Is Your Vessel Full?
Being April Fools Day, I felt compelled to share a short devotion about a foolish person, the concept of being a fool, foolish actions or words…. something about foolishness. I was surprised to see just how much this is discussed throughout the Old Testament and New Testament. The parable of the Ten Virgins told by Jesus was among the list, so I started to re-read this story. As the Living Word so often does, It spoke to me in a new way and gave me insights that I had not noticed before.
To set the stage of this parable, it helps to understand some of the background. Just the day before He shared this parable with His disciples, Jesus had entered Jerusalem on a donkey to the shouts and cheers of the crowds as they waved palm branches and covered Jesus’ path with their clothing. This first day of the Holy Week was when Jesus made a stand multiple times by clearing the sellers and buyers in the temple and turning over the tables of the money changers. Jesus had faced verbal accusations and degrading comments by the Herodians, Pharisees, and Sadducees in their attempts to publicly humiliate Him.
On the second day when He returned to Jerusalem, Jesus continued dealing with the confrontations in the temple. He tried to explain the coming events to the religious leaders, but they only continued with their barrage of insults and traps until, finally Jesus had enough and went away to the Mount of Olives. When His disciples joined him, Jesus proclaimed the destruction of temple. Because they were imagining the destruction of the physical temple, Jesus used lessons, illustrations of historical events, and parables to help them understand the true meaning of what was about to happen in just a few short days. Of those lessons, the Parable of the Ten Virgins was one lesson Jesus told to help explain the urgency needed to be prepared for the coming of the kingdom of heaven.
You can read the full parable in Matthew 25: 1 - 13. In a nutshell, Jesus is telling the disciples that some people will be prepared for the Son of Man to return, while others…. in their foolishness…. will not be prepared. As a result, those not prepared will not be allowed into the wedding. But how are the five wise virgins prepared? What was lacking for the five foolish virgins to keep them from attending the wedding?
For the foolish virgins, it wasn’t the low oil in the lamps that posed a problem, but the lack of oil in their vessels. Their lamps were still burning, but wouldn’t last much longer without the reserve oil that is typically kept in the vessel. As a result, they had to go into the village to purchase more oil, and by the time they returned, it was too late…. the bridegroom and wise virgins had entered the wedding and shut the door behind them. If these five had only come prepared with their vessels full of reserve oil, they would not have heard the bridegroom proclaim, “Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.” Matt 25:13
As you can see from the picture above, the oil lamp and vessel are two separate containers. Each virgin in the story would have had a lamp and a vessel. The lamp is specially made to burn to create a flame to produce light. The virgins would use this to see in the darkness as they watched for the bridegroom coming in the distance. The vessel held the extra oil they would need to keep the lamp full and burning for an extended amount of time. Because the bridegroom in the parable was delayed, it was critical that the virgins come prepared with a filled vessel.
We can apply this simple parable to our own Christian walk to avoid being foolish and missing out on the wedding. The bridegroom, of course, resembles Jesus Christ and the wedding represents the coming of the kingdom of heaven, or the return of the Son of Man. The ten virgins represents us. We can either be wise and prepare ourselves to meet Jesus, or we can be foolish and not be prepared. Of course it is important that our lamp is always burning…. we need to see in the darkness as we diligently watch for Him. But the lamp is small and doesn’t hold much oil. It doesn’t need to…. the lamp in the picture above will burn 4-5 hours with the small amount of oil it holds. If we are waiting for a short time, the lamp on its own will suffice. However, we need to be prepared in case Jesus tarries. This is when the larger vessel is needed which allows us to keep extra oil for when the lamp is running low.
How is the level of oil in your vessel? Do you fill it often so when the flame from your lamp starts to diminish, you can put oil in the lamp again? None of us wants to see our lamp go out, so come back next week to learn more of how you can stay prepared by keeping your vessel full. We will look at what we need for oil to fill the vessel and where we can get the oil needed. In the meantime, share your thoughts in the comments below to the following question: