TITLE: “Watch!”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for today is the parable of the 10 virgins from Matthew 25. We focus on the word, watch!

Philip Nicolai looked out his window. A pastor in Germany some 400 years ago, Pastor Nicolai had buried 1400 members of his parish in the six months before he looked out that window. The graveyard was filled with his flock, with God’s flock. They were dead. The bubonic plague had struck, and the town was but a shadow of its former self. As he looked out at that window, the words of our Gospel lesson rang in his ears, and he penned that greatest of all Lutheran chorales, Wachet auf, wake, awake!

Pastor Nicolai thought of all the struggles and heartache he had seen in his life, and in the life of his little flock. Truly the days were evil. War and bloodshed were everywhere. It was almost as if the earth itself were going to swallow them up, things were getting so bad. What arrows did Satan fling at him, to drive him to despair: Strife within and without, death and sickness all around.

Yet in the midst of all of this suffering and pain, there was hope. Nicolai clung to it with everything he had. Everything he saw said that God had lost. There was even the smell of death in the air. And yet, and yet in this faithful soldier of the cross there was hope. He looked out over the graveyard of God’s people and penned those words:

"Wake, awake, for night is flying,"

The watchmen on the heights are crying;

"Awake, Jerusalem, arise!"

Midnight hears the welcome voices

And at the thrilling cry rejoices:

"Where are the virgins, pure and wise?

The bridegroom comes, awake!

Your lamps with gladness take!

Alleluia!

With bridal care

And faith's bold prayer,

To meet the bridegroom, come, prepare!"

Awake! These are the words that the watchman cries out to us. Awake! The trials and struggles of this life are as nothing, in the light of God’s great riches in Christ Jesus. When you are in Christ by faith, you have everything. Even death itself doesn’t matter. That is how Pastor Nicolai could write those great words of faith.

And that is what the foolish virgins in our text couldn’t understand. They thought they could trim their lamps with the oil of faith later. I’ll save faith for another day, they thought to themselves. The bridegroom, Jesus, couldn’t possibly come in the middle of the night. It wouldn’t make sense. He wouldn’t come when they least expected it. He would come when it was convenient for them. That’s what they thought.

They were foolish. They believed that they could control the bridegroom. They thought they could even read the very mind of God Himself. But they couldn’t, and they were cast out of the eternal banquet feast as a result. That’s what happens when you try and play games with God. But He operates in His own time and in His own way.

The wise virgins, though, they understood. They understood that the most important thing was faith. They understood that you had to get the oil of faith in order to enter into the wedding feast. It defined them, in a way. No matter what else happened, they had the oil of faith. It had to be refilled. If at the last day they came up empty, it would go very bad for them. So they made sure they had the oil, no matter what.

Now let’s stop talking in parables for a minute, and get to the point. Jesus in our text teaches us that the only way to heaven and the great banquet feast is by faith in Him alone, and that faith must be given when and where God gives it through Word and Sacraments. At the end of your life, what will be the point? Is the Christian faith the most important thing in your life, or is it something that you simply put on a shelf and bring out when you feel it is important?

This fall has brought a lot of things into focus in some ways. We have seen and known well how fragile is life. As we prayed in the Introit, Lord, make me to know my end and the measure of my days. What it is that I may know how frail I am. Life is frail, my friends in Christ. It is fragile, and our only hope lies in Jesus Christ for life and salvation.

The end of the church year reminds us once again that life is passing. There is an end, and there are more important things than possessions or the other things of this life. Christ our Lord calls us to put away the works of darkness, and the things of this world that weigh us down. This is what St. Paul warns us of when he writes: But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.

If we pretend that the things of faith do not matter, or that everything is just fine apart from Christ and the Gospel, then we do ourselves great spiritual harm. Many in the world act as if death will not come. Many act and pretend that only the things of this time and place truly matter. But this is not so. A wise pastor once said that Christianity begins where all other religions end, at the grave and the tomb. For us Christians, our hope is in the future glory that Christ gives to His children in the resurrection of the dead. To be sure, we have glimpses of that future glory today, but they are glimpses and hints; they aren’t the whole story.

This is why St. Paul writes about light and darkness in the epistle lesson. This is why Jesus implores us to watch and be ready. There are many churches that obsess over teaching people how to live. How do we change people’s behavior, so that they live better? Really though, if you look at the Scriptures, you will see that God’s Word teaches how to live, but more importantly, it teaches us how to die. It teaches us how to have the oil of faith fill us, so that when the watchman calls out on that Last, Great Day, we will be ready.

So how do you know if you are ready for the end? If you look at yourself, you know by the Law that you are not ready. But the whole point is that Christ calls us not to look to ourselves, but to look for Him. Remember, the oil for the lamps was so that they could see the bridegroom. That was the point. Christ wants us to call upon Him in every trouble, to look to him for all good gifts and blessings, and to know that it is His voice that will call us out of the grave on the Last Day. That is how the wise virgins in our text could be ready for the coming of the bridegroom. They were so ready, in fact, that they could be asleep! They had no worries, because they knew the bridegroom would come for them.

So this day you come forward to that feast of feasts, to the banquet of the Lord’s Supper. It is at this banquet that God gives you the gift of faith. He forgives your sins; He gives you life and salvation. His fills you with good things, because He fills you with Christ Himself. Because of that great work of Jesus on the cross and in the empty tomb, you may look at the rest of your life with hope. Why? Because no matter what life throws at you today, no matter what darts the devil, the world and your own flesh may fling at you, nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. That is why we may rejoice with all believers. That is why we can sing with the angels of heaven. That is why when our last hour has come, God will take us from the vale of tears to Himself in heaven.

Believe it, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting. Amen.