He Will Serve Them (Luke 12:37)

 


Saturday, March 15, 2025


Psalm 37:1-17

Genesis 42:18-38

Luke 12:35-48


He Will Serve Them (Luke 12:37)


I must make a confession: you are reading or hearing this reflection about a week after I wrote it. As part of my own daily discipline, I make sure to read these readings in advance, and spend time enjoying them for myself before sharing them with you. Therefore, I am sitting here in the prayer workshop, reading about Jesus’ unexpected return, looking out at an approaching cyclone.


The lead up to this cyclone has been a good lesson to the soul. Perhaps the bigger danger was not so much the prospect of levitating deck furniture, but cabin fever. Waiting in our homes as the storm kept being delayed, evening would come, and we would all feel a little bit silly having stayed inside for a whole day because of nothing more than some light rain and an overcast sky.


Is this not what Jesus is talking about, but with regards to the work of the kingdom of God? The time for the work of heaven is still here; will we sit inside and look out the windows, checking the weather report, waiting for the Son of Man to return on the clouds of heaven as if we can predict it?


Jesus teaches us about staying up at all hours, for we do not know when the Master is returning. Could a Christian ever spend some time reading their Bible and saying their prayers, reflecting on the work of Jesus on the cross, his mighty resurrection, and glorious ascension, and then walk away to do their daily work as if nothing had happened? Surely this good news of which we have heard infiltrates its way into every thought and action we make; surely everything we say and do is then inspired by the love of God which has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Even vacuuming the floor, or securing the deck chairs, shines with the light of Christ that now illumines our hearts.


And if we ever feel our hearts failing in this, then let us consider what will happen when the Master does return: “he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.” Our labours in this life are but small compared to the eternity of ministry in which Jesus will serve us – he who bore our sins, ministering to us!


The love of God as revealed in the face of Jesus Christ eventually gets to a point where it is too much for words. The heart brims to overflowing, and we run out of things to say and can only lean back and let it happen. Therefore, stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Knock he will; and we can’t wait.


How do you find the discipline to remind yourself about Jesus? What work has he placed before you?


Master of our lives and hearts: make clear the way before us so that we may do the work you would have us do, and make us prosper in all those things. Keep us by your grace, that we may always be ready for your return, on that day of exceeding joy to which we all look with hopeful expectation. Come, Lord Jesus.

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