This Sunday, the lectionary invites us to ponder Matthew 25:1-13. The English Standard Version supplies the heading “The Parable of the Ten Virgins.”
Christians reject the idea that history is a meaningless succession of events. We say history moves towards God’s purpose, towards the establishment of his Peaceable Kingdom.[1] Humans are not called to wait for salvation while enduring the world’s troubles. No. Humans are called to join God to shape society according to his justice, compassion, peace, and love. Readiness for Christ’s return doesn’t mean passive waiting. It means faithful action, now.[2]
Matthew’s own calling shows the cost of that conviction.[3] Matthew was a tax collector serving Roman authority. He left that allegiance and the personal and family security which accompanied it, to follow Jesus.
After Jesus’ was crucified, Matthew and his fellow apostles’ became like frightened mice. They hid in fear of the authorities.[4] But soon, they were transformed.[5] They stopped being like frightened mice. They became like fearless tigers. The risen Jesus transformed them into bold heralds, preachers, who proclaimed the rightful King and confronted the injustice of his killing.[6] Their transformation is not only evidence of Jesus’ resurrection. Their transformation is a model for our public witness. Like policemen announcing, “the Agung is coming, make way,” we announce, “the King of the cosmos is coming, recognize and obey him.”
Matthew’s Gospel is a carefully designed response to the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple and the resulting crisis of Jewish identity. Matthew presents Jesus as the new Moses. He arranges his Gospel to resemble the five books of the Law. He connects Jesus’ teaching with the ordering of public life, including domestic and foreign relations.[7] Faith is concerned with how communities live and govern – not just religious experience.
Within Matthew’s 5-book framework,[8] chapters 21–25 describe Jesus’ confrontation with Israel’s leaders: his royal entry into Jerusalem; his cleansing of the Temple; his challenging questions; and his provocative parables. These events weren’t Jesus’ responses to random people and events. These events were intentional. These events were designed to expose the gap between the authority of the leaders and their obedience to God. The stories of the two sons and the tenants[9] challenge outward claims of faithfulness. The leaders’ attempts to trap Jesus reveal their failure to understand Scripture and the power of God.
The Great Commandment[10] supplies the measure of genuine obedience: love God wholeheartedly and love your neighbour as yourself. Failure to carry out ceremonial or traditional rules or practices perfectly is not important. What is important is failure to produce the fruits of God’s kingdom; failure to shape a nation that cares for orphans, widows, poor people, and foreigners. Jesus warns about the eternal results of neglecting justice and compassion while retaining “pure” religious status.
The parable of the ten virgins, actually bridesmaids, develops the theme of readiness and accountability. Ten young women wait for a bridegroom. They wait with oil-fired torches. Five bring spare oil; five do not. When the bridegroom is delayed, all ten fall asleep. At midnight, his arrival is announced. The prepared bridesmaids escort the party into the banquet; the unprepared ones leave to buy oil. Returning later, they find the entrance is locked and their pleas for admission are refused.
Over the centuries preachers have drawn many lessons from this parable. The lessons include watchfulness, spiritual replenishment, and being always ready. But what are we to make of the late arrival – without apology – of the groom? What are we to make of the bridesmaids’ refusal to share oil? Because of these “but” questions, it’s better to read the parable as a way of emphasizing that history is heading towards a very serious ending: the judge of all the earth will certainly come; his arrival cannot be controlled; and exclusion from his celebration matters. He will hold people accountable for what they have done or have failed to do.[11]
The parable challenges readings of Scripture which encourage accommodation to rulers, avoiding conflict, or withdrawal from shaping history.[12] It challenges Christians who are obsessed only with personal righteousness; obsessed only with the salvation of family and friends; obsessed only with reaching heaven after death. Such obsessions prevent us from seeing and removing conditions which prevent our neighbours from flourishing. The parable urges us to see that God’s purposes extend beyond private morality; extend to the shared life of society.
We must stop leaving the difficult and dangerous work of confronting corruption and abuses of power entirely to our Agnostic, Animistic, Atheistic, Buddhist, Daoist, Hindu, Muslim, LGBTQ, neighbours.[13] We must act like God’s fellow workers[14]; like Christ’s ambassadors, as Paul describes us.[15] We must participate in making visible the kingdom for which we pray when we pray that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven.[16]
We must bring back into our thinking Isaiah’s vision of the wolf dwelling with the lamb[17]: that’s the Peaceable Kingdom towards which history is progressing. We must stop hiding like mice while our neighbours work towards that vision; we must act fearlessly, like tigers, to achieve that vision. We must find, create, and join ways to help shape a society which reflects God’s care for everyone, especially the most vulnerable. We must expose and end corruption and end abuses of power; we must press for accessible education, healthcare and freedom of religion and belief for all.
Because history is not a meaningless succession of events.[18] Because the purpose of history is to establish the Peaceable Kingdom. Because God has revealed that the calling of all mankind is to participate in that work.
Peace be with you.
[1] I first came across this term in a work titled The Peaceable Kingdom: A Primer in Christian Ethics by the American theologian Stanley Hauerwas.
[2] In Matthew 23, Jesus accuses the leaders of refusing to accept the teachings of the prophets – whose principal teaching is that God’s chief concern is for what we call social justice: care for the quartet of widows, orphans, the poor and foreigners. Strikingly, Jesus began his own public ministry by referencing the Isaianic vision which includes setting at liberty those who are oppressed. See Luke 4:18-19. This text is often called “The Nazareth Manifesto.”
[3] See Matthew 9:9.
[4] See John 29:19.
[5] In Romans 12:2, Paul tells us to be transformed – the word can also be translated “transfigured” – by the knowledge of God’s plans he has laid out in Romans 1-11.
[6] See for example Peter’s sermon during Pentecost, Acts 2:14-41.
[7] The books of the Old Testament are all addressed to the nation of Israel.
[8] I The Sermon on the Mount, chapters 5-7. II The Missionary Commission/Discourse, chapter 10. III The Parabolic Discourse, chapter 13. IV The Discourse on the Church (Community Instructions), chapter 18. V The Olivet Discourse (Eschatological/End Times Discourses), chapters 24-25. For another framework for the 5 books, see https://bibleproject.com/guides/book-of-matthew/.
[9] Matthew 21.
[10] Matthew 22:34-40.
[11] I have adopted the reading of Klyne Snodgrass who insists the parable is not an allegory, and reads it as a warning about the return of Christ (the parousia) and the final judgment.
[12] This is in line with Revelation 13, which, contra Romans 13, warns us about the state.
[13] Every week I am ashamed that no names of Christian groups can be found as endorsees of the many statements which are issued by civil society organizations – for instance about the pardon for Najib, about the separation of the office of Public Prosecutor from the Attorney General, about abuses of police powers, etc.
[14] In 1 Corinthians 3:9, Paul says we are God’s fellow workers.
[15] See 2 Corinthians 5:20 and Ephesians 6:20.
[16] Matthew 6:9-13.
[17] Isaiah 11:6.
[18] The historian Arnold Toynbee is often alleged to have said, “history is one damned thing after another.” The idea is also known as chaos theory and historical nihilism.
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