness by not taking extra oil with them, for whatever reason. Sure enough, the groom was delayed and didn’t come for a while. The wisdom of the wise virgins paid off and they were ready to greet the groom. The foolishness of the foolish virgins was shown because they were not ready. So, they went off to get ready. But it was too late. The wise virgins, that were ready, were able to enter the wedding and enjoy the feast. The foolish virgins, come later and were locked out of the wedding party. When they cried out to the groom to let them in, the groom tells them that he doesn’t even know them.
Doesn’t this seem a little strange? If someone showed up late to my wedding, I might be sad, but I don’t think I would completely forget who they are. So, why would Jesus have the groom say this? He wants them to always be ready. These bridesmaids were late, locked out, and forgotten. They didn’t get a second chance. In the same way, there will be no second chances or extra time when he comes back, so Jesus’ followers just always need to be ready by having what they need.
What do they need or what makes the difference between someone being let into Christ’s heavenly banquet and being rejected? In the kingdom of heaven, genuine saving faith is what separates those who will rejoice with Christ in his heavenly banquet and those that God will say “I don’t know you.” If someone wants to be ready for Christ’s second coming, they need to have true, saving faith in him.
Christ tells this to his disciples, not unbelievers. You would expect his disciples to have true, saving faith after walking with him for three years, surely had faith that he was their savior from sin! Yet, Christ reminds them that they need to be ready for his second coming by having what they need, faith. Why? Christ knows that they are fools by nature and because they are fools, they easily and readily push the free gift of faith out of their heart and thereby not be ready for Christ’s coming. It happened to Peter two days after Jesus said these words, when, in fear of a lowly servant, he denied he followed Christ, pushing faith out of his heart. Judas, who also followed Christ for three years, healed the sick and cast out demons like everyone else, pushed faith out of his heart because of his greed. Think about the rest of the disciples that ran in fear of persecution, valuing their life more than their Lord’s. That foolishness, that pushes faith out of the heart, exists in you too. Do not be so overconfident at your readiness that you end up not ready and your Lord tells you, “I do not know you.”
But he does know you because he made you ready for his second coming. Through your baptism, his Spirit created faith in your heart to make you ready for him. Through his Supper, he continues to work that faith in your heart. Through his Word, he reminds you of what he did to make you wise and ready for him. He lived his life in perfect faith, always trusting his Father. He gave that to you through his death and took your foolish heart. Now, you are perfectly ready for his coming. His coming to take you home to a place of no more tears, pains, sorrows, aches, anxiety, hopelessness, depression, judgments, where you will live with him forever.
Jesus doesn’t want his disciples to miss it, so he tells them: Keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour. Hear the urgency in Christ’s command. Since you don’t know the day or hour, your attitude is of constant readiness. Your jumper pack is always ready and charged because you know you will need it; you just don’t know when.
How do you make sure you are ready? Continue to use the means by which God brings faith into your lives, his Word, the Lord’s Supper, and baptism. Engage with God’s Word privately and publicly with others, whether it be in our homes or at church. Prepare yourself to receive his body and blood by recognizing your sin and even more so the forgiveness he gives you through it. Remember your baptism daily and that he washed all your sins away in it. In a sense, fill up your jar with as much oil as possible as regularly as you can. Live as though Christ was coming back in the next hour and you want to make sure you have what you need.
The wait might be long in this cold world of sin, where the days get darker as the love between people grows colder. So, live everyday faith charged up and waiting for him, because he is coming and he brings a joy and peace that is worth the wait. Thank God, he makes sure we have the faith we need to be ready for his coming. Amen.
