CW 493 – Rejoice, Rejoice Believers
When you’re young, you want to stay up late. When you’re older, you enjoy going to bed earlier. In fact, I found a meme the other day that wonderfully summarizes this change. 1. Going to bed early; 2. Not leaving my house; 3. Required naps. … My childhood punishments are now my adult goals.
Jesus tells a parable about ten young ladies who stayed up late to attend a party – actually a wedding feast. In Jesus’ story in Matthew 15:1-13, ten young bridesmaids are waiting for the bridegroom to arrive. They wait a very long time. They wait until midnight. (Who starts a wedding reception at midnight!)
They have fallen asleep in the late evening hours. Suddenly, they awaken to hear that the bridegroom is finally coming. All ten ladies have brought their oil lamps along. Only five were prepared for a long wait. They must have looked foolish in their beautiful wedding dresses, carrying a Mason jar of extra oil in their purses. They must have looked as silly as Linus from the old Peanuts’ cartoon, sitting in the pumpkin patch, waiting for the Great Pumpkin to arrive.
The other young ladies looked downright sophisticated with their cute little wedding lamps nestled in their perfectly manicured fingers. They were confident and carefree. Going to the wedding was just another item on their busy social calendar.
But in Jesus’ parables, things are not always as they seem. The five ladies who looked sophisticated for not bringing any oil – because it would have clashed with their dresses – ended up being foolish because they weren’t ready when the bridegroom came. They never expected him to be so late in coming. They had run out of oil. These five young ladies look so cool, but they turn out to be foolish. The five young ladies who bring the extra jar of oil with them may have looked foolish, but they turn out to be wise. The five wise ladies who have their lights shining rejoice because they are welcomed into the wedding feast. Our hymn for this week – that our WLS students are singing in our churches – speaks about rejoicing.
Verse one: Rejoice, rejoice, believers, and let your lights appear; the evening is advancing, and darker night is near. The Bridegroom is arising and soon is drawing nigh. Up, pray and watch and wrestle; at midnight comes the cry.
You look foolish to your neighbors when you get up early on a Sunday morning to go to church, while everyone else is sleeping. You look foolish when you tell your coach your daughter is going to miss basketball practices on Wednesday nights because of midweek Advent services. All the other girls will be there. You look foolish with the confident smile on your face at Grandma’s funeral because you know she had prepared her faith for the marriage feast of heaven. The rest of your family who aren’t Christians are bawling their eyes out. But in these ways, you are letting your light shine. You know the Bridegroom of Jesus is coming soon. It’s getting late. The midnight of the Marriage Feast of Jesus is approaching fast. Since we are prepared, we shine our lights of faith to encourage others to be prepared.
Question: What are some things your family does that look “foolish” to the world but is “wise” in Jesus’ eyes?
Verse two: The watchers on the mountain proclaim the Bridegroom near; go forth, as he approaches, with alleluias clear. The marriage feast is waiting; the gates wide open stand. Arise, O heirs of glory; the Bridegroom is at hand.
The marriage feast in heaven is near. Prepare to enter the gates to glory. How do you prepare yourself and your family? Read and listen to devotions like this. Attend your church’s Bible study. Go to church. Sit in the pews, hear God’s Word explained and applied to you. Teach your children the Christian faith. Listen to Martin Luther when he instructs you to begin and end each day with his Morning and Evening Prayers, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Apostles’ Creed. These are all ways you can fill up the oil jar of your faith, so you are prepared with the Bridegroom comes.
Question: What are you and your family doing to be prepared for Jesus’ return on Judgment Day?
Verse three: You saints, who here in patience your cross and suff’rings bore, shall live and reign forever when sorrow is no more. Around the throne of glory the Lamb you shall behold, in triumph lay before him your shining crowns of gold.
To be one of the five wise young ladies in Jesus’ parable, you need to be preparing and waiting every day. Jesus can return any time. Then is Judgment Day. You can die any day. Then is your Judgment Day. Whether that Day is today, tomorrow or a million tomorrows from today. You can live and sleep and die in the confidence of him who once came for you by crib and cross, who comes to you now by Word and Sacrament, who will come in glory on the Last Day to raise you from the dead to eternal life with the rest of his saints triumphant. He will take you into his glorious paradise. You will be seated as a guest of honor at his marriage feast. You will be around the throne of Jesus as the sacrificial and victorious Lamb. You will be handed a white robe by a saint and a golden crown by an angel. You shall live in Jesus’ home where there is no more sorrow, tears, or sadness.
Question: What difficulties are you going through now that Jesus will put an end to in heaven?
Verse four: Our hope and expectation, O Jesus, now appear; arise, O Sun so longed for, above this shadowed sphere. With hearts and hands uplifted we plead, O Lord, to see the day of earth’s redemption that sets your people free.
The wise bridesmaids knew in whom they hoped and for whom they waited. They lived and slept in the confidence of their bridegroom’s coming. They knew he was coming; they just didn’t know when. You know who you are waiting for; and he knows you. He is the
Bridegroom who died on the cross for you; who rose from the grave for you; who sits enthroned in majesty for you. He is the Bridegroom who baptized you; who forgives you; who feeds you his body and blood; who anoints you with his Holy Spirit. He is your hope and expectation.
Prepare your hearts and hands with plenty of extra oil. That means hearing God’s Word in church, remembering your Baptism, receiving the Lord’s Supper. That means letting your faith light shine. The Bridegroom is taking a “long” time to come. Be prepared to stay up late.
Question: Are you ready to stay up late to meet Jesus?