Ready for the Long Night

Matthew 25:1-13

Rev. Bobby Musengwa

Transitional General Presbyter

When I first heard the parable of the ten bridesmaids in Sunday school, it alarmed me. 

The wise women refused to share their oil, and that felt wrong. I grew up with Botho, or uBuntu, the understanding that our humanity is bound up with one another. 

In my world, we did not celebrate people who turned a neighbor away. In fact, we harshly criticized those who refused to share by saying, “Hana uBuntu” meaning, they lack Ubuntu. 

And, as a kid, I was usually the one in need, the kid asking for bread at lunch time or a pen in class or whatever I didn’t have. 

So I wondered: What was Jesus teaching?

I still feel that tension. 

But here is what I notice now. 

All ten women fall asleep. The wise ones don’t win by staying awake. 

The difference shows up at midnight: five planned for a long wait, and five assumed it would be short. 

Jesus tells this story to disciples already following him. The question isn’t whether we believe. It’s who we are becoming while we wait.

Nobody can borrow your faithfulness at the last minute. That is the point of the oil. 

The story doesn’t teach us to hoard. It warns us not to postpone what matters. 

“I’ll forgive later. I’ll reconcile later. I’ll pray later. I’ll call mom later. I’ll vote later.” Later has a way of turning into too late.

Jesus is clear elsewhere that the whole law rests on loving God and loving our neighbor as ourselves. 

Ubuntu says it from another direction: “I am because we are.” 

Readiness is never a private project. So we wait together. 

We carry oil for one another by praying, feeding, encouraging, and staying close when someone’s flame runs low.

The bridegroom is coming, and the feast is joy.

Keep awake, friends. Love your neighbor. Keep going.

Grace and peace, dear friends!

Bobby