The Call of the King 9: Be Dressed and Ready
For Meditation
This week we continue to look at what it means to follow the call of the King and to live as his disciples. We are brought to this passage in Luke where we see that one of the defining marks of a disciple is to live with expectancy, anticipating the coming of Jesus and his Kingdom.
So this Sunday we’re going to look at what it means to be people who wait for his Kingdom to come. This may be a tough topic for some to digest— that we are being called to face what the second coming of Christ is all about and what it means for us. Yet, this is something we need to believe in: that there is a judgment, there is a kingdom, there is an end that we are moving toward, and there is a point to all of this.
So if we do believe that this is true, and that we are waiting for Jesus’s coming Kingdom, it leads us to ask what that means for us today. What does this coming Kingdom tell us about how we need to live? Jesus says that we need to be people that are ready and expectant that his Kingdom could come upon us any moment, and that we are participating in his Kingdom even now. This should change the way we live, the way we handle our money, the way we treat the poor, the way we approach our relationships, the way we engage in our work, and the way we share this Good News. To live with this joyful expectancy means it changes everything, and that we too will changed into a completely different kind of community.
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Luke 12:32-48
32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Watchfulness
35 “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 36 like servants 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. 37 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. 38 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak. 39 But understand this: 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. 40 You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”
41 Peter asked, “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?”
42 The Lord answered, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? 43 It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. 44 Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 45 But suppose the servant says to himself, ‘My master is taking a long time in coming,’ and he then begins to beat the other servants, both men and women, 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 is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers.
47 “The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. 48 But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.
