Saint Matthew 25:1-13
Whenever Jesus talked about what the Kingdom of Heaven is like he did so in parables for a very good reason. The Kingdom of Heaven is a big, broad, amorphous topic that defies description except in vivid little stories that get and keep our attention. Jesus was a master at getting and keeping our attention. He’s done that for over two centuries so when he talks about the Kingdom of Heaven we are bound to pay attention.
Sometimes he describes it as a treasure. It is a pearl of such great price, he says, that there once was a fellow who found one in a field and sold everything he had to buy that field. Thus, the Kingdom of Heaven is such a treasure that one would give everything you had to posses it.
Or, it can be something that you already have which has great power. It is like yeast for bread dough, absolutely essential. It is like a little mustard seed that when planted grows into a scrub that gives us something that some of us can’t live without. Think yellow mustard on your hot dog or Dijon mustard for your brat.
He told us once about a crazy farmer that we talked about a few weeks ago who, instead of carefully placing seed in the ground in a nice orderly fashion just flings the seeds about in such a haphazard way that cause any farmer of his time or ours to yell: “Hey dude! Your wasting seeds.”
That last parable left the disciples so wide eyed that Jesus had to explain it to them. Almost as wide eyed as the Saint Luke Academy children were last Wednesday when in acting out this parable for them I wildly threw seed all over the sanctuary. After that is was I who had to do the explaining to our custodians why, after children’s church, there were seeds all over the place.
Some parables need a little explanation while others need a lot and todays, for me at least falls into the category of one, in which, in the words of that great theologian Ricky Ricardo, there is “some ‘splainin’ to do!”
Today Jesus offers up another parable that might leave us scratching our heads and very puzzled. Today Jesus is telling us the reign and rule of God is like a wedding celebration. Essentially, a wedding banquet. “A wedding banquet” Jesus, you can’t mean a wedding banquet!
Jesus, you can’t mean one of those events where we have to get all dressed up on a Saturday afternoon and, even though the bride and groom may be relatives or friends that we love more than anything else in the whole world, still require us to engage in inane conversations with people we do not know on a topic that hold absolutely no interest to us.
Jesus, you can’t mean those events where some distant relative gets so “three sheets to the wind in gale” that he is either falling over complete strangers telling them how much he loves them or punching them in the eye because he disagrees with them politically.
Jesus, you can’t be talking about those events that often involve rubber chicken and peas, cheap booze, and bad cake.
Don’t look at me like that!
I know you have been to events exactly like the one I’ve just described. I can tell by the look on your faces that you have and furthermore I can tell that they are the farthest thing from any kingdom of God event that you can think of. In fact, you may liken them more to the “kingdom of some other place.”
To make matters more difficult Jesus seems to be describing an after-wedding celebration that is far worse than anything we have ever experienced.
Weddings in Jesus day were grand celebrations that involved the couples’ entire community and went on for days. There was feasting, dancing, and revelry beyond measure. Being asked to participate in the event was a high honour.
An important part of the wedding ceremony was the procession of the bride and groom with their pathway lighted by maids-of-honour holding lamps to illumine their path at night. Being asked to be a light-bearer was a high honour and it was expected that you do the job well.
Something happens and the groom is delayed.
I am sure all you have sat in churches, cooling your heals waiting for a member of the wedding party to show up. Any pastor can regale his or her congregation with one horror story after another about such untoward events.
In one I was called to officiate the couple forgot the rings at the hotel and insisted that they could not exchange vows with borrowed rings. It seemed like forever until they returned. The poor organist played every piece of music he knew and some he didn’t. It was about thirty minutes of uncomfortable waiting.
Some of the bridal party, in Jesus’ story, made themselves comfortable – too comfortable. The day was moving into night and eyelids weighed down by rich food and probably an open bar were growing heavy.
Half the bridal party fell asleep. In the honour/shame society of the time it would have been seen as the greatest of insults which is why the groom reacts so unkindly to the women when they finally showed up.
He was angry because the bridesmaids had neglected their duty. They had only one responsibility – to light the way – and they failed.
By the way, this is a classic case of misplaced aggression on the part of the groom. He was the one who was late! It was his fault the wedding got delayed. But in the male dominated society of his day boys who said in the words of song sung by NPR’s Ari Shapiro “Now I’m Back” “they just went out for a snack...I was feeling famished... then I vanished, but now I’m back.” The bridegroom is back and he just can’t understand why the party isn’t immediately starting up on his return and the crowd probably agreed with him.
While we are taken aback by the severity of the groom’s reaction of slamming the door in the latecomers face every one of Jesus’ original listeners would have been nodding their heads and saying, “Serves them right.”
Neither should they have expected any help from those who had prepared. Some bridesmaids may have known the groom and known he was prone to wander whenever he felt like it so were ready for any eventuality. They had brought along enough oil to accommodate the delay but even they may have been running short.
One group asks the other for help and their request is met with derision. “They answered, ‘There might not be enough to go around; go buy your own.’”
Remember this was a first century village. There were no late night convenience stores open. These woman were in real trouble. They were in trouble with their families for whom their irresponsible actions brought shame. They were in trouble with their community whose celebration they ruined. And, they certainly were in trouble with the groom who unceremoniously slammed the door in their face.
This wedding has turned into a first class nightmare and this parable has turned into a puzzle of major proportions.
The message of Jesus’ seems only to be a harsh one. Be ready! Be prepared or else! And if you are like me you might be thinking: There had to have been other options.
One of those other options, which I had never thought of before was put forth by Aimee Moiso, a Ph.D candidate at Vanderbilt. She was really thinking out of the box when she suggested. “Light cast by a flame is not a zero-sum resource; if the oil could not be shared, surely the light of the lamps could have been.”
She suggests that instead of shrieking at each other. Instead of worrying about how much oil they have they share each other’s lamps. They walk together, side by side, hand each hand, each one holding on to each other’s torch carrying the light for and with each other.
What a wonderful idea! What a beautiful scene! The bridesmaids walking next to each other, each helping the other out, caring for each other, still lighting the way.
I honestly can’t think of a better way to apply this parable to our lives in-so-far as what Jesus is asking us to do to advance his message to the world.
Standing around keeping awake and watching for the hour that no one knows seems to be about as pleasant as a wedding reception with very few people I know on a beautiful fall afternoon.
But looking for Jesus in every moment, in every face, always watching for him, keeping awake for revelations of his presence in our lives that makes more sense to me.
Those around us don’t need boozy banquets they need our love, they need us to bear the light of Christ for them and with them. And, if they are standing in the dark with their oil running low in their physical, or emotional, or spiritual lamps they need us to hold them and love them until they can once again see the light.
When we become light-bearers and light sharers we will be the kind of people of which the kingdom of heaven is made.
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