“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom… the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.” – Matthew 25:1, 4
This passage goes back in our reading a bit, but I thought about it during an Advent retreat this week. This is a story about waiting, waiting in the dark. Those days, the groom and his men would come get the bride and her entourage from her parents’ house, to go with music and dancing to the wedding site. Since the groom often came after dark, the bridesmaids’ job was to provide light for the procession: these could be small handheld oil lamps, or more likely, torches made from oil-soaked rags wrapped around sticks. These torches would have to be refilled with oil and the rags rewrapped every fifteen minutes.
We lit oil lamps at the retreat. Unlike candles, the wick never burns down: it needs to be trimmed to prevent smoking, but it’s the oil that is consumed. Unlike a candle, it has the potential to last forever, but the oil must be refilled; it needs active tending. What separates the wise from the foolish in this story? The ability to anticipate delay. All of them brought oiled lamps; all of them had the same intentions; all of them fell asleep. But only some had prepared for a wait. And when the bridegroom came delayed, at the darkest hour, only some were prepared to tend their lamps.
Jesus says there is a wise and a foolish way to wait. Waiting well is to wait with diligence, looking forward to something with such expectation and belief that it causes you to live in a different way while you wait. Good waiting is active. It is having the foresight to be prepared for what will matter most when the bridegroom returns.
In this case, it is coming with not just the oil in the lamp, but oil in the flask. The oil in the lamp is visible, used, obvious. But the oil in the flask is what will sustain us. I’m much better at performing in the moment than at maintaining margin. I tend to give to present needs rather than receive what I myself may need. I tend to be quick to sprint and poor in pacing. But wisdom in the kingdom of God is to tend the oil in the flask. In the Bible, oil is a symbol of blessing, honor, joy, gladness; it is used for anointing of kings and objects in the tabernacle. Jesus himself is the light; we are given the oil of blessing, joy, the very Holy Spirit. But we must be diligent to receive, to receive for ourselves what cannot be borrowed from others. What does receiving mean to you this Advent season? What in your life is evidence that you are not only anticipating, but preparing, for Jesus’ return? What sustains you in your purpose within this dark world?
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