On this 5th Sunday of the “Second Coming” we contemplate the beautiful parable of the ten virgins. What is interesting about this story is that all the virgins took their lamps to meet the bridegroom. If you looked at these virgins, they all looked the same. You would have assumed they were prepared for the arrival of the bridegroom. However, as you see having a lamp was not enough. With no oil the lamp was virtually useless. This leads to an important question. Are you focused on what the outside of the lamp looks like or do you care what’s inside the lamp? In the Bible oil represents the Holy Spirit so the question of real importance is are you full of the Holy Spirit? And to be filled with the Holy Spirit, is to be filled with what is God’s.
The second point to highlight from the parable of the 10 virgins is what it takes to be ready for his coming. As we mentioned earlier the biggest part of being ready is about being filled with the Holy Spirit. By the way this requires more than just Sunday morning. It’s what do you do the rest of the week that matters the most. If it is to be compared with our daily life. The weekdays are our labor and trade, our readiness to receive the Lord. While the Sunday celebration is the actual wedding feast to which we are invited. Here is the question: Are we ready for that wedding on Sunday? Our growth in Christ will happen most outside of church. This is where you prepare your heart to be ready for Jesus’ coming. Clearly the ones who took extra oil were prepared and ready for his coming. Those who didn’t were not. So even though they looked prepared in reality they weren’t ready for the bridegroom. This is how it will be when Jesus returns. Unfortunately, many will look prepared because they have lamps, but they won’t be prepared because they have no oil.
I think one of the most stunning statements in this entire story is verse 12. “But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’” Imagine the virgins hearing these words and the shock when they were hit with this reality. This is not the first time Jesus used this phrase of I don’t know you. If you remember on the Sermon on the Mount, he said on that day there will be many people who had done things in Jesus’ name. Yet his response to them will be, “depart from me I never knew you.” (Matthew 7:23). This leads me to believe the greatest question in life is not do you know Jesus? The greatest question in life is does Jesus know you?
