This theme of preparedness for Jesus’s reappearing at the end of the age is the center point of the parable of the ten virgins and the bridegroom (Matt. 25:1–13). Though not much is known about first-century Jewish wedding customs, it may be that these young, unmarried women leave the groom’s home to welcome and accompany the couple back to the groom’s household (Davies and Allison, 3:395). When the bridegroom is “a long time in coming” (25:5), five virgins run out of lamp oil because they neglected to bring extra. They miss the opportunity to join the bridegroom and enter the wedding banquet (25:10). Jesus’s parable calls all his followers to be ready for his reappearing, since they “do not know the day or the hour” (25:13; cf. 24:36, 42).

The second parable of Matthew 25 illustrates wh…