...Advent...

Yesterday marked the beginning of Advent. This 4-week period of preparation for the birth of Christ has its roots in pre-Christian, pagan practices in northern Europe when people celebrated the winter solstice by lighting candles on a wagon wheel hung up in their homes and by adding greenery each day to the wheel to remind them of the coming of Spring.  The Christian Church later developed these 4 weeks as a symbol or period of light to remind us of the coming of Christ, the light of the World, and used it as a 4-week period of spiritual preparation for Christmas.

Each day for the next 4 weeks I will take a Scripture reading and invite you to pray about it and meditate on it. Today’s text comes from Matthew:

“At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4 The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5 The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.6 “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’7 “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’9 “‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’10 “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.11 “Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’12 “But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’13 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour” Matthew 25:1-13.

In this text Jesus drives home the point of His parable about the ten young, unmarried women, waiting for the bridegroom during a wedding celebration. Those who follow Christ should watch for His return. He says again that they will have no way to accurately predict the moment when He will come back: “36 But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” Matthew 24:36.

The fact that Jesus makes this same point repeatedly shows its importance. Rather than becoming complacent or lazy, He wants His followers to live in state of constant readiness. This readiness is why we have Advent, to give us time for spiritual readiness for the birth of the Messiah. Jesus does not want any of His people to live for themselves and merely hope for the best when He gets here.

Taking His teaching together within the context of the New Testament, being prepared for Christ's return begins with putting our hope in Christ's return. The only way to be approved of by the judge and welcomed into the kingdom of heaven is through faith in Christ Himself, as John says: “36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them” John 3:36. Those who trust Him accept the gift of His death for the forgiveness of their sin and His righteousness for their approval before the Father: “16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” John 3:16-18.

Remember that Christmas ushers in the truth that Jesus will eventually come again. So we await His coming not just at Christmas but also at the end of the world. Those who are trusting Jesus will be at work as they wait for His return, making the most of what He has given to them. They do the work He has given them to do. That's the point of today’s parable from Matthew 25.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.

From the Bible:

“So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him” Hebrews 9:28.

“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed”

2 Peter 3:10.

“Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” Matthew 24:44.