Luke 12:35-48--You Must Be Ready

Luke 12:35-48
English Standard Version
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You Must Be Ready
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.

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What is it exactly that we must be ready for?  Jesus seems to compare it to those who needed to be ready for the wedding.  This doesn't make a whole lot of sense to us because weddings are planned at least months in advance now, many times years in advance, but that's not really how it went back then.  Everyone knew the marriage was going to happen, but no one knew exactly when it would happen.  As soon as the place was prepared for the wife to live with the husband and had the seal of approval of the son's father, he was told to go and get his bride and to bring her home.  A herald might be sent ahead to say "Behold, the bridegroom cometh," but there was little to no time between the announcement and the actual coming.  You had to be prepared for the wedding to happen at any time on any day if you were the bride, a member of the bridal party or one of the guests to the wedding, and you had better be found dressed in your wedding garments that were your invitation to the wedding, or you weren't getting in.

There are lots of parallels there with teaching from Jesus on his return, but we'll focus on this text today and what it says, most importantly that the return of the King will be unexpected.  Even if He should come in the middle of the night when it is time to sleep for most people, He should not return and find us asleep (this is speaking spiritually, of course we're supposed to have physical sleep, but we should not be lollygagging around not about the work of God because we assume His return is far off).

Now Jesus says something strange to them that they will see put into practice at the Last Supper.  When the time comes, the Master will dress Himself for service and will seat all of His servants at the table and He will serve them.  What?!?! I wonder if there were some looks and whispers among the disciples with things like, "Who wants to tell Him that's not how it works?  The servants server the Master first and He has his fill before they get anything, and there may be nothing left for them."  That's what it normally meant to be a servant, but Jesus is going to show them what servant leadership looks like not only when He serves them at the Last Supper, but when He would suffer and die for them.  He will not ask them to die for Him right now, but He will die for all of them in order to provide a way for their redemption and salvation.

Jesus emphasizes again that we must always be ready even if it seems like He is coming like a thief in the night.  That is how it should appear to the world who doesn't believe, but for the Church who has been given the prophecies about the return of Jesus, we should understand the times and know that the time is close, even if we don't know the exact time that He's coming.  Jesus said that Him giving an exact date would be as silly as if the thief or robber told you what day he was coming to burglarize or rob your house.  That would be dumb because the master of the house would be ready for him if the thief announced his arrival.  So it will be with Jesus that Jesus does not want the world to know the date and live in rebellion and make last-second confessions (they would be fake) but He wants to reward those who are prepared at His coming and have surrendered their lives to Him and are living in faithful obedience, walking by the Spirit that is within them.  Notice I didn't say living a perfect life, but our lives should tell others that we belong to Him and He belongs to us, that we are citizens of His kingdom and that we have sworn allegiance to our King and His Kingdom.

Peter assumes this is meant to be a parable (in a way it is, because there are some word pictures), but I think Peter might be referring all the way back to The Parable of the Rich Fool that was a couple passages ago for us.  Peter is processing it in light of the other things Jesus said (how we should read and try to interpret Scripture with the help of the Holy Spirit) and asks who that parable was meant for?  At first it would seem it was meant for the unbelievers like the Pharisees, but now in explaining the parable Jesus is talking about His servants (the disciples) needing to be ready.  Was Jesus saying that they would be like the Rich Fool if they were not ready for Him?  Peter isn't getting what it meant to be ready and is still very much thinking of a physical kingdom and thinks Jesus is talking about physical clothing and physically being awake right now.  They think the kingdom is coming and that's why Jesus is going to Jerusalem (they are half right, but very much wrong in their assumption).  We see this when the people think it's time to coronate Jesus on Palm Sunday.  Jesus was not coming to make Himself King of the Jews, but by His death, He would earn the title of King of Kings and Lord of Lords (yes, He is also the King of the Jews).

Jesus just repeats Himself for Peter that for the saved person, the Master should find His servants about His business when He returns.  Such servants are faithful and wise to not try to take advantage of their Master's absence.  I know you know the type that just can't wait for the teacher to leave the room or just can't wait for their parents to go out of town and throw a party and they have to know when their parents are coming back so that they can quick clean up the house.  What would happen to them if their parents returned unannounced in the middle of the party when their child was intoxicated and not taking good care of his parent's property that had been entrusted to him?  You would rightly expect such a child to not be rewarded for such behavior, but if the parent comes back unannounced and the children are doing what they are supposed to be doing without anyone making them do it, this makes the heart of the parents glad, for their obedience is not out of fear of punishment, but out of love for the one that is in authority over them.  We know we love Him and others know we love Him when we obey Him without fear of punishment because we know Jesus has already taken all the punishment that we deserve, so we do our best to faithfully serve Him in all things, in all ways, at all times.

Now, a parent returning to a child doing the wrong thing is one thing.  Maybe that child gets grounded, but if we're talking about the King returning to His servants taking advantage of His kingdom and His citizens while He's gone, that is another level of punishment altogether--we'll talk about that later.  So then it appears that just because Jesus calls some people "servants" and calls Himself "Master" does not imply that all these people that He's talking about are saved and have a correct relationship with Him.  If they did, then they would not just give Him lip-service for what benefits they could get, but they would be obedient to Him and about His business during this time when He was not visibly present (He's still here, but we don't see Him right now as we await for what we call His Second Coming).

Is Jesus indicating that we can somehow lose our salvation if we are not "ready" when He returns?  I don't think so.  I think He's indicating that those who are found to not be ready and living like the world have proved they are part of the world's system and kingdom and not the kingdom of God and they never had salvation to begin with.  They may have pretended to be servants of God, but the King will know who truly belongs to Him when He comes into His kingdom.

Jesus does not lump everyone into the same boat here just because someone "wasn't ready" for His return.  There were those that were genuinely wicked and abused the Master's servants while He was gone (those who are the enemies of God that persecute and abuse the Church members) and it says that the master will "cut them to pieces."  There is much pain and suffering awaiting those who chose not only rebellion against the LORD but violence against those who belong to Him and are marked by His seal.

The second group of people are those who knew that Jesus was returning and they refused to do what He commanded them to do in His absence (be about The Great Commission for starters, but many other things too).  These servants are also wicked and will receive a severe beating, but it does not say they will be counted among the unfaithful like the ones that were actively mistreating the Church.

Last is the group we get asked so many questions about.  What about the people that were unprepared because they honestly didn't know that Jesus was coming again and that's why they were not ready?.  Jesus has some compassion on them but they are still beaten lightly.  and the passage also does not include them as being counted among the wicked.  Is this passage teaching us that God is just going to let people into heaven who have never heard the gospel?  I doubt that from other passages in the Bible, but that is one of the ways that some people try to interpret this passage.  For now, we know that the punishment that will be given will be proportional to the crime that was committed and that Jesus will weigh all the facts and evidence before making a decision and we know His ruling will be just, for He knows not only our actions, but our thoughts, and motives and intentions.

Let's do our best to eliminate this third possibility so that all men are without excuse when the day and the time comes, for if there are men who still don't know about Jesus when He returns, then it is because the Church was derelict in her duties to go and make disciples of all nations.