Are you good at waiting? And what do you do while waiting? Today we would be looking at Matthew 25:1-13
The text is a parable:
What is a parable? A parable is a story with an heavenly meaning
A parable is a succinct made up story designed to illustrate a lesson through comparison. Parables have human charactersWhen you hear the story, you can relate it to your own life. A parable conveys a message of truthIn this passage
In these bible verses
There was a wedding and there were 10 maidens, 5 foolish and 5 wise. The bridegroom did not come on time, and soon all the maidens fell asleep. Eventually they are awakened that the bridegroom was approaching. They got themselves ready only to find that their lamps were out of oil and had snuffed out. The wedding was at night and so they would need a form of light to enter the venue of the wedding.
Apparently 5 of the maidens brought extra oil with them and the other 5 termed foolish did not bring oil with them. The foolish maidens asked for more oil but the 5 wise maidens said they needed their oil and they should go buy their own.
While the foolish maiden went to buy oil, the bridegroom arrived and those ready went into the wedding venue and the door was shut. When the others came after the door was shut they were not given entrance to the wedding venue.
Let’s parallel this parable today: Here it goes
There is an event that the one way to be admitted into the event is through a QR code that was sent to each person. The QR code is unique to each individual. A group of 10 friends are at the entrance and told there is a delay in the event starting?
After some time had passed. There was an announcement that the event was about to start and everyone should get their QR code ready for admission. These 10 friends brought out their mobile phone but it was all dead, the battery had died. How were they going to charge their mobile phone to show their qr code.
5 of these friends had brought a power bank and began to charge their phones with it. However the other 5 friends did not bring their power banks so could not charge their mobile phones. They asked the friends with the power bank to lend them the power bank to charge their phone, but they refused because they were not sure how long the wait was going to be and they couldn’t risk their phones going dead again. They advised them to look for a charging point or go buy a power bank at the shop.
When the 5 friends had left to find where to either charge their phones or buy power banks, the venue for the event opened. The people ready with their qr codes were admitted and the door of the event was shut. When the 5 friends who went to charge their phones returned, they were not allowed into the event.
Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is like that.
“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour
“Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour [b]in which the Son of Man is coming.
From the parable, there is a time that the Son of Man (Jesus) would come again to the earth. This time is unknown to anyone except God.
The wise maidens were prepared. This parable teaches us about being prepared for the return of Christ at all times. Some might say, Jesus said he would return over 2000 years ago and we are stilling for His coming. But what must we do to be termed wise like the maiden from this parable
- We must have our lamps
- Our lamps should have oil
- We must have extra oil
But what do these all mean
Lamp? – Our faith. As everyone of those 10 maidens knew the bride groom and had an invite to the marriage ceremony..
Oil? – the Word that is the bible and the Holy Spirit. What feeds our faith walk is our submission to the Words of God and the Holy Spirit.
Extra Oil? – Is our relationship with the Holy Spirit. A relationship born out of submission and obedience. An obedience to God and walking with Him that would sustain beyond just the good times but the submission that we take us through the waiting and challenging times.
I once had the privilege of sharing this parable with some children and I can never forget the question one of them asked me. The 5 wise maiden did not share but we are told to share and that sharing is caring.
That was a curve question but it helped give me more illumination to the parable. What in our Christian journey can’t we share. We share our faith with others through the preaching of the gospel. The lamp in the parable is the faith that a Chistain has when they encounter Christ as their Lord and Saviour.
The effectiveness of the lamp is reliant on the oil. Just as our mobile phones are just bricks if they do not have batteries. The effectiveness of our Christian faith is the word of God. The scriptures substance body to our faith when we do as it says. James 1:22-24
But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.
The extra oil I would term as the relationship we have with the Holy Spirit. Our relationship with God is personal to each person. Which is based on our individually relating to God, submitting to His teaching, obeying the Holy Spirit. This act of one submitting and obeying God cannot be shared. Each person must obey God for themselves. The obedience of one person is not the obedience of another.
Another hand shoots up in the class of children I was sharing this parable with? But it was not their fault the event was late in starting or the bridegroom took a longtime to come. It is not fair.
Then I asked them a rhetorical question, your parents have said do not eat that piece of cake, you will have it when I get back from work. If your mum or dad normally comes back at a particular time let’s say 5pm. But this time they came back at 8pm. Would it be right to eat the cake at 5 pm or wait till 8pm?
Some agreed to eat the cake at 5pm and others said they would try and wait. Others said 8pm would be bedtime so they might not even be able to eat the cake that day. Maybe they could wait a bit before eating the cake at 7pm. SO they could have it before bedtime.
Jesus was telling us the parable, that our obedience but not be time bound. We cannot say we would obey God only up to a particular time. Jesus said He would come again to the world. This is called the 2nd coming of Christ. And when He does come, it would be for judgement.
Some people said it’s over 2000 years and Jesus hasn’t come yet. Some people think He is taking too long to come back. How it is not us who determine when our parents return from work back home. It is not us as Christians that determine when Jesus is coming back. What we are told is to have a relationship with Him, following His teaching and obeying them.
So if Jesus takes a long or a short time to come back a 2nd time, we should be prepared and ready by our continuous obedience to God.