When Justice Takes Too Long
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When Justice Takes Too Long
Herb Montgomery | October 30, 2026
If you’d like to listen to this week’s article in podcast version click on the image below:
Our reading this week is from the Gospel of Matthew:
“At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
“At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’
“Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’
“‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’
“But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.
“Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’
“But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’
“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour. (Matthew 25:1-13)
Our reading this week is often interpreted as a warning to be spiritually prepared for Jesus’ return as an individual. Five of the women in the story bring extra oil for their lamps, while five do not. Then, when the bridegroom arrives later than expected, the foolish virgins discover their lamps are going out. They leave to buy more oil, but when they return, the wedding banquet is closed to them. The parable concludes with Jesus’ warning: “Keep watch because no one knows the day or hour.”
But this week, I want us to read this story through the lens of Jesus’ larger teachings on justice in the Gospel of Matthew and his larger message about the kingdom of God.
First, Matthew places this parable in the context of Jesus’ final teachings on living in anticipation of God’s just future. The foolish virgins are unprepared for the bridegroom’s arrival. This narrative detail invites us to consider what preparation means beyond personal religious vigilance. What does it mean to prepare for a world shaped by justice, compassion, equality, and shared abundance? Are we preparing our communities to welcome that world, or are we simply protecting our place within the existing one?
The five wise virgins bring extra oil, while the foolish virgins do not. When the latter ask for some of the others’ oil, the wise virgins refuse, explaining that there may not be enough for everyone. This detail presents a difficult question for readers who understand Jesus’ call to radical generosity and mutual care. Why would the wise women refuse to share?
Perhaps Jesus does not intend this story to establish a universal rule that we should never share resources. Rather, the oil functions in the parable as something that cannot simply be transferred at the last moment. The story emphasizes preparation. Do our communities prepare collectively for the needs of others or wait until a crisis arrives before responding?
Our lives today should reflect the values of the world we are working to bring into existence. A society that waits until people are hungry before considering food security, until people are homeless before addressing affordable housing, or until marginalized communities suffer before confronting discrimination is a society that has failed to prepare. Justice requires more than emergency charity. It requires building systems that anticipate human needs and ensure that everyone has access to the resources necessary to thrive today.
The closed door at the end of the parable is equally challenging for the five foolish virgins. These women arrive too late for the party, and the bridegroom refuses to recognize them. We should be cautious about using this image to justify exclusion or to portray God as indifferent to human suffering. Instead, the story can confront us with the seriousness of missed opportunities. There are consequences when we fail to prepare for what matters.
The call to watchfulness in our reading this week is not an invitation to wait anxiously for the end of the world. Instead, it can be understood as a call to live attentively in the present, recognizing the opportunities we have to participate in God’s work of transformation. The question is not simply whether our lamps are burning, but what kind of world we are preparing to illuminate. Are we using our time, resources, and influence to build communities where everyone can flourish? Are we confronting injustice before its consequences become unavoidable? Are we preparing for a future in which no one is abandoned outside the doors of human belonging?
To follow Jesus is not merely to anticipate a just future. It is to participate in creating the conditions of justice, compassion, and peace that make that future visible here and now, even when we feel as if that future is delayed. The foolish virgins remind us that preparation cannot be postponed indefinitely. If we want a world where everyone belongs, we must begin building it today.
Let’s now consider the five who were wise. They are described as wise because they bring extra oil, preparing themselves for the possibility that the bridegroom’s arrival might be delayed. When the bridegroom finally arrives at midnight, their lamps are ready, and they can join the wedding celebration.
Traditionally, the wisdom of these five virgins has been understood as spiritual readiness for Jesus’ return. But a justice reading invites us to consider what their preparation might teach us about living now in anticipation of God’s vision for a more just, compassionate, and inclusive world.
The five wise virgins understand that preparation matters. They do not assume that everything will happen according to their preferred schedule. They anticipate uncertainty and make provisions for it. Their wisdom is demonstrated not simply by what they believe but by the practical steps they take before the moment of decision arrives.
This kind of preparation means recognizing that a better world does not emerge through wishful thinking alone nor always on our time scale. If we long for a society where poverty is eliminated, marginalized people are affirmed, oppression is confronted, and everyone has the opportunity to flourish, we must prepare ourselves to participate in creating it and for how much time it may or may not take.
The wise virgins remind us that the work of justice requires sustained commitment, not merely momentary enthusiasm. Compassion must become a practice rather than an occasional feeling. Solidarity must extend beyond words into concrete action. Our commitment to human dignity must remain present even when justice seems delayed and the changes we hope for appear nowhere on the horizon.
The wise women’s preparation also challenges us to think about the resources necessary to sustain movements for transformation. Creating a more just society requires patience, courage, education, relationships, mutual support, and a willingness to challenge established systems.
So people who work for justice need more than good intentions. They also need the resilience to continue when progress is slow, opposition is strong, and the costs of challenging injustice become personal.
The wise virgins are prepared for a moment they can’t predict. Similarly, opportunities to confront injustice and practice compassion often arrive unexpectedly. We may encounter someone being excluded, witness an abuse of power, or discover that a community”s needs have been ignored. Our response in those moments is shaped, in part, by the commitments we have cultivated beforehand. When we have practiced courage, generosity, and solidarity, we are better prepared to act whenever the moment calls for it.
This week’s text does not explicitly identify the oil in the parable as a symbol of justice or compassion. Nevertheless, the preparation of the wise virgins provides a useful image for the sustained commitment required to keep these values alive. Their readiness, just like the unwise five’s lack of preparedness, reminds us that we must anticipate the world we hope to create through the way we live now.
Jesus concludes by calling his listeners to remain watchful because they do not know the day or hour. For those committed to Jesus’ just and compassionate future, this vigilance means remaining attentive to the needs of others and staying prepared to participate in transformation whenever the opportunity arises.
The wisdom of the five virgins invites us to prepare for the world we hope to create. If we long for a future shaped by justice, compassion, and liberation, our preparation begins now, in the commitments we cultivate, the resources we share, and the courage we develop to keep the light of justice burning, even through the longest night.
Lastly, I want to speak about the kind of language that is used in this parable in our sacred text. The use of the word virgin in the Bible has often been used to reinforce patriarchy by placing women’s sexuality, purity, and social value under the control of men. In many Biblical societies, a woman’s virginity was closely connected to family honor, inheritance, marriage arrangements, and the transfer of property. Women’s bodies were frequently treated as possessions whose sexual histories mattered more to fathers and husbands than the women themselves.
These patriarchal assumptions appear in Biblical laws that distinguish between women based on their sexual status and prescribe different consequences for premarital sexual activity for women than for men. While these laws emerged within particular ancient cultural and economic systems, later religious interpretations have sometimes treated them as timeless divine standards, reinforcing unequal expectations for women and men. Women have often been expected to maintain sexual purity while men face considerably less scrutiny for their sexual behavior.
The language of virginity also appears in prophetic imagery, where Israel or Jerusalem is personified as a virgin. Sometimes the term represents innocence, vulnerability, or covenantal faithfulness. In the New Testament, the parable of the ten virgins has likewise been interpreted through assumptions about female respectability and moral purity, although its central emphasis is preparation.
The problem is not the word virgin, but how religious authorities have used it to regulate women’s bodies, restrict their autonomy, and establish male authority. Gospel stories where Jesus cares about the shared humanity of women demands that we as Jesus followers tell our stories in better ways. When we know better, we can do better. A liberating reading of Scripture must challenge unequal standards and affirm that a person’s dignity, worth, and spiritual standing are not determined by their sexual history. Human dignity belongs equally to people, whatever their gender.
Alongside the problematic use of the language of virginity, our reading invites us to ask, “What does it mean to be prepared for the arrival of a new world shaped by justice, compassion, and liberation?” The wise are not simply those who expect a just future; they are those who prepare to live its values even when that future is taking too long.
Discussion Group Questions
1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s podcast episode with your discussion group.
2. How does our reading this week inform your own justice work, today? Share and discuss with your group.
3. What can you do this week, big or small, to continue setting in motion the work of shaping our world into a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone?
Thanks for checking in with us, today.
I want to say a special thank you to all of our supporters out there. And if you would like to join them in supporting Renewed Heart Ministries’ work you can do so by going to renewedheartministries.com and clicking donate.
My latest book Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political and Economic Teachings of the Gospels is available now on Amazon in paperback, Kindle and also on Audible in audio book format.
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Right where you are, keep living in love, choosing compassion, taking action, and working toward justice.
I love each of you dearly,
I’ll see you next week.
New Episode of The Social Jesus Podcast
A podcast where we talk about the intersection of faith and social justice and what a first century, prophet of the poor from Galilee might have to offer us today in our work of love, compassion and justice.
This week:
Season 3 Episode 46: When Justice Takes Too Long
Matthew 25:1-13
Our story this week confronts us with the seriousness of missed opportunities. There are consequences when we fail to prepare for what matters. The call to watchfulness in our reading this week is not an invitation to wait anxiously for the end of the world. Instead, it can be understood as a call to live attentively in the present. The wisdom of the five wise ones invites us to prepare for the world we hope to create. If we long for a future shaped by justice, compassion, and liberation, our preparation begins now, in the commitments we cultivate, the resources we share, and the courage we develop before those things are tested, to keep the light of justice burning, even through the longest night. Alongside some problematic language, our reading invites us to ask, “What does it mean to be prepared for the arrival of a new world shaped by justice, compassion, and liberation?” The wise are not simply those who expect a just future; they are those who prepare to live its values even when that future is taking too long.
Available on major podcast carriers and at:
https://the-social-jesus-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes/when-justice-takes-too-long
Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political & Economic Teachings of the Gospels.
by Herb Montgomery
Available now on Amazon!
In Finding Jesus, author Herb Montgomery delves into the profound and often overlooked political dimensions of the gospels. Through meticulous analysis of biblical texts, historical context, and social discourse, this thought-provoking book unveils the gospels’ socio-political, economic teachings as rooted in a profound concern for justice, compassion, and the well-being of the marginalized. The book navigates the intersections between faith and societal justice, presenting a compelling argument for a more socially engaged and transformative Christianity.
Finding Jesus is not just a scholarly exploration; it is a call to action. It challenges readers to reevaluate their understanding of Christianity’s role in public life and to consider how the radical teachings of the gospels can inspire a renewed commitment to justice, equality, and compassion. This book is a must-read for those seeking a deeper understanding of the social implications of Christian faith and a blueprint for building a more just and inclusive society.
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