Ready or Not

Shepherd of the Mountains Lutheran Church, Pinetop, Arizona

Rev. Michael “Mick” Mathews

The Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost – November 8, 2026

Sermon: “Ready or Not”    Matthew 25:1–13

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Now that election day is behind us and we’re well into November, it’s beginning to strike home that we are rapidly approaching the end of our calendar year. It’s just about two and half weeks until Thanksgiving. Christmas will be here in just under seven weeks, and New Year’s will be here in under eight weeks. The grocery stores have their displays of things you might need to prepare the holiday foods. Other stores have sales on things you might buy for Christmas gifts. Are you ready for all those things? They will be here soon, ready or not.

The new church year will be here even sooner than the new calendar year, because the church year starts with the season of Advent, the four Sundays of preparation before Christmas. There are only two more Sundays after this one in this church year. And as the end of one year and the start of another reminds us of the passage of time, we turn our attention in these last Sundays of the church year to the end of all things – to the time when Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead. When Jesus comes, He will bring this present world to an end. That end is coming whether you are ready for it or not.

The people who lived in the time of the prophet Amos thought that they were ready for the Lord to come. It was about 750 years before Jesus’ first coming, and even though the people of Israel had split into two kingdoms, things were going pretty well in both kingdoms. It was a time of relative peace and prosperity. So the people assumed that things must be good between themselves and God. They thought they were honoring God, because they kept up with holding the religious festivals and offering the sacrifices. But they weren’t living as God wanted them to live. They weren’t really caring for one another, but instead the rich and powerful were taking advantage of the poor and weak. They thought that if the day of the Lord came, the day of God’s judgment, that they would be fine. God would judge and destroy their enemies, but not them.

But Amos warned them that the day of the Lord would be darkness for them, and not light (Amos 5:18). God’s judgment upon them would be inescapable with nowhere to flee for safety – as if someone ran away from a lion, but then started being chased by a bear, and then finally made it home, but then was bitten by a serpent that had been hiding inside the house. Amos warned that just going through the motions of doing the religious festivals and offerings was not pleasing to God. It was actually offensive to Him, causing His anger to build up. Because what God was looking for wasn’t a religious show. It was true trust in Him and a sincere desire to walk in His ways. He was looking for justice and righteousness. The people of Israel may have thought they were ready for the day of the Lord, but they were not.

Jesus also told a parable about being ready when He told the story about the ten virgins waiting for the bridegroom to come. In biblical times, when a couple became engaged to be married, it was a binding commitment. They were considered legally married. But they didn’t actually come together as husband and wife until the groom got things ready to receive his bride, such as building a house, or establishing a business, and then preparing a wedding feast to celebrate. There was no set timetable for this. Whenever the groom was ready, he would come to claim his bride and bring her to their home, accompanied by her bridal attendants who would come along to the wedding feast. In Jesus’ parable, ten virgins, ten bridal attendants, were waiting for the bridegroom to arrive, while he was delayed in coming. Whenever the bridegroom arrived, they would welcome him. Even in the middle of the night, they would guide him to the bride with burning oil lamps.

But five of the virgins were wise, and five were foolish. The wise had flasks of oil with them to keep their lamps burning. The foolish ones did not have extra oil. When the bridegroom came at midnight, the wise were ready to meet him. They topped up their lamps, trimmed the wicks, and were ready to go. But the lamps of the foolish were going out. They tried to get more oil from the wise but there wasn’t enough. So they had to run to the marketplace to try to get more oil in the middle of the night. While the foolish virgins were away shopping, the bridegroom arrived. The wise welcomed him joyfully and went with him to the place of the wedding feast, and the door was shut. When the foolish ones tried to get in later, it was too late. They were left out of the wedding feast.

As we look at this story, it can be easy to get bogged down in the details. What are the lamps? What is the oil? What does it mean to trim the wick? Why couldn’t the wise share with the foolish? Over the centuries of the Christian church, people have come up with all kinds of ideas to explain these various details. And you don’t really get anywhere if you get bogged down in those details. In the end, it’s the central point of the story that matters: When the bridegroom comes, those who are ready will be welcomed into the wedding celebration, and those who are not ready will be shut out.

From the rest of Scripture, we know that there is nothing that we can do to make ourselves ready to stand before Jesus when He comes again with glory to judge both the living and the dead. God is looking for justice and righteousness in us, and we cannot live up to His standard of perfection. While we can’t rely on ourselves, we can rely on God to make us ready. At His first coming, Jesus died and rose again in order to pay for all our sins and to open the way to everlasting life for us. We will not be saved from our sins by any sacrifices that we try to offer to God. But Jesus has offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice for us. Everyone who trusts in what He has done has the gift of forgiveness of sins that He purchased by His own death. Everyone who trusts in Him has an invitation to join Him in eternal life, in a wedding feast that goes on forever. Everyone who trusts in Him is ready to meet Him when He comes again and will join Him in unending celebration in a new heaven and a new earth.

Many of the earliest Christians thought that Jesus would return during their lifetime. So when they saw their fellow believers die, they began to worry. Did you need to still be alive when Jesus came again in order to be truly ready to meet Him? In writing to the Thessalonians, Paul assured them and all believers that the answer is “no.” Those who die – who “fall asleep in Jesus” – will not miss out when Jesus comes again. Those who died trusting in Jesus are not lost to Him – so they are not lost to us either. Paul gives the beautiful and straightforward picture of what will happen when Jesus comes again:

16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:16–18)

That’s the wonderful good news about what will happen for those who are ready for Jesus to return because they have trusted in Him for their salvation. For them, the day of judgment is nothing to fear. They know their sins are forgiven. They know that Jesus will welcome them into His presence forever. But those who have no such trust in Jesus have no such comfort. For them, the day of the Lord will be darkness instead of light, as they find themselves shut out of God’s presence.

Are you ready, or not? Remember that it is only Jesus who makes you ready to meet Him. He is the heavenly Bridegroom who does everything necessary to welcome His Bride, the Church, into His eternal presence. He paid for His Bride with His own blood. He washed her clean of all her sins in Holy Baptism. And in the precious meal of Holy Communion, He gives us a taste now of that eternal wedding feast that will happen when He comes to take His Bride to Himself at the day of the Lord. He makes us ready to be with Him forever.

And the peace of God which passes understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Amos 5:18       Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD!

              Why would you have the day of the LORD?

      It is darkness, and not light,

19  as if a man fled from a lion,

              and a bear met him,

      or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall,

              and a serpent bit him.

20  Is not the day of the LORD darkness, and not light,

              and gloom with no brightness in it?

Amos 5:21       “I hate, I despise your feasts,

              and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

22  Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,

              I will not accept them;

      and the peace offerings of your fattened animals,

              I will not look upon them.

23  Take away from me the noise of your songs;

              to the melody of your harps I will not listen.

24  But let justice roll down like waters,

              and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

1Thessalonians 4:13   But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Matthew 25:1 “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. 3 For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, 4 but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. 5 As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. 6 But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ 7 Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. 8 And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ 9 But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ 10 And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. 11 Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ 12 But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ 13 Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.