The Story of the Wise and the Foolish Bridesmaids

The Story of the Wise and the Foolish Bridesmaids.

The Wise Person: A sage, a person known for wisdom, understanding and discernment; for developing the practical art of living skillfully; for growing in moral intelligence; for being able to practice the truth in daily life; for expressing astute insight and shrewd street smarts; for applying knowledge to make thoughtful decisions and healthy choices; for knowing the difference between wise and foolish, right and wrong, beautiful and ugly, good and evil, true and false; for effectively demonstrating a practical spirituality; for choosing to live into Wisdom itself, the Person of Jesus the Anointed One.

The Fool According to Scripture: A person who doesn’t know what is best for himself; who doesn’t learn from mistakes; who is habitually rebellious; who does not consider the consequences of his behavior; who stubbornly remains unteachable; who is content with self-satisfied ignorance; who ignores counsel and discipline; who pridefully rejects a reverence for God; who has access to the truth but rejects it; who is impulsive and unable to control emotions; who is not concerned about moral blindness; who is unaware of his self-destructive lifestyle; who does not recognize the need to change his thinking and behavior; who is gullible, naïve and dim-witted.

Keep Your Lamps Trimmed

“While the five foolish bridesmaids were out buying oil, the bridegroom appeared. Those who were ready and waiting were escorted inside with him and the wedding party to enjoy the feast. And then the door was locked. Later, the five foolish bridesmaids came running up to the door and pleaded, ‘Lord, Lord, let us come in!’ But he called back, ‘Go away! Do I know you? I can assure you, I don’t even know you!’ That is the reason you should always stay awake and be alert, because you don’t know the day or hour when the Bridegroom will appear.” (Please read the entire parable in Matthew 25:1-13).

Give Me Oil in My Lamp (With Lyrics) | Beautiful Hymn

THE CONTEXT. Just prior to this parable, in Matthew 24, Jesus is seated at the Mount of Olives, teaching his disciples. They asked him about the consummation of the Age, when will the End come, when will they see Jesus usher in the New Kingdom at last? Jesus proceeds to give one teaching after another about the End of the Age, that it will come unexpectedly, quickly, decisively, that no one knows when it will occur. Even Jesus the Son and all the angels don’t know. Only the Father knew. And, there’s nothing anyone can do to bring it all about. So Jesus gave many warnings, and said to be ready for its coming, be prepared, plan ahead, be watchful, careful and expectant. One of his summary statements is in Matthew 24:42: “Watch, therefore – give strict attention, be cautious and active – for you do not know in what kind of day (whether a near or remote one) your Lord is coming.” (Amplified Version). It is in this context that Jesus gives his disciples this parable, which is basically an illustration of what he has just told them.

1. The return of Jesus as Lord at the End is an important doctrine in the Christian Faith. Jesus talked about it often. In fact, one of every 30 verses in the New Testament is about His return to earth when He ushers in the Messianic Era. The coming Big Event should influence how we live each day.
2. To understand the parable better, here is what a first century wedding in a Jewish village would look like. On the day of the wedding, the groom would go to the home of the bride with family and friends, in order to take her to the groom’s home for the wedding and banquet. He would place her on a donkey or other riding animal at her house, and they would parade through the village so that everyone could take part in the celebration. When they approached the groom’s home, the bridesmaids were to be ready at the entrance to the house with lamps a-burning, to escort the wedding party to the feast. The bridesmaids were the official welcoming party, a very important part of the whole wedding process. It would be highly embarrassing if there were no lamps burning at the groom’s home. The welcome escort would be deeply disappointing for everyone.

THE BRIDESMAIDS. They are often called young women, or virgins in this story. They are an important part of the wedding experience, and need to be ready for the return of the bridegroom with the bride, if they want to take part in the wedding banquet. In a Jewish wedding ceremony, it was stated that ten men were needed to be in attendance to make it official. Jesus chose ten women to balance the scales in the gender gap of the day.

1. The Church is always feminine in the Gospels. The Bride of Christ, with Jesus the Bridegroom. These young women represent the Church, the disciples and followers of Christ. These maidens are the believers waiting for the return of the Groom, all with lamps, all in the wedding party in the beginning.
2. Five of the bridesmaids brought extra oil, and five did not. The wise and prudent maidens were ready for the delayed wedding party to arrive. The five foolish maidens, the unfaithful, careless disciples, were not. At midnight, when they least expected it, the groom arrived with his wedding party. The wise bridesmaids were able to light their lamps and escort the group to the feast. The foolish were not able to light their lamps, having run out of fuel, and so were not a part of the welcoming escort party to the feast.
3. The five wise bridesmaids didn’t share their oil with the five who were foolish. The wise ones were not being mean or selfish. It made sense. There wasn’t enough extra oil for all ten lamps. And it was much better that there at least be five lit lamps, as opposed to ten unlit lamps. The wedding festivities could continue with the lamps that were burning. Also, this shows that readiness is an individual responsibility, not a group project in the faith.
4. It was okay that the virgins fell asleep. There was no rebuke from Jesus for that. But the wake-up call was a victorious moment for the wise virgins who were ready. And it was a disastrous call for the foolish virgins, who were unprepared.

THE GROOM. The time has come. He has returned. Some are ready, and some are not. There comes a time when the door is shut. The door is not open forever. When the Kingdom comes, there will be a door. All ten virgins were in the wedding party initially, but only five were ready for the groom to appear. Sadly, it appears that it’s possible to be too late.

1. When the five foolish maidens knocked on the closed door, they demanded for the Lord to open it. The groom’s response is clear and unambiguous: “I do not know you!” In the Judeo-Christian Faith, knowledge is not limited to head-knowledge. To know something or someone was experiential, personal, intimate, relational. Adam “knew” Eve. Knowledge implies a relationship, a deep personal one, in which both partners truly understand each other and loves the other at the heart level. The five foolish bridesmaids were bumped from the wedding party as they looked for oil, so the groom didn’t know them personally, and the door was shut.
2. The parable is left open-ended. Did the groom finally relent and let the five foolish bridesmaids into the wedding feast? We don’t know. The final decision is up to the Bridegroom. I have a sneaking suspicion that the groom finally opened the door to them once they were able to light their lamps.

Joe Mettle and Nathaniel Bassey sing Give me Oil

Oil and Waiting. Does the oil represent anything in particular in Jesus’ story? It certainly was a central prop, and the whole story pivoted on whether or not the bridesmaids had oil for their lamps. I believe that the oil is whatever is life-giving in the life of active faith. The oil is a personal relationship with God, and whatever gives life to one’s faithfulness to Him… prayer, Scriptures, meditation, worship, repentance, confession, study, community interaction. The light from the lamp, as Jesus has said elsewhere in the Gospels, is good works… fruitfulness, mercy, joy, hospitality, compassion. So whatever enables that light of good works to shine is the oil. In other words, the oil is the Holy Spirit, the Giver of Life. The oil is our inspired love of God, using everything we have… soul, strength, heart, mind. And the light is love of neighbor. The oil of the Spirit fuels the light of love. The Spirit fuels the mercy. The oil gives life to the fire.

1. The wise bridesmaids knew how to wait properly, and the foolish ones didn’t. What does it mean to wait biblically? Waiting is an activity motivated and sustained by hope and readiness. Is waiting an empty, passive experience in resignation? No. An ulcerating, thumb-twiddling act of idle impatience? Nope. Is it the listless art of biding one’s time? No again. The root Hebrew word that Isaiah, for instance in Isaiah 40:28-31, used for wait actually means to combine, to bind together by twisting. So think of waiting as akin to twining rope or braiding hair. The patient waiter is one who, with not a small amount of concentration, braids together the scattered fragments and fragile strands of our lives into a unified, durable whole. The effective waiter is patiently prepared with a single-minded focus, ready to serve, ready for anything. The faithful waiter is one whose work and rest and laughter and tears and successes and failures are constantly being blended into a lifestyle of hope, persistence, faithfulness and purpose. Active waiting is hopeful readiness, patient trust, unified focus, watchful preparation. Those qualities are alive and well in the wise bridesmaids. The foolish ones didn’t know how to wait in readiness and thoughtful preparation, braiding together what was needed to receive the groom whenever he came. They were not active waiters. The wise ones truly waited with focus and purpose, and were ready for the unexpected, redeeming the time in hopefulness.
2. It seems crucial that in our braiding, our active waiting, we make the Lord one of the strands. Weave together Jesus with painful memories, and experience healing in the woundedness. Braid together God with present challenges, and find meaning in the difficulties. Tie together the Lord with anxieties about the future, and live in solid hope. “A cord of three strands is not quickly broken” ( 4:12). One strand is the believer. The central strand is the Lord. The third strand is whatever we are experiencing in our life… friends or enemies, school or career, difficulties or fulfillments. Weave the Faith in, and the braid is unbreakable. Active waiting, faithful braiding. That is the sensible thing to do, and this is what the wise bridesmaids did.
3. If we should fall asleep before the Lord returns, in other words if we die, then, the Lord’s wake-up call will be music to our ears… “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you; Christ shall give you light.” (Ephesians 5:14).

On Jesus as the Bridegroom. The earliest Christians also loved to think about Jesus as the Bridegroom, the fulfillment of all the Jewish Scriptures about God being the husband. They thought of the Church as His bride, and they considered the relationship between Christ and His followers to be a spousal relationship in a spiritual sense.

1. Matthew: “Then John’s disciples came and asked Him, ‘How is it that we and Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus answered, ‘How can the guests of the Bridegroom mourn while He is with them? The time will come when the Bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.” (Matthew 9:14-15; also refer to Mark 2:19);
2. Paul: “I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to Him.” (2 Corinthains 11:2);
3. Paul: “For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up His life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to Himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault… No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. And we are members of His body…. As the Scriptures say, ‘A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife as the two are united into one.’ This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one.” (Ephesians 5:25-27, 29-32);
4. John: “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready… Then the angel said to me, ‘Write: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’ And he added, “These are the true words of God.’” (Revelation 19:7, 9);
5. John: “I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, ‘Look, God’s home is now among the people! He will live with them, and they will be His people. God Himself will be with them.” (Revelation 21:2-3

“Keep Your Lamps” Arr. by André J.Thomas

Gospel Song – Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning. This classic gospel song was originally performed by one of the great bluesman of all time, Blind Willie Johnson, in 1928. Blues musicians in the early days had a tradition of borrowing music and lyrics from each other, so it’s not clear who originally wrote the song. It looks like the legendary blues guitarist and singer Rev. Gary Davis had a hand in the lyrics later on. We have at least three different sets of lyrics for the song, all  of them included below. This gospel song alludes to the parable of the wise and foolish bridesmaids in Matthew 25:1-13. As you read about the parable in this article, you’ll see the clear intent of the lyrics. Please read the parable in the Gospel of Matthew.

Tim O’Brien and Darrell Scott – Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning

LYRICS #1

Refrain: Keep your lamps trimmed and burning (3X), O see what the Lord has done.

1. Sister don’t get worried (3x), For the work is almost done.
2. Brother don’t get worried (3x), For the work is almost done.
3. Elder don’t get worried (3x), For the work is almost done.
4. Heaven’s journey is almost over (3x), See what the Lord has done.

LYRICS #2

Rev. Gary Davis – Keep Your Lamp Trimmed And Burning

Refrain: Keep your lamps trimmed and burning (3x), For this old world is almost done.

1. Well mother don’t you stop prayin’, Father keep right on prayin’, Don’t you stop prayin’, For this old world is almost done.
2. Brother don’t you stop prayin’, Sister keep right on prayin’, Don’t you stop prayin’, For this old world is almost done.
3. Preacher don’t you stop preaching (3x), For this old world is almost done.
4. Angels don’t stop shouting (3x), This old world is almost done.
5. Got my lamp trimmed and burning (3x), For this old world is almost done.

LYRICS #3

Refrain: Children, don’t you grow weary (3x), For the time is drawing nigh.

1. Keep your lamps trimmed and a-burning (3x), For the time is drawing nigh.
2. Darker midnight lies before us (3x), For the time is drawing nigh.
3. Lo, the morning soon is breaking (3x), For the time is drawing nigh.
4. Christian, journey soon be over (3x), For the time is drawing nigh.

The reader of these lyrics can clearly see that the song is meant to be an encouragement to be strong and endure suffering just a little bit longer, to be ready for the Lord to return, that the time for the end may be soon. Don’t quit now despite life’s difficulties, keep following Jesus, keep praying, and don’t worry about the current problems. The Lord’s work is almost done, the world is coming to an end in due time. Hang in there and wait for the Lord, prepared and aware, ready to welcome Him in good faith.

The Groom’s Still Waiting at the Altar (Take 2)