IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 146

YES, HE is Talking to YOU! (continued)

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

We come now to the Parable of the Ten Virgins which is also known as the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins. This parable is among the least understood of all the parables of the Master; it is classified by some as eschatological but by its very nature and starting point it is a parable about the Kingdom of God as well. The parable goes thus:

“Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said , Verily I say unto you, I know you not. Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour where in the Son of man cometh” (Matthew 25:1-13).

Much of the commentary on this parable has Christ in the role of the bridegroom; this, from The John Darby’s Synopsis of the New Testament⁸, should suffice to show the fundamental Christian idea regarding this in few words: Professors, during the Lord’s absence, are here presented as virgins, who went out to meet the Bridegroom, and light Him to the house. In this passage He is not the Bridegroom of the church. No others go to meet Him for His marriage with the church in heaven. The bride does not appear in this parable. Had she been introduced, it would have been Jerusalem on earth. The assembly is not seen in these chapters as such. 

In this reference it is hard to visualize why the Kingdom would be like the Virgins going forth to meet Christ and then, what of the foolish? For our right perspective we need to look at the ending of the prior chapter remembering that we, as men, did the dividing into chapters and verses. Before we go there, a couple of points; first, for the person who does not read the commentaries or who never hears a sermon on this parable, what does this parable say? For some it may seem a competition of the ten for the one groom who is coming and, of course, this is not the intent of the Master. With this in mind, it is interesting to note that there are versions of this parable from the Latin Vulgate and from Peshitta (ancient Eastern Manuscripts) and at least one Greek manuscript that state the first verse this way: “Then shall the kingdom of heaven be like to ten virgins, who taking their lamps went out to meet the bridegroom and the bride” (from Douay-Rheims Version). Could the addition of the word bride be to eliminate any misinterpretation that the virgins are there for the groom? It is not possible to say. If we look at this from a Kingdom perspective, the idea of virgins would represents purity. From the idea of a wedding feast however why would the bridesmaids or torchbearers, as the virgins are purported to be, need to be virgins?

As said above, the ending of the prior chapter is important to the understanding of this and the starting word of this parable, then, carries some importance. The preceding parable that leads to this one that we are addressing today is the Parable of the Faithful Servant which we covered in some detail (In the Words of Jesus part 103) and which gives us the tone for this one from the Master’s words “Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come” (Matthew 24:42). This Parable of the Faithful Servant appears in all three of the synoptic gospels; from these we combined their ideas and set them into our saying of “watch and pray” and “be ye also ready“. Another parable, the Parable of the Minas, follows that of the Faithful Servant and is along similar lines except the one concerns waiting for the master’s return and the reward for waiting faithfully and the other has more to say on what the servants are doing while waiting for the master to return. (see In the Words of Jesus parts 104 and 107). So these parables are what is before and after the Parable of the Ten Virgins. The one tells us in our understanding that we must be ready at all times for the end, the end of time or the end of our little lives; we never will know when either will overtake us. The other is more to our duty as Sons of God who come into incarnation with whatever ability and talent we may have and which is stated in the parable as that we are given differently “to every man according to his several ability” (Matthew 25:15) and measured by our accomplishment. This tells us that we cannot wait until the end of our time, our deathbed so to speak, to come to the Lord although it is likely better late than never. We should, according to this teaching, use what we have in His service and make a difference for Him and that we should do this as early in life and as much as is possible.

It is between these two parables that we find this one about the virgins and we should note that of the three, this is the only one in which the Master likens a part of it to the Kingdom of God. It is here that we start, knowing that this is a significant clue to the right understanding of it. Taking the whole statement from the beginning we need to get the idea that the Master is giving to us in the combination of  all the terms: “the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom“. This is not ten virgins but ten virgins that did these things. Coming off of the previous parable which spoke of “watch and pray” and “be ye also ready” we should start to see that readiness is a basic piece of this theme as that is where the parable goes next in telling us that there are wise and foolish among the ten. So then how do we get the Kingdom of God into this picture? What is it in this that we can see as likened? Let us paint it this way to start:

As we said earlier the idea of the virgins gives us the representation of purity which is, of course, what we would find in the Kingdom of God; only the Good, the Beautiful and the True can exist in His Kingdom. Remember that we see in the Beatitudes His saying that “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8) and we should know that the reality of seeing God is to be in His Kingdom. So we have then the number of ten of them that are pure in heart and are likened to the Kingdom and it is here that we need to know and understand His saying that “…the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). Can we see the idea here that the Kingdom is within these ten and that these ten are at the same time in the Kingdom? That they can be likened to the Kingdom. There is a disconnect in most all of the church regarding this saying from the Gospel of Luke. It is clear that the Master said it yet it is sorely overlooked because it is little understood; many would rather continue to believe that the Kingdom is a place that we will go rather the a place where we can be.

We have then the ten who are pure in heart and the next part is just what it appears to be, it is a story. It could have been any story but the Master chose this to show us the purity that we needed to see and to set the stage for us of preparedness. That we are pure today does not give us entitlement to the Kingdom forever; there is not reality to any idea of once saved always saved. We can go back just as we go forward; we must be ever vigilant. Look at the state of the apostles of Christ, how some were up one day and down another; most come back, and quickly. See these as examples which are resolved by directed teaching by Jesus:

• First we have these twelve, His disciples who we would believe are pure in His presence but they too fall back into the ways of the world as when pride overcomes them and the dispute over who is the greatest among them: “he asked them, What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way? But they held their peace: for by the way they had disputed among themselves, who should be the greatest. And he sat down , and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all” (Mark 9:33-36).
• We have also two of His closest disciples in James and John who are with the Master in many of the most cherished times; at the transfiguration and in the Garden at Gethsemane. These two fall again to pride and ambition and  desire: “And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, come unto him, saying, Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall desire. And he said unto them, What would ye that I should do for you? They said unto him, Grant unto us that we may sit , one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left hand, in thy glory. But Jesus said unto them, Ye know not what ye ask….“(Mark 10:35-38).
• And the third disciple who was among the closest to the Master fell into much trouble when he, being the chiefest among them all, denied the Master: “Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock crew.  And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly” (Matthew 26:74-75).

Now in all of these the apostles or disciples recovered and came back to the purity that is necessary to be in His way, in His Presence and His Kingdom. There is one also that did not recover and this is Judas. Though a man that needed to do what he did, he did do it and for reasons that were not pure.  He did not recover and we can only guess as to what his fate was in those times. No one however is ever lost completely  in the long life of the Soul though we may lose our way for a time. The above counts but a few examples from the gospels that can be seen in the Light of the pure in heart taking a step back into impurity and this is a caution and a message of this parable. At every point in time during our journey to the Lord we must “watch and pray” and “be ye also ready” . Peter and James and John and the others had the Master at hand to pull them back; we have the Christ Within but there are times for most all of us when we are not paying attention to His voice and we do not hear.

Continuing with our parable we see that the pure also need to be vigilant and to do the works and the word of the Lord and be ever ready. The virgins in the story who bring oil for their lamps are doing what is right and heeding the inner voice which is always prompting them to be prepared. The others, while hearing the voice as well do not heed and go about unprepared for what may happen showing that even in their purity, because they are in the world, they can succumb to the unprepared ways of the world. In the story the bridegroom does come and they are not prepared, it is night and they have no oil for their lamps; they brought none extra and they did not conserve what they had, they are without. The next point is one that has to be seen as the Truth for us all; THERE IS NONE TO HELP US in our journey to the Lord. There may be those that can point the way but we are essentially on our own; the Inner Man working through his own world reflection, his conscious personality. There should be seen here no ideas of selfishness nor unkindness on the part of the five that were prepared; we must understand that there is no help to be found of others. In the story perhaps the idea of trimming the lamps uses all of their oil and they have none to give but this does not matter, it is a story and what is important is the Master’s idea behind the story. So the five without oil go out to try to recover from their departure from the purity of the Kingdom; they soon find that it is too late; the end is come and the door is closed and hence the overall message is as it was in the previous parable but deeper yet because these were the Pure of the Kingdom and some went astray.

No matter what our position in life or our perceived position in the Kingdom of God we have the same message from these two parables and that is “watch and pray” and “be ye also ready“. This then for us is the interpretation of the Parable of the Ten Virgins and, as we see, the bridegroom has no part to play other than to define the end. This is the nature of a parable.

Note on the Quote of the Day