I want you to think about the words from our Introit this morning. Look at them again in your bulletin. “Lord, make me to know my end and what is the measure of my days.” Do you know what that's asking? It's saying, “Lord, teach me that I could die at any moment and so don't let me die apart from Jesus Christ.” You parents with older children already know and you parents with young children will know, but it's something I've just found out: When your kids get their drivers licenses, you have a whole new perspective on “Lord, make me to know my end and the measure of my days.” What parent doesn't worry that something will happen to their children? And I don't have to tell you who are a part of this congregation what a sudden death is all about. It doesn't matter if it comes quickly and unexpectedly, or after a long battle with illness. Our days will end if our Lord does not come back first. Since our days could end at any moment, how then will we be ready? What does it mean to know the measure of your days? Jesus teaches us this with the story of the ten virgins. He can come at any moment. When the cry goes out, do you have oil in your lamp or do you run around trying to find some? Put another way: When the Lord returns, when death takes you, are you ready? Prepared?
It is Jesus who prepares you for death and the Last Day. There isn't some tricky religious thing you need to figure out in order to make yourself ready. It's not a matter of knowing He's coming so getting busy trying to look like you're trying to be ready. Where we like to avoid thinking about death, Jesus knew that's why He had come: to die. To carry your sins to Calvary and be crushed by the weight of judgment and wrath against them. We avoid death. Jesus takes it head on. Did He like it? Did He want to? He did it because He loves His Father and by dying for us He is rescuing His church, His bride. The fact is, we don't number our days. We don't think death is near. We ignore it and we act like the Last Day is just some vague notion that won't every really happen. But Jesus knows. That's why He comes. That's why He suffers. That's why He dies. And that's why He rises from the dead. Jesus goes to die and rise to take death's power away. To make sure that when our time comes, death can't keep us down forever. By defeating sin and death, Jesus makes it OK to die. He makes it safe. He makes sure we are His. By His death and resurrection, Jesus prepares you for death and the day of His coming.
And He prepares you by giving you oil for your lamp. So what's the oil? It's the forgiveness of sins. Faith. The Holy Spirit. All of those things together. The faith that clings to Jesus and knows that because He has died, our sins are forgiven. This is the faith worked by the Holy Spirit which trusts in Jesus and not ourselves to be ready on the Last Day. The faith that trusts His death for us and not in our own attempts to save ourselves by our good works or anything else. The faith that clings to Christ in the confidence that our sins are forgiven for His sake. Jesus dies and rises for your and pours that salvation into your lamp by the gifts which create and nurture our faith: by water and Word in Baptism, by preaching and absolution, by His own Body and Blood. All of these things are the gifts that make us ready to meet Him no matter when He shows up. It may be that you perish tomorrow! It may be that you live a long life before you die. Either way, the Lord has made you ready by giving you the oil of forgiveness and faith in Jesus so that no matter what happens, you will be ready to meet the Bridegroom when He shows up.
So what about the foolish virgins that had no oil? Well the simple fact is this: You can't be ready to meet Jesus with someone else's faith. Those who reject Christ, who despise Him and His gifts are on their own. Some may THINK they are part of the church; they're with the other five virgins, after all. But when it comes to forgiveness and faith, they have none, for they are foolish. The foolish virgins are those who don't want to know the number and measure of their days. They don't care that death will come. And on the Day the Lord returns, they'll be scrambling to find oil. Because what makes us ready to receive Christ isn't some notion of faith or some feeling that we believe something. It is Christ and His gifts. Those who cut themselves off from the church and the means of grace can talk all they want about believing, but they are not where Christ is filling their jars with oil. On the Last Day, when Christ returns, you can't say, “Well Grandma went to church, doesn't that count for me?” or “Well, I got confirmed in that church, even though I stopped going.” When you die, you can't just have your family roll you into church when you haven't been there in fifty years and expect that there is the comfort of a Christian burial waiting. Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is serious stuff! Those foolish virgins were running around trying to find oil and when they finally got back to the wedding feast, the door was already shut and the Lord says, “I don't know you!” This is a warning. It's a warning that on the Last Day, those who have lived without Christ's gifts and faith will be locked out. Those who live trying to find their own oil instead of using the oil Christ has given them will be left in the dark.
So when Jesus says “watch! Because you don't know when,” how do we watch? How do we wait and watch for Christ? You watch by having oil ready to go. But that's not you getting the oil. It's Christ's oil. It's the oil He gives you in His church: Your Baptism, Absolution, the preaching of the Gospel, and the Lord's Supper. Cut yourself off from that and you will NOT be ready on that day. There's repentance there. Repentance for thinking lightly that the things Christ gives us in church aren't really the big deal. And parents, I cannot emphasize this enough—and perhaps it's on my mind as I watch my kids cut more and more apron strings—parents, you are charged with bringing your children to the Lord's house so that He may fill their jars with oil. Don't neglect this duty! Don't let your kids grow up foolish where they don't learn to number their days and live in the gifts of Christ. Don't let your kids cut themselves off or be cut off from their Baptism, from preaching and God's Word, and from the Holy Supper. Teach them, as they grow, that Christ has prepared them and He has given them the oil of His gifts to make them ready. And if they're older, sit down and have an adult talk with them about having the oil of Christ in their lamps! Otherwise, do you want them to be wandering around at Christ's return, trying to find some faith? God forbid! And not just parents but all of us Christians: let us not despise Christ and His gifts but gladly receive the oil of His Word and Sacraments, forgiveness and faith so that when He comes we will be ready!
Lord teach us to know our end and to see the measure of our days. We are asking that the Lord make us ready for death and His return. He has answered that prayer in the sending of His Son to face down death for us and to be the first of those who rise from the dead. He has baptized you, absolved you, preached to you and fed you. Your jar is brimming with His oil so that when He comes again, you will be ready. For the world, Jesus' return is like a thief in the night. Unexpected! But when He comes, we will be ready. For He Himself has made us ready. So come quickly, Lord Jesus! Amen.
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