“Stay Awake”
Matthew 25:1-13 (CEB)
Rev. Dr. Mary Beth Bernheisel
November 8, 2026
We are going to learn a new word today. Some of you may already be familiar with it, but either way it’s a good 50 cent word to keep in your pocket so you can impress people at parties. The word is
Eschatology
Has anyone ever heard that word before?
(pause)
I’m not going to ask you to do it, but could you define it?
(pause)
Eschatology is concerned with “last things” or “final things.” It asks the question, “What does the end look like?” or “What happens at the end of all things?”
I bring this up because this parable, and the two parables that follow it, are all about the final things – what happens at the end. In all three of these parables. Jesus is talking about eschatology. He’s talking about what the end looks like.
And there’s a very good reason that Matthew includes Jesus’s words about what the end looks like and that’s because it hasn’t happened yet. And you say, “Well, duh, Mary Beth, of course it hasn’t happened yet because we’re still here.” And you are absolutely correct.
But – but – let’s think about when and where the gospel of Matthew was written. Scholars think that the gospel of Matthew was written sometime between the years 80 and 100 AD. If we do the math, that’s anywhere between 47 and 67 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus.
And here’s what else scholars think. Scholars think that the very first followers of Jesus – the ones who were around while Jesus was alive, and those who chose to follow the Jesus Way after his death and resurrection – those very first followers of Jesus fully expected Christ to come again during their lifetime – like really, really soon. The very first followers of Jesus expected Jesus to come back like tomorrow, or next week, maybe next year, but certainly not any farther out than that.
So when Matthew is writing his gospel – in fact, all of the gospel writers are in the same boat – when Matthew is writing his gospel for his church, he has to address this unthinkable situation – that Jesus hasn’t come back yet. What the early followers of Jesus thought was going to be a short-term project has gone on far longer than they expected.
And that’s why Matthew spends so much time talking about “last things” or “what happens at the end.” He is trying to help his church deal with the fact that Jesus hasn’t come back, and what they’re supposed to do while they’re waiting. Which makes what Matthew says to those first followers of Jesus even more important to us over 2,000 years later.
Will you pray with me and for me?
This text – Matthew 25:1-13 – is part of what scholars call Matthew’s
Eschatological Discourse
The Eschatological Discourse starts in Matthew chapter 23 and continues all the way through the end of chapter 25. In fact, you can open your Bible right now and see some of the things that Jesus talks about in this section. In chapter 23 he spends 36 verses saying, “Woe is you” to one group of people or another. Then he predicts the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. And then he talks to them about signs of the end of the age, and tells the disciples to expect to be persecuted for being his followers, and then he tells them that the stars will fall out of the sky and then people will just – poof – vanish right off the face of the earth. This stuff used to give me nightmares.
But the thing is that Jesus isn’t trying to scare the disciples. He’s actually trying to encourage them. No matter how bad it gets – even if the sky is falling – God is still on the throne. But the question remains, what do we do while we wait. For better or for worse, the choices we make when we think the world is going to end tomorrow are very different from the choices we make when we think we have forever.
In today’s text Matthew tries to answer the question, what do we do while we’re waiting?
I am terrible at waiting. Not that I’m terribly impatient, but anytime there’s an empty span of time between now and then – whenever then is – I am not good at finding productive ways to fill it. It’s the reason I have games on my phone–because I’m not creative enough to find good alternatives for filling that span of time between now and then. I just fill that time with junk. If there was an award for being able to fill time with junk, I would win it. I read an article one time about the mind-numbing effects of scrolling on our phones, and the author ended with the advice that rather than filling our empty time scrolling or playing games or whatever, you should read poetry.
I just scroll.
But Jesus has a different idea about what to do while we wait. And so he tells this story that starts like this
Then the kingdom of heaven will be like…
Not “The kingdom of heaven is like,” which is what Jesus says everywhere else, but
Then the kingdom of heaven will be like…
And he tells this story that we often call the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Bridesmaids.
The symbolism is pretty obvious…the bridegroom is Jesus and he’s running later than expected. The wedding feast is Christ’s return in final victory when we feast at his heavenly banquet. The bridesmaids represent the church. But then we encounter something unexpected. Five of these bridesmaids don’t bring enough oil to keep their lamps burning while they wait for the groom who is later than expected, and the story starts to take a turn that sounds a lot like that poor guy who wasn’t wearing his wedding garments when the king invited him to the wedding feast.
When the foolish bridesmaids ask the wise ones to share their oil, the wise refuse. They say, “If we share our oil with you, then no one will have enough oil for their lamps and everyone will be in the dark. They tell the foolish bridesmaids to go to the store – apparently the oil stores stay open until midnight – and get some oil. The five bridesmaids go and buy some oil, but by the time they get back the door to the banquet hall is closed and when they ask to be let in, the bridegroom says
Truly I tell you, I do not know you.
And the lesson from Jesus that ends the parable is
Keep awake, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.
The stuff of nightmares.
We focus on Jesus’s admonition to Keep awake, but in reality all ten of the bridesmaids fall asleep. The only difference between the foolish bridesmaids and the wise bridesmaids is that the wise bridesmaids brought more oil.
Perhaps, then, what we should hear Jesus saying is
Be ready.
The Boy Scouts just sat up a little straighter. I know for a fact that Jay Bernheisel would have brought extra oil, just in case. In fact, search your own heart for a moment and raise your hand if you would have brought extra oil, just in case. Now raise your hand if you’re like me and you would have said, “Eh. There’s plenty”
Honesty is good for us.
What are we supposed to do in the meantime? How exactly are we supposed to stay ready?
Stanley Hauerwas says
In a time in which you are unsure of the time you are in, it is all the more important to do what you have been taught to do. (Stanley Hauerwas)
Let’s hear that one again…
In a time in which you are unsure of the time you are in, it is all the more important to do what you have been taught to do.
Now I actually think that we’re pretty sure of the time we’re in – we’re in that squeeze that we talked about last week – the squeeze of the in-between time – between the world as it is now and the world that is being born – between Jesus’s first appearance and his second coming. But the question is still the same.
How exactly do we stay ready?
Eugene Boring, which is an unfortunate name for a Biblical scholar, by the way, says that
Readiness in Matthew is…living the life of the kingdom, living the quality of life described in the Sermon on the Mount. (Eugene Boring)
Readiness is orienting ourselves to the world the way Jesus would, with humility, mercy, purity of heart, peace, and a desire to live righteously.
No problem, right?
The truth is that we can live this way on our own for a while. But when the bridegroom is delayed, well, it gets pretty though.
Boring says
Being a peacemaker for a day is not as demanding as being a peacemaker year after year when the hostility breaks out again and again, and the bridegroom is delayed. Being merciful for an evening can be pleasant; being merciful for a lifetime, when the groom is delayed, requires preparedness. (Eugene Boring)
Does anyone else feel that deeply in their souls?
Do it once and it’s not a problem. Doing it over and over again when we don’t know how long we’re going to have to do it…that gets wearisome. Especially with the attitude and the heart that Jesus wants us to have.
Terry shared with us earlier about his experience of GROWing as a disciple, the second of our four ministry areas that we’re focusing on during stewardship season. He talked about the step-by-step nature of discipleship, that it’s about doing the next faithful thing and paying attention to the ways that the Holy Spirit prompts us and directs us. The journey of discipleship includes engaging in spiritual practices and disciplines that shape our hearts and souls and minds so that we become more and more like Jesus. So that we can be merciful over and over again. So that we can be peacemakers every time the hostilities break out, instead of just the first or second time. Those acts of discipleship – prayer, service, worship, and study – are what make it possible for us to sustain a life lived according to God’s kingdom – according to the Sermon on the Mount – day after day, month after month, year after year. So that we stay ready.
The first followers of Jesus were the original audience for Matthew’s gospel and they experienced the delay of the bridegroom as a problem. It totally upended their expectations and they–quite understandably–didn’t know how to live while they were waiting. There was no guidebook for living in the squeeze of the in-between time.
Two thousand years later, however, it doesn’t feel like much of a problem. It feels more like an opportunity. An opportunity for us to commit ourselves to the journey of discipleship by engaging in those spiritual practices that make us more and more like Jesus so that we can live like Jesus would live if he were living our lives. That’s really the work of the church, isn’t it? To be the body of Christ in the world. To do what Jesus would do if he were here. But we can’t sustain that kind of life on our own. We have to read and study the words of Jesus and people who have subsequently written about and interpreted those words. We have to RECEIVE the love and nurture of God in worship. We have to pray together and alone so that we can align ourselves with God’s will for our lives and our church and the world. We have to share our joys and concerns with one another because it’s in sharing ourselves that we truly become a community that can offer the love of Jesus to the world. We have to hold each other accountable for the kind of lives that Jesus wants us to live as his followers.
These practices of GROWTH allow us to sustain the life that Jesus asks us to live – they help us to stay ready–because we simply cannot do it on our own.
All of us live somewhere between readiness and foolishness. It’s easy to get distracted. It’s easy to feel confident in our ability to live like Jesus without also letting Jesus form our lives through the practices of discipleship.
You should have all received a stewardship commitment card in the mail by now. If you haven’t, don’t sweat it, you can grab one from the back of the pew in front of you and take it with you. One side of the card gives you the opportunity to let the church know how you plan to commit financially to the mission and ministry of the church in 2027. We’ll use that to help us create our 2027 budget. But stewardship isn’t just finances. Stewardship encompasses all the ways we manage all the things that God has entrusted to our care. The other side of the card gives you the chance to prayerfully consider how you might serve God’s kingdom through the Receive, Grow, Connect, and Reach ministries of the church. There’s even a blank at the bottom where you can request more information about ministries that interest you. If you need ideas about new ways to be involved in the church’s ministries – or even the first way you want to be involved – there are several posters around the church for inspiration. And if you would like to see more about where your financial gifts went in 2026, there is a display just outside the sanctuary with that information.
Friends, the life of discipleship is a gift from God. And here in this congregation we have so many opportunities to grow in our faith and in our love of God and neighbor – we have so many opportunities to live out the Sermon that Jesus preached in Matthew. Each week, when you hear that Invitation to Discipleship, consider it an invitation from God to take another step – to stay ready – so that we can become more and more like Jesus for the sake of the world that God so loves.