Till Debt does us part.
Ponderings on a Parable.
The parable of the Ten Bridesmaids, as recorded in Matthew 25, starts in a unique way. Jesus continues his outline of the End of the World, as related in the previous chapter, a time when suddenly everything goes haywire, simply with three words: “at that time.” How do we know that ‘the End is near?’ We don’t. Everything is completely normal, because ‘at that time’ people get married and life goes on as if nothing is the matter. No warning whatsoever that time is up.
We know the parable of the five wise and five foolish bridesmaids. If I were to film this scene I would see ten excited young women, each having done her best to look pretty, but still a bit unsure how they would compare to the chosen. Only when they had examined how the others were attired, did they feel better and more at ease.
To me they all look equally qualified. But somehow Jesus makes a definite distinction: five he calls foolish, five he calls wise. That’s one thing I found questionable because the foolish were labeled that way because they had not taken extra oil along.
Question: What would you have done? Look at it realistically. Use your common sense. The wedding is at three o’clock, the party is somewhat later, but certainly it’s all over before midnight, because tomorrow is another busy day. The lights are needed for that short trip to the wedding hall, so, until that time the lamps are trimmed low. With a full tank there’ll be plenty of oil, with fuel to spare. After all, the Bridegroom is known to be a punctual man, so why take along extra jars of that stinking and expensive kerosene? Suppose that the heavy jug would break and spill its contents all over the new dress. These containers weren’t like the metal or plastic ones we have: no, they were frail, cumbersome and weighty. Mother was right: just to carry a lamp with a full tank would be enough. Also, how to bring along the presents when one hand is needed to carry the light and another for the extra oil? I agree with the so-called foolish maidens. Their action made perfect sense.
“But,” says Jesus, “the five wise women took the trouble of lugging these heavy jars with them.” Why would they do this? How could they properly attend to their task preparing the bride, and also the extra wine and food? That smelly stuff could easily mix with the other provisions! Nothing could be more impractical. Those who Jesus called ‘wise’ do things totally beyond the call of duty, needlessly complicating their lives. To me the foolish made much more sense.
What had Jesus in mind when he called the practical teens foolish and the overcautious wise?
Going to church is a bit like going to a wedding: it can be compared to the normal supply of oil. But we all know there is more to going to church or meeting the Bridegroom than routine matters. That’s why the super-cautious-oil bottle- bearing women are called wise. They are prepared for more, and they probably don’t even know what that more is. However, they found this out when the Bridegroom took long in coming, signaling that the End times are different, requiring the unexpected. That is plain from the context of this parable, which is set after Matthew 24, which has as its heading, “Sign of the End of Age” and “The Day and Hour of Jesus’ Return Unknown.”
Jesus, after a long sermon on the final days of humanity, spoke this parable. He began, “At this particular moment, at the End of Days”. That could mean ‘Now.’ Today too there are two kinds of people: foolish and wise, people who think that science will save us and those who expect Jesus to come. Jesus also knew that at the End of Days oil and debt would be a key element in the world. Jesus has a perfect overview of history from the embryo beginnings to the pollution- saturated end. Then and now he delayed his coming, with the result that the young girls, exhausted after extending their teenage chatter well beyond their usual bedtime (which was at sun down as oil was too expensive to use), turned the wedding feast into a slumber party. All ten sacked out on the couches.
Then, finally, at midnight, there was a cry, “There comes the Bridegroom. Wake up to meet him.”
The parable portrays the practical reality of life: the unexpected does happen. It happens all the time. Fish stocks collapse. Ozone layers disappear. Entire regions lose their pine trees to a tiny beetle. Arctic ice is melting at a record rate. Suddenly the doomsters have substantial evidence for their message. The unexpected does happen. Before you realize the Lord is there, still quite unexpected while we slumber the time away.
“Then all the maidens rose and trimmed their lamps.” They straightened out their dresses, quickly combed their rumpled hair, turned to their lamps and five of them discovered that they have practically run out of oil. They are no longer ready to welcome the Bridegroom. All the wick-trimming in the world, all the shaking and trying is useless: their lights are dead: the oil is gone. The always reliable, punctual bridegroom was late for his own party.
What does this all mean?
Well, listen to the rest of the parable.
“And the foolish said to the wise, “Give as some of your oil, for our lights are going out.” But the wise replied, “Perhaps there will not be enough for us and you. Go to the fuel dealer and buy some.”
How is that for a Christian answer? Aren’t we supposed to share things with others? Try to buy some fuel at midnight!
That was another mystery for me. For a long time I really did not know what to think of that rather snotty reply. Now I think there comes a time that we have to shrug our shoulders and go our own way. “There is a time for everything, a time to be born and a time to die,” says Ecclesiastes, “a time to share and a time to refrain from sharing.” The parable suggests that a day will come when it will be too late to reform society. I think we have reached a point in world development where it is too late to turn the ecological balance in the world, too late to reform the ecclesiastical situation, too late to revamp the economic structures, too late to change the political system. Now matters everywhere have their own inevitable momentum, leading to total chaos and anarchy and to Jesus’ return.
It’s on that note that the parable ends. “While they went to buy, the Bridegroom came, and those who had the extra oil went with him into the marriage feast and the door was shut. Their debt was paid. When the others came, knocked and said, ‘Lord, open up.’ But he said, ‘Sorry, I don’t know you, your debt is not paid.” Suddenly there is a parting of ways, due to debt.
Isn’t that a strange reply? The Lord doesn’t say, “I have never called you, or I have never loved you.” No, he says, “Listen, you have never bothered to get to know me. You never really took the time to seriously find out what I really stand for. You ignored my signature on creation, turning your pious pronouncement of “hallowed be thy name” into a blasphemy. You forgot that to be my follower is to love creation for whose redemption I died. That’s why I now reject you. You followed the commonly accepted, pragmatic way. Sorry, I now don’t know you.”
It’s difficult to learn about God’s Kingdom/Creation. In this age of instant solutions, instant heating and cooling, we expect instant salvation and an instant Jesus. Life doesn’t work that way: a marriage, a faith, a friendship, one’s life in Christ takes a long time maturing. Jesus has come late to give us more opportunity to see what is good and what is bad in this world, so that we can avoid errors later.
In this late hour of our present civilization, the remaining time is of the utmost essence. How do I utilize this last hour before entering the wedding hall?
There is a curious word in the last verse of Matthew 5. The Greek word there is teleios, which is translated as ‘perfect: “Be perfect as my Father is perfect.” Of course, we can’t be perfect. But we can be ‘teleios’, of which a better translation is ‘all inclusive’, ‘holistic’, having the ‘telos’ (the Greek word for End) in mind. In everything we do we must contemplate its final destination: will it pollute and so help Satan who wants to destroy creation, or will it help the coming of the Kingdom, the New Creation.’
The parable shows that the End times are different for Christians, requiring a different view on life. We must – the church must- explore ways to understand the creation-killing life style we are engaged in - and which leads to death for all - and try alternatives, so that we can prepare ourselves for Life Eternal.
Perhaps, given the urban world we live in, all we can do is to constantly make an effort to understand what we are doing and have done to God’s earth, try to make amends, and pray for forgiveness where we fail, knowing that Jesus paid the debt and made us free.
“At that time.” We don’t know the day and the hour. But we can read the signs of the times: they are very clear to those who have their eyes open to the happenings out there. The Lord uses such phrases as ‘I come like a thief in the night.’ Revelation too shows the suddenness of the event with civilizations fully engaged in trading and manufacturing.
Be prepared. There will be a time of reckoning when debt does us part, when the wise and the foolish go separate ways.
