Parable of the Watchful Servants

Luke 12:35-40

When I was a kid my brother and I were the absolute worst kids anyone could have to babysit. It was nearly impossible for my parents to get away because no babysitters were willing to babysit us a second time. Amongst our many tricks that used to drive babysitters crazy was a stunt we pulled at bedtime. My parents generally gave the babysitter a designated time for us to be in bed, usually around 8:30 or 9. And we usually cooperated when the babysitter put us to bed . . . we may insist on a book being read, but we would quickly lay down to fall asleep. . . or the babysitter thought we had fallen asleep. The second she left our room, we shared a room with bunkbeds, which aided our scheming, . . . we would sneak out of bed and crawl quietly down the hallway and lay in the kitchen doorway where we could secretly watch TV while the babysitter was on the couch. And if she got up, we quickly raced back to our room and jumped into bed faking a deep sleep. We did this time after time without ever getting caught. . . eventually we would get tired and go to bed for real before our parents got home.

But one night as my brother and I were laying in the doorway watching TV over the babysitter’s shoulder we heard someone come in the front door, which happened to be between our bedroom and the babysitter. . . it was our parents. . . we panicked knowing that we were in big trouble. . . after a quick glance at each other, my brother and I darted for our room hoping that our blazing speed would make us invisible to my parents. We were wrong! We had been caught. . . we weren’t ready. . . we had gotten so caught up in our scheme and watching TV that we forgot to watch out for our parents. . . from then on, every babysitter my parents managed to get to babysit us was warned to make sure that we actually staid in bed once we were put to bed.

Now today’s Gospel reading from Luke is not about scheming 6 and 7 year olds, but it is about keeping watch and being prepared for when our master returns. . . because if we are not ready then we will be in big trouble.

This parable in Luke is especially relevant today because today is Ascension Sunday. . . the day in the liturgical calendar where we celebrate Jesus’ ascension into heaven to be with his Father. This ascension, however, is not permanent, but as this parable in Luke points out, Christ will one day return to earth to consummate God’s plan of redemption. Luke’s parable illustrates the necessity of being ready for Christ’s return.

Lets take a look at this passage. . . “be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. . . it will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night.”

A few years ago one of the soda manufactures, Pepsi maybe, ran a contest where people could sign up with their name, address, phone number, etc. to win $100,000. The catch was that if your name was selected the contest organizers would show up at your house unannounced to see if you were drinking Pepsi. . . and if you were drinking a Pepsi you would win the money, but if you were not. . . you would win nothing. The point was that you only win the contest if you are always drinking Pepsi because you love it so much.

This is like what Jesus is calling us to in this parable. No, not to carry a Pepsi with us wherever we go. Not even to make sure that we are always wearing a Jesus Rules t-shirt and a WWJD bracelet, or even that we are always carrying our bibles. Jesus uses this parable in Luke to teach us that we must always be spiritually ready for his return. He wants us to be watching. . . to be vigilant. . . to be alert. Now this does not mean that we should stand glaring out the kitchen window 24 hours a day with binoculars expecting to see Jesus. What it means is that our faith should be a regular part of our life. Our lives should be lived in such a way that our hope is not caught up in the things of this world, but rests in Christ’s returning. We ready ourselves for Christ by serving him. . . by making him the purpose for all that we do.
Jesus wants us to walk through life . . . our everyday routines. . . doing his work. Again this does not mean that we all need to rush out and become foreign missionaries or that we all need to be pastors. . . what Jesus wants is for all our work to be in service to him. Use God’s gifts, your talents, for his glory, not your own. Be ready for Christ.

Part of being ready for Christ is being prepared. . . and we prepare for Christ by doing his work today. . . by getting to know him and by growing closer to him. The servants in this parable waiting for the return of their master were required to remain in their work clothes and to have the oil lamps burning upon his arrival. We too must be prepared. . . but this is not just preparation for Christ’s coming. . . it is often preparation for our death too, which may come before Christ’s coming. We know not the day Christ will come and we know not the day we will go to Christ. . . so we must be prepared . . . we must be diligent. . . we must be faithful.

The parable says that we must be ready so that we “can immediately open the door for” Christ when he knocks. We anticipate his coming and fling open the door in excitement. Are we living in such a way that our lives reflect readiness, eagerness, even excitement for our master’s return? Or are we investing our time and talents in things of this world acting as if Christ will never return?

One way I think we can gauge our readiness for Christ is to assess our relationship with God right now. How are you doing watching for God in your life right now? Do you see God in your relationships? Even in relationships with difficult people? Do you see God while you are at work? Do you see God in your ever day routine?

A couple of weeks ago, as I was finishing up one of my classes at the Seminary, one of my professors asked the class to gaze out the window. He said look around outside that window and just call out what you see. . . so classmates starting calling things out. . . trees, grass, people, the sun, clouds. . . my professor stopped everyone after they had named off several other things and said, now I don’t disagree that those things are what you see. . . but I want to help you to see more than just trees and people and clouds. . . I want to help you to see God . . . because those things are not just trees and clouds. . . those are God’s creation. . . and those are not just people. . . they are images of the Almighty God. So be watchful. . . and be ready to find God in all of life. This is the preparation for which God calls us. For if we cannot find God in our lives, how will we recognize Christ when he knocks on our door. We must ready ourselves.

We prepare ourselves by getting to know Christ by spending time studying scripture and praying. . . and by finding and interacting with God in our everyday lives. We can’t forget that we are called “servants” in this passage. We are not just hanging around this world for our own benefit. We are not the master. . . we don’t call the shots. Remember we are here to serve. . . to love the Lord our God with our whole hearts and to love our neighbors as ourselves. If we start to think we are too important we won’t be ready when Christ comes. . . when he knocks. . . we might be hiding on the floor in the kitchen trying to watch TV. . . or we might be too concerned with the perfect clothes to wear or the perfect things to say. Whatever it is in this world that distracts us. . . wealth, success, power, looks. . . that thing will keep us from being ready.

But this parable does not say anything about being perfect, or looking our best, or even set out a mandatory number of hours of Bible study to prepare for Christ. . . it just says to be ready. Jesus is more concerned about who we are as his followers than he is with what we accomplish or how good we are. He wants us to endeavor to serve him. He wants our hearts, not our perfection. Now this is no excuse to be lazy, but an acknowledgment that Christ’s love is not dependent upon our merit. Being ready for Christ is not about accumulating gold stars for good behavior. We are called simply to be ready. For if we are ready and prepared to receive Christ. . . if we have hearts willing to serve. . . we don’t have to do any work. . . because it is Christ who does the work in us. Christ will accomplish great things through anyone who is ready to open the door when he knocks.

There is a very real warning in this parable too. “If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect.” If we knew when our enemies would strike we wouldn’t need to be on guard all the time, we could just prepare for that time when the thief would strike. If I would have known ahead of time that someone was going to break into the church a couple of weeks ago I would have had a couple of police officers waiting for them. . . but we have not such luxury.

How much easier would our Christian faith be if when we were born God gave us a calendar of our life that pointed out the days and hours something would happen to trip up our faith in Christ. . . our readiness to receive him. My calendar would have said something like: “January 5, 1989. Dan, watch your competitive tendencies. Someone is going to provoke a fight with you. October 12, 1997. Dan, be careful spending too much time with your college roommate, he is going to try to convince you that weekend parties are more important than church.”

Unfortunately we don’t have this luxury so we must be prepared. . . we must be vigilant/alert/ready so that we can guard our faith and be watchful of Christ. If we aren’t ready. . . if we expect more time. . . or we just have more important things to worry about than our faith. . . we risk being distracted and having it stolen from us at a time when we are not ready. We must be prepared.

So why all this work. . . why all this preparation. . . why must we serve God when it would be so much easier and convenient to serve other things. Because our master is good! What is the big shocker in this parable? This master that everyone is waiting for. . . the reason the servants are dressed ready to serve. . . why they keep the lamps burning. . . this master does not go into the house and ask the servants to prepare his bed when he arrives, the servants don’t have to wash his feet, they aren’t asked to find him a seat. . . NO! This master, our master, serves his servants. He is good. He rewards those ready, those prepared.

Talk about a system that turns our world upside down! Have you ever had to wait for a boss to get back before you could go home. You wait and wait. . . you have everything you were supposed to do done. . . you can’t leave because your boss might come back while your gone. . . so you wait. . . but then your boss finally shows up, but your boss doesn’t ask you to do anything. . . he serves you! He gets you a drink, he makes you dinner, he doesn’t just order delivery, he actually makes you dinner with his own two hands.

Jesus is this boss. . . this master. Our service, our faith, our watchfulness is not without a purpose. When we come to that day when it is all over. . . when we die or when Jesus returns, our master will prepare us a heavenly banquet where we will dine with our Lord and Savior. . . and we will truly experience the Kingdom of God in its fullness.

Our master is indeed a master worth serving. He is a master worth preparing for. Are we ready? We cannot clutch too tenaciously to this life and be ready for the next. What are you waiting for? Os Guiness says, “faith in Christ will regain its decisive authority in the modern world only when we who follow Christ fear God more than we fear the powers and favors of modernity.”

We are all watching for something. We are all living for something. Jesus is calling us today to live for him. To serve him. To be ready for him. And not just because we will receive some prize at the end of our journey, but because a life of service to a good master, to Christ himself, is worth the effort. A life of service to Christ is truly the only path toward joy. A life of service to Christ is truly the only life worth living. . . a life that is truly full.

Legend has it that the devout Francis of Assisi was approached one afternoon while he was gardening and was asked, 'Francis, if you knew that Christ was coming this very hour for your soul, what would you do?'. At this, Francis paused from his work, looked up at the man and replied, 'I would finish my gardening'. Francis could finish his gardening because he had no regrets about how he lived out his commitment to Christ. Francis was ready. Francis was prepared. Are we?