Baptismal meditation

Matthew 25:3-4: The kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were foolish, and five were prudent. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the prudent took oil in flasks with their lamps.

The history of the Bible is a history of siblings, and sometimes of twins. At the beginning, the siblings are frequently at war. Adam and Eve had two sons, the murderer Cain and his victim Abel; one of Noah’s sons attacked his father and was cut out of the family; Joseph struggled with his brothers.

The first set of actual twins in Genesis, Jacob and Esau, begin struggling even in their mother’s womb, and continue struggling and wrestling with one another through their lives. Before they were ever born, as Paul points out, God has chosen one and rejected the other, a sign that God has mercy on whom He will have mercy, and hardens whom He desires.

We have a variation on that theme in the parable of the virgins. Ten virgins wait for the Bridegroom, but they are divided into two groups. One is wise, and prepared for the Bridegroom’s coming; the other is foolish, without extra resources of oil. The two groups are twins, but one is allowed into the wedding while the other finds the door shut tight in their faces.

This is not very encouraging, it seems. But that’s not the end of the story. These are small episodes in the big story of the Bible, and the big story of the Bible is not about siblings at war, twins who fight from their mother’s womb, but brothers united and reconciled.

In the same way, Israel and Judah, the twin peoples of God, are finally tied back together in the grave of exile, so that “all Israel shall be saved.” In the New Testament Jews and Gentiles, estranged brothers, are knit back together into one new man. The big story of the Bible is the story of the twin Adams, the first Adam and the Last. But in that story, the Last Adam undoes the sin of the first, and reconciles Adam to Himself.

Your daughters were born into a world where human beings reserve our deepest hatred for those who are closest to us, most similar to us. We don’t hear much about “second cousin rivalry”; but everyone knows about “sibling rivalry.”

But today, in their baptisms, they are entering a new world. Through baptism, they are being transferred from the world of Adam to the world of the Last Adam. In their baptisms, they are joined to the one greater than Jacob, who wrestled with His brother but finally received him with a kiss of peace. Encourage them to continue in the way of Jesus, so that they both together will be among the wise virgins who enter into the joy of the Bridegroom.