Extra Oil
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
During the Season of the Glorious Cross, the overarching theme and question that the Lord asks us through the scripture passages is “are you ready?” We are always confronted with the comparison between the wise and the foolish and this Sunday is no exception. The ten bridesmaids in this week’s parable are split between the five that are labelled as foolish and the five that are labelled as wise. On face value, all ten of them appear to be the same. All of them had appeared to be prepared for the coming of the bridegroom except for one small detail, one crucial difference, the extra oil! The five wise bridesmaids were well prepared and carried with them extra oil in the case that the bridegroom arrived late and thus were well prepared when he finally showed up. Like the wise bridesmaids, the foolish ones had everything that they needed to know. They were not disadvantaged in any way; however, they were still not ready.
This parable reminds me of us. We, the people who regularly come to church and participate in the life of the church. We, who are equipped with everything that we need to know about Christ and profess all righteousness. Are we truly ready for Him to open the door for us? Are we ready to listen to the greeting that He may have for us? Are we ready for the reality that He may shut the door in our face because we have no oil in our lamps? Brothers and sisters, many of us carry the lamp but unfortunately, we run out of oil or are not prepared enough to bring extra oil with us. This oil represents the inward preparation of the heart for the return of the Lord. Do we really know Jesus? Most of us would claim that we do, but do we really know Him? Are we ready to love like He loves? Are we ready to be merciful like Him? Are we ready to forgive, like He forgives? Are we ready to sacrifice ourselves, like He sacrificed Himself for us? Like the parable, these questions are very confronting but are crucial for us to understand the crucial difference, the extra oil. Therefore, when the hour comes and we can hear the sound of the squeaking door that is being opened, will we have enough oil to enter into the banquet or will our fate be that of the foolish bridesmaids.
