Instead of bridesmaids with oil lamps, let's say there are ten travelers down at gate B-23 at DIA. In Denver, it’s a cold, grey day in January, with chilling 20 mph winds and dark skies. The travelers are settling in to await a 5 p.m. flight to the warm sands and blue skies of the Caribbean islands. As life would have it, half of these travelers are foolish, and the other half are wise.
The foolish travelers brought their carry-on bags but didn't think to bring any food or snacks with them. They’re too excited for their dream vacation to deal with planning details. Who’s hungry when a week on the beach awaits? The wise ones, however, are prepared. They’ve brought sandwiches and fruit in their carry-ons.
As anyone who has traveled recently might imagine, things don’t go smoothly for these travelers. Crazy weather patterns delay the plane. Then there’s a mechanical problem. Then there’s a crew shortage. The travelers sit and sit at the gate, as each new promised arrival time comes and goes. Exhausted, they all begin to doze, slumped over in their chairs.
By 9 p.m., hunger pangs wake them up. It's now way past dinner time. The airline representative at the counter announces that their plane could land any minute now, and tells them they need to stay near the gate! The wise travelers pull out their sandwiches and start munching.
The foolish travelers plead, "Hey, could we please have some of your food? We're too hungry to last much longer."
The wise travelers grumble, "No way! We may not have enough if we share with you. Just go down the concourse and buy your own food."
The foolish empty-handed travelers head off as fast as they can down to the nearest fast-food joint. But what do you know …. While they’re on their way to buy food, the plane arrives!
The travelers who stayed at the gate board the plane, and the attendants shut and secure the door with a bang.
Just then, the foolish travelers come running up to the gate, MacDonald's bags in hand. "Please, please," they pant, "Open the door for us! We need get to our beach vacation!"
But the airline official refuses, and the plane taxies off down the runway. They are left behind in cold, dreary Denver.
What kind of an awful, unfair story is this, Jesus?[1]
First, it’s not fair that the so-called "wise" travelers get rewarded for hoarding their food. They have enough, but they won't share. Yet they're the ones who get to go to the beach.
Secondly, it’s not fair that anyone has to suffer because the plane is late. If the plane had just been on time, then everyone could have gotten on without waiting or needing any extra food. Flights are supposed to run on time.
Also, it isn’t fair that the attendants bar the plane door so quickly. Couldn't they have waited a minute on the passengers who went to get food? They could have a little pity! It’s past supper time, for goodness’ sake, and everyone had been waiting for so long.
As usual, Jesus is messing with our minds in telling us such a bizarre and unfair story. He's always shaking us up, trying to get us to see God and one another differently. There’s never one way to see a parable. In this parable, instead of assuming that we know what it’s all supposed to mean, let’s ask ourselves: Who is really wise and who is really foolish in this story? As soon as we think we know what wisdom and folly are, we might just remember the words of St. Paul: "If you think that you are wise in this age,” Paul writes in I Corinthians, “you should become fools … for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God."[2] Are the foolish travelers the ones we should emulate? As soon as we tell ourselves that God rewards the ones who pack a dinner and refuse to share, Jesus says, "many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first."[3] As soon as we decide that the attendant who shuts the doors of the plane on the late arrivals is supposed to represent God, we hear Jesus say: "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in [people's] faces."[4]
So instead of trying to make sense of this crazy story, let's enter into it. I bet we’ve all been excited about a vacation before, right? And I bet we’ve all been in the situation of waiting for hours for a delayed flight, hungry and tired and bored and upset. Can you imagine yourselves back there in that place for a moment? It's a demoralizing and desolate place to be, isn’t it? You want to be at your destination, having fun, but instead, you're uncomfortable in body and in spirit. You get rather hopeless and desperate sitting there, maybe even angry. You feel captive. You're not in control, and nobody seems to care about your situation at all. You wonder why you even bother to travel anymore!
The world we live in can make us feel like that, too, sometimes, can't it? Not only are we trapped in airports, but we’re also trapped in a crazy political circus, in looming climate catastrophe, in geopolitical turmoil. We can also feel trapped in illness, in poverty, or in the grips of health insurance companies, student loans, and other debt. Our lives certainly can feel as frustrating and joyless as sitting trapped at a gate at the airport. They can feel like sitting in the darkness of midnight, with no oil to light your lamp.
Here’s the thing. When we find ourselves in this dark world, we often try to deal with it on our own. We're told that if we can just be prepared, then we can survive whatever comes our way. So we tie ourselves in knots of anxiety. We haul around bags and bags of stuff that we think will protect us from want. We buy weapons or build walls that we think will keep us safe. We run around in a panic like the so-called foolish travelers, thinking that we can buy our way to comfort and security and contentment. Or we turn inward like the so-called wise travelers, bent on looking out only for Number One. Or, like the airline employee, we exchange compassion for strict rules, barring the door and refusing to welcome the wayward traveler on board with us. We human beings can play any of these roles, can’t we? There are certainly enough poor choices made in this story to go around. No one is exempt from them.
In trying to hoard, and exclude, and rush carelessly around, we forget that we’re all headed to a Caribbean beach vacation, to God’s Reign of Joy and Light. That the plane is on its way, and nothing can stop its eventual arrival. What if travelers had shared in this joyful expectation at that airport gate? What if—in their waiting--the food had been shared equally, stories had been recounted, songs had been sung, prayers had been offered, new friends had been made? Yes, we do have life-altering choices to make as human beings. But those choices don’t need to be made out of fear of punishment. They can be made out of joy and delighted anticipation, in community.
We may all be waiting for God, but in Christ, we don't play a zero-sum game. In Christ, we carry one another's burdens and lift up one another's joys. We have no need to run off somewhere to get our own food, because we receive Christ himself in bread and wine, and he is inside of us, loving us and building us up from within.[5] This is the vision of God's Kingdom that Jesus brings to our troubled world.
[1] My interpretation of this parable is based on a sermon by David R. Henson, "The Breaking of the Bridesmaids: Rethinking a Problematic Parable." Found at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davidhenson/2014/11/the-breaking-of-the-bridesmaids-how-scripture-undermines-a-parable/
[2] I Cor. 3:18
[3] Matt. 19:30
[4] Matt. 23:13
[5]John Shea, On Earth as it is in Heaven: The Spiritual Wisdom of the Gospels for Christian Preachers and Teachers , Matthew, Year A (Collegeville, MN: Order of St. Benedict, 2004), 317.
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