I’d venture to say this is one of the most challenging parables in the Bible. Everyone seems to have a different take on it and a number of people just seem to avoid digging into it all together. It’s a tough one but we’re going to do our best to make our way through it.
Ok, so the scene is wedding preparations. In ancient Middle Eastern culture, wedding celebrations were a big ordeal and cause for the whole town to stop their daily chores and join in. this would have been one of the main events for the year and one of the only places of diversion for months. After all there weren’t clubs or movies or theaters or opera houses to go to. There were weddings. And those were infrequent—so when they happened, people went.
In this scene we have 10 bridesmaids—a number that might have signified to Jewish readers that this was a wedding for a messiah (remember Jesus wasn’t the only one… “Messiah” literally means anointed, a term which was first used with King David and was used with various kings after David down to Jesus). And these bridesmaids, like most, were supposed to help with the celebration. They were there to make it great; which for an evening wedding would have included keeping the lamps lit. Now, also in the custom, the groom determined when the festivities would actually begin. Everyone had been invited and everyone was to be prepared, but ultimately, the arrival of the groom started the party—so if he wanted to build suspense or anticipation, he merely needed to wait, and if he wanted to throw in an extra twist or added surprise, he’d wait until the middle of the night.
The one major rule about the surprise arrival was that there must be a messenger sent ahead to announce the groom was coming. We see this messenger in verse 6 when he proclaims, “Look! The bridegroom is coming! Come out and meet him!”
When he arrived at the bride’s house, he would have taken her home and consummated the marriage—only it wouldn’t have been a celebration of the covenant, but actual proof of the covenant. Intercourse = marriage. Then they would go back out as the newlyweds and celebrate with their gifts—they would celebrate for days, maybe even a full week.
So, when the groom arrives the party starts, that means everything has to be ready to go…after all that’s why the messenger goes ahead of him…to give people time to do those final preparations. In our case, the ladies light their lamps, only 5 are short on oil. They ask to borrow some, but the other 5, the wise 5, are reluctant and say there wouldn’t be enough for any of them in that case and send the other girls to find some for themselves. Those girls probably had to wake a shopkeeper since it was the middle of the night and there were no 24 hour convenience stores. They hurried off and were delayed an unspecified amount of time only to return and find the party had begun without them and they were not allowed in.
Now this is a tough parable in part because we struggle to find grace here. There are no second chances. There isn’t even sharing. There is simply a cold shoulder and no way to make it right. Even with sufficient oil on the 2nd time, there is no way to redeem their prior wrong. A wrong, which many of us even struggle to see as an actual wrong. I mean, they were ready. They did have oil. They were there and waiting. They did it all right. And no one would have thought twice if the groom had shown up just a little earlier. (except that if the party was to last for days, there lamps would still have needed to keep burning, they still would have run out, there still would have been a problem, it was all a matter of time…)
And that’s the parable. Essentially. But, as we’ve learned over the last few weeks….(a parable isn’t actually about what the parable is about). And so we have to discern what it’s actually about and that’s where the second major challenge of this parable lies. Most of us are ready to jump right to where we fit in. Are we foolish or are we wise? Do we have enough oil? What does the oil represent and how do we stock up?
But we shouldn’t go that far that fast. After all, Jesus didn’t first share this story with us. Instead, he shared it in a Jewish region during the first century.
Now interpretation on this next point varies too, but I think it’s most likely this story was intended to be for and about Jesus’ relationship with the Jews. After all, the Jews were the one waiting for the Messiah. I think the foolish ones, the ones who lacked proper oil were those who had given up hope. After all, anyone truly expecting the wedding party would have expected it to go on for days—would have been prepared as a boy scout, ready for all circumstances, and yet these weren’t. Sure they went for more when the bridegroom was actually approaching, but I think really, that was because they were forced to see that he was there. But any of us can do that, scurry at the last minute because the impossible came true…the unexpected actually happened. But how many of us actually plan and prepare? How many of us are really ready? So, in the ancient sense, the foolish bridesmaids represent those who had lost hope. Those who were unsure that the Messiah would ever come again. Those who doubted the party would happen, and so they only did the minimum, expecting to go home, disappointed yet again.
But this passage doesn’t just stay in the ancient, once we understand what it meant then, we have to bring it to us now….and if we make the parallel, that we too are waiting for the Messiah—in a different era, with different expectations, for different reasons, but still waiting. And some of us are convicted and ready because we know it will happen. And others of us have given up hope. We do only what is necessary because ultimately, some time somewhere, we lost hope. Ultimate hope. Maybe not all hope. But the necessary hope that makes us believe that Christ will come again. The ultimate hope that wars can and will cease, that peace will prevail in unreal and unimaginable ways like lion lying down with the lambs. We’re unconvinced, and so we are ill-prepared. Some of us are foolish bridesmaids. Some of us are wise. Which are you?
I mentioned in the beginning that it is hard to find grace in this passage and one very wise theologian suggests that the grace for us is simply having the story—knowing that some have lost hope gives us the chance to restore hope. Knowing that some are ill-prepared gives us the chance to be prepared—to live with conviction, to listen to the hopeful and be caught up in their enthusiasm.
