Twenty-Fourth Sunday After Pentecost November 11-12, 2023
“The Unforgiveable Sin” Matthew 25:1-13
Rev. John R. Larson Ascension Lutheran Church Littleton, Colorado
Have you ever had to have a hard conversation with somebody? A friend, a parent, a kid, a spouse, a co-worker? You didn’t want to have it. But the words had to be said. They weren’t spoken out of fury or rage but you couldn’t keep silent any longer.
Hard words are what we hear from the mouth of Jesus today in the Parable of the Ten Virgins. A wedding was happening and ten ladies had the task of waiting for the groom. He was late. Real late. All 10 waited and all at once the sound was heard – “Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.” (Matthew 25:6)
Five of the ten were ready and they went to meet him. But half of them were not ready. Their lamps had gone out. And they needed to have oil to light their lamps and to find their way to groom and usher him into the wedding. They left to get the oil and they found someone, even in the middle of the night, who would provide that to them. And they returned to the place where the groom was and where the wedding was going to be held and we read the words about a terrible, hard conversation that was spoken:
But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. Later the others also came. “Sir! Sir! Open the door for us!” But he replied, “I tell you the truth, I don’t know you.” Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour. (Matthew 25:10-13)
What terrible words. What harsh words. Those are words about damnation. “The door was shut.” “I tell you the truth, I don’t know you.” There are times when we had to have hard conversations with others. They lied to us. They betrayed us. They destroyed the deep trust we had in them. But those hard conversations that we had with others never had such eternal consequences as these.
These words are terrible. This is such a hard teaching from Jesus. In Matthew 7 Jesus had a similar word, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ But I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers.’” (Matthew 7:21-23)
How did those five ladies get into such a predicament? When I began considering this sermon about 10 days ago I wondered if they fell into the deep pit of apathy. Was this “I don’t know and I don’t care” malady, that so many people have, also theirs? If I am going to talk to a person about the matters of their soul, about their relationship with God, I would rather speak to an atheist than to one who has fallen into apathy. An atheist can give a reasoned defense on why they reject the existence of God, and the teachings of the Bible, but one who has become apathetic won’t even engage in a conversation. They have become indifferent. Their heart is hard.
Maybe the dilemma that caused them to be late to arrive at the banquet was procrastination. They lived by the maxim, “Don’t do today what you can put off until tomorrow.” Some well-meaning people put matters of their soul on the back burner. Someday they will go to church, open the Bible, deal with sin and death and eternity. Someday they will consider Jesus. But not today. Today is busy. There is too much to do. That stuff about God can be handled sometime later in life. But that day never comes. 5 of those ladies arrived too late. The door was shut. The words of judgment were spoken, “I don’t know you.”
Maybe this unforgiveable sin was a question of priorities. Jesus had some straight words when He said, “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26)
When you have had that hard conversation with that close friend, neighbor or someone under your own roof, you might have surprised them. “What?” “What are you saying to me?” I wonder if those words of Jesus come as a surprise to us. Sometimes we think of Jesus as the one who only seeks, receives, welcomes and rescues. One hundred sheep are grazing and when the shepherd takes tally of how many he has a problem is discovered. One is gone. Lost. Missing. In danger. This is what he does, “Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home.” (Luke 15:4-5) Then, of course, the party is planned. Everyone is invited. The lost was found and they celebrated. In the Parable of the Wedding Banquet (Luke 14:15-24) a wedding is going to be held with a banquet to follow. Invitations are sent out. But everyone who gets an invitation has an excuse not to come. They must tend their fields or their animals. So the one throwing the party says, “Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame…my house must be filled.” (Luke 14:21, 23) Or, how about this from a welcoming, seeking, receiving God – “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)
I hope you know that Jesus. That Jesus tells us that the broken, the weak, the struggling, the sinner, always has a place in His kingdom. But the Jesus who speaks harsh words to the apathetic, the procrastinator, the misguided, the unrepentant, the ones who have committed unforgivable sins, is the same Jesus. A short story writer, Flannery O’Connor says that she only so many words to convey what she needs to say. She writes, “I have to make my vision known by shock. To those who are hard of hearing I shout. To those who are almost blind I draw large and startling figures.”
That is what Jesus does. “Later the others also came. ‘Sir! Sir! Open the door for us!’ But he replied, ‘I tell you the truth, I don’t know you!’” They were shocked when they arrived and the door was shut. Closed.
Do you know the difference between law and gospel? What I read and what I’ve said so far in this message is law. It is harsh. It pains us. It shocks us. This is God’s judgment. It is the picture of hell. And it is really true. It actually happens. Jesus says, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14)
There is a lot of law is this parable from Jesus. Like Flannery O’Connor, Jesus speaks to those who are hard of hearing by shouting. “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”
But it is the gospel that we must know in this account and in every account. The gospel is the news that God, for Jesus’ sake, forgives all sins and promises that we will spend our eternity with joy in the very presence of God. The gospel reaches us with the love of God and tells us that nothing in this world will ever separate us from God’s love.
The law is meant to shock a person to repentance. The gospel is even a greater shock. St. John would write with great astonishment, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God! And that is what we are.” (I John 3:1) It is shocking that Jesus would give His life for us and He would die for us. It is shocking that He would take away the eternal consequences for all the times we have been apathetic, hard or indifferent to Him. It is shocking that when we have gotten our priorities all screwed up, He never forgot us and brought us back to His fold.
We don’t deserve such mercy or kindness. But God has given to us every grace. He fills us with life. He says that we are His forever. Jesus says to us, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” (Revelation 3:20 KJV)
Hard conversations can shock us. And they can change our life. They can give us true life now and forever. Amen!!
