Staying Alert for your Leader: He Brings Joy and a Warning
Read: Luke 12:35-59
35 “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, 36 and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. 37 Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. 38 If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants! 39 But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
41 Peter said, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?” 42 And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? 43 Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. 44 Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. 45 But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, 46 the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. 47 And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. 48 But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more. 49 “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! 50 I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! 51 Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. 52 For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. 53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” 54 He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, ‘A shower is coming.’ And so it happens. 55 And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat,’ and it happens. 56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time? 57 “And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right? 58 As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer put you in prison. 59 I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny.”
When he was talking to his disciples, Jesus was also talking to those who follow him today. He’s telling us to “Be like men who are waiting for their master.” He says we should stay ‘awake,’ ‘ready,’ and ‘dressed for action,’ looking for the coming of the Son of Man (a term Jesus often used for himself). What kind of alertness does he have in mind?
We can learn from a few of the words Jesus used: First, he uses master, which is defined as a person with authority to command and enforce obedience. When Jesus the master speaks, we, his followers, must trust. When he gives instructions, we must cooperate. His “Great Commission” for us gives us the job of teaching others to obey all that Jesus commanded (Matthew 28:20). So we who trust him as master will work to care about and understand what our master taught, and in obedience to our job duties, we will try to make it clear to others. He cares about what we think, how we act, what we say, and even what we feel. (He commands me to love Him and not the world!) And yet he promises to carry the burden of labor for us, working in us to enable living, thinking, and feeling. So first, he is our master.
Second, he uses the word blessed to bring joy: “blessed are those servants” who are alert. If we are looking for him to come in anger or judgment against us, we are not expecting the right master. For the servants who stay up late waiting for him, he makes a feast. Look forward to it and depend on Jesus coming with anticipation! Peter said it this way: “Set your hope fully on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus” (1 Peter 1:13). We are to entirely depend on his coming and not put our hope in anything else. He is not a master who brings fury, just fireworks. No badgering, just balloons. He swings no club, but instead he brings cake.
Third, he uses the terms drunk and unfaithful to bring a warning to those unbelievers he describes as such. Jesus said elsewhere, “But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap” (Luke 21:34). When distrusting Jesus, a person can be so focused on this life that he is virtually intoxicated with this world. And some of those unbelievers will mistreat Jesus’s followers. So he gives a warning in the form of questions to ask yourself: do you put your confidence in Jesus or in family, work, or money? Is there anything he says that you don’t believe? Do you accept him as your master, or does your behavior tend toward providing for yourself? Does sober-minded expectation that your master may be at the door lead you to provide for others, to heal and to protect?
