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Lectionary for Nov. 8, 2026
24th Sunday after Pentecost
Amos 5:18-24; Psalm 70;
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Matthew 25:1-13
Matthew 25 might be my favorite chapter in the Bible. It contains the absolute apex of Jesus’ teaching about his post-resurrection return and his instructions to his disciples to ready themselves. Jesus has just left the temple for the last time before his crucifixion. Already he is looking past his death to tell the disciples how to prepare for the culmination of all things on the coming Day of the Lord. The next three weeks (the last of our liturgical calendar) are aimed at helping us prepare to prepare for Jesus’ arrival.
Now, of course, we need to remember that Matthew 25 comes after Chapter 24, where Jesus tells his disciples that he will return. Many will come claiming to be him. Wars will happen, and false prophets will try to change Jesus’ message of neighbor love and the peaceable kingdom. Lawlessness will increase, and many people will forget how to love (24:4-12). This will be a difficult time for those who are in Jerusalem and Judea (16). At some point, Jesus will return. No one aside from God the Father—not even Jesus—knows or can predict when that time will be (36, 44). Jesus concludes that the only reasonable response to knowing that the Day of the Lord will come, which can’t be predicted, is to live in a state of perpetual readiness (45-51).
In this week’s Gospel reading from Matthew 25, Jesus tells another parable to explain that his disciples should live in perpetual readiness for his return. Ten young women (Greek usage of pathenos outside the New Testament, e.g., Septuagint and Homer, could mean married or unmarried) go to await the groom’s arrival to his wedding. Five of their number bring extra oil for their lamps and five do not. The groom eventually comes in the middle of the night. Five of the young women have sufficient oil to light the way for the groom while the other five must run to the merchants in the night to buy oil. By the time they return to the feast, however, the doors are closed and they aren’t allowed entrance.
The question will arise: What is the meaning of the oil? (Next week: What are the talents?) The parable gives us some indications. The oil represents something that can be had in different amounts by those who wait for Jesus’ arrival. It doesn’t affect how they wait for the bridegroom, only how ready they are when he arrives. And it is something that you can acquire more of, but it takes time. It seems like “faith” doesn’t fit the picture, because the young women all believed the bridegroom was on his way and waited for his arrival.
Acts of justice and righteousness are the oil that Jesus wants us to have plenty of to light his way when he returns.
Looking to Amos 5, the prophet helps us identify what Jesus is hoping to find his disciples have plenty of when he returns. First, Amos contextualizes the Day of the Lord. For those who aren’t ready, it won’t be a wedding feast but a day of darkness and violence, as if a bear attack or a snakebite.
Amos is explicit in what God does not want on the Day of the Lord. God hated the celebration of holidays and festivals, the animal sacrifices and worship songs. It’s important to remember that Amos was speaking to those in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, who had constructed counterfeit, syncretic worship centers as rivals to Jerusalem. So, if syncretic worship is bad, what does God want?
Surprising no one who has been following along, God wants a tide of justice to roll in and an infusion of righteousness, as if a river that does not go dry in the heat of summer (24). Acts of justice and righteousness are the oil that Jesus wants us to have plenty of to light his way when he returns.
Let’s make no mistake, the bridegroom can and will make it to the feast with or without our lamps lighting the way. Jesus told the parable to encourage us in the ways of wisdom and good works. As Martin Luther taught, God does not need your good works, but your neighbor does. Amos and Jesus tell us that on the Day of the Lord, we will want to let our lights shine before people, so that they may see our good works, and glorify our Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16).
