Do I Know You?

By Matt

The really embarrassing part of this whole thing is that I could only remember that I was reading through Matthew. No idea why. So I had to go back and re-read and figure out what it is I'm reading for. Apparently I'm looking for when Christ condemns and when he talks about who makes it to Heaven. I think, I might need to reread it a bit more.

Anyways, it's not much further into the Bible when you get to the parable of the virgins and the bridegroom in Matthew 25. The Boy Scout virgins decide to be prepared with extra lamp oil while the dumb ones don't have any. They burn through their oil and when he shows up, they don't have any oil so they're out buying it when the wedding feast starts and they're left outside. They knock and the voice tells them, "Do I know you? I don't think I know you."

I have to think that this is meant to hearken back to Christ's sermon on the mount in Matthew 7. He spells it out much more directly there: "I can see it now--at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, 'Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking.' And do you know what I am going to say? 'You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don't impress me one bit. You're out of here.'"

Well, in non-Message versions Christ says something about not knowing these people. But that's the point. Knowing God may not be as sure of a thing as we like to think it is. It's scary, especially for people who think they have a good handle on God because they work in his Church. It's only through constant vigilance (ahem, Mad Eye) over ourselves that we can be sure we'll be recognized when we meet up with Christ. Checking our hearts and being sure our service to him is placed way higher than our designs on status and recognition. When we are careful with what we fill our lamps, we don't have to worry about running out.