Listen to the teachings! The kingdom of heaven will be like ten bridesmaids who await the groom. With the delay of the groom, five bridesmaids do not have enough oil to complete their task. At the end of the parable, the five bridesmaids cannot enter the wedding banquet and the groom says, “I do not know you.” Jesus concludes by saying, “Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”
How do you hear those words? Are they somber? Do they produce fear of judgment? Listen to Jesus with a sense of hope. The words conclude a parable about a wedding festival—a joyful event. The ten bridesmaids need to have prepared for a tremendously joyful celebration, an event that marks goodness, love, and blessing. Why would they come unprepared?
First Thessalonians 4:13-18 and today’s passage help us realize that we have fallen prey to the twenty-first-century invasion of fear. Fear—whether of terrorism, infectious diseases, street violence, or immigrants—becomes a lens through which we see the world. That fear transfers itself to the way we read the Bible. Instead of reading the Bible as God’s gift of love, we read it with fear in the background. When fear becomes a perspective, we miss joy and hope; we focus instead on condemnation.
Rather than looking with fear, live like the bridesmaids who look forward to the arrival of the groom. They prepare with joy for something better and for a greater joy. That seems the place of prayer in our daily discipleship: We listen to God as we read scripture. We pray and open ourselves to God’s grace for the day so that we may be open and receptive to the greater joy that will be ours.