Today’s scripture: Matthew 25:1-13 (ESV-text and audio) (KJV) (The Message) What might God be saying to me?

My thoughts (David Zier):

I know this has been interpreted as an apocalyptic parable about the end times and remaining prepared, but if viewed with the issue of “light” in mind, it does provide a slightly different twist.

What does it mean to remain prepared? If Jesus is the “light” of the world (John 8), and we are Jesus’ disciples, we are to keep the light going, live in that light, and let our light shine, as the song tells us. This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine!

We may be excited and all gung ho about ministry today, but then we kind of fizzle out. We are doing ministry and worshiping in community, then we start to pull back. The oil is our prayer and worship, and our communities. These help to provide the fuel to do the work Jesus calls us to do. “Keep awake” is more than just being prepared for whatever time Jesus comes, but to live the life as a disciple that allows us to be awake and aware of Jesus’ calling on our life and in ministry. “Keeping awake” is cultivating and maintaining our relationship with Jesus. “Keeping awake” is doing the things that will help us on our discipleship journey.

When the oil runs out, and we turn away, it is not Jesus that turns away from us. God’s grace will always welcome us back. But when we are distant from God, and our relationship with God starts to wane, it feels like we forget what it is like to be in that relationship and connection with God. When we do, we can forget our purpose in life, what we are called to, and we can become disoriented and out of sync. Our spiritual life suffers.

So instead of looking at this as the typical parable about the end times, a fresh approach might be to see this passage showing us what happens when our spiritual light grows dim, when we do not maintain and cultivate our relationship with God, and we become disconnected to our call to discipleship.

Prayer for the day: God, please help me to cultivate a closer relationship with you. Help me to maintain a life of prayer, worship, and community, so that I may fulfill whatever calling you have for me. Amen.

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 11th, 2010 at 12:01 am and is filed under Gospel of Matthew. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.