Matthew 25:1-13
Let’s help as many people be wise as we can. Let’s help as many people as we can find Jesus Christ. Let’s help as many people as we can in these strange times know what it is to be loved by Jesus so that when the time comes they will be invited into the wedding banquet.
[automatically transcribed]
In the name of the father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. And so once again, we hear Matthew talking to the Jewish people, this gospel, particularly helping Jewish people understand what it means to be a Christian in light of the law and in light of the coming of Jesus Christ, and here, Matthew is giving us the words of Jesus to help the Jewish people understand that they need to be ready for the second coming, that they need to be prepared for Jesus coming again.
And the gospel writers and the New Testament writers particularly thought that that was going to be something that was going to happen fairly immediately. And so the idea of being prepared is at the heart of quite a lot of the New Testament being prepared for the second coming of Jesus Christ. It’s a hard gospel, it’s a difficult one because it offers us a very stark message. It says that if you’re not prepared, if you are foolish. Then Jesus will deny you “truly, I tell you, I do not know you”.
So what’s going on here? What is Jesus telling us through the gospel of Matthew about the ten women with their lamps and the five foolish ones and the five wise ones?
We’re being told that we have to think ahead, that we have to consider where our lives are now because we don’t know when the bridegroom – when Jesus – will come again. We do not know when we will stand in front of Jesus Christ in that final judgment. And so we are being called to live our lives, as Matthew teaches us so much in the parables before this one, to live good Holy Christian lives bathed in the love of Jesus. To live our lives as the Beatitudes called us to last week, to live our lives in charity, to live our lives in love, to reach out to those who are in pain and to lift them up to the Lord, to reach out to those who don’t know Jesus Christ, to reach out to them and lift them up to the Lord because we love them so much.
That when the time comes. We want their lamps to be full of oil. And we can’t do that for them. That is something that they have to do themselves, we cannot fill their oil lamps for them. We have to bring them to Jesus Christ. We have to bring them to church and say, here are the things. Here is what you can do to come to know Jesus Christ better – open your heart, be baptised, accept Jesus Christ into your heart, and have a relationship with him every single day.
We can point people to that. But we can never force them. We could never do it for them. Our mission here at Saint Anselm is to be rooted in scripture and sacrament, which we do day in, day out. We read scripture every single day. Mass is celebrated every single day. We are rooted in the parish – that means to the physicality of this place around us because we are surrounded by people who do not know Jesus Christ and we are rooted in the love of proclaiming Jesus Christ.
We bring those people here to this place, even now in lockdown, even now in these times, perhaps now more so than ever. our job is to show people that Jesus is here for them, all they need to do is turn to him, all they need to do is fill their lamps with oil.
And I’m reminded of that hymn, as I say it, give me all in my lamp, keep me burning, give me oil in my lamp I pray, give me oil in my lamp keep me burning… Well, I wish now I thought of that before this sermon and put it in for us to sing because what a hymn!
We can give people all of the things that they need to have a relationship with Jesus, but it is up to you each and every one of you. It is up to each and every person to turn to Jesus themselves.
Let’s help as many people be wise as we can. Let’s help as many people as we can find Jesus Christ. Let’s help as many people as we can in these strange times know what it is to be loved by Jesus so that when the time comes they will be invited into the wedding banquet.
Amen.