ZA MAGAZINE // seek truth.

As Christians, we’re called to be selfless, showing sacrificial love to the world. Yet we see in today’s society that so very often this causes spiritual burnout…people get tired of it all and can’t go on. Doesn’t that seem a little odd? Why do people burn out, and what’s the solution? Did Jesus give us a principle to guide us in this regard?

I believe that the answer is yes, and that the key lies in the Parable of the Ten Virgins. We’ll discuss it, but since this is the first time that ZA has discussed a parable in-depth, let’s lay the ground rules for parables.

Parables were given by Jesus because He didn’t want to loosely give away all of His knowledge. He tells us not to “throw our pearls before swine,” which is basically the point. Every parable has some tie-in to the Kingdom of God, whether it’s what the Kingdom is like or how to live in order to get to the Kingdom. Parables generally illustrate only one point, so if you try to glean too much out of them by turning every element of the parable into a spiritual lesson, you can get into trouble. Take, for example, the Parable of the Unjust Judge (Luke 18:1-9). If everything has applicable significance, then God would have to be an unjust judge, which He is not. However, we can usually make some reasonable inferences that cause us to get a lot more out of the parables.

Let’s take a look at the text of the Parable of the Ten Virgins, then let’s dive into it!

Matthew 25:1-13
1 “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.
2 Five of them were foolish, and five were wise.
3 For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them,
4 but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.
5 As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept.
6 But at midnight there was a cry, Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.
7 Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps.
8 And the foolish said to the wise, Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.
9 But the wise answered, saying, Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.
10 And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut.
11 Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, Lord, lord, open to us.
12 But he answered, Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.
13 Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

One thing we can tell for sure about this parable is what it’s about. In verse 13, the moral of the story is to “watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” So there’s a start. This parable is about Jesus’ second coming and how we have to be ready for it. I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say either that this is about us being ready for death too, if Jesus doesn’t come back in our generation. Some people see the coming of the bridegroom at midnight as Jesus coming to take us from this earth in a dying sense, so it could quite possibly go either way. No matter how deep you go into this parable, it always has to come back to this point.

But would Jesus tell us to be ready without telling us how to get ready? I believe that the parable tells us a lot about how to keep your lamp full so that you’ll be ready for when the bridegroom comes. So with these things in mind, we next have to define what everything represents. Let’s have a go at that.

• Virgins. There are wise ones and foolish ones. I see two possibilities: Either it’s humanity as a whole or it’s people who call themselves Christians. I’d have to go with the latter, because both of them had oil in their lamps at some point (which makes more sense when we explain the oil), and both are at least somewhat connected to the bridegroom.
• Lamps. The lamps simply represent our souls, our spiritual selves. I don’t think I ever read anything that went contrary to this interpretation either, so I feel pretty confident in that.
• Bridegroom. Jesus. Duh!
• Midnight. As I’ve said, this is most likely the Second Coming, but it could also be viewed as the time of our deaths. To be quite honest, I don’t like to pick one because the lesson doesn’t change either way and it makes the whole parable more applicable.
• Marriage feast. Heaven!
• Delay. The time between the first coming and the second coming of Jesus. However, I think you could also see it as the time between us coming to know Jesus and the time when either He comes back or He comes for us. Again, I don’t think it changes the meaning of the parable either way.
• Sleep. I really never attached meaning to this element of the story. Do you have to? It could be interpreted as death, which would make the return of the bridegroom representative of the second coming alone. It would also mean that everything which happened after they wake up is something that happens between our death and getting into heaven. I don’t think death is the right interpretation, then, cause then this parable isn’t nearly as practical. Personally, I think that they just plain ol’ went to sleep.
• Oil. Ahhhh, this one is a doozy. So central, so important, yet so ambiguous. I read a scholarly article of sorts by a Lutheran Biblical scholar which told me that it represents good works. He compared it to Matthew 5:14-16 where Jesus talks about us as the light of the world and compares it to other Biblical and extra-Biblical texts. If you wanna accept that, hey, go ahead. But I don’t like that idea because it makes it seem like you have to work to be saved. And I’m not about that. Also, you can’t share good works.What I believe that the oil stands for is something along the lines of the Holy Spirit in our lives. If the lamp is our spiritual self, then the level of oil determines the level of life in our soul. That kinda thing. The presence of God in our lives.

These are the elements. Which ones are the most important? I once read an article which made the excellent point that the key to this parable is the delay of the bridegroom. Why? Because if he had come on time, everyone would have gotten in. I believe that the other key is the oil, because it was the level of oil that ultimately determined who got in. So we’ll focus on the time during the delay (now) and the oil (Holy Spirit in our lives).

When I was seeking God about the meaning of the whole passage, He put something into my head: Matthew 13:5-6, in the Parable of the Sower. These two verses are about the seed that’s sown into rocks. It springs up with joy, then withers because it had no depth, no roots, and it falls away when tribulation or persecution hits.

I see the parable of the virgins as saying the exact same thing. Just as those seeds didn’t grow deep roots, the foolish virgins didn’t have a deep supply of oil. When it ran out, they were done for. Just as we can pour out ourselves into the lives of others, the wise virgins could have poured out some oil into those of the foolish virgins. But they knew that doing so would be to their own detriment, so they had to say no. In the same way, if we’re at a point where it’s serve, serve, serve with no time to pray or worship and fill up our own oil lamps, then we’ll run out and we won’t get into that feast because we’ll be spiritually dead!

So then, how do we trim our lamps? To be sure we’re on the same page, this is what trimming a lamp is all about. If the wick on a candle or lamp is too long, the flame will flicker and smoke. If the wick is properly trimmed, you burn the fuel, not the wick, and so you burn cleanly, consistently, and brightly.

Therefore, trimming our lamps is nothing more than cleaning ourselves up; tending to our souls. Would flickering be like going up and down on a spiritual roller coaster? Would burning a dirty flame be like being a hypocrite? I dunno, but these are the kinds of things I think of when I think of trimming a lamp. You are tending towards your spiritual health so that you don’t mess up that wick and you use your oil properly.

With all of this interpretation, we can now go bring everything together and address an important question: How do we get ready for the wedding? By keeping our lamp trimmed. Tomorrow isn’t a given. We could die, or Jesus could come back today! So we have to make sure that the flame we’re burning is clean, consistent, and bright. We have to make sure that we have our fuel (the Holy Spirit!), so that we continue to have a source of power and energy. And from then, it’s merely a matter of watching and praying!

This is a difficult idea for Christians to accept, because we are consistently (and correctly) told to be selfless. “Look out for number one” is something you won’t hear in a church, but it must be the guiding principle in our own personal relationships with the Lord. If our own soul isn’t built up and full of oil, then there’s no way we can shine a light to the rest of the world! Sometimes, prayer time has to come before fellowship; reading the Bible before a date. God simply must come first in our lives if we are to be able to fulfill the will that He has for us here on earth.

Grace and peace,
Brendan

Photo taken by Stoch Xchng user criii.