REFLECTION

GOSPEL 

Watchfulness          

“Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 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. 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. 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. 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. You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”                                                                       Luke 12: 35-40

REFLECTION:

Jesus begins teaching about his second-coming by telling a parable about watchful servants. He urges his disciples to be dressed and ready for action and keep their lamps burning as the servants of a great master would while he was away attending a wedding feast. In biblical times, wedding receptions could last up to a week (can you imagine the catering bill), and the servants would not know when the master would be home. If the master came home in the middle of the night and found his lamps lit and his servants awake and watching for him…if they open the door and greet him when he comes in, they would be rewarded by the master. The master would actually take on the servant’s attire and serve the servants as they recline around the banquet table.

This was an incredible proposition! It was utterly preposterous to think of a master serving a servant in the ancient world. For Downton Abbey fans, this would be like the Cousin Violet, the Dowager Countess of Grantham, adorning an apron and serving Mr. Carson, the butler, in the dining room. The thought is quite simply absurd!

But this is exactly what Jesus promises! Do you see the meaning of the parable? Jesus is the master. His disciples are the servants who are left to tend the master’s house while he is away. They must always be ready because he could return at any time. If they are found awake and watchful, they will be richly rewarded by the master!

Julie Leonard

Religious Education Leader

Wellbeing Leader