I’ve mentioned before in this blog that this summer we returned home only to find that lightning had struck our house! In the end, we replaced a number of appliances. However, before we replaced the appliances we tried to have them fixed. In order to have them fixed, we called repairmen. My father was pretty handy around the house, and fixed almost everything that was broken. Unfortunately, I did not inherit his talent. Therefore, whenever anything breaks we have to call the repairman. Whenever we call the repairman, he or she will say something like, “He’ll be there sometime between 8 AM and Noon Monday or Tuesday of next week.” Most of the time, this doesn’t bother me because Kathy stays home and waits for the repairman to come; however, that is not always the case. After hours of waiting hoping the repairmen will come early, there’s always the temptation to run an errand, or walk around the pond, or do something to eliminate the boredom. Sure enough, if I ever fall victim to these temptations and do something besides wait, that is the exact time the repairman comes and I miss him.

This weekend, we had a men’s retreat that focused on what we do in the “dash” of our lives. The dash metaphor is taken from the fact that tombstones list our day of birth and our day of death with a dash in between. Yet, those two dates matter much less than what we do in the meantime—in the dash so to speak. [1] The life of a disciple is similar: from time to time, and at the end of our lives, we do experience the presence and power of God. There are times of great spiritual excitement and growth. They are great. However, we also spend time waiting—and that time makes up most of our lives, indeed the most important part of our lives are spent in the dash. A part of the difficulty of the “dash” is that we must remain faithful at times when God may seem absent or uninterested.

Are you Ready?

Luke 12:35-48 is a difficult passage. The first five verses are about servants generally. The second seven versus are a response to a question asked by Peter (v. 41). Both passages emphasize the importance of diligence in a servant, though the second part deals with leaders as much as with disciples. With that background, here is our text for the week:

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. 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. Peter asked, “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?” 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? It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 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. 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. “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. 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 (Luke 12:35-48).

The Importance of Wise Diligence

Downton Abbey is not as popular as once it was, but for the time it was necessary for me to schedule my Sunday night Bible study so that we could be home in time to see each episode! As you probably know, Downton Abbey is the story of the wealthy Crawley family through several generations in the early 20^th Century. My two favorite characters are Mr. Carson, who is the head Butler, and Mrs. Hughes, who is the head housekeeper. The two of them symbolize the dignity and efficiency of British butlers and housekeepers at the height of the British Empire. Their quiet love for each other, diligence, and loyalty to their employers have been my favorite part of the story. [2]

Jesus told many parables in which he speaks of good and wise servants, comparing them wicked and foolish servants. For example, Jesus tells parables that are designed to show us that scribes and Pharisees, who claimed to be serving God, were not good servants. He told parables in which wicked servants kill the master’s son (Luke 20:9-19). He told parables in which wise servants faithfully invest the master’s money (Matthew 25:14-30). Today’s text is a parable about what it means to be a faithful disciple of Jesus, and to take seriously our responsibilities for other disciples.

In the ancient world, for a man do physical work, he had to grab the edge of his robe and tie it around his waist. This was known as, “girding your waist.” In the New International Version, this idea is translated, “Be dressed and ready for service.” I happen to like the older translation better, but the idea is the same. In order to do any kind of work, we need to be dressed and ready to work. A wise servant is ready at all times to meet any legitimate request from his or her employer, or in Jesus’ day, “Master.” In this particular story, like the Parable of the Ten Virgins, we are reminded that Jesus may need us and come to us at any time (Matthew 25:1-13). Therefore, we should be about our masters business and ready to serve him at any time. Spiritually speaking, this means that we need to be filled with God’s Wisdom by the power of the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, we will not be properly equipped to serve Christ.

The Importance of Being Filled with the Spirit

In the Parable of the Ten Virgins, and in today’s parable, Jesus urges believers to keep their lamps burning. In the ancient world, lamps were often shallow bowls made of pottery. (Our church’s Salt & Light logo incorporates that ancient symbol in its flame.) Because lamps were small and shallow, it was necessary to keep them filled with oil. Without oil, a lamp would go out and leave a person in the darkness at an inopportune time.

From ancient times, oil has been a symbol for the Holy Spirit. In other words, this parable begins by teaching us that a servant is diligent and wise because he or she remains filled with the Holy Spirit. Discipleship is not a matter of works, although it involves doing good works. Discipleship is a matter of grace as God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, works in our lives empowering us to live the Christian life.

There is an element of discipline in discipleship; however, more important than discipline is a disciple’s continued attachment to the master by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is why Jesus says, “I am the vine; you are the branches if a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (John 13:5). Our attachment to God is through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit that comes into our lives as we believe in God and open our lives to the enlightening and empowering grace of his love and wisdom. We simply cannot live out the Christian life without the Spirit of God helping us. When we attempt to do otherwise, we always fail.

The power to live out the Christian life comes from God by the power of the Holy Spirit. I am sure that we’ve all had the experience of beginning a Christian work by the power of the Holy Spirit but ending up trying to do it our own power. It never works. We always burn out. It is only when we come back to God and allow God to fill us again so that we find the ability to continue. This week, we had another retreat. A member and I went to Alabama to spend two days at a convent. My special prayer was that God fill me with his Spirit again because you cannot live the Christian life successfully on your own.

The Reality of Accountability

The hardest part of this text for modern ears involves the passages relating to the master’s judgment. [3] Jesus describes the faithful and wise manager as one the master finds diligently serving his fellow servants when he returns. Jesus also describes two other kinds of servants:

1. First, he describes a servant who notes that the master has taken a long time in returning, concludes the master will not return, beats the other servants, and eats their food (Luke 12:45). In very harsh language, Jesus says the master will simply cut such a person to pieces in the judgment (v. 46).
2. There is a second kind of servant, however. This servant is simply clueless. This kind of servant never bothered to learn what the master wanted and so does not fulfill the master’s bidding. The servant is also punished, though not as harshly (v. 48).

It is not a good idea to focus on the punishments. Jesus is using a form of hyperbola common in Scripture to emphasize that unfaithful, harsh, lazy, and foolish servants will not be rewarded for their behavior. This passage, like the passage in which Jesus says it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven should not be taken literally, but should be taken as a way of Jesus emphasizing the importance of what he is saying and the dangers of disobedience.

Not long ago, Kathy shared with me a graphic that describes what are sometimes called, “Carnal Christians.” On throne of the Carnal Christian’s life is him or herself. Jesus is present only on the periphery of the Carnal Christian’s life. He or she may attend church or Bible studies, they may be active in some areas of service, but their faith is not central to their life. It is simply one among many ways such a person finds fulfillment. In many ways, the Carnal Christian is no better off than an unbeliever: out of fellowship with God, such a person is also out of fellowship with other human beings and with nature. They are even out of fellowship with their own deepest needs. The result is discord, frustration, alienation, and broken relationships. The random dots in the illustration represent the disorder of the Self-Directed Life.

There is a natural accountability in life. If we do not put Christ at the center of our lives, inevitably we put our selfish desires and ourselves on the throne. When we do this, we suffer the consequences. It is not that God is judging us, like a harsh unfeeling human judge. Instead, we are simply receiving the consequences of our own decisions. The judgments of the unfaithful servants are just what happen when we do not really and truly follow Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Blessing of Wise Disciples

The element of God’s grace, and the blessing of wise and faithful servants, is emphasized in two places in today’s reading. In the first half of our parable, when the master returns and finds his servants waiting for him, instead of asking them to serve him, he has them recline at the table for a banquet, and then unexpectedly serves them (Luke 12:37)! We would imagine that the reason the servants were awake late when the master returned from the wedding banquet was to serve the master! It turns out, however, that God, after returning from the wedding banquet of his church, blesses his servants, the members of that church and serves them.

In the first part of the parable, Jesus returns to a metaphor he often uses. The Kingdom of God is like a Great Banquet in which a master invites everyone to attend and blesses everyone who attends, rich or poor, deserving or undeserving, socially acceptable or not socially acceptable (Matthew 22:1-14; Luke 14:15-24). All those who respond to the master’s invitation are invited to the banquet and the master serves them.

In the second half of the teaching, when the master returns and finds his servant faithfully serving others, he blesses such a servant and puts him or her in charge of everything that he possesses (Luke 12:44). This is reminiscent of the Parable of the Talents, where the faithful servants are put in charge of even greater things because of their faithfulness in smaller things (Matthew 25:14-30).

On a basic level, our text is about disciples, and especially Christian leaders, faithfully living out the task of being a disciple, bringing others to Christ, and discipling them—undertaking the task of feeding God sheep. Historically, it is about the failure of the scribes, the Pharisees, and the priests to properly feed the people of God (Matthew 21:33-46). Christ desires his servants, the Church, to do a better job. [4]

The Christian church has always seen today’s text as concerning the return of Christ and the final judgment. However, on a deeper spiritual level, this parable is about the coming of Christ into our lives at unexpected times and in unexpected ways. It is about the little judgments that we all receive due to our unfaithfulness. It is about always being ready to give account of ourselves in every circumstance.

Once again, there is a counterpart to the little graphic that I mentioned earlier. In this graphic Christ is on the throne of our lives. As a result, our lives are well ordered spiritually, and we are filled with the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, self-control, and the other gifts of the Spirit (See, Galatians 5:22-25). Just as the judgments of life are the natural result of unfaithfulness to God, the blessings of life are the natural result of our faithfulness to God. When we are filled with God’s spirit and living wisely on the basis of God’s love shown to us in Christ, we are blessed and we will naturally share this blessing with others.

There are two endings to today’s parable: The first half ends with Jesus saying, “You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him” (Luke 12:40). The entire teaching is with Jesus saying, “From everyone who is been given much, much will be demanded; and from one who has been entrusted with much more will be asked” (v. 48). Both of these our reminders of what God will do for us if we faithfully live out our calling to be Spirit empowered followers of Christ.

Copyright 2015, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved

[1] See, Linda Ellis, “The Dash” (1996). The key part of this text goes like this:

“For If our hearts are full of love/throughout our journey here,/we’ll be loved by all who knew us/and our memory they’ll hold dear./And when we die, these memories/will bring grateful, loving tears,/to all whose lives were touched/by the dash between our years.”

This is a poem I recommend everyone read. it can be found in numerous places on the internet. The founder of our church often reads this poem at funerals, which is where I first heard it.

[2] See, Downton Abbey, Masterpiece Theatre, BBC J. Fellows, R Eaton, N. Marchant, & G. Neame (Executive Producers (New York: PBS, 2010- Present).

[3] The second half of the parable, involves Jesus responding to Peter’s question, Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?” (v. 41). In response, Jesus turns his focus to a chief steward who is left in charge of the household and is responsible to feed the other servants.

[4] In other words, those who have received the forgiveness of sins, been baptized, received the Holy Spirit and been instructed in the ways of God ought to faithfully proclaim that Gospel and help others receive the benefits of God’s wisdom and love.