Sabbath Devotional :: The Vessel

Artist: Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale, via Wikimedia

Sharing these thoughts tonight with a mostly spent lamp and immense gratitude for your prayers and fasting.

In preparation for teaching the parable of the Ten Virgins in a gospel doctrine class a few years ago, I learned a few things about ancient Jewish wedding traditions. The groom became betrothed (or legally married) to the bride first, but then went back to his father’s house to prepare a home for the new couple and left her to prepare herself and her dowry for their new life together. This separation was generally for about a year, but the exact time of his return for her was not set. The custom was for him to return in the evening, accompanied by his friends who were there to witness and celebrate with him. Upon receiving word of his coming, the bride and her friends would gather and wait outside her home for the rest of the wedding party. The groom would arrive to retrieve the bride, and the whole party would then go with the couple to the wedding celebration and feast.

So it seems in the parable that the ten virgins, or the bride’s attendants, had received word that the bridegroom was coming and they went as planned to the bride’s house to wait for him. Each of them took her lamp, almost certainly trimmed and filled and ready for the bridegroom’s grand arrival, for which they had all been preparing for many months. Verses three and four tell us that the five wise ones “took oil in their vessels with their lamps” while the five foolish ones “took their lamps and took no [presumably extra] oil with them.” Then verse five seems to tell us that the bridegroom took a lot longer than anyone anticipated, because all ten of the virgins, who were excited and ready to celebrate fell asleep waiting for the bridegroom. Finally at midnight, the long anticipated cry is made that the Bridegroom has come and it’s time to go meet him. All of the virgins awake to find that their lamps need to be trimmed and relit. While the five wise virgins hurriedly refilled and trimmed their lamps, the five foolish virgins begged them to share the extra oil. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be enough extra oil to spare, so the wise virgins could only help themselves, however much they may have wanted to share. Then, while the five foolish virgins rushed in a futile attempt to try to find someone to sell them some extra oil in the middle of the night, the Bridegroom came and the five wise virgins, who “were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.” When the foolish ones return and beg to be let into the wedding celebration, the bridegroom turns them away saying, “I know you not.”

For years I thought the moral of this story was that we needed to be always working on accumulating enough oil through personal righteousness to be able to endure until it was our time to meet the Savior. But when I was assigned to teach this parable in gospel doctrine, I approached it with new eyes. I had accepted a challenge to make sure that every lesson I taught, regardless of the assigned topic, somehow tied back to the atonement of Jesus Christ. So I asked myself, “What does this parable teach us about the atonement of Jesus Christ?” In really pondering that question over the course of a few days, I realized that all of the ten lamps went out while the virgins slumbered and slept. Then (in verse seven) all the virgins arose and trimmed their lamps, meaning they cut and reshaped the wicks to get the lamps burning again, only to find that they were all out of oil. What saved the five wise virgins was not that they had any more oil in their lamps than the five foolish ones; it was that they had brought along a separate vessel, an additional reserve beyond their own, or in other words, the redeeming power of the atonement of Jesus Christ. The only real difference between the wise and foolish virgins was that the foolish ones thought what they had (most likely, a lamp full of oil) would be enough. But in reality, none of us (however wise or foolish) can rely on our own lamp of personal righteousness alone. It’s never enough.

So what do we do with that new understanding? It’s certainly important for us to continue to “fill our lamps” through consistent, daily acts of personal righteousness. Most likely, the foolish ones would not have even attempted to meet the bridegroom without the confidence that comes from knowing we are doing our best. However, we can’t forget that our own efforts, even if our lamps are overflowing, will only get us part of the way.

Jesus was not kidding when He declared to Thomas and his other apostles, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6)

Prophets in all dispensations have taught the same truth: “And now, my son, I have told you this that ye may learn wisdom, that ye may learn of me that there is no other way or means whereby man can be saved, only in and through Christ. Behold, he is the life and the light of the world. Behold, he is the word of truth and righteousness.” (Alma 38:9)

Furthermore, Christ himself taught the Nephites what they were to do with this understanding: “Therefore, hold up your light that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the light which ye shall hold up — that which ye have seen me do. . . .” (3 Nephi 18:24)

We can more fully prepare ourselves to meet our Lord and Savior by acknowledging and proclaiming His mission and His works unto all those around us. Yes, we should continue to fill our lamps of personal righteousness, a drop at a time. But we best serve ourselves and others by making the atonement of Jesus Christ a priority in our lives and by teaching others how to do the same — how to access the source of light itself.

This principle applies to everything we do in the Church. We can exhaust ourselves aiming for perfection in any number of commandments — scripture study, visiting teaching, temple attendance, magnifying our callings, etc. But at some point after we’ve done our best, each additional drop just flows over the brim and is wasted. Worse yet, we may even still be failing in our efforts. We will always achieve our best outcomes when we reach beyond our own capacity and go to the source of the light — the Savior himself.

This is what the Savior means when He says, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly of heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

This doesn’t mean abandon our own loads and just do His work. It means we bring Him in to help us pull our wearisome, ordinary loads in all their nitty-gritty, earthly glory and learn from Him how to better shoulder the weight of them. Because despite His condescension, He is never condescending. His message is one of hope and cheer, for He has overcome it all. His mission is simple. His responsibility is to light the way.