Chapter XV: A Man Named Matthew (2)

So the servants went out, and gathered all they could find, and brought them to the King's Palace, both bad and good. And this time there were plenty of people who came to accept the invitation.

Then the King came in to see the guests, and his eyes fell on one of them who had not on a wedding garment.

I think it is plain from the story, as our Lord told it, that this man might have had a wedding garment if he had chosen to do so.

Doubtless the servants had beautiful clean garments ready in another room, which the King had provided for every guest to put on.

But this one guest had no wedding garment!

Then the King said to him: "Friend, how did you come in to the banquet without having a wedding garment?"

But the man was speechless; he had no answer to make; he had no excuse to offer. Perhaps he thought his own clothes were good enough for any wedding feast! Perhaps he had been angry with the servants for offering him the King's garment!

We are not told—we only know that unless he had that garment which had been provided, he could not taste of the King's feast.

The King ordered him to be sent away; and, in the dark night outside, how earnestly he must have wished that he had not been so proud, or so careless; and how he must have wept when he realized all he had missed.

I think that the Lord Jesus told this story as a solemn warning against some things which prevent people from entering the "Kingdom of Heaven."

These things are just as likely to prevent people now, as they were in the time that our Lord gave this parable to the multitude.

The chief danger is carelessness.

People say:

"Oh, I haven't time!"

"Oh, I can't take the trouble to be religious, I do very well as I am."

They think it is all very well to be invited to the Wedding-feast in the Kingdom of Heaven, but they have other things to do; and they esteem the servants of the King, who bring the message, as very troublesome persons, who had better mind their own business!

Those are some of the people who miss getting into the Kingdom of Heaven.

XXVII. Sowing the Tares

When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He taught many of His most wonderful lessons by means of Story-pictures, or Parables.

Perhaps you are older than some of your school-fellows, and the little ones gather round you and say "Tell us a story!"

Don't they love stories? And don't you love stories?

So did the people to whom our Lord spoke. He often put a word-picture before their eyes, and it sank into their hearts, and they remembered it ever after.

I am going to tell you about one of these Parables which our Lord told to the listening multitudes.

This one was about "The Kingdom of Heaven." This is the word picture which he put before their eyes.

He said that the Kingdom of Heaven was like a man who had a field, and who sowed it with good seed.

But at night, under cover of the darkness, while men were asleep, there came an enemy into this field.

He carried a basket in his hands, and as he went up and down the field, he looked stealthily round him to make sure that no one was aware of his presence. And then he took handful after handful of seed from his basket and scattered it all over the field. Then he crept away in the darkness.

Why did he do it, do you think?

It was because he hated the owner of the field, and wished to destroy his beautiful harvest.

By and by the seeds began to grow, and the little blades came up green all over the field. Then the servants of the master of the field, looking closely at the crop, saw that some of the blades were of good wheat, but some looked like tares, which were of no use to anyone and only injured the wheat. So they hastened to the owner of the field, and they said, "Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field; how have the tares got there?"

And the owner said, "An enemy has done this."

Then the servants asked if they might root up the tares at once.

I have read that when the little plants are young, the blades of the wheat and the blades of the tares are so much alike that it is difficult to tell them apart.

So the master of the field answered, "No; you had better not try to pull up the tares, lest you should pull up the wheat with them. Let them both grow together until the harvest; and in time of harvest I will say to the reapers, 'Gather together the tares first, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn.'"

* * * * *

This is a story, as I said, of "The Kingdom of Heaven." And it is important to all of us, because we all live in that Kingdom. Our hearts ought to be God's throne here, we ought to be growing up as His Good Seed, to be gathered into His eternal Home when the Harvest comes!

You may not always live in England—you may go to Canada, or Australia, or France, or Germany!

But in this Kingdom of Heaven you may always abide, till the Harvest-day comes; and happy for you if you do!

God's Kingdom is a place where His Good Seed grows.

Perhaps your Mother or your Teacher tells you of Jesus our Saviour, and of His love, and you long to be able to serve Him. You would like to be kind and loving to those round you; you are sorry when you do wrong, you are happy when you do right. That is the Good Seed taking root and growing in your heart!

But at other times you feel differently.

You are not so happy; you do not wish to do good things so much; you even find yourself wanting to do wrong things! You find it hard to be loving; you want so much to do something you have been forbidden to do; you are sure no one will see you if you do wrong, and you say to yourself, "After all, it is such a little thing," or "It is only this once!"

Ah! Those are the tares sown in your heart!

"How did they get there?" the servants asked the Master.

And He answered, "An enemy has done this."

Satan is our enemy. It is true we cannot see him, but he is near us all the same.

Like the enemy in the Parable, he creeps out when men are asleep—when you are off your guard—when you have forgotten to watch and to pray; and it is he who whispers to you that:

"No one will see."

"That it is such a little thing."

"That it is so hard to obey!"

Ah! What must the little Christian boy do when he finds tares in the field of his heart? What must the little Christian girl do when she finds tares in God's Kingdom in her heart?

I think the best thing to do is to look up to Jesus instantly, and ask Him to conquer the great enemy for you. Say the Holy name Jesus softly to yourself, or out loud if you are alone, Satan, our great enemy, will run away, you will surely find.

He was named JESUS (which means Victory).

"For He shall save His people from their sins."

XXVIII. The Prodigal Son

There was a man who had two sons. He loved them both very much, and did everything he could to make them happy.

But the younger son was restless, and got tired of being quietly at home. He had heard something about the world outside, and he thought it must be a very fine place by all accounts.

So one day he asked his father to divide what he had to leave to him and his brother, so that he might do as he liked with his share of it.

Not many days after, the younger son took his journey into a far country, and as he had no one there to guide him, and as he did not heed the advice of his dear father, he began to waste his money and get into evil ways.

Very soon he had spent all his father had given him, and had nothing left in his purse.

Up to this time he had thought he could do very well without his father, but now he began to be in want. It was so hard to be hungry, to find his clothes get ragged, and for his companions to forsake him. And it made him sad and afraid when he remembered that he had no house to sleep in, and no friends near.

By and by a farmer took pity on him, and hired him to go and feed his pigs; and he was so hungry that he could almost have eaten the pigs' food. But no one gave him anything.

At last as he sat dejectedly watching the pigs, he came to himself! He began to remember his dear home and his father's love. He no longer prided himself on what he could do, and what he could buy. He saw his behaviour in its true light. He told himself that he had been very naughty and very disobedient, and he began to be sorry.

And when he came to himself he said, "How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I, his son, am dying of hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and tell him I have sinned, and ask him to make me one of his servants."

So he got up to go to his father.

His father had been very sad all the time his boy had been away. His heart had ached terribly, though his son had never thought of that.

Every day he looked out for his lost one, and watched for him along the roads and over the mountains till it grew too dark to see.

But one day, when the son was yet a great way off, his father saw him coming! Then the dear father ran to meet him, and fell on his neck and kissed him.

And the son said, "Father, I have sinned before Heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son—"

But he could not get any further than that in what he meant to say! For his father's arms were round him, and his father's voice was saying in the old familiar tones, "Bring hither the best robe, and put it on him! And put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring here the fatted calf and let us make a feast; for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found!"

Children, we have here a picture of the way our loving Heavenly Father welcomes back those who have wandered from Him.

His heart is full of love; He grieves that we want to take our own way, and go far-off from Him.

But if we are sorry, and come back to His loving arms, we shall find that they will open to receive us; He will put the best robe upon us, and He will prepare a feast for us; and there shall be joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner repenting!

Do you want to know what the "best robe" means?

It is the Robe of Christ's righteousness. For Christ's sake, who has shed His precious blood to make us clean and white, we can be dressed in that perfect robe; and then we shall be fit to join in the feast and the rejoicings, which are coming by and by in heaven.

XXIX. The Pharisee and the Publican

Two men were wending their way towards God's Temple at Jerusalem, a Pharisee and a Publican.

There, on a hill, stood the beautiful building with its white marble pillars glistening in the sun; and as they walked along the hot roads towards God's House, their thoughts were very different.

They knew that God's Holy Presence was in that Temple to which they were going, and one of them thought with awe that he would soon be in the place where he would meet with God.

The other man was thinking entirely about himself, and nothing at all about God.

So they ascended the many steps leading up into the Temple, and at last stood within the Sacred House.

* * * * *

And then the Pharisee thought of how he understood all about God's law, and how he did not need anyone to teach him what was written in the Scriptures.

But he did not know two things which would have made him a different man—he did not know his own heart, and he did not know God's heart.

He did not know that his own heart was full of pride and love of self; he did not know that God's heart was full of pity and tender love towards sinful men who came to Him to be forgiven.

So the Pharisee began to pray. And when the Lord Jesus told us this story about him, He said "he stood and prayed thus with himself."

But he began his prayer like this:—

"God! I thank thee that I am not like other men! I am not one who exacts more than I should from others; I am not unjust or impure; or even like this Publican. I fast twice in every week, and I give tithes of everything I have."

Then the Pharisee, having finished his prayer, went down once more to his home.

He had not seen the vision of God! He had not come near to Him, nor waited to receive the answer to his words. He did not even know what he had missed!

* * * * *

And the other man who went up to pray was the Publican.

He was a collector of the Roman taxes; and because of the frequent cheating of these publicans, they were hated by the Jews.

It was a calling which gave great opportunities for dishonesty, and when some of the Jews, for the sake of gain, engaged in it, they were despised and called traitors.

So this Publican, whom our Lord Jesus told about in this story, was evidently a Jew, as he among other Jews "went up into the Temple to pray."

And when he entered God's House, there stood the Pharisee praying; but the Publican, standing afar off, not full of his own good deeds, but feeling ashamed of his own sinfulness, would not even lift up his eyes to Heaven, but smote his breast saying:

"God be merciful to me, a sinner!"

* * * * *

And our Lord turned to those who were listening to Him and said, "I tell you, this Publican went down to his house justified, rather than the other."

Do you wonder what it is to be justified? Should we not all like, when we have been naughty, or have done wrong, to know that we may go down, like the Publican did to his house, justified?

It means, I think, for a person to realise that some one greater and richer than himself has undertaken to set him free from his debt.

It means that we have come to God and told Him that we are very sorry we have been naughty, and have asked Him to have mercy upon us, and to forgive us for Jesus' sake.

When we have done that, we may, indeed, like the Publican, go away "justified."

Perhaps some boy gets into trouble at school, and owes something to another boy, which he has no means of paying.

So the boy who owes the money goes to his father. He knows he has done wrong, but he tells his father all about it, and asks him to help him. And the loving father sees to it all for him, and pays the debt.

The school-fellows know nothing about this, but they have heard about the debt, and they whisper to each other, and jeer when the boy comes near.

But to their surprise, he raises his head now! "My father has paid," he says, with shining eyes.

I think that is being "justified."

* * * * *

And it seems to me that that was how the Publican felt, when he had told God he was a sinner, and had asked for His mercy.

He went home happy, and forgiven!

Here is a comforting promise for us all—

"This is a faithful saying . . . that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners!"

XXX. An Uninvited Guest

One day the Lord Jesus was invited to dinner by a rich man whose name was Simon.

Perhaps this rich man asked Jesus to dinner because he wished to see Him do some miracle—something wonderful which no one else could do; or he may have imagined that people would think more of himself if he had Jesus for a guest; at any rate, by what we read afterwards, I am afraid Simon the Pharisee did not invite Jesus because he loved Him.

But there was somebody present at that feast who did love Jesus, but she was not invited.

In Eastern lands the houses are not shut up like our houses, but because it is so warm, the dining-rooms are often open to the air on one or two sides, or people take their meals in the cool shady courtyards.

When a great man makes a feast, people hear of it, and come round the house to look at what is going on.

In the city there lived a poor sinful and sorrowful woman who had learned to love the Lord Jesus: perhaps she had heard Him say these loving words, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

When this sorrowful woman heard that Jesus was gone to dinner at the Pharisee's house, she brought a little box made of alabaster, which was filled with some very sweet-smelling ointment, and she made her way into the open dining-hall, and when she saw where the Lord was sitting or reclining, as the custom was, on a sort of couch to the table, she came up, and stood behind Him!

And as she stood there and thought of all His love and compassion, she began to weep, and her tears fell down over His feet as He reclined at the table.

Then she wiped His feet with her hair, and anointed them with the sweet ointment.

But the Pharisee who had invited the Lord Jesus looked on with anger. He thought if Jesus were a great teacher, He would not have allowed a woman from the city to come and wash His feet with her tears.

But Jesus knows all our hearts, and He could see that the poor woman loved Him so much that she would go away and try never to grieve Him any more.

By and by He turned to Simon, and told him to look at this woman and compare her love with his.

Jesus said words something like this: "Simon, I was tired and dusty with my journey when I came in, and you did not give me water to bathe my feet, but she has washed my feet with tears; you did not offer me a kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss my feet; you did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with precious ointment. She has loved me very much, because I have forgiven her very much."

And turning to the woman, Jesus said to her, "Thy sins are forgiven; . . . go in peace."

Oh, the joy of hearing Jesus say those words!

And we may have that joy too, if we come to Him with humble loving heart, and tell Him that we are sorry.

He never turns anyone away who comes to Him; so, dear little children, let us trust His loving heart, and though we know we are very unworthy, do not let us stay away for that, for Jesus longs that we may be forgiven, and so be able to go away "in peace."

XXXI. The Barren Fig Tree

"Nothing but Leaves"

I have seen a picture of a fig tree, and I want to describe it to you, that we may understand a little about one of our Lord's Parables.

There are a great many Parables in the New Testament: they are word-pictures to teach us God's great lessons.

At school your teacher has a large blackboard, and sometimes she sketches an object, and explains it to you, does she not?

One day she drew a cracked cup, the crack of which grew wider under her clever fingers, and she turned round and said to her class, "Is this cup of any use?" And there were plenty of "No's" from all over the room; but one child ventured "Perhaps it could be mended!"

And then the teacher gave a bright look, and she said, "Yes, Charlie, you are right! And so are the others with their 'No's' all over the room. For unless the cup is mended, it is of no use. The cup is a picture of our characters! If there is a flaw in them, a crack that gets wider and wider, then the cup is of no use, is it?"

"It might be thrown away!" ventured another child.

"Yes," said the teacher; "but, if it could be mended—as Charlie said—then it could be used again. So what must we do, Charlie?"

She turned her face to the little boy, and a smile came over his features as he answered, "There's a china-mender comes down our road every week—he could do it!"

And the teacher smiled back. Did Charlie know that he had touched on a great truth? So she went on—

"Yes, we must 'have faith in God.' We must take our cracked cups, and our faulty characters, to the Great Mender, Jesus our Saviour, and ask Him to make us useful, serviceable little Christians!"

So now, I am going to make an imaginary blackboard and show you a branch of a fig tree!

Look at that fig growing out of the stalk; it is large, and oblong, and plump, and it is firmly fixed to the big branch.

And then, above and below it are little sprouting leaves, some just come out, some not yet burst from their little buds; and soon the fruit, which is already ripe, will be covered up by the leaves, as they grow larger and larger.

But suppose, when you lift the leaves, there is no fruit?

Then you come to the conclusion that the tree must be a barren tree, and you turn away sorry and disappointed.

And this is a little word-picture of the barren fig tree, about which our Lord gives us a Parable.

He was coming from Bethany, and it says He hungered. Perhaps the Lord Jesus had been up all night praying to His Father.

So, as He came near to the fig tree, He saw it was full of leaves; but when He got close to it, He found there were no figs under the leaves—it was barren.

And as He turned away He said, in the disciples' hearing, "Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever."

Oh, how sad He was to have to say that!

And presently the fig tree withered away.

Just before this, the Lord came down the side of the Mount of Olives, and in turning a corner of the steep path a sight of the beautiful city of Jerusalem burst upon their view. It says in the Gospel of Luke—

"And when He was come near, He beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes."

Jesus wept for all the sorrow that was coming on the beloved city, and because the Jews would not have Him as their Saviour.

This was indeed like the fig tree, which had leaves, but no fruit.

The Jews ought to have known from their own Scriptures of the Old Testament, which they read every Sabbath, that on this very day it was foretold in the Book of Nehemiah, and also in Daniel and Zechariah, that the Messiah was to enter Jerusalem as King, meek and lowly, and riding on an ass's colt.

They were proud of their knowledge, and of their possession of God's Temple, and His Scriptures; but they had not fruit under the leaves of their pride and unbelief. They had even been plotting to kill Him. They had rejected Him in their hearts, and in a few days' time they were going to crucify Him!

The next day Jesus and His disciples passed by that fig tree again, and it had begun to wither and dry up; and the disciples said, "How soon is the fig tree withered!"

And the answer of our Lord must have astonished them. "Have faith in God!" He said.

Now, like the teacher with the blackboard, I want to gather up the lesson I have learned from this story—

Do not let our dear Lord, Who died for us, come and look into our hearts and find no fruit, but only leaves!

How He must long to have us all we should be!

Do not let us be like the cracked and useless cup! But let us go to the great Healer and Mender and Cleanser of our poor characters, and ask Him to make us what He would like to see us.

The only way to get "mended" and to bear fruit instead of only leaves, is to go to Him Who died on the Cross to save us, and to find in Him forgiveness, strength, and peace.

XXXII. The Parable of the Talents

"What is a Talent?" perhaps some one asks.

A Talent in our Lord's time was a piece of money of great value, of about £342, and in the story which Jesus told the disciples, a Talent was described as something precious which was given to the servants of a great lord, to trade with, while he was on a long journey.

To one servant this lord gave ten Talents to trade with; to another, five; to another, two; according to their several ability; and to another, one.

And what do you think the servant who had only one did with his Talent? He went away and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money!

Then the lord of those servants took his journey.

At length the time came for his return, and he called his servants and reckoned with them.

The one who had traded with ten Talents brought ten Talents more to his lord; and the man with five brought five more; and the man with two brought two more. And the lord was very pleased with these faithful servants, and said, "Well done!" to each of them, and gave them great rewards.

But at last there came the man who had only received one Talent; and as he spread the one Talent out before him, he said, "I knew that you were a hard master, so I was afraid, and went and hid your Talent in the earth. Lo! Then, you have what is yours!"

And the great lord was very grieved and angry with that wicked and idle servant, and he took the Talent from him and gave it to the one who had ten; and the faithless servant was cast out, and in the darkness he wept despairingly that he could never enter, as the others did, "into the joy of their lord."

And now I am going to tell you a true story to try and explain to you the meaning of these Talents in our present-day life.

I told you that to us, the Talent that Jesus spoke of is not money, but something more precious still, which we are given by God to trade with.

"Trade with?" you ask. Yes—that is the idea.

If we are God's servants, if we have taken Jesus Christ as our own Blessed Saviour, God expects us to try to get others to trust Him too, and so to multiply the Talents which He has given into our charge.

You will understand this a little better when you have read the true story I am going to tell you.

There was a lady taking a Journey a few years ago, and she had to pass through London and go to another terminus on her way.

She had one of God's "Talents" in her heart. She knew that Jesus Christ was a great and precious Saviour; and before she started on her journey she prayed:

"Make me a blessing to somebody as I travel!"

Well, by the time she had reached London, she was tired, and when she got to the other terminus, as she went along the platform she saw a man sitting in a carriage alone. But she passed on; she thought she was too tired to speak to that man.

So she hid her Lord's money!

But her heart smote her; and after a moment she got out, and entered the carriage where the man, who appeared to be a foreman in some works, sat in the farthest corner.

They were soon off, and though she felt very nervous, she moved nearer to him, and made a remark on the beautiful sunset!

He seemed surprised.

And when, further, she said, "How it reminded her of God's love."

He answered: "Oh, I do not think of those things! I leave that to my wife and daughters! I and my sons read different things from that! We do very well with our lives, and leave them to theirs!"

The lady hardly knew what to answer. She felt she was not "up" in all these unbelieving questions of the day.

But then she bethought herself: "I wish I could think of some word of God that would suit his case! For the Word of God is living and powerful."

And like a flash, she remembered the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, and she said, "Did you ever hear this?" And found herself able to repeat it to him word for word:

"Two men went up into the Temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a Publican.

"The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself: God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are . . .

"And the Publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other."

As the lady finished that parable, which God had so wonderfully helped her to repeat, the train began to slow down at the next station. The man gathered up his things, came to her side and shook her hand warmly.

"Thank you very much," he said earnestly, "for what you have said!"

And then he jumped out, and the train took the lady on to her destination.

All of us are given Talents, according to our several abilities.

Whatever it is—let each one of us do what we can to tell others of God's love in giving us a Saviour; and if we do, surely—yes, surely—God will say to us, "Well done, good and faithful servants, enter into the joy of your Lord!"

XXXIII. Hid in Three Measures of Meal

One day the Lord Jesus gave a very short Parable to His disciples of only one verse, but He would not have told it to us, if He had not intended us to learn a lesson from it.

I will copy the verse for you, because it is so very short, and then I will explain it afterwards.

"The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened."

Leaven is what we now call yeast.

In the dictionary, leaven, or yeast, is described as something "which pervades a mass, and changes its nature."

And so we will think of it in that light, and try to draw out from it something which may help us every day.

If the Kingdom of Heaven is hidden in our hearts, then it ought to pervade our whole lives.

I have seen an untidy woman, and an untidy home, perfectly transformed by the love of God, and her desire to please Him.

A year or two ago, I knew a woman who had become rather fond of drink. All at once she found that if she wanted to enter into "the Kingdom of Heaven," that temptation must be left off. So she told the Lord Jesus all about it, and then she left it off in the strength which He gave her; and she said to me: "I have never taken any since!"

So she found, like many others whom I have known, that when "the Kingdom of Heaven" takes possession of our hearts, our whole nature becomes changed, and we try to live to God's glory!

In the same chapter in Matthew, the thirteenth, that has in it the Parable about the leaven, our Lord gives us another picture of "the Kingdom of Heaven."

He describes a man who was digging in a field; who came by chance upon a great treasure.

The man hastily covered up the ground, and went to the owner of the field, and asked him to let him buy the whole field.

The price was very high, but the man thought of the treasure, and he did not hesitate. He went back, and sold all that he had, and came and bought the field. He did not grudge it, for the treasure was worth everything he possessed!

Then our Lord tells us of another man.

He was a merchant; and he travelled to far-off countries seeking beautiful pearls.

At length he came across the most beautiful pearl he had ever seen—it was of great price.

This man did not hesitate either. He saw the value of that pearl, and he sold everything he had and bought it!

In the twenty-fifth of Matthew, Jesus gives us another Parable, and it is about His coming back; and I am sure you will like to hear that one, for you have perhaps seen pictures of those Ten Virgins who went out to meet the Bridegroom, with little lamps in their hands?

Five of these Virgins were wise, and five were foolish. Why was it that some were wise and some not?

Perhaps you have a brother who has cycled into the country, and comes home later than you expected, and tired-out?

"Yes," he says, "I have had to walk my machine for half-a-dozen miles—my lamp went out, and there was not a shop to be seen!"

Yes, that was it; he had not taken oil to fill his lamp.

So the foolish Virgins took their lamps, but took no oil with them; but the wise took oil in their vessels, with their lamps.

The Bridegroom seemed long in coming, and they all fell asleep while they waited.

And at midnight there was a cry made: "Behold the Bridegroom cometh! Go ye out to meet Him!"

Then all the Virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise: "Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are gone out."

But the wise answered that they must not do that, lest there should not be enough for them both; instead they advised the foolish Virgins to go and buy for themselves.

And while they went to buy, the Bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with Him to the marriage; and the door was shut.

Afterwards, when the other Virgins came back, they asked that the door might be opened; but the Bridegroom answered that He did not know them.

I am sure you will feel sad when you think that the foolish Virgins could not share in the Marriage Supper.

I think this is told us to warn us to ask God to give us His Holy Spirit in our hearts, which, like the oil in the little lamps, will show us the way, and keep us brightly shining for Him!

Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Heavenly Bridegroom in this Parable.

When He was on earth, He told His disciples over and over again to watch most earnestly for Him to come back.

He warned all of us who love Him, to be ready to open to Him if he knocks; to guard against being so bound up in the pleasures of life that the day of His return should take any of us by surprise.

Jesus ends this Parable with these words—

"Watch therefore: for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein
the Son of man cometh."