Photo by Andreas Rønningen on Unsplash

Audio: iTunes | Spotify | Download

“The prepared entered with Him into the wedding festivities, and the door was shut.”

᛭ INI ᛭

(Oops!: 5. The Lord continues to give His Word, to which the foolish pay no heed.)

The Lord’s always prepared to repeat Himself, to teach the same things. He’s more than happy to! Are you to learn? Jesus delights in delivering God’s Word! He spoke to the Prophets and Apostles. He sent His Spirit to inspire their writing. During His earthly ministry, He didn’t just preach the Word (Lk 4), but He also “gladly heard and learned it.” (SC; Lk 2; 2 Tim 3:15–17; Deut 5:14–15) He keeps His own 3rd Commandment! So also, He gives us the Bible, so He can continue to teach us “throughout all generations.” (LSB 582)

*[16] [They’re only self-proclaimed, proud, and arrogant saints who are unwilling to read and study the catechism daily.] Because they think [they’re] much more learned than God Himself with all His saints, angels, prophets, apostles, and all Christians. 

God Himself [isn’t] ashamed to teach these things daily. He knows nothing better to teach. He always keeps teaching the same thing and [doesn’t] take up anything new or different. All [true] saints know nothing better or different to learn and cannot finish learning this. [It’s only sinful imagination to think] that read[ing] or hear[ing] the catechism once, we know it all and have no further need to read and learn[.] Can we finish learning in one hour what God Himself cannot finish teaching? He’s engaged in teaching this from the beginning to the end of the world. All prophets, together with all saints, have been busy learning it, have ever remained students, and must continue to be students.

*... [18] Lazy “bellies” and arrogant spirits, [who don’t care to keep learning even the First Commandment], don’t understand a single psalm, much less the entire Holy Scriptures. Yet they pretend to know and despise the catechism, which is a short and brief summary of all the Holy Scriptures. (LC Preface)*

[T]he catechism is a short and brief summary of all the Holy Scriptures. (LC Preface)

The five “foolish” bridesmaids live out the consequences of being “foolish.” You could see it coming, not just because they’re called “foolish,” but from Jesus’ earlier warning in, as you well know, Matthew 7: “Everyone who hears My words and doesn’t do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain poured, the rivers rose, the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was its fall!” Those oilless bridesmaids, try as they might, could not get in, the door was shut. “I do not know you.”

The five “wise” bridesmaids live out the blessings of being “wise.” (To be “wise” is to “set your mind” on something.) True wisdom, then, is faith in Jesus. As He says, “Everyone who ears My Words and does them, will be like a wise man, who built His house upon the rock. [When the storm came,] it didn’t fall, for it was founded upon the rock.” The wise have oil and are prepared. The Bridegroom comes and brings them into the wedding feast.

(4. Ugh!: Are we ourselves wise or foolish in our paying heed?)

This isn’t some fairy tail or moralistic Aesop-like fable. Jesus’ warning is true: “Watch for you know neither the day nor the hour.” The “wise” heed His warning, set their minds on Him and His Word. The “foolish” don’t. What Jesus portrays in his parables of bridesmaids and builders is echoed in our own lived experience—in your life or the people you know.

Jesus' parables are related (1) linguistically (both using the terms "will be like," "foolish," and "wise") and (2) themeatically (portraying consequences and judgment).

Whoever rejects His Word lives not by every Word that comes from His mouth, but by bread alone (Mt 4), “which He gives even to all evil people.” They’re rash and unwise! They spurn their Lord by ignoring His Word. They determine how much oil is enough. Their miscalculation ends with “I don’t know you!” Having their own blueprints for their life, they consign the Lord, His preaching and Word to church and treat His Baptism as some dead ritual they did long ago. This ends in tragedy: “How great its fall!”

Not so the wise! Their calculation comes from the Bridegroom. They set their mind on Him. It’s why they’re wise! He’s Lord, so He’ll come when He chooses. All timing, and so all oil, preparation, and foundation, are His! They are truly watchful and “wise.”

Are you wise or prepared? Will you get into the festivities or just scurry about and get locked out? Can you avoid His eternal “I don’t know you” and have the same confidence as Paul, who said, “Then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” (1 Cor 13)?

(3. Aha!: As much as the “delay” is the Lord’s, so also is the wisdom, the oil, the preparation.)

You don’t need to be afraid, for the Bridegroom’s delayed! 2 Peter tells you why: “The Lord isn’t slow in keeping his promise as some think about slowness, but He’s patient toward you, not wanting any to perish but all to attain to repentance.” So then, as much as the “delay” is the Lord’s, so also is the wisdom, the oil, the preparation. He is “Alpha and Omega, Beginning and End” (Rev 22:13), “Founder and Finisher of faith—yours!” (Heb 12:2)

(2. Whee!: CHRIST, THE BRIDEGROOM, THE SON OF MAN, ANOINTS AND PREPARES FOR HIS COMING.)

The wisdom of the wise is that it’s all about Christ! For

CHRIST, THE BRIDEGROOM, ANOINTS AND PREPARES YOU FOR HIS COMING.

He’s the Bridegroom of His Bride, the Church. (Eph 5) He’s the Son of Man, the Son of the Living God, who suffered, died, and rose (Mt 16), and will come again to judge (Jn 5:27). He’s Christ, and “Christ” means “Anointed One.” He’s anointed with the Holy Spirit! (Jn 3) Oil symbolizes the Spirit in the Old Testament. “He’s the Oil of Gladness” (Ps 45:7/Heb 1:8–9), given to Christ and that without measure (Jn 3)!

Christ does everything for salvation! He redeems His Bride, the Church, which is also His body. (Eph 5) We are members of His body! Not only through the Communion of His body and blood (1 Cor 10:16), “for in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.” (1 Cor 12:13) You’ve been anointed, too! For the Holy Spirit was “poured out on us generously” “through,” Holy Baptism, “the washing of rebirth and renewal.” (Tit 3) And so, “You have been anointed by the Holy One.” (1 Jn 3)

Christ is also “the wisdom of God” (1 Cor 1:24), the “wisdom from God!” (1 Cor 1:30) At His conception, He received “the Spirit of Wisdom” (Is 11:2), which was portrayed at His Baptism when the Spirit came down like a dove (Mt 3). Jesus in His Word and Sacraments sends this same Spirit to us (Jn 14), and so we have the Spirit, the “Wisdom from above.” (James 3)

CHRIST, THE BRIDEGROOM, ANOINTS AND PREPARES YOU FOR HIS COMING.

(1. Yeah!: We can “rest” assured, that is, live and die and thus die and rise in peace.)

Christ is coming soon, and you don’t know when. “The prepared enter.” But Jesus isn’t warning you to create fear but watchfulness. “Be diligent to be found by Him without spot or blemish, and at peace.” (2 Pet 3:14) He gave Himself that His Church would be holy, without spot or blemish. (Eph 5)

Not just her you! As Zephaniah says, “The day of the LORD is near; the LORD has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated his guests.” (Zeph 1:7) “Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them on the day of the LORD’s wrath.” (Zeph 1:18) But the precious blood of the Lamb once sacrificed for you will.

From foundations to oil, builders to bridesmaids, you can rest “assured.” You can “sleep” in “peace.” You can “die” and rise in His peace! He is your peace! (Eph 2:14) For there’s no “foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ!” (1 Cor 3:11) So also the Word about Christ, the Word of His death and resurrection for sinners’—for you—is the foundation upon which He builds His Church. (Mt 16:15–17)

Now, He’ll judge each of you according to your deeds (1 Pet 1:17), your fruit. But He’s got that covered, too! “I’m Vine; you’re branches.” (Jn 15) In the wise, those with faith in Jesus, the Spirit bears His fruit, in those who’ve been crucified with Christ. (Gal 5) You were crucified with Christ, died with Him, and also resurrected with Him at Baptism (Rom 6). Baptism is your daily appeal to God for a clean conscience! (1 Pet 3) The Spirit works repentance and renews faith, through Christ’s Word and the Sacrament. Christ not only “anointeth [thy] head with oil; [thy] cup runneth over!” (Ps 23) He doesn’t stop anointing till you’re drenched, feeding till you’re stuffed, pouring till it’s spilling everywhere.

Nevertheless, “He catches [the fools, the worldly wise] in their craftiness,” for “The Lord knows [their] thoughts, that they are [useless].” (1 Cor 3:19–20) For “he saves a humble people, but the haughty eyes He brings down. For He lights your lamp; the LORD your God lightens your darkness.” (Ps 18:27–28)

CHRIST, THE BRIDEGROOM, ANOINTS AND PREPARES YOU FOR HIS COMING.

“So, if you’ve been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you’ve died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you’ll also appear with him in glory. (Col 3:1–4)”

᛭ INI ᛭