November 12, 2017 – Matthew 25:1-13
Matthew 25:1-13
I Don’t know You!
Lectionary 32A – November 12, 2017
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
Okay: I’m not gonna lie: this parable gave me a lot of trouble this week.
This is the way it works: you pay me partly to go to scripture every week on your
behalf and – knowing where you are at – listen to it to see what I think
God is saying to us as a community of faith.
You are all super busy, so you grant someone – me, in this case –
the time to go to scripture on your behalf, and, sometimes,
like Jacob and the angel, wrestle with it to see if I can find a blessing.
Or, as Luther says,
to wring it between both my hands to see if it will yield a single drop of grace.
All I can say is: I did a lot of wringing this week.
See, the thing is: most often this parable is interpreted in a way that says Jesus is the bridegroom and holds the wise bridesmaids up as examples for us to follow.
We are to be like the wise bridesmaids who were rewarded for their smarts by
being invited into the big party at the end of the story.
We are not to be like the foolish bridesmaids who were punished for their
procrastination and laziness by being denied entry to the party with the
very harsh words: “I do not know you!”
If I went to scripture this week and heard this interpretation,
I would be forced to draw lots of interesting inferences:
First, hang on to what you have and do not share it, like the “wise” bridesmaids.”
Because there is not enough of God’s gifts to go around.
If you hoard your stuff you will be rewarded with more stuff and a big party.
Second: closed doors are a good thing.
You don’t want the wrong sort to get in, you know: the sort you’d have to share things with.
It would be wrong for us to continue sponsoring refugees here –
it would be wiser for us not to share our resources.
It would be better for all of us, maybe even our country, to close the doors to refugees.
For those who are needful and
who do not have access to resources have no place in God’s scheme.
Third, the messiah will deny knowing you if you are a procrastinator or if you
don’t have the requisite resources or if you don’t respect him enough to
think ahead a little to welcome him by having enough extra oil for your lamp.
Because, you know, that is exactly what Jesus was like.
To summarize: be selfish, don’t share, close your church doors, lock them against strangers,
those you don’t know – leave them all vulnerable to the dark.
Then we would all say, “Amen.”
But that just doesn’t sound right to me.
After a lot of thinking, I just don’t think that can be right.
For one thing, it doesn’t sound like a way Jesus would act.
And it doesn’t sound like behaviour Jesus would commend.
So what is going on?
We have skipped a chapter since last week, and in that chapter Jesus has been talking about
the end or fulfillment of all things.
He’s been talking about the promise of God to fulfill God’s intentions for our world and
to fill it with justice and peace and harmony and well-being.
But he’s also been talking about things that will happen before that that are not the end.
Destruction, violence, oppression, injustice: these things, Jesus says, are not the end that
God has in mind.
These things are the opposite of what God has in mind.
Many false prophets will arise and try to lead you astray, Jesus says in that chapter.
They will arise and try and distract you from the end God has in mind.
Be on the watch for them, Jesus says.
They will try and motivate you from fear rather than love.
So when Jesus says this morning “then the kingdom of heaven will be like this,”
he’s talking about what things will look like before God’s intended end.
He’s talking this morning, I think, about a false prophet, the figure of the bridegroom,
who will try and lead people astray by advocating selfishness, hoarding,
and self-preservation – and who will shut the door on the unworthy.
Jesus, that is, is drawing a contrast between this figure and himself.
For in two weeks’ time, on Christ the King Sunday, Jesus himself will advocate
care for the vulnerable and sharing what we have with those who do not have access to
the resources that we do.
He will say, “inasmuch as you did it to the least of these, you will have done it to me.”
Far from closing the door on anyone, Jesus here identifies so closely with those who
have had the doors closed on them that if we serve them, we are serving him.
Well, there are plenty of false prophets advocating what the bridegroom advocates this morning.
There is no shortage of people telling us that God is delayed, that God is nowhere about,
so you had better hang on to what you have, look out for yourself, and
let other people fend for themselves even if they don’t have access to
the resources that you do.
There is no shortage of people telling us that self-preservation is best and that
we should shut the door to refugees and the vulnerable and
those who are different from us, whatever that means.
But here’s the thing:
Jesus is always always always with those who have the door shut against them.
Jesus is with those in the darkness.
Jesus is with the unwelcome.
Jesus is with those who are made to feel that God is very far away and that
God is delayed in coming to them.
Jesus stands with those who have no resources.
Jesus stands with those in the dark.
Jesus is with those who have been shut out.
Jesus is with those who feel godforsaken.
And Jesus promises: when the door is shut, when human selfishness seems to have won the day,
when the party seems exclusive and by invitation only: when all seems bleak and
like the forces of self-preservation have won the day: when it looks like The End:
When that happens: remember: that is not yet the end.
That is not yet the end that God has in mind.
Rather, as we will hear in a couple of weeks, the end God has in mind comes even now,
when there is sharing, where there is care and support for the vulnerable,
when his followers sit with those in dark places.
Where there is advocacy, where the hungry are fed and the poor clothed and
the imprisoned visited: that is the end God has in mind and it can take place
anywhere, anytime – even right here at Sargent and Victor in 2017.
And when those things happen, when food is shared and the doors are open and
hospitality is a priority and the dignity of every single human being is valued:
when those things happen, God’s intended end happens.
And Christ will be present.
For even though this story Jesus tells says the messiah is delayed in coming,
Jesus’s own words say, “I am with you always – always – to the end of the age.”
On this day, on this Day of Remembrance, we remember the promise:
violence and destruction are not the end.
No matter what false prophets tell us otherwise.
Peace, shalom, well-being, sharing, hospitality – love: these things are the end.
And Christ brings them, even now, into the present – through you.
So take heart, and do not be discouraged.
Be on guard, says Jesus, against the false prophets who advocate selfishness and hoarding.
Against the ones who say to those they exclude: “I don’t know you: get out of my place.”
You are within your rights to say to such a one: “I don’t know you and you are not the messiah.”
Yes: keep your lamps trimmed and burning and wary of the false ones.
The true messiah is the one who says, “Come to the feast, for I invite everyone to my table.”
For when you feel like you are on the wrong side of the door, Jesus is there with you,
inviting you to his table, along with a host of others he is with.
Let’s find him there, on the wrong side of the door, in a place where the doors are always open,
the gates are never shut, where there is bread and wine for everyone,
where sharing and hospitality are a priority – and together, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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