Reflective Bible Study

In response to the disciples asking Jesus about the end times, Jesus shares not just a series of predictions regarding what the world would be like when He returns, but He also shares several parables that focus on this event. The first parable Jesus shares about the end time is our focus for this episode.

This first parable is probably one of Jesus’ most famous parables, and it has some profound ideas when we look a little closer at its details. This parable is known as the parable of the ten virgins or ten bridesmaids.

Let’s read this parable and then unpack some things we can learn from it. This parable is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 25, and we’ll be reading from the New International Reader’s Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 1, Jesus tells the disciples:

¹ “Here is what the kingdom of heaven will be like at that time. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went out to meet the groom. ² Five of them were foolish. Five were wise. ³ The foolish ones took their lamps but didn’t take any olive oil with them. ⁴ The wise ones took oil in jars along with their lamps. ⁵ The groom did not come for a long time. So the bridesmaids all grew tired and fell asleep.

⁶ “At midnight someone cried out, ‘Here’s the groom! Come out to meet him!’

⁷ “Then all the bridesmaids woke up and got their lamps ready. ⁸ The foolish ones said to the wise ones, ‘Give us some of your oil. Our lamps are going out.’

⁹ “ ‘No,’ they replied. ‘There may not be enough for all of us. Instead, go to those who sell oil. Buy some for yourselves.’

¹⁰ “So they went to buy the oil. But while they were on their way, the groom arrived. The bridesmaids who were ready went in with him to the wedding dinner. Then the door was shut.

¹¹ “Later, the other bridesmaids also came. ‘Sir! Sir!’ they said. ‘Open the door for us!’

¹² “But he replied, ‘What I’m about to tell you is true. I don’t know you.’

¹³ “So keep watch. You do not know the day or the hour that the groom will come.

While it is never pleasant to think about the door being closed on anyone, or being rejected by God, the clear warning in this parable is that a group of people will lose out on salvation when they had every opportunity to be included. This group of people the parable describes as foolish bridesmaids.

However, when we look at this parable, we should ask, what makes these bridesmaids foolish, and what makes them distinctly different from those who are wise.

The first distinction the parable makes is that the foolish bridesmaids did not take extra oil with them. This distinction sets the stage for everything else that happens afterwards. If the foolish bridesmaids had had enough sense to at least bring some extra oil, there wouldn’t be any distinction between them and the wise bridesmaids for the rest of the parable.

This leads us to the first big thing that we can learn from this parable: Plan for Jesus, who is represented as the groom, to return later than you might expect. We have no idea when He will arrive, but chances are it will be after people are finished with date setting.

The second portion of this parable is where we might be tempted to focus in on. This portion of the parable is when all ten bridesmaids fall asleep waiting for the groom to arrive. But this detail, while relevant to the big theme of the parable, does not tell us much about the differences between the wise and the foolish bridesmaids. Falling asleep does not make a wise bridesmaid foolish.

However, when we transition to the third section of the parable, we discover something interesting. The foolish bridesmaid’s lack of planning ahead has caught up with them. While the wise bridesmaids have addition oil for their lamps, they only have enough oil for themselves, and not enough to share.

This detail is crucial for us to pay attention to, because this is why I repeatedly stress that our relationship with God must be personal. It doesn’t matter how spiritual or close to God someone else is, their relationship will not get you into heaven. The only good they can do is inspire you and help you get your relationship with God stronger. Salvation is personal, and when we look at how this parable ends, salvation is based on being known by God.

But not bringing extra oil isn’t the worst mistake the foolish bridesmaids make. When realizing that they don’t have oil, they leave their post seeking a merchant or someone to sell them oil so they can be equipped for the groom’s arrival.

By leaving their post, the foolish bridesmaids ultimately miss out on the groom’s arrival and are excluded from the wedding celebration.

Some people a lot smarter than me say that the oil in this parable represents the Holy Spirit. I don’t have any reason to doubt that. However, I also caution you, if you are someone who believes this, don’t stop your thinking there. I would expand the oil in this parable to represent any experience, feeling, or thing that you think you need to have in order to have a relationship with God.

If you spiritually wake up and realize that you are not as close to God as you once were, the worst thing you can do is leave your faith, looking for that item, experience, or feeling elsewhere. Instead, the best thing for you to do is return to the basics, open your Bible, and simply read. Remain at your post and focus on growing closer to God through reading His word. I believe that, while this parable doesn’t include anyone in this gray area, everyone present who wants entrance before the door is closed will be welcomed in.

While these foolish bridesmaids might lose out on the status of the position of being a bridesmaid, I still believe they could be included as guests if they had stayed and been present at the door before it closed. If the oil in this parable does exclusively represent the Holy Spirit, then the best Source for this oil would be arriving with the groom, and not having oil would have been an easily solvable problem.

To sum this parable up, leaving your post as a bridesmaid is the worst thing you can do. If you don’t feel as close to God as you may have at some point in your past, don’t look outside your Bible for the solution. Instead, open your Bible and rediscover the God who loved you enough to send His Son to die in your place for your sin. Let God’s story retransform your heart and supply you with the oil you need to be a wise bridesmaid!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

Always seek God first and place Him first in your life. If you don’t feel close to God right now, the best place to go is to your knees in prayer, and the best thing you can do is open your Bible and rediscover the God who loves you because of who He is, and not because of what you have done or what you can do for Him. We can’t do anything for God. He does everything for us!

As always, be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself, because your salvation is based on your personal relationship with God and on God knowing you when He returns. Those left on the outside are those who God doesn’t know, and don’t let that be you. Intentionally grow so close to God through prayer and His word that He cannot help but know you!

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, or chicken out of where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we continue in Matthew’s gospel, we come to an event that is probably the least surprising event to find in Matthew’s gospel, but one that I’m a little surprised Matthew puts as late as he does in his gospel. Perhaps this event came earlier and Matthew wants to minimize its significance, or perhaps Matthew was really one of the last disciples to join the group.

Our passage for this episode focuses in on Matthew describing his call to be a disciple, and in some ways, Matthew really downplays this event for the significance it probably had on his life. This event is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 9, and we will read it from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 9, Matthew tells us:

⁹ When Jesus was leaving, he saw a man named Matthew sitting in the tax collector’s booth. Jesus said to him, “Follow me,” and he stood up and followed Jesus.

¹⁰ As Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with Jesus and his followers. ¹¹ When the Pharisees saw this, they asked Jesus’ followers, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

¹² When Jesus heard them, he said, “It is not the healthy people who need a doctor, but the sick. ¹³ Go and learn what this means: ‘I want kindness more than I want animal sacrifices.’ I did not come to invite good people but to invite sinners.”

Let’s stop reading here because I want to draw our focus on several things that we have just read.

First, Jesus’ actual call for Matthew is very downplayed. The entire event is only one verse long. The first half of the verse sets the stage for Matthew’s invitation, and the second half is Jesus simply giving Matthew the challenge to follow. The verse concludes with Matthew standing up and following Jesus, with no hesitation or question.

Before moving on to what happened that evening, let’s look a little closer at Matthew’s invitation. While it is possible that Matthew was alone in the tax collector booth, this is unlikely. What is more possible is that there were at least one or two guards hired to assist and protect him. Tax collectors were hated people, and their presence reminded the people more than most things that they were not in a country owned by them. It also didn’t help that most tax collectors were corrupt, and it is likely that the corrupt tax collectors moved ahead faster and that they were praised rather than punished.

It is interesting in my mind the timing of when Matthew includes his call in relation to the events in his gospel. Matthew has already included three chapters focused on a powerful sermon, and several miracles. While it’s possible Matthew learned about this from the other disciples who were present for those events, I wonder if Matthew was a part of the crowd listening as Jesus shared this sermon, and that the Holy Spirit had been working on Matthew’s heart for a while.

Being called to be a follower of a Rabbi was a great honor, and Matthew knew that this likely was his only chance. While we don’t know the path that led Matthew to becoming a tax collector, Matthew’s quick response to Jesus’ call indicates that he would rather be doing something else. Matthew might have even studied to become a Rabbi’s disciple but ultimately was not chosen.

The logic behind this idea is because Matthew, more than any other gospel writer, draws our attention onto the prophecies in the Old Testament that Jesus fulfilled. Someone who studied to become a Rabbi’s disciple would be the most educated in Old Testament prophecy.

Moving to the events of that evening, we discover that Matthew hosts a dinner at his home, and he invites all his tax collector and other “sinners” friends over to meet Jesus. While we read this event and are quick to judge the Pharisees who are subtly judging Jesus’ actions, at this point in Jesus’ ministry, I don’t believe that the Pharisees as a group are as opposed to Jesus as they ultimately will be. In my mind, this group of Pharisees might have simply wanted to know Jesus’ motives for acting differently from every other religious teacher in that era.

However, it is also possible that the Pharisees asked Jesus’ disciples because they wanted more reasons to incriminate Jesus in their own minds. I don’t know if Jesus responded before the disciples had a chance to open their mouths, or if the disciples who were asked did not have an answer.

But the biggest phrase that is fascinating in my mind is Jesus’ opening to His response. In verse 12, Matthew tells us that when Jesus heard the question asked to His disciples about why He eats and socializes with tax collectors and sinners, Jesus replies first by saying: “It is not the healthy people who need a doctor, but the sick.”

While the rest of Jesus’ response summarizes Jesus’ reasoning, this opening could be seen by some to be an insult to those Jesus spent time with. Jesus’ opening could also be a subtle message to the Pharisees that Jesus’ focus would always be on those who need help, healing, and encouragement.

However, I wonder if Jesus was implying in His opening that the Pharisees who were asking the question were the healthy people in contrast to those who Jesus was eating with. I wouldn’t be surprised to think that this is what the Pharisees heard Jesus say. The Pharisees probably took Jesus’ opening to mean that they were healthy, and they saw Jesus’ message as a compliment.

But Jesus ultimately challenges them on one of God’s messages from the Old Testament, and with the idea that He came to invite sinners and not “good people”.

In the events surrounding Matthew’s invitation, we discover a window into Jesus’ focus for His ministry. Jesus came to help those who were sick, hurting, and who needed help, and Jesus came specifically to invite sinners to return to God. Jesus’ focus for His ministry was not on helping those who did not believe they needed help, on those who believed themselves to already be right with God, or on those who looked down on others.

Jesus lived His life from God’s perspective in His response. Jesus lived showing kindness more than demanding obedience. While obedience is important, kindness and God’s love is more central to God’s character. When we are being representatives for God, we are to above everything else, show God’s love and kindness to those He brings into our lives while we are personally being obedient to Him the best way we know how.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to model God’s love and His kindness to those who He brings in to your life. Jesus lived a life that was kind, compassionate, and loving to those who society had rejected, and He calls us to do the same. Don’t be surprised that when we live and love like Jesus, that those who are self-righteous will look down on us for who we are associating with, because those who were self-righteous in the first century looked down on Jesus too.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to keep your personal relationship with God strong and growing stronger. A personal connection with God will give you the right motives and love for helping those who God brings into your life, and when we’re connected with God, He will lead us to those who He knows need His love.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or deviate away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!