Midnight In the House of Darkness

Jesus of Nazareth-- who Christians refer to as "the Word of God"-- spoke like a dragon. To this day, those who refer to him as "the Word of God" seem incapable of making heads or tails of the things he said. Like the officers sent by the Sanhedrin to arrest Jesus, Christians tend simply to dismiss their consternation over Jesus' words with exclamations such as, "Never man spake like this man [John 7:46b]": though all others whose words they understand not are dismissed by the same Christians as not sent by God: "For God is not the author of confusion [1 Corinthians 14:33a]."

This double standard is par- for- course with Christians, but it is perhaps true that nowhere is this duplicity more in- evidence than in the way they unreservedly accept the things spoken by Jesus-- though they admittedly can make no sense of them. One case- in- point is the parable, told by Jesus to his disciples and recorded by the apostle Matthew, of the ten virgins.

Jesus sets the scene for the parable of the ten virgins, at the end of chapter 24 of Matthew's gospel, by describing the punishment reserved for those who-- like his disciples-- "know not what hour [their] Lord doth come [Matthew 24:42, et. al.]." Jesus says [Matthew 25:1], "Then [at that time when the hypocrites such as his disciples are punished] the kingdom of heaven shall be likened unto ten virgins": five wise; five foolish. 

These ten virgins "went forth to meet the bridegroom [Matthew 25:1c]" bearing their lamps. Jesus says, "3 They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: 4 But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps [Matthew 25:3 & 4]." The text goes on to say (in verse 10, ibid.) that the occasion being observed is "the marriage."

The text also sets the time of this marriage at midnight (verse 6, ibid.), and says the guests are compelled to "go... out" to meet the bridegroom at that ominous time: implying they were waiting for him inside. We are then informed that the virgins have been burning their lamps while waiting for the bridegroom, inasmuch as the "foolish" virgins say their lamps "are gone out [verse 8, ibid.]."

The "foolish" virgins are told (by the "wise" virgins, who won't give of their oil to the "foolish") to go to the store and buy oil for their lamps. When the "foolish" virgins return from the store with oil in their lamps, they are refused entrance to the marriage. This supposedly reflects poorly on the future prospects of the "foolish" virgins: and that forever. The parable closes with a warning from Jesus to his disciples along with a reminder that they are of the ilk who "know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh [verse 13, ibid.]."

Christians and their preachers make much of the parable of the ten virgins, and there's frankly much which can be made thereof. For instance: why are the bidden guests compelled to go out into outer darkness to meet the bridegroom? Outer darkness is never referred to as a preferable location, or state of being, in scripture. Why is the marriage held at midnight? Midnight is the time when death and destruction walk through the land of the living, according to scripture.

Perhaps the most disturbing thing about the parable in question, however, is the fact that the virgins need lamps at all. What kind of "Lord" (verse 11, ibid.) has no lights in his house: especially on his wedding day? Perhaps more disturbing is the way in which those virgins who gained entrance to the marriage are perceived as fortunate and referred to as "wise" by Jesus of Nazareth. Is it really preferable to be admitted to-- rather than turned away from-- the house of darkness for anything: especially a "marriage?" I think not, but if I were the Devil, I'd want you to think it were.