The parable of the wise and foolish bridesmaids, as the gospel story we heard this morning is often called, does not exist in a vacuum. It’s told at the end of Matthew’s gospel. The triumphal entry of Palm Sunday took place in Chapter 21. The Last Supper takes place in Chapter 26, the crucifixion in 27, the resurrection in 28. By this time in the story Jesus has told them that the end of his earthly life is imminent, but they are looking around it doesn’t look like he’s going to finish the work of establishing the kingdom of heaven before he goes. They are sure that he must be coming back for the rest of the story, and they ask, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
It was not uncommon while I was in seminary, around the due date of a big theology paper, to hear folks joking during coffee hour, saying things like, “This would be a great day for Jesus to come back.” (I know, seminary humor is its own special category of humor.)
I remember the first couple of times I heard a joke like this I chuckled along politely, but inside I had no clue what the joke even meant, so if you’re doing that now, I’d like to think we are in good company.
The church I grew up in, a white, middle class, moderate Presbyterian church on the Space Coast of Florida, did not talk about the return of Jesus. At all. I have my original my confirmation workbook right here with me. Twenty-six lessons and none of them talk about the return of Jesus, also called “the second coming.” And to be honest – I’m pretty sure I haven’t ever taught it in confirmation either.
In all of our defense, it’s just… Hard. It’s confusing. Biblical passages that talk about the return of Jesus or the end times or what happens after all of this – they are full of metaphors, sometimes scary sounding narratives, mystical signs, and confusing symbols. We don’t know what it means, and maybe we’re even a little nervous to find out. What we have read or heard about the return of Jesus sounds like a whole lot of disruption, and frankly, many of us have it pretty good in this lifetime, so an agent of disruption isn’t someone we’re begging to come over for dinner.
And yet, this avoidance of the topic isn’t universal in the Christian tradition. There are some branches of the family tree, some traditions, some people for whom thinking about the return of Jesus is extremely important, for whom disruption of the status quo sounds like good news, very good news.
In his 1972 book, The Spirituals and the Blues, black liberation theologian James Cone talks about an African American spiritual that sings “Slavery chain done broke at last/Going to praise God till I die,” Cone wrote “this is not a ‘spiritual’ freedom; it is an eschatological freedom grounded in the events of the historical present, affirming that even now God’s future is inconsistent with the realities of slavery.”[1]
In other words, the biblical idea that Jesus will return, that he will set people free, and that he will disrupt the status quo was both very real and very, very good news to enslaved people. Likewise, it is also very good news for people today whose current reality of life is one of hardship, oppression, and seeming hopelessness. The promise that Jesus will come and right the wrongs being done by oppressors is an important part of many people’s faith.
A very different version of this “good news” developed in mid-19th century England towards the end of the Evangelical Revival. The idea, commonly talked about as the rapture, holds that the end times, accompanied by great violence and an epic battle between good and evil, could begin at any time and when they did the faithful would be suddenly lifted up into the sky without any notice to escape the coming terror of the end of the world.
A rapture mentality is one that encourages “true believers” to look at this world, our social realities, even this planet as temporary and one that is moving toward divinely-ordained destruction. The good news, in this version, is not for the oppressed, the poor, or those in bondage; instead it is only for those who have a narrow view of salvation, those who have made a profession of faith with the right formula. They will escape the punishment the rest of us will endure.
Which brings me to Matthew. Finally. (I know it’s been a long road to get here, and I thank you for hanging in there.)
Jesus and his followers are well aware at this point that their situation is getting very dangerous. They know that the Roman government is closing in on them, that what they have been teaching and preaching and doing has been deemed a threat. They have been talking about a kingdom that is not the Roman Empire, with a very different set of rules from those of the empire and with a higher authority than the Caesar. Nothing about this kingdom, this king, this authority sounds like good news to those who are in charge, but it has been the best news to those who have been under Rome’s thumb. And so, Rome is ready to put an end to Jesus in order to put an end to this kingdom.
But that’s not how his followers understood things would go. With the witness of the prophets, the memory of the exile, the formative story of the release from enslavement in Egypt, Jesus’s disciples know that God’s kingdom will not be extinguished. Therefore, even if he ends up executed, his disciples consider, he must be coming back, and soon, to finish the work of liberation and redemption. And that’s what they’ve asked him about that led us to his parable.
Jesus answers their question with quite a long discourse. He doesn’t have a lot of time, but he has a lot to say. The first part of the answer can actually sound kind of scary. There is mention of wars, famines, and earthquakes, the darkening of the sun and stars falling from heaven. But he ends this description with the statement, “But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”
And that’s when he tells the parable of the bridesmaids. This is a story that does NOT use scary imagery, but instead talks about a time of great joy and celebration – a wedding banquet. Wedding and banquet imagery is all over the Bible signaling good news. There are banquets in Isaiah where all people eat freely. There is the love poem of Song of Solomon where wedding and marriage imagery can be seen as a metaphor for God’s love of humanity. The psalms sing of times when feasts and parties will demonstrate peace and unity among all people.
Jesus is saying we may not know when, or where, or how, but a big, party of a good time – very good news – is coming. In the middle of scary events, the fulfillment of God’s promise is very good news, and it’s for this that we’re really waiting.
In the parable, it is clear that word is out that the wedding is coming. The bridesmaids have all gathered at one house to wait for the festivities that begin in the evening. According to custom the bridegroom is expected to swing by the house, and gather the maids to take them to the wedding in the evening. They’re all there. They’re ready with their lamps to light the way during the procession. If it were modern times the wedding photographer would be snapping all sorts of unposed pictures while they check their hair in the mirror, tell stories, and maybe even have a champagne toast.
But eventually it becomes clear that something is holding the bridegroom up. Ready for the evening, they go ahead and let their eyes droop shut and take a little nap. It seems harmless, and for the most part it is. When the groom eventually comes, delayed, but ready to go to the feast, they hop up and head out. There’s only one problem. Half the bridesmaids had extra oil just in case, and half of them only had just enough for everything to go exactly on time.
All of the bridesmaids were ready for the wedding, but only half of the bridesmaids were ready for the delay. Only half concerned themselves with what would need to be done if the great wedding feast and glorious celebration didn’t come exactly when they were thinking or hoping.
Jesus’s first answers talk about what it might feel like when the world feels full of disruption. But this parable talks about how we live while we wait for the promised peace. And that make it a parable of hope.
The wedding feast is coming. The preparations are underway. The tables are being set. The band is warming up. The food is about to come out of the oven. People are putting on their finery and lining up for the parade. This we can trust, and this is hope – living in way that reflects the truth that God who has been faithful will be faithful still.
Being full of hope doesn’t mean we sit back, fall asleep, and stop preparing, because we just don’t know when that great banquet will really get rolling. The disciples, I think, were assuming that day, or the next week, but from today, 2,000 years later, we can see that they were on a faster timeline than God is. We can be sure – preparations for the feast are underway. Jesus’ ministry has shown that to be true. We can point to people and communities who have been making the procession to the banquet hall by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and freeing those who are oppressed. But the culminating party has clearly been delayed. Or more likely, God was never subject to our ideas of the right time in the first place.
So the parable of the bridesmaids shows us how to live in the time when we know what’s coming, but the world doesn’t yet reflect that reality, how to live with the hope that what has been promised, what has already been started, is coming, AND it’s something we can be a part of while we wait. Not only can be, but we are called to be. Hope doesn’t mean we look at the state of our world and fall asleep, thinking, “Oh, God will take care of it another day.” Or “I’ve got my salvation; I don’t need to worry about the state of this world.” Hope doesn’t mean we can close ourselves off to the pain of the world and wait for Jesus to magically rescue us before it gets worse.
Hope means we stay ready.
Hope means we do what we can to prepare for that banquet, because who knows when the bridegroom might get a flat tire, who knows when the caterer will get lost.
Hope means we get ready by staying ready and working even now for the promised future all of creation will one day enjoy.
Hope means we actively participate in the work of the kingdom Jesus demonstrated, so that little by little, the good news that he proclaimed will feed his people, even before doors to the party fling open.
How can your living reflect the hope of the good news?
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[1] James C. Cone, The Spirituals and the Blues: An Interpretation (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press Publishers, 1972), 44 – found in https://liminaltheology.org/2021/02/17/the-negro-spirituals-as-a-form-of-theology-in-the-invisible-institution-part-2/#_ftn18