Reflection on Matthew 25:1-13

Matthew 25:1-13 (NRSVue)

[Jesus said to the disciples:] 1 “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten young women took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. 3 When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, 4 but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. 5 As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. 6 But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ 7 Then all those young women got up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ 9 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.’ 10 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. 11 Later the other young women came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ 12 But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’ 13 Keep awake, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”

Reflection

“You are the light of the world,” Jesus proclaims to those gathered around him on the mountain of learning (Matthew 5:14).  I want to take a just second to point out what Jesus does not proclaim.  He does not proclaim, “You will be the light of the world if you do this or believe this.”  He does not say, “You could be the light of the world, if only…”  He simply state who we are already; who we are created to be: “You are the light of the world.”  Our lives are built by God to shine the Lord’s light.  We are made to forgive the unforgiveable, feed the hungry, heal the suffering, love neighbor and enemy alike, and share the good news of Jesus to the world.  We are the light of the world!

To fail to shine on others would be foolish.  I had a friend who once wrote a beautiful song about forgiving even when it is hard, and he had the voice to bring the song to life.  One afternoon he sang the song to me in his living room.  I do not remember the tune, but I remember part of the chorus:

“You crushed my soul.

I learned in Sunday School

forgiveness makes us whole. 

 

You’re pushing me away

but forgiveness will seek

you every single day.” 

 

The song was never brought to life.  He simply did not have confidence in his singing ability.  “No one wants to hear this voice,” he would growl in a tone that betrayed the soft tone of his real singing voice.  But more to the point, he started walking down a destructive path in life that would make him one of those people he sang about; a hard person to forgive.  I have often wondered what his life would have been like if he were not so foolish.

And when I say foolish, I do not mean it in our modern sense of someone who is a blithering idiot.  He was a dear friend and he was no idiot.  Rather than meaning “idiot,” the name “fool” throughout the scriptures refers to someone who chooses to wander another direction in life, chooses another road, other than the one that the Lord is on.  Proverbs 13:20 expresses this idea clearly.  It reads, “Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools suffers harm” (Proverbs 13:20).  Foolishness is walking the wrong way with the wrong people.  It is walking is ways other than the ways of the Lord.

What if he had the courage to sing and record that song?  What if he had continued to write and sing about the profound complexities of this life and the certainty of God’s grace?  Would someone have heard his song and had their heart drawn toward the divine?  What if he had chosen to be wise?  What if he remembered that he was the light of the world?

I do not know.  He was one of the five young women with lamps intended to light the way of the bridegroom, whose oil ran dry before the bridegroom arrived (Matthew 25:8).  He was among those who ran away to get some oil and missed the chance to be a light for the bridegroom (Matthew 25:10). 

He was foolish.  He went in another direction, and our lives are worse because we never had the chance to listen to his song, nor did we have the chance to sing together his beautiful melody of divine grace.

Jesus says, “You are the light of the world,” but he chose not to shine.

He was foolish, like the story of the man who dies and goes heaven.  The story goes, that as the man walks along the streets of gold, he bumps into the Apostle Paul.

Excited, the man says, "Paul! It is such an honor.  Your letters in the Bible changed my life. I always wanted to be a powerful minister of the Gospel just like you, but I never got my big moment.  God never gave me an audience to preach to."

Paul smiles warmly and says, "Brother, you don't need a crowded stadium to minister. Tell me, did you ever just share Christ's love with one person?  What about your next-door neighbor, Bob?  He could have used a good, Christian friend."

The man freezes, looks down, and scratches his head. "Well... I meant to. But honestly, every time I saw Bob, he was mowing his lawn, or washing his car, or fixing his roof. I just didn't want to bother him."

Just then, a man walks past them wearing a pristine white robe, looking completely overjoyed. The man points at him and gasps, "Hey, wait a minute! That is Bob! He made it to heaven!"

Paul looks at Bob, then looks back at the man, and says, "He sure did. But it was not because of you. The guy who finally ministered to him and became his friend was a guy whose car died on your street.  He interrupted Bob’s mowing to borrow his jumper cables.  Sometimes interruptions are divine occurrences."

Jesus proclaimed: “You are the light of the world.”  Sometimes we do the unthinkable and we choose not to shine.  We choose not to be who the Lord created us to be.  But that choice does not change who we are.  We are the light of the world.  The Lord put us here to “love like Jesus,” to “pray like Jesus,” to “heal like Jesus,” and to “serve like Jesus.”  The Lord put us here to walk with the bridegroom and light his way.  If only we knew how to be wise rather than foolish.

“Keep awake, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour,” Jesus teaches (Matthew 25:13). 

I think the meaning of Jesus’ teaching here goes so much deeper than simply keeping an eye out for Jesus when he comes to take us to heaven.  Being the light of the world is not about getting to heaven.  It is about being the hands and feet of Jesus right here, right now, right where we are.  It is about loving our neighbor.  Martin Luther once taught, “God does not need your good works, but your neighbor does.”

Jesus is out there somewhere, doing some good in our neighbor’s lives, and even in our enemies’ lives, and he wants more than anything for us to be awake so that we can help light his way when he comes.  We simply cannot do that when we are asleep and do not see.

A few years ago, zombies were a big thing in our culture.  Do you remember that?  There were shows about these walking dead creatures.  There were movies about zombies.  There were even songs about zombies.  One of my favorite songs about zombies was written by a kid in Sullivan County who sang about these creatures who walk around, but do not notice anyone, who go from here to there but have no purpose.  They are a waste of space and they eat people’s brains. 

Do you know someone who seemingly has no purpose, and when they talk to you it is as if they are eating your brain? 

The end of the song is so cool because in the last lines of the song it is revealed that the singer was looking in the mirror the whole time.  Somehow, he had become the zombie, not awake to those around him.

“Keep awake, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour,” Jesus teaches (Matthew 25:13). 

But how do we keep from being foolish?  How do we keep awake?  What gift of wisdom does Jesus provide so that we can be the light of the world?

In the next few weeks, Jesus will teach us precisely that.  When we study the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30), we will see that actively serving God rather than becoming passive or complacent is one way to keep awake. Faithful servants use their gifts and responsibilities well.

And when we study the judgment of the sheep and goats (Matthew 25:31-46), we will see that expressing acts of mercy: feeding the hungry, welcoming strangers, caring for the sick, and visiting prisoners is another way to keep awake. Serving others is serving Christ.

And in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus tells his disciples, "Could you not watch with me one hour?" (Matthew 26:40). Watching, keeping awake, is praying with Jesus.

Keeping awake has everything to do with living every day ready to join Jesus in prayer, ready to join Jesus as he serves the hungry, heals the sick, and forgives the sinner, and ready to use the gifts Jesus has given us.  Keeping awake does not include walking our own path.  Keeping awake does not include predicting when he will return.

So, keep awake and do not forget that Jesus has named you “the light of the world.”