And The Door Was Shut

Introduction

Life is not always easy, is it? I heard the story of two ranchers who were talking to each other. A big Texas rancher and a Missouri farmer were talking. The Texas rancher said, "I can get into my truck, drive all day and never leave my ranch!"

Yeah?" the Missouri farmer replied. "I had a truck like that one time."

No, life is not always easy. Hour by hour we are being tested. No life is so sheltered as to be free from emergencies. For the least adventurous of us, the roads are forking every day. Where we are today often depends upon the turn we took yesterday. These day-by-day decisions that we are compelled to make may bring us tragedy. They may rob us of our dearest treasures and shut the door to the feast of life in our faces. But such need not be the case. Our emergencies may be made to minister to our joy and strength. They may fill our hands with priceless wealth and fling wide the door to life's richest feast.

Now whether our tests bring us joy or sorrow, want or wealth, depends upon our readiness to meet them. It is they that are ready that go into the feast. In the face of all others, the door is shut, and neither man nor God can open it.

It is to enforce this truth that Jesus gives us the parable of the Ten Bridesmaids. It is a gripping story, told as only he could tell it. It is full of triumph and tragedy, laughter and tears.

Read with me Matthew 25:1-13.

In a village in Palestine a wedding was a great occasion. The whole village turned out to accompany the couple to their new home, and they went by the longest possible road, in order that they might receive the glad good wishes of as many as possible. "Everyone," runs the Jewish saying, "from six to sixty will follow the marriage drum." The rabbis agreed that a man might even abandon the study of the law to share in the joy of a wedding feast.

Now the point of this story lies in a Jewish custom, which is very different from anything, which we know. When a couple married in Palestine, they did not go away for a honeymoon. They stayed at home and for a week they kept open house. They were treated, and even addressed, as a prince and princess. It was the happiest week of their lives. To the festivities of that week their chosen friends were admitted, and it was not only the marriage ceremony, it was also that joyous week that the foolish virgins missed, because they were unprepared.

One of the great things to do, if you could, at a middle-class wedding in Palestine, was to catch the

bridal party napping. So the bridegroom would come unexpectedly, and sometimes in the middle of the night. It is true that he was required by public opinion to send a man along the street to shout: "Behold! The bridegroom is coming!" but that could happen at any time; so the bridal party had to be ready to go out into the street at any time to meet him, whenever he chose to come...Other important points are that no one was allowed on the streets after dark without a lighted lamp, and also that, when the bridegroom has once arrived, and the door has been shut, latecomers to the ceremony are not admitted.

Jesus shows us ten lovely girls who are expecting to take part in a marriage ceremony. "The kingdom of heaven is like unto ten virgins who took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom." What a fascinating picture they present! Let's look at this interesting picture.

I. They All Seem Seem Equally Joyous And Equally Charming

They all seem equally prepared to participate in the happy event just ahead. But Jesus says that such is not the case. He sees more deeply than we. He, therefore, divides them into two groups - "Five of them were wise and five were foolish." But this difference is not evident to us. As we see them, I repeat, they seem very much alike. In many respects, they are alike.

They are alike outwardly. We cannot look at one girl and say: "This one is wise because she is dressed in a manner befitting the occasion, while her foolish sister is not." They are all in wedding attire, and so far as we know, the wise are dressed no better than the foolish. No more can we distinguish between them by any difference in their equipment. If the wise have lamps, so also do the foolish. And here again, so far as we can see, the lamps of the wise are no better than the lamps of the foolish.

Both the wise and the foolish are alike in their intentions. They are all in the grip of the same  purpose. They all thrill to the same expectation. Had we said to one of the wise, "Do you expect to enter in and enjoy the marriage feast when the bridegroom comes?" She would have answered with conviction, "Indeed I do! That is the reason I am dressed as I am. That is the reason I have my lamp." Had we asked one of the foolish this same question, she would have doubtless given the same answer. These foolish girls had not the least thought of sobbing in the dark outside the banquet hall and of pounding on the closed door. They are all alike in their intentions.

Here their likeness ends. While they are alike outwardly, while they are all professing to be going as torchbearers, and while they are alike in their knowledge and ignorance and in their intentions, there is this fundamental difference: one group is possessed of a readiness for the coming of the bridegroom, while the other is without this readiness. There is no doubt that they intend to get ready at some time. But the tragedy is that their good intentions are never put into practice. The coming of the bridegroom, therefore, finds them unprepared. It is this unreadiness that constitutes the folly of the foolish. It is readiness that constitutes the wisdom of the wise. It is the ready and the unready that we meet in this story. It is the ready and the unready that make up the congregation, and the city, and the world.

II. The Next Scene Shows Us The Outcome Of This Difference

It resulted then, as it always does, in a difference of destiny. One group goes into the marriage feast, the other finds the door shut in their faces. How vivid it is! "At midnight there was a cry made: Behold, the bridegroom! Go ye out to meet him." Then we see all these girls awaken and rub the sleep from their eyes. They hurriedly light their lamps. But while the lamps of the wise burn brightly, those of the foolish begin to sputter and to go out. "Give us some of your oil," these cry in utter dismay, "our lamps are going out." "Not so," the wise answer, "lest there be not enough for us and you; but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves." And while they went to buy, that is, while they were still in search of the oil that they never did obtain, the bridegroom came. And they that were ready went in  with him to the marriage, and the door was shut.

The lesson of the story is that we may wait so long that we cannot obtain the needed oil. We may

refuse to seek for Christlikeness until goodness ceases to appeal to us and life's supreme emergency finds us unready. Nor are we to conclude that these foolish girls were unready because the bridegroom, coming at the unseemly hour of midnight, took them by surprise. They were no more surprised than the wise. The readiness required has nothing to do with the knowledge of the time of the bridegroom's coming. The way to get ready for tomorrow is to do our best today.

Nor are we to blame the wise because they did not share their oil with the foolish. I am aware that the answer that they give to their terrified sisters, when they are appealed to for help, sounds a bit smug and selfish. But those treasures that are of supreme value are not in this sense transferable. Christlike character, which oil represents here, cannot be slipped from your hand into mine like a coin, however passionately I might desire such a gift when some hour of desperate crisis is upon me.

It cannot be done, however. Our state, our spiritual condition is the result of our decisions. We cannot fool ourselves into thinking that we have plenty of time or that we can slide into home on someone else's hit.

This parable, if it teaches anything, teaches that we are to be prepared now for God's work. The bridegroom may come in the year 25,000 or He may come next year. Either way, those who are wise will find themselves ready. How? How can we be sure our "lamps are full?" By accepting the Lord as our Savior and Master...by daily recommitting our life to Him.

 

Jesus tells us "Be prepared." There is no sound so horrible as Jesus saying, "Too late."

 

How can we make sure that we are prepared? How can we make sure that we would never hear Jesus say, "Too late?" I believe the answer to this is worship. We need to embrace the Bible as the truth. It must be an intellectual acceptance, but also it must be a faith acceptance. When we accept it as the authority over our lives both intellectually and by faith, then we approach worship very differently. The Bible tells us the truth of what is to come. It tells us the truth of how our lives must be lived. When we ignore that truth, we are not worshipping and we do not come to corporate worship with any sense of honesty. When we do, then we can come prepared. One of the things that we expect at our church is that when you come to worship you come as a part of an overall life of worship. We must honor Him through worship and embracing the truth. Let's ask ourselves the questions, "Have I embraced the Bible as the truth? Have I accepted the Bible as the authority over my life? Do I spend time daily in reading the Bible?" If that is true, then you will be like the five wise young women who were ready and prepared for that which Christ sent their way. When you come to this place in worship, are you prepared and ready, through a life of worship?