“CHRIST THE WISDOM, OIL, FAITH”
Saint Matthew 25: 1-13
Last Sunday: 20 November Anno Domini 2022
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
You know, it may be just as simple as the cover art, the black and white icon, on this morning’s worship folder. Those inside the Church are saved and those outside the church—who don’t come to church are damned.
For do you not know that The Church is Christ Himself. He is The Head and His sheep are His Body. There is no separation between Jesus and His Church. He attaches, bodily, His presence in His Word and His Sacramental Word to The Church. As Saint Augustine wrote: “He who does not have The Church as his mother, does not have God as his Father.” And so too the Apostle writes to St. Timothy: “…in The House of God, which is The Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of The Truth” [1 Ti. 3.15b]. And you know Who The Truth is. And He tells a parable.
The “Kingdom” is another word not just signifying, but meaning, The Church—Christ Himself. For is Our Lord not The King of Kings? The King is the sum and substance of His Kingdom.
And He likens it by way of simile to Ten Virgins.
Ten is the number of fullness and completion—the totality. These women represent all the world from Adam to the last baby born before the Eschaton. Yes. But specifically, they represent those brought into Christ by way of Holy + Baptism as well. That’s why they are all denominated “virgins,” and no doubt are clothed in white garments. But you know that not everyone who sits in a church is automatically saved by virtue of mere presence, or for that matter, by reason of having been Baptized. There are tares amongst the wheat. This is tragic, were it not so. But there are those “virgins” who have been Baptized who apostatize, who fall away and leave The Faith/The Church/The Christ. There are those “virgins” who from the time of Abraham and “circumcision” the “type” of Old Testament Baptism, fell away from The Church and too perished. From Cain to Ham to Absalom to Ahithophel, to Judas, to… they are foolish…unto damnation. “The foolish shall not stand in Thy sight; Thou hatest all workers of iniquity” [Ps. 5.5]. Psalm 14 and 53 both reiterate “the fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.”
Likewise, the characteristic and virtue of wisdom is simply that of believing, of having been given faith and having held on to it—preserved it—nurtured it—been IN Christ Jesus. In this parable that would be the oil in the lamps. But so too, wisdom has been used as another denominator of God, yes, the Father, so too The Spirit, but also The Son. When the Old Testament Prophets are given wisdom, whether by theophany (supra-natural revelation), or words taught and preached, they are given The Son of God, not just the Logos (Word) of The Trinity, but also the Wisdom of The Trinity. From Job, to King Solomon, to Daniel, to Saint Peter at Pentecost, The Lord gives Wisdom by way of The Spirit Who Himself simply gives Jesus. We stand and confess with The Apostle: “but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and The Wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men” [1 Cor. 1. 23-5].
This wisdom, this faith, this Christ Jesus Who gives to His own all that He has. Who credits to His “wise virgins” (The believing Church) the oil of gladness and joy (Himself and the faith to believe in Him) in that He has kept the Law in perfect obedience for you; in that He has suffered and died on Golgotha’s bloody crucifix in your place; that He has risen from the dead, defeated Satan and the grave, and Has Ascended on high to the right hand of The Father as your interceding Lord and God.
And though you can not give your faith, as a thing, a fungible, transferable, commodity, to any one else. You can nonetheless pray The Lord of The Harvest that Christ’s disciples will continue to broadcast His Word (Christ Himself) to all those currently without oil (faith) in their lamps.
And also, take comfort and peace in Christ’s mercy. Who would have ever predicted Saul of Tarsus would be given wisdom/oil in super abundance/faith to run and finish the race, to receive the prize.
The Wisdom of God (Jesus) gives you wisdom and oil: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand” [Jn. 10. 27-29].
And where is His voice, His gifts “for you?” In His pasture and in His sheepfold—His Church where He has deigned to place His Holy Presence.
Be wise fellow virgins. Bath in The Word and be fed and quenched with The Word. Stay oily.
It may be just as simple [and as clear] as the cover art on the worship folder. Those inside the Church—In Christ with Christ (oil-faith by Grace) in them—are saved and those outside the church—who don’t come to church are damned.
“Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein The Son of man cometh.”
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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