To folks who were raised to be kind and share, the story of the wise and foolish virgins might seem a little cruel or harsh. 5 virgins were wise and had oil, 5 were foolish and didn’t have any. Why don’t they share? Well, because then they’d all simply run out. If you were one of these virgins you had one job at the wedding – to carry in lamps while looking pretty. And your lamps were to last the whole party long. When you hear “virgins” for this story, think “bridesmaids”. Imagine there was one bridesmaid who showed up to the wedding and said, “I forgot to buy my fuchsia dress – how about we just split yours?” That’s not how it works! That is, in a word, foolish.
And so, in the story, the 5 foolish virgins run off and panic and they miss it. They miss the wedding. It wasn’t that they didn’t know about it. It wasn’t that they couldn’t afford to come. They just blew off getting ready for it and missed it. They go on a last minute shopping trip and miss the bridegroom. And that’s it.
Jesus is reminding us here not to be foolish. We know that Jesus will come back, and we know that we will be surprised when it actually happens. All the gals slept in the story, and there’s not a one of us who is going to be looking up at the sky counting down to Jesus’ return. But how are you to be ready for that day? How to be prepared?
Be in the Word. Hear the preaching of Christ Jesus. Receive His Body and Blood for the forgiveness of your sins. Christ Jesus comes to you through His Word, through His Supper, and His Holy Spirit strengthens your faith by these gifts so that you are ready whenever He comes again. The Divine Service is practice and preparation for Christ’s second coming. It is where Christ continually and repeatedly comes to you again and again, even until the Last Day. So be wise – see and know that Christ comes to give Himself to you in His Service. See and know that He anoints you will oil and that your cup runs over in His Church. There’s no better place to prepare for Jesus to come again then by going to His Church where He has promised to come to you again and again.
