Distracted by Details [Proper 27A]

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson

Matthew 25:1-13 

Distracted by Details

This cannot be it.  This cannot be the moral of the story.  It cannot be, “Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”  It cannot be that because everybody fell asleep – all ten bridesmaids featured in Jesus' parable – both the wise and the foolish – fell asleep.  And half of them joined the party anyway.  So that cannot be it.

And so this parable falls into the category of so many of the parables in this Gospel, the Gospel according to Matthew: confusing parables that are further confused by the punchline. 

It's not that the moral punchline is wrong or unhelpful.  There are other instances in the New Testament, even in this very Gospel, urging the Church to stay awake, to pay attention.  It's just that this parable is not one of those.

This is a challenging Gospel – and it is matched with a challenging reading from the Prophets and a challenging reading from the Epistles.  From a preacher's perspective, this week there is nowhere to hide.  Amos might say, “It is as if someone fled from a lion, and was met by a bear.”  Which is by the way, one of my favorite lines of poetry in the Bible – although I am sure I would find it less amusing if I actually found myself in that situation.

But, as I said, this parable is challenging; it is challenging because of the details.  It is easy to get caught up in the details of the story – some of which are strange. 

Ten women go to meet the bridegroom.  On that evening the groom was bringing his new bride to live in his home.  The women were there to welcome the newly married couple and to join the party the couple was hosting in celebration of their union.  Basically in that first century context, a bride was taken from the home of her father into the home of her husband.  In this case their arrival is delayed.

A delay in their arrival would not necessarily have been unusual.  The two most likely reasons for a delay would have been either longer than expected negotiations between the bride's father and her new husband – marriage was in that context a business deal – or it could have been that the consummation, the couple's first sexual encounter, took a while longer than expected.  As uncomfortable as it might sound, the first roll in the hay occurred at dad's house; we see this in the Jewish apocryphal book of Tobit.  Or maybe both took a while.  Or maybe the bride took a long time to pack.  It is hard to tell.  The parable does not explain the reasons, but it is reasonable to assume that the exact time of a bridegroom's arrival, generally, was a bit unpredictable.      

And so perhaps it is not unreasonable to label the five women who failed to bring extra lamp oil as the five foolish bridesmaids.  They should have known better.  They should have been better prepared. 

On the other hand, “foolish” seems like a pretty strong description.  Maybe they just forgot.  It happens.  A couple of weeks ago, during my vacation week, my family and I went up to spend one night in Ann Arbor and we forgot the kids' clothes, and then later, after both boys decided to take off their socks and shoes in the car, we forgot to feed the parking meter.  So, things happen.  Usually we remember this kind of stuff and then sometimes we don't.  Maybe you're the same.

And in those times, when we are foolish or forgetful, we hope that others will be merciful and understanding and help us out.  We hope that when given the opportunity, we will show mercy and understanding to others.  Because that is the Christian thing to do.  In fact, later in this same chapter of Matthew's Gospel, Jesus tells the story of the sheep and the goats; and in that story he condemns those who fail to help others and he praises those who care for the needy.

But yet, in another strange detail, in this parable the wise bridesmaids refuse to share their excess oil with those who are without.  It is an absolutely selfish move.  They are afraid to run out and so they leave the foolish ladies with nothing.  It seems absolutely contrary to the way in which the storyteller, Jesus, lived his life.  This aspect of the story is very human, but in the context of the Gospel, very strange.

At the prompting of the wise, the foolish leave the scene – even though they know the arrival of the bridegroom is very near.  I find this detail the most baffling of all.  There were still five lamps burning.  Five flames in a pitch dark world would shed a lot of light.  Two women per lamp seems plenty sufficient.  Assuming the women had any kind of relationship with the couple, you would think the new couple would be understanding about the oil and let them in regardless.  The lack of oil seems inconsequential.  And yet the five foolish women leave to buy more.          

And they miss it.  They miss the bridegroom's arrival.  Because they are buying oil, which, by the way, once the couple arrives and the party begins, they won't even need. 

By the time the five return, the married couple is back, the five wise bridesmaids are partying, and the doors are closed.  And in yet another strange detail, the bridegroom, for whom the women waited, claims not to know them.  They have oil.  But they missed it.

They miss the point.  I think the five women are called foolish because they are distracted by the things that do not ultimately matter.  The bridegroom was more important than the oil.  But they lost the plot.  They abandoned what was most important for something that was not.

Jesus is always coming to us – at unexpected times and in unexpected ways.  But it is easy to miss him – because our lives are filled with a million distractions.  And it is easy to convince ourselves that the circumstances and problems that fill our hectic lives are more important than the Christ who longs to meet us and know us.

The ones who are wise are the ones who never stop looking, who never stop waiting, who long to see Jesus – through the crowd of distractions, through the thick darkness. 

Jesus is coming.  If the lamps burn out, wait and watch for him in the dark.  Because he is the point.  Everything else is just details.