JESUS IS WELL AWARE of the power that the day-to-day holds over our lives; the very routines which structure our days for our response—whether we are driven by good habits or otherwise—may blind us to a divine interruption. We might miss the moment when God is showing himself, calling to us, moving in our lives for his plan and our benefit. So Jesus says, “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.” (Luke 12:35-36)
The bible is always a challenge to our presuppositions. As we contemplate this from a modern first-world perspective, we may feel a little resistance to seeing ourselves in the role of a servant. Our sense of personal freedom is impugned by the implications existing in a binding relationship dependent upon an authority figure. A grinding sense of underlying irritation and resentment is potentially further exacerbated by what immediately follows: “It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes.” (Luke 12:37)
Jesus’ ability to bend our thoughts into new patterns is masterful. Throughout the gospels, he is constantly engaging with people of every social stratum and life-philosophy, and his purpose is always to create the teachable moment. In this present dialogue, in two brief sentences, he has easily set our minds in motion towards a predictable outcome. Everyone has some level of resentment towards dominating figures. And in those unequal relationships, the lesser must always not only hold their tongue, but also control their body language. Our response needs to be thoroughly convincing or we may suffer any range of consequences. For an infraction of the tongue we may encounter a sharp reprimand. For a persistent bad attitude we may suffer loss of employment. In extreme circumstance, say in confronting a totalitarian regime, it may cost life itself.
Expecting the negative, our minds are suddenly shifted by Jesus’ next statement—just as he intended. “Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them.” (Luke 12:38) We try to process this, and it takes our minds in a new direction. After all, masters master, and servants serve; that’s the way this has always worked. Servants don’t master, and masters don’t serve—this defies our experiential preconceptions. This scene should end with the servant carrying out his/her normally assigned tasks. The master would eat and retire for the evening as we clean up the mess and make sure that everything is in order for the time he rises in the morning. Then we can go to our rest. But that is not the ending. Instead, we are all seated, and it is the master who serves. We struggle to comprehend.
Jesus has just created what modern psychologists call an open-ended neural loop. Simply put, our mind has been presented a problem that doesn’t have the answer we expect available from past experience. The solution isn’t presented in the form of an answer—instead we must solve this ourselves. And so we keep grappling with the ‘problem,’ approaching it first one way, then another, then still another. If we persist, then ultimately we will develop our own answer, and by doing so, our presuppositions have been altered. And we will have been changed.
We might miss the deepest meaning in this if we don’t practice good bible study habits, in this case reading in immediate context before and after. Just prior, Jesus has been making a comparison between our desires for the things below versus the value of things above. “Do not be afraid, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide for yourselves a treasure in heaven. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Luke 12:32-34) Just after he warns about the vulnerability of investing our hearts in things below. “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.” (Luke 12:39-40) And in that flow of struggling thought, Jesus injects urgency into our need to ‘solve this problem.’ “You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” (Luke 12:41)
Jesus paid a price for openly confronting the totalitarian regimes of the religious hierarchy of Judaism and the brutal governing power of Rome. He refused to be a slave to their mastery, and this fixed him firmly on the cross of crucifixion. It served his Father’s purposes for his life well. “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” (John 12:32) Jesus Christ is the most compelling figure in all of human history. In his earthly life he drew tens, hundreds, and thousands. In his ascended life-after-life he has drawn the billions of mankind into mind-bending moments in which he must be contemplated. Some will reject him. “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” (Psa. 14:1) Others, far fewer (cf. Matt. 7:13-14), will accept his offer of a different and eternal way of life.
We accept this charge from Paul: “Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” (1 Tim. 6:12) We consider this “In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession.” (1 Tim. 6:13) Those who do so will live in expectant hope, and will not mind at all serving such a master.
Q. Do I expect what God expects for and from me?
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