You too, be ready

Luke 12:35-59 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

“Be dressed in readiness, and keep your lamps lit. ³⁶ Be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks. ³⁷ Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them. ³⁸ Whether he comes in the second watch, or even in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.

³⁹ “But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be broken into. ⁴⁰ You too, be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect.”

⁴¹ Peter said, “Lord, are You addressing this parable to us, or to everyone else as well?” ⁴² And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and sensible steward, whom his master will put in charge of his servants, to give them their rations at the proper time? ⁴³ Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. ⁴⁴ Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. ⁴⁵ But if that slave says in his heart, ‘My master will be a long time in coming,’ and begins to beat the slaves, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk; ⁴⁶ the master of that slave 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 assign him a place with the unbelievers. ⁴⁷ And that slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes, ⁴⁸ but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.

⁴⁹ “I have come to cast fire upon the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled! ⁵⁰ But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished! ⁵¹ Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division; ⁵² for from now on five members in one household will be 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 daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

⁵⁴ And He was also saying to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming,’ and so it turns out. ⁵⁵ And when you see a south wind blowing, you say, ‘It will be a hot day,’ and it turns out that way. ⁵⁶ You hypocrites! You know how to analyze the appearance of the earth and the sky, but why do you not analyze this present time?

⁵⁷ “And why do you not even on your own initiative judge what is right? ⁵⁸ For while you are going with your opponent to appear before the magistrate, on your way there make an effort to settle with him, so that he may not drag you before the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. ⁵⁹ I say to you, you will not get out of there until you have paid the very last cent.”

There many varied doctrines and opinions regarding the timing of Christ’s return. In today’s text Jesus says:   “Be dressed in readiness, and keep your lamps lit. Be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them. Whether he comes in the second watch, or even in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves. “But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be broken into. You too, be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect.”    According to Jesus then, we don’t know when He will come. In Mark 13:32 Jesus says:   "But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.”    With that in mind, we should concern ourselves far less in trying to know the timing of His return and focus, as He encourages us, on being dressed in readiness.  Jesus says He is coming at an hour we do not expect. When is it that we would least expect Jesus to come? Is it that moment when we speak critically or harshly to a family member? Perhaps the hour we expect Jesus least, is the hour or hours which we dedicate to self indulgence and entertainment, surely Jesus would not come when my favorite show is on, would He? Perhaps the time we least expect Jesus is when, in our heart, we judge the one who is less fortunate, the homeless person, or the one who doesn’t fit into our paradigm of normal and acceptable.

How is it though that we can be surprised when Jesus comes? After all Jesus says:   “ I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you…  If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.”   (John 14:16-17;23)     Jesus says:    “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)   If Jesus is always with us, if He abides with us and the Holy Spirit dwells in us, how can He come when we don’t expect Him?    It is a spiritual, heavenly kingdom reality that Jesus is with us, that the Holy Spirit is in us. We live in both the reality of this natural realm and the spiritual realm. If we live primarily in this world, we live apart from the realities of the kingdom of heaven. Although Christ would never leave us, we may walk without Him. The farther and more frequently we walk without Him, the less we expect Him to come.       In Matthew 11:29-30 Jesus says:   “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”    To be yoked to Christ is a choice we make, not one Jesus makes for us. If we remain yoked to Him, He promises us rest. He promises to do the hard and difficult thing with us and for us. If we are yoked to Christ, we cannot be surprised when He comes. We need to know though, that while Jesus will never leave us, there are places He will not go with us. To indulge in sin, we ourselves remove the yoke of Christ. Jesus says:   “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.”    If we choose not to keep His word, if we choose to remove ourselves from His abiding presence and His yoke, then we should not be surprised when He comes unexpectedly. We have been given a tremendous gift, entrusted with the privilege of hosting the presence of God, abiding with Him.  In today’s text Jesus says:  “From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.”

Jesus ends today’s text with this warning:    “And why do you not even on your own initiative judge what is right? For while you are going with your opponent to appear before the magistrate, on your way there make an effort to settle with him, so that he may not drag you before the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. I say to you, you will not get out of there until you have paid the very last cent.”           2 Corinthians 5:10 says:  We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.   Jesus Himself says, in Matthew 16:27:  “The Son of Man will come in His Father's glory with His angels, and then He will repay each one according to what he has done.”      We can choose to wait until that day and time we don’t know or expect and then give our account of what we have done, or we can choose now, to yoke ourselves to Christ, to love Him and to keep His word, to walk with Him and settle our account with Him, through the cross. We could never pay everything we owe, but Jesus Himself has paid every last cent.   We may not know the hour He is coming, but the time He came was so that we could walk with Him, dressed in readiness.

Thank You Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ and precious Holy Spirit. As You have chosen me, so I choose You. I choose Your yoke. I choose to live in the reality of the kingdom of heaven even while You walk with me on earth.   Amen.