The Watchful Servants

The entire history of mankind, after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, all the way to the second coming of Christ, fits within that period of time symbolically indicated by the absence of the master from the house.

Jesus Christ: His Life and Teaching, Vol.4 - The Parables of Jesus, Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev

Luke 12: 35 “Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; 36 and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. 37 Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them. 38 And if he should come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.”

In the verses immediately preceding this parable, Jesus offers that it is the Father’s good pleasure to give the listeners, His disciples, the kingdom.  Sell what you have, give alms to the poor, store your treasures in heaven. 

Then, the parable: keep your lamps burning, as if expecting someone’s arrival.  Be always watchful; be prepared.  Such servants demonstrate good stewardship, keeping watch over the master’s house, always prepared for the master’s return.

Gird yourself; be prepared for a journey – despite not knowing when the journey will take place.  Jesus describes this aspect immediately after the parable, with a different example.

Luke 12: 39 “But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. 40 Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

There are many such statements made by Jesus in the Gospels: be prepared, you do not know the hour.  The point of the parable is not merely that the servant should desire to fulfill the master’s will; it is that the current moment is important, as are all current moments.

The faithful servant is precisely one who is faithful to the word of God, who answers its call and makes this incarnate in his own life.

The early Church anticipated Christ’s return in their time; this expectation was intense.  For us, we have become lax, the sense of His return having become dulled in us.  We live with a Christianity that demands little from us, certainly a life devoid of much of the radicalness of Jesus’s teaching.

I continue to reflect on the Sermon on the Mount, and the comment from Lloyd-Jones that the Christian lives a life completely different than the one lived by the non-Christian.  How many of us can say that about ourselves?  This is much more than a life of outward morality, which many of our non-Christian friends demonstrate; it is an internal dimension that changes our entire being.

Luke 12: 48(b) For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.

Those who have heard the word, who call themselves Christians or have walked away from that call, have been given much.  Much more is required of us than of those who have not heard; much more has been committed to us, therefore more is asked of us.

Conclusion

The most unusual aspect of the parable is the behavior of the master who finds his servants still awake. 

The master has the servants sit and eat; the master serves the servants.  In addition to the eschatological dimension of the parable – knowing that the master will return, but not knowing when – there is the dimension of service by the master, just as Jesus did during His ministry.

Just as we are to do for our neighbors.