"Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour."
Matthew 25:13 (NIV)
This week may have settled in you like a weight. You sat with the parable, examined the oil, and it became heavy. That is a real place to land after sitting in this passage. But it is not where the parable wants to leave you.
The command that closes Matthew 25 is not to perform or impress. The command is simply to watch, to stay oriented toward the One who is coming. Watching is not striving or managing how you appear to others. It is the posture of someone who has turned toward Christ and is staying there.
Revelation 19:7 shows you clearly where the watching leads. The bride has made herself ready and the response from heaven is joy. The erusin covenant was always moving toward the Bridegroom and the feast. It was never heading toward a shut door but toward the One worth waiting for.
We carry this together as a congregation in formation. None of us was meant to tend the oil in isolation from others. We are a people set apart, watching and abiding in the same long wait. Those around you need to see a closeness to Christ that looks worth having.
The right response to this parable is not a longer to-do list. It is desire, a genuine personal longing to know the One who is coming. If that desire is already in you, keep returning to where it was kindled. If it has gone quiet, that quiet is an invitation and not a condemnation.
Godseekers, He is not a Bridegroom of your own construction. He is the Christ of Scripture, holy and gracious, who confronts and comforts. He died for sinners, rose from the dead, and is coming again as King. Go to Him today, not to your best idea of Him, but to Him.
Prayer
Risen Lord, You are the Bridegroom who has been faithful across every moment of the wait. Thank You that You are not hard to find and that You are near to those who genuinely turn toward You. We bring our whole selves to You today, not our best selves but our actual selves. Grow in us what only grows in closeness to You. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Personal Reflection
- What has this week's honest reckoning with the parable produced in you, fear of the shut door, or genuine desire for the Bridegroom who is coming?
- What would it look like for this congregation to be known in your city as a people genuinely close to Christ, not just faithful in attendance?
Step of Faith
Today, tell one specific person what God has been doing in you this week through this passage. Name it concretely. Let someone else see what genuine closeness to the Bridegroom is producing in your life right now.
