Matthew 25:1-13 - Homiletics

The parable of the ten virgins.

I. THEY GO FORTH .

1 . The kingdom of heaven. Here, as elsewhere, that kingdom is the visible Church. But the present parable seems to relate to a part only of the kingdom, a portion of the Church. There may possibly be no spiritual significance in the word "virgins." Like the number ten, perhaps a common number at such times, it may belong merely to the structure, the imagery of the parable; young unmarried women were and are usually attendants of the bride (comp. Psalms 45:14 ). But these virgins all alike took their lamps; all alike went forth to meet the Bridegroom; all too had oil in their lamps, though not all had a store of oil in their vessels also. Then all were something more than nominal Christians; all had, in some sense, come out of the world, and had gone to meet the Bridegroom. There are no hypocrites in the parable, no openly wicked and disobedient men. This consideration gives it a very awful meaning; it is not enough to have been once awakened, there is need of constant persevering watchfulness. The parable embodies and enforces the lesson of the last chapter, "Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come." The virgins all had lamps; the lamp seems to represent the outward Christian life of worship and obedience which is seen by the eye of men. They all had oil in their lamps; the oil is the Holy Spirit of God. They all went forth to meet the Bridegroom. The Bridegroom, of course, is Christ; he had come from heaven to fetch home his bride the Church. Lange well remarks, in his commentary, "As it respects the relations of the virgins to the bride, we must bear in mind the analogy of the marriage supper of the king's son and his guests. The Church, in her aggregate and ideal unity, is the bride; the members of the Church, as individually called, are guests; in their separation from the world, and expectation of Christ's coming, they are his virgins." The bride is not mentioned in this parable. It describes not the Church as a whole, but its individual members; not all its members, but those only who have been once awakened, who have at least begun to come after Christ, and have made some progress, more or less, in the way of godliness. In the visible Church the evil are ever mingled with the good, and among those who seem to be good there are always some whose "goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away." So among these virgins who all went forth to meet the Bridegroom, there were five wise, but the remaining five were foolish.

2 . The differences which exist among its citizens. All the virgins took their lamps; all the lamps were burning as they went forth. Outwardly there was no observable difference among them; but the foolish took no oil with them; the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. It is not enough to have been "once enlightened;" we may not dare put our trust in the grace once given in holy baptism, or in what may seem to have been the change of repentance and conversion. The foolish virgins went forth to meet the Bridegroom. They had their lamps; and the lamps were not empty or dark, they were burning, they had oil in them. Then even the foolish were using the means of grace, they had been made "partakers of the Holy Ghost" ( Hebrews 6:4 ), they seemed to be living Christian lives, they had made some real progress. But they took no oil with them; they acted as if the lamps, once lighted, would burn on forever; they had no store of oil for future use. They had "the washing of regeneration;" they delighted in their past experience, and trusted in it as if they had all that was needed for their spiritual life. They had not "the renewing of the Holy Ghost." Their lamps burned brightly for a time; all seemed well, but they had not brought their vessels, flasks of oil, to supply their lamps. Perhaps the vessels were cumbrous, heavy to carry; plain, too, not striking in appearance; they made no show like the burning lamp. These virgins were like the seed that was sown upon the rock. They heard the Word, and at once received it with joy, but they had no root. They were wanting in perseverance, in watchfulness. They did not keep in their minds the thought that, though the Bridegroom might come at any moment, yet he might long delay; that there was need of daily preparation, of constant watchfulness, for his coming. The wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. They knew that it was not safe to trust to the grace of their baptism, to a flush of excitement, to past experience, however precious; they counted not themselves to have apprehended; they forgot what was behind, and ever reached forth unto those things which were before; they sought in persevering prayer and daily self-denials, and the constant faithful use of the appointed means of grace for "the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ." The Spirit is the holy oil, the oil with which the Lord himself was anointed ("God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost," Acts 10:38 ), the "unction from the Holy One," which is given to all his faithful servants; that anointing abideth in them, and teacheth them ( 1 John 2:27 ) because they "stir up the Gift of God that is in them," not quenching the Spirit, as careless slothful Christians do, but treasuring in their hearts that sacred Gift, striving always to grow in grace, to walk in the Spirit, to mind the things of the Spirit, to be filled with the Spirit, to increase in the Holy Spirit more and more. We must treasure the sacred oil, the Divine anointing; we must seek for its daily renewing. We shall not seek in vain if we seek in persevering prayer. "My Father will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him."

3 . The protracted absence of the King. The Bridegroom tarried. The end was not yet; the second advent was not so near at hand as was almost universally expected in the early Church. The Bridegroom tarried; the time of waiting was long—longer much than men had thought. The first excitement passed away, some had left their first love, the love of most was growing cold. Drowsiness seized the virgins in their watch; first they bowed their heads in slumber, then they were all sleeping. So it is now. Many true Christian souls have been gathered to their fathers, to the countless multitude of the departed, since this parable was spoken; through the grace of the Lord Jesus they have been laid to sleep in the quiet rest of Paradise. In another sense those who are now living upon the earth slumber and sleep in the eye of God; the vigilance of the most earnest is but as sleep compared with that constant and intent watchfulness which is the ideal of the Christian life. We ought to live as men waiting for their Lord, our loins ever girded, our lamps ever burning, in daily expectation of his coming, in constant readiness to meet him. Alas! we slumber and sleep; we forget the first fervour of our conversion; our religious exercises are performed as a matter of routine, sometimes almost unconsciously, without energy, without that deep and awful sense of their immense importance which ought to fill the heart of every Christian. The shades of difference among Christians are innumerable: some are utterly careless; some rouse themselves from time to time to thought and real effort; some try by the power of faith and prayer to keep themselves in the love of God, and to love the appearing of the Saviour. But none realize to the full the tremendous necessity of watchfulness; none live in that fixed attention, in that constant looking unto Jesus, in that full preparedness, in that daily and hourly anticipation of the Saviour's coming, which we should regard as the true Christian frame of mind, to which we should strive to approximate nearer and nearer, in all humility and self-distrust, not counting ourselves to have attained, but ever pressing forward. Alas! as the Lord looks upon the Churches, they all in various degrees are seen to slumber and sleep.

II. THE KING IS AT HAND .

1 . The midnight cry. It came suddenly, in the dead of night. The long expected Bridegroom was coming now, coming in his glory, coming with all his angel train to take unto himself his chosen bride. So one day the Lord will come with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; so now the hour of death cometh upon us one by one, when we are not looking for it, when we are sleeping, engaged in this world's business or amusement, thinking nothing of the awful change which is at hand. Suddenly we seem to hear a cry—a cry that thrills through our hearts, "Prepare to meet thy God!"

2 . The awakening. Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. All heard the midnight cry; all prepared to meet the Bridegroom. When death is at hand, when the thought of the Lord's speedy coming is borne with power into the soul, a man looks into his own heart. We must remember that this parable relates only to Christians who have led in various degrees a religious life. Men who have never felt religious impressions, who are without any spiritual experience, are often so hardened by the deceitfulness of sin that they slumber on, dying as they lived, without the sense of sin, without the fear of God, and never waking till they pass out of this world into his most awful presence. But those who have been believers in any real sense must hear that solemn cry. They ask themselves, they are forced to ask whether they will or no—What is their religion? Is it true? is it real? is it deep? They all want their repentance deepened, their faith confirmed, their love to God increased, kindled to a holier affection, to a more trustful confidence. All the virgins trimmed their lamps, they all sought to prepare themselves to meet the bridegroom. But there was a difference. The foolish virgins felt now the want of those vessels which they had heedlessly left—the want of that oil which they had neglected to provide. When they awoke to a sense of the Bridegroom's near approach, they found, alas! that their lamps were going out; there was still a faint, flickering flame; but it was dying, almost gone, and, alas! they had no oil to replenish the empty lamp. So dying men feel when they are not ready; they feel that their religion has not been deep and real; it has been too much a thing of words and outward forms, with some excitement of the feelings now and then; but it has taken no deep hold upon the character, it has not sunk into the heart. They felt some interest in religion once; they made a little progress; it was enough to give them some comfort under ordinary circumstances; but ah! not enough to support them now in the presence of the king of terrors; it is weak, it fails them at the last; their lamp is being quenched, they have almost quenched the Spirit by their spiritual indolence. (The Greek word here rendered "going out" and that translated "quench" in 1 Thessalonians 5:19 are the same.) In their distress they send for the clergyman, for some Christian friend; but ah! it is little that they can do. "There is not enough," the wise virgins answered, "for us and for you." Each man must have that sacred oil in his own vessel, in his own heart and character. He must have bought it too; it must be bought of him who sells without money and without price. "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire,…and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed;… and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see." The precious oil must be bought with prayer, with strong, persevering, faithful prayer; it must be treasured in the heart; it must so fill the character that by the grace of God it becomes our own, our very own, and cannot be taken from us. One man cannot give that holy oil to another—only God can give it; one man cannot save another's soul only God can save us. The wise virgins did all that they could for their companions—they bade them go to them that sell. All that we can do is to point the sinner to Christ: "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!" Sinners must come to him in their need; they must buy of him as he counsels them, and that for themselves. Others cannot buy the precious oil for them; it must be bought with their own prayers, their own crying and tears.

3 . The coming of the Bridegroom. The warning was short; there was little time to prepare; very soon the Bridegroom came. Then they that were ready went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut. The wise virgins were ready; they had been slumbering, but they had oil in their vessels. Christian men may be taken unawares; death may come suddenly upon them; the Lord may come suddenly; but, if they have been living in faith and prayer, they will be able, so to speak, to put themselves at once into an attitude of devotion. Such men are filled with the Spirit; the Spirit is there, ready to make intercession for them with groanings that cannot be uttered. They can rouse themselves at once into preparedness; they are ready to say their "Nunc dimittis," for they have been waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and their eyes have seen the salvation of the Lord. The wise virgins were ready; they went in with the Bridegroom to the marriage.

4 . The door was shut. It is open now; penitent sinners may enter; penitent sinners have entered in multitudes—David and Peter, and she who had sinned much, to whom much was forgiven. It is open to all who are ready, who are cleansed by the purifying influences of the blessed Spirit, by the pervading virtue of the sacred oil, from the defilement of sin. But the time will come when it must be shut; it was shut to those foolish virgins when they returned. They had not found the oil, we may be sure; but they cried in their despair, "Lord, Lord, open to us!" Alas! it was too late. He answered, "I know you not." The Lord knoweth those that are his; he knows them every one. "I know mine own, as the Father knoweth me." He knows them with the knowledge of Divine love, of intimate affectionate communion. He knoweth not thus those who have lived without persevering prayer, who have left their first love, who have not kept themselves in the love of Cod, building themselves up on their most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost. "I know you not," he said. The words are not so dreadful as the awful condemnation of the slothful servant in the next parable, or of those that were set on the left hand in the prophecy of the judgment; it may be, we cannot tell, that they denote a milder doom. But this is a subject involved in the very deepest mystery. It is enough for us if we feel the exceeding awfulness of those words, "The door was shut," and take into our hearts the solemn warning of the Lord, "Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh." It must be very dreadful to be found unprepared, even if the lamp is not quite gone out, even if it had been burning brightly once. Very dreadful it must be to pray, "Lord, Lord, open to us!" and to obtain no answer save those awful words, "I know you not;" dreadful exceedingly, even if those words do not imply the extremest condemnation; still more dreadful—dreadful beyond the reach of thought, if they do mean perpetual exclusion from the presence of God in the great outer darkness. Therefore watch—watch and pray always.

LESSONS .

1 . It is not enough to belong to the visible Church. We must grow in grace.

2 . We must pray daily for the renewing of the Holy Ghost.

3 . We must examine ourselves daily, not leave self-examination to the hour of sickness and approaching death.

4 . The Lord cometh suddenly; therefore watch.