Ready for His Coming - Advent IV

My wife and I have been immersed in wedding traditions this year, with the marriage of our son. She read books on the subject, and got our son’s fiance reading about it as well. Our desire to learn from tradition was a significant factor in the simplicity of the wedding and in how well it went. While I was waiting for the wedding to begin, the other pastor who was there told me of some horrors he has had to go through at weddings with people who just didn’t have the right attitude about it or didn’t know what they were doing. One I remember vividly was the bride who was determined that her bridesmaids come down the isle in step with the music, which was very unfortunate, because it meant spending an enormous amount of time trying to get a couple of her friends to step to music when they had never been able to keep time to music one day in their lives. Some of this kind of thing is due to personality type, but some of it is due to the idolatrous value that some people give to the ceremony.

As I have reflected on the Advent season this year, I have been reminded of Jesus’ parable of the ten virgins who were awaiting the coming of the bridegroom for a wedding. It is another of his parables about the kingdom of heaven, that is, about how He manages the affairs of His kingdom, His redemptive rule over mankind. The parable makes better sense if you have some knowledge of the wedding traditions at that time. Their marriages were usually performed at night. The wedding would take place in the house of the bride. Her bridesmaids, the virgins in the parable, would keep watch for the appearance of the groom and his attendants. When he came into view, they would go out to meet him, with lamps lighted, to conduct him to the bride’s house. Once everyone was inside and the door shut, the wedding would begin.

Now let me read for you this parable of the wise and foolish bride’s maids: See Matthew 25:1-13

What do we make of this? As I have explained before, the way to understand Jesus’ parables is to simply pay attention to the main point and not get bogged down in symbolic meanings that our imaginations might find in the details. Thankfully, Jesus sometimes tells us what He intends and he does so in the last verse. The parable is about being watchful for the coming of our Bridegroom, Himself. This parable is part of a group of parables about Jesus’ coming, and it is helpful to survey them all about the several things Jesus tells us to do to be ready for Him.

In some of the other parables, He has mentioned such things as being careful to not be all taken up with the cares or pleasures of this life, being careful that we are not mean to each other, and being faithful in the tasks He has given us to do. So, let’s say I am a teenager. In light of these things, I could try to keep myself ready for the coming of the Lord by not worrying about my grades or how I look or whatever else I think might make me happy, being sure I was nice to my brother and sister, and doing my school work to the best of my ability for Jesus’ sake. The lovely thing about this is that, in doing these things, a teenager can find happiness. Happiness is never something to be sought; it is something that comes when we are seeking the pleasure of God. It is also something that never lasts in this life. Happiness is only full and permanent in the life to come; that’s one of the reasons we look forward to it so much.

But I digress. The parable of the wise and foolish virgins is a parable about a spiritual attitude. We must be watchful in order to be ready. Some people put the emphasis on understanding this parable upon some symbolism they think is intended by the oil in the lamps. Now, to be sure, oil is symbolic in the Scriptures for certain things, and there’s nothing wrong with wondering if Jesus had such things in mind. But the oil is simply part of the circumstances of the overall story that help it to work. The lesson is in the story itself and the lesson is watchfulness.

The Jews of Jesus’ day were not being watchful as they needed to be for His coming to them. John the Baptist had been sent by Him to prepare for His coming by telling them they needed to be watchful over their lives, that they repent of their sins and seek to live in a godly, righteous, and sober manner. By being watchful over their hearts and lives they were to be ready for the coming of the Bridegroom. While many did do this, many did not and thus the Lord foresaw His next coming to them. This would be a coming in judgement of their rejection of Him, which was a violation of their covenantal relationship with Him.

These comings of the Lord, which are the subject of these chapters in St. Matthew, have already taken place. What then do they have to do with us? Well, the Lord has other ways of coming in judgment, has He not? There is, of course, His final coming, which all the saints of all the ages need to be ready for. There is also His coming to us at our deaths, which is another kind of judgment. Let me refer us to Bishop Wright, who makes an excellent observation. Since the parable is about the coming of the Bridegroom, the bridegroom idea reminds us of Jesus’ role as the Messiah in the life of the whole Church, in that time and through all the ages. He was the Bridegroom of Israel in that day, but He is also our Bridegroom today. This is, after all, a kingdom parable, and He established His kingdom in the history of that time and it persists unto our own day, and will persist forever. The parable is about how His kingdom works. He comes to His people in various ways, for judgment, and we are to be watchful that we might be ready. So Wright says: “…in this new era, no less than in the unique time of Jesus and his first followers, we need as much as ever the warning… to be watchful.” And what does Wright say that this watchfulness means for us? He says the watchfulness of this story “…simply means being ready for the key moment … being prepared; being wise; thinking ahead, realizing that a crisis is coming sooner or later and that if you don’t make preparations now, and keep them in good shape in the meantime, you’ll wish you had.”

And what is the crisis? Well, there is always the crisis of Jesus’ second coming to consider. But, as I have already stated, there is also the crisis of our death, should the Lord tarry. Our death is a kind of coming of the Lord for our judgment. How is that? The Bible says that it is appointed unto man once to die, and after that, the judgment. When we die, all our opportunity to make ourselves ready for the Judgment Day are over. We have no other chance to repent and place our hope of eternal life in God’s only Saviour. We have no chance left to watch, to be faithful, to lay up treasure in heaven, to love our neighbour, to serve our Lord in this life. We now await the judgment, and we never know when this crisis will come.

I just finished reading a biography of Dorothy L. Sayers. In December of 1957, a few days after one of the most joyous occasions of her life, which was to become the godmother of the child of one of her close, life-long friends, she finished up her Christmas shopping, made arrangements for their delivery, and went home to her house in London. She went upstairs to put up her hat and coat, came down stairs, and, while in the hallway, she had a stroke, which killed her instantly. I’m sure that was the last thing in the world she thought would happen that day, but that is the way of mankind: we never know when this crisis will come. But come it will, and we must be watchful and ready.

What disturbs us who care about such things is the sense we have of our own weakness in being ready. It is this matter that brings me to our collect for this day and the conclusion of my sermon. The collect is a prayer for God to exercise His great power in our lives. For what purpose? To succour us. The word succour, of course, means to give someone help in their time of need. Well, our time of need is now, for it is now that we must be able to watch and pray and be ready for our Lord’s coming. But, as the collect confesses, we are “sore let and hindered in running” this race of faithfulness set before us, because of our sins and wickedness. We are our own worst enemies in all of this, for we shoot ourselves in the foot every day with our guilty stupidity and wrong doing. We need help, desperately. And so, the prayer, having already asked the Lord to “come among us”, not in judgment but in delivering power – which is another kind of coming of the Lord – it goes on to ask for God to put forth His bountiful grace and mercy to succour and deliver us; to pity us and to give us that which we do not deserve. So, in this prayer, we are reminded that God has wonderful saving power, He is able to help us and deliver us from what hinders us from being watchful, and He has abundant grace and mercy to which we may appeal. But why should He do this for us? Why help us so? As the prayer concludes, He has such mercies toward us through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Do we think Jesus tells us to be watchful for His coming, but is ignorant of how hard that is for us? Not at all! He tells us to watch, and then He redeems us with His blood and makes us the beloved children of His heavenly Father, encouraging us of His everlasting love for us and His readiness to answer prayers just like this for us, every day. Ask, and ye shall receive, Jesus says, that your joy may be full. Ask that you may find that happiness you need and desire. Ask that you may be faithful in running your race of faithfulness and watchfulness and your heavenly Father will give you all you need. Indeed, in Jesus Christ, says the apostle, we already have all we need for life and godliness. We simply ask for that which God has already told us is ours.

Here is great encouragement for our faith. Our hope is in the LORD. We may be sinful and weak, but He is strong and forgiving. Let us keep our hope in Jesus, Who is the author and finisher of our faith. What He has begun in us, He will complete, until the day He returns. He is coming, yes, He is coming in His judgment. But let us not be afraid. Let us never forget that He also comes, even in this very hour, in friendly, almighty power, to keep us, to help us, to bless us. We have in Him more than we weak finite creatures will ever need.

Amen.

All quotations from N. T. Wright are in loco from his Everyman series.