A, Post-Pentecost 24 Proper 27 - Matthew 25:1-13 "Expectation"
Expectations
change from person to person, from place to place, and they vary in different times
of life throughout the ages.
Our expectation
for a meal, a bed in which to sleep tonight, an enjoyable day amongst
likeminded folk, seems reasonable to us. But, for those in war-ravaged places perhaps
these expectations would lead to disappointment, resentment, and further
hopelessness. Our expectations might be
quite trivial to those whose very existence hangs in the balance!
The expectations
we place on others can differ too. What
you expect of your parents or children changes over time. Children learn to expect parents to care for
them when young, but they expect to escape from their authority when they’re teenagers
and young adults! Likewise, parents
expect to care for their children when young, and our mums and dads expect to
be cared for, when they grow old!
Expectations are
buried in our being from the time we’re born.
Expectations remember
the past, in the present, and furnish one’s future.
Depending on the
culture into which you’re born, will usually dictate the expectations you have
of others, and yourself. What you did
and do, dictates what you will do.
Enjoying what you ate encourages what you will seek to eat. Where you live, who you serve, who serves
you, who and what you trust and don’t trust are learnt expectations.
Another word for
expectations is wants! Wants or
expectations are fuelled by something deep within each of us. Examining our inner wants and expectations
can tell us a lot about ourselves. Learning
of another person’s wants, or a group’s expectations, can also help us discern
much about the person or group.
For example, those
who expect the world to continue to evolve into a better and better place, might
have an expectation of society learning from its mistakes and not making them
again. There’s an expectation of
humanity cycling round and round in an ever-rising series of events towards
perfection. On the other hand, those who
expect the universe to one day spiral and explode into a chaotic oblivion will
have very different expectations. Both
are expectations, both are not right, but they affect how humanity acts and
reacts to events and other people.
So, what or who
fuels your expectations?
Are your
expectations, or wants, a false god? Are your expectations premeditated resentments?
Setting yourself up, or others, for hurt
and failure?
What do you expect
of God?
What does God
expect of you? You might be surprised
what God expects of you, written in his Word!
What fuel’s your
expectations of God, and your understanding of his expectations of you? It depends on whether your expectations submit
to the Word of God, or you try to make God submit to your expectations and wants!
Ten virgins expect
the coming of the bridegroom. In this
parable Jesus says five were wise and five were foolish. The wise were those who have considered
bringing extra fuel for their lamps. The
foolish have not thought things through and don’t have extra oil to fuel their
lamps.
Jesus teaches the
parable to prepare us for his coming and what we should expect. So, what is the parable of the ten virgins
teaching us to expect about Jesus’ return?
At the end of the
parable Jesus says, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the
day nor the hour.” (Matthew 25:13 ESV)
This sudden surprise is made explicit in the midst of the parable. All ten virgins are asleep and startled when
the cry comes for the bridegroom’s arrival.
Jesus previously
says, “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of
heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.”
(Matthew 24:36 ESV) Not even
Jesus knows, only the Father in heaven.
Obviously when Jesus is sent by the Father, he will know, but not beforehand.
Notice that in the
parable all the virgins fall asleep, and they cannot lend their oil. This is so, because when we fall asleep in
death, what we believe and trust, is the fuel of our faith, and it’s this light
that will expose us as followers of Christ.
What you believe, or what you expect when you die, cannot be changed
when Christ returns.
When we think of
lamps, we might assume that lamps were used to see the way. They may have been, if the lamps were rags
soaked in oil on sticks, but the parable tends to suggest a lamp that’s not a
temporary torch to see the way, but a lamp made of clay with a reservoir to
hold the fuel and a wick to draw the fuel and burn a flame. Much like a candle would burn and produce a
small amount of light.
This type of lamp
is not for seeing the way, but for being seen.
Virgins walking in the evening moved about with lamps to illuminate
their faces, so they could be plainly seen.
Women who moved around hidden within the cloak of darkness, were usually
anything but virgins. The virgins needed
the fuel for their lamps, to be seen by the bridegroom on his arrival, not to
see the way to the bridegroom.
One cannot work
their way to Jesus. Just as he came the
first time, he will come the second time.
We didn’t find him the first time, and neither will we find him when he
returns. What will be seen of you when
he returns?
This is a key part
of the parable because if one does not have the good oil, so to speak, when the
bridegroom arrives, we cannot expect to bargain our way through the door of eternal
life to be with Jesus.
Like the virgins
who went to find oil and returned to begged to enter, Jesus also says, “Not
everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but
the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. And then will I declare to them, ‘I never
knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” (Matthew 7:21, 23
ESV)
If we have an
expectation that we can change our story on judgement day, Jesus clearly tells
us it doesn’t work like that! The fuel
of faith we need when we die, is the fuel of doing God’s will, or what God
expects and wants.
He wants to see us
waiting for him, illuminated by his presence, and not the back of us working, or
changing, to get the good oil. He wants
to see the radiance and joy of our hopeful expectation in which we will enter the
grave and will be woken at his coming.
So, what is this
fuel? The good oil of expectation! It’s not an idol of our works, or a belief in
a false image of God we’ve concocted in our hearts.
What is this fuel
of faith that God expects to see in you?
It’s the fuelling trust in God’s Word, looking not to ourselves or
finding our way to eternity. It’s
allowing the fire of the Holy Spirit to illuminate Christ’s death for our daily
death of self. This fuel of faith lets
him shine his holiness in us. So, when
the Father sees us, our lamp of faith shows Jesus the bridegroom, shining for
us, in his resurrection glory.
God expects you to
be a sinner! If he did not expect this,
he would not have sent Jesus to be the only sacrifice for sin! But God also expects you to be an enlightened
repentant sinner, who despite knowing your sinfulness, willingly stands in his
presence to confess, be forgiven, and forgive as Jesus has forgiven us in his
death and resurrection.
Like the wise
virgins whose faces are lit up with hope and joy at his coming, our wisdom is
not so much about you or me, but about the wisdom of God the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit, working and waking us with the Word of God.
God expects us
humans to have doubts and troubles with faith.
Every day you can expect the old human self will seek its resurrection. That, you can count on without a skerrick of
doubt! This is not a time to forget the oil reserve
that is being deposited in you through God’s Word.
When you have
doubts, let the eternal resurrected bridegroom pour his Word into you with the
Holy Spirit. When you doubt, bash on God’s
door in prayer for the Holy Spirit to open Godly expectations of his Word in
you! When you pray, trust the Holy
Spirit to give you a desire and joy in God’s Word. When you receive God’s Word as the good oil,
expect this oil to be the oil to keep your lamps burning.
God wants your
greatest expectation, to be of him.
He wants your
expectation of him alone.
He expects you, to
expect him, to be your God. Amen.
