Title: Wise saints, prepare oil! / Matthew 25:1~13
Contents - Wise saints, prepare oil! -(Matthew 25:1~13)
A man approached John Wesley, who is widely known to us as the founder of Methodism, and asked this question.
"If you were going to die tomorrow at 12 o'clock, what would you prepare for today? To this question, Wesley answered, "Well, what do you need to prepare? You are preparing every day, what are you going to prepare again? Just living as usual.
If you live like this and die at 12 o'clock at night, you will wake up in heaven the next morning."
I think a true Christian is a person who does not need to make any special preparations, whether they die today or tomorrow, and who is always ready to obey when the Lord calls them.
As Jesus concludes his public life, which has only the next day, he tells what will happen to his people at the end of this world and how they should live until chapter 24.
And in chapter 25, He tells the parable of the ten virgins, the parable of the talents, and the sheep and the goats in sequence.
Today, the ten virgins appearing as the protagonists of this parable are the bride's friends and the bridesmaids who must greet the groom.
In a typical wedding ceremony, the bride is the main character who must greet the groom, but in order to emphasize that all believers must welcome Jesus, the bridegroom, the number ten is used in the text to introduce ten virgins.
It was evening and the bride's friends were preparing to welcome the groom.
However, an unexpected problem arose that the groom arrived late.
All the virgins who were anxiously waiting for the late groom began to nodded.
But the groom arrived unexpectedly in the middle of the night.
At the shout of the bridegroom's arrival, the ten virgins jumped up, trimmed their hair, neatly adjusted their clothes, and grabbed their backs, but another big problem arose.
It had run out of oil from the lamp it had left on knowing it was coming soon, so it needed some oil to keep it burning.
The five virgins searched the baskets for spare oil, but the other five did not have spare oil.
So the virgins rushed out to buy oil.
Unfortunately, before they returned, the bridegroom went inside, and the door to the banquet hall was firmly shut.
While the feast was in full swing, five late arrivals knocked on the door, but the bridegroom did not open the door to those who did not know who the bridegroom was.
The “groom” that appears here covers “Jesus himself” and means “waiting for the groom means waiting for the second coming of Jesus”.
Also, “ten virgins” refer to “the saints of this earth who know Jesus and are waiting for the return of Jesus according to the words of Jesus.”
And the 'wedding feast' refers to the 'completed heavenly feast'.
And 'the door is closed' means "excluded from the completed heaven"
The question is, what determined their fate in this parable today.
The only condition was whether or not extra oil was prepared.
The ten virgins are in the same situation in that they slept because of longing and tiredness waiting for the bridegroom.
The only problem was that he could not enter the wedding feast because there was no extra oil.
So, at the heart of today's parable of the ten virgins lies in what the oil symbolizes.
The most compelling argument is the interpretation that "oil" refers to "good deeds."
It can be seen that good works are emphasized even when looking at the end-time sermons from Matthew 23 to 25 (Matthew 23:3, 25:45) and the entire Gospel of Matthew.
You can find out through the contents of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, 6, and 7 (especially 5:15) and Matthew 10:32, 33.
However, by interpreting “oil” as “good deeds” in this way, we are immediately asked, “Doesn’t our salvation depend on “our good deeds”?
Our salvation depends entirely on faith in Jesus Christ by the grace of God.
The problem, however, is that we must admit that the whole Gospel of Matthew emphasizes this good deed.
Therefore, this faith must be a faith that is manifested in "good works, that is, beautiful and good fruits" in the sight of God.
Matthew reiterates this point over and over again. The good deeds that Matthew is emphasizing now are not good deeds for salvation through humanistic actions that humans have achieved on their own, but “good deeds as fruits” that presupposes faith in Jesus Christ.
Perfect faith in the sight of God and people must be the faith that is manifested in the life of a believer.
Therefore, the five virgins who could not attend the bridegroom's wedding banquet because they did not prepare the oil were a life of false faith that did not allow them to live the life that the Lord, the Judge, acknowledged.
Then, what kind of action does our Lord require of "beautiful good deeds as the fruit of faith"?
It is the light that Jesus speaks of, the life as salt.
Just as light burns itself to illuminate the dark surroundings, so salt melts itself, prevents it from rotting and gives flavor to life.
In other words, it means a life of self-denial, taking up one's cross, sacrificing, serving, and devoting oneself.
The night before his arrest, Jesus himself wrapped a towel around his waist, poured water into a basin, and knelt in front of a human being.
He washed the feet of those filthy people who crucified Himself with the two hands that were to be nailed and torn because of human sin.
This is the kind of life that our Lord asks and asks of us today.
If we confess that we love Jesus and praise Him, we must live the life that Jesus lived with joy.
A person who truly loves the Lord is not just confessing with his lips, but obedience to the Word with a heart that truly loves the Lord, and lives with sacrifice and service.
Those of us who live in preparation for the Lord's Second Coming must be prepared, "The oil of beautiful good deeds must be prepared.
Even when suffering comes, we are despised and ridiculed, we must show ourselves as a life of devotion that walks on the path of the cross that the Lord walked in faith.
Just as the bridegroom came in the middle of the night unexpectedly, even if our Lord calls us at unexpected times, I hope that all the wise saints will be ready to go to the Lord at any time.