Luke 12:35-40
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.”
Waiting Is Hard
Waiting is hard.
I have this vivid memory from when I was about 6-7 years old. My sister was coming for a visit. When she lived at home, she was just my sister. But she’s 14 years older than I am, so by the time I was 5-6 years old, she was out of the house, which made her a celebrity. She had her own car, her own apartment. She was enrolled in college. She had a boyfriend. She’d stop by on weekends to spend time with family and maybe play with her little brother.
It was one such weekend. I was so excited for her to come, I started playing outside in the front yard hours before she was supposed to arrive. Not because I expected her to come early. I just wanted to be ready and in the right spot for when she did come.
Fast forward an hour (or two) to the time when she was supposed to arrive. I put on my rollerblades, grabbed my hockey stick and pretended to be a sentry at the end of our driveway. She wasn’t going to get past without my permission.
Fast forward another hour. She’s late. It’s getting dark. I was getting tired. So, I kicked off my rollerblades, threw my stick in the garage, and trudged into the house. Of course, lo and behold, no sooner do I close the front door than what do I hear? The sound of her car pulling into the driveway. I had waited for hours. And seconds after I gave up, she showed up.
Waiting is hard. Especially when you’re waiting for something you’re looking forward to. Especially when you have no idea when it’s going to happen. Jesus tells us a mini-parable today about something that checks both those boxes:
“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.”[1]
Our Master is returning. Jesus is coming back. That’s something worth looking forward to. Because he’s coming from something even better than a wedding banquet. He’s coming from heaven. And he’s coming to do something better than to serve you food. He’s coming to take you home to be with him in heaven. The only problem is we don’t know when.
Christians have been waiting now for 2,000 years. That’s a long time! That first generation of disciples was convinced that they’d see Jesus return in their lifetime, but that was many moons ago. And here we are – the great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandkids of that first generation of disciples, and we’re still waiting.
Vicar preached last week about some of the signs that his return is near – wars and rumours of war, false prophecy and fierce persecution – signs that we see all around us, and, frankly, signs that we’ve seen for a long time. Still no Jesus. On the one hand, it feels like he could come at any moment. On the other, it’s hard to believe that anyone will ever live long enough to see his return.
So, what do we do? “Wait” is the easy answer. It’s also the inevitable answer – something you don’t have a choice but to do, whether you want to or not. Worse, waiting is something that can be an entirely passive and thoughtless endeavour. But that’s hardly what Jesus tells us to do here. He doesn’t say, “Wait.” He says,
“Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning.”
I was dressed. I was wearing rollerblades while I was waiting for my sister. I didn’t tell you this before, but as it got dark, I grabbed a flashlight so that I could see. I was even waiting in the right spot. But as overactive as my imagination was, I was not dressed ready for service. And do you know who reminded me of that as soon as I walked back into the house? My mom.
Can you imagine what she would have rather had me do for the previous 2 or 3 hours while I was waiting for my sister? Clean the house. Set the table. Walk the dog. Make my bed. You name it. There was a list of things for me to do. There was a pile of stuff on the stairs for me to take care of. I may not have been passively waiting in a lawn chair on the front yard – I may have been active – but I certainly wasn’t ready for service.
And that’s the challenge for you and me as we await Jesus’ return, isn’t it? It’s not hard to be active. We can fill our time and our days in an instant. We can complain about how busy we are. But “dressed ready for service” and “lamps burning” is another matter altogether.
What is it that we’re filling our time with? Is it mindless doomscrolling for an embarrassing number of hours every week that leaves you numb to the world and the real life you could live in it? What is it that we’re filling our time with? Is it hyperactivity at school or work that is advancing your career prospects and putting food on the table, but leaving you hungering and thirsting for that one thing that will fill the hole in your heart? Are we so busy spending time with each other – our families, our friends – that we let our relationship with our God wither on the vine?
That’s what Jesus means when he talks about keeping your lamps burning. This isn’t just consciousness. It’s not just wakefulness. It’s vigilance. It’s an alertness and an eager expectation of the return of our Master. That’s where Jesus is telling us to spend our mental energy – thinking about him and preparing for that time when we will see him again.
It has been 2,000 years since Jesus was last seen on earth. It may be another 2,000 years before he comes again. But you won’t have to wait that long to see his face. For each of us, it’s 70 or 80 years, if we have the strength. You may not have to wait until Judgement Day to see your Master; you might go to him before he comes back to earth. But the hard thing about waiting is what makes it worth it – when it’s something you’re looking forward to. And I can’t think of a single thing better than what Jesus promises us here.
Jesus is coming to serve you:
“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.”[2]
This isn’t your typical master/servant relationship – and not because the servants are so good that master and servant are on the same level. It’s because our Master is so good that he condescends to our level – and lower – to serve us in our need. We may not always spend our mental (or physical) energy on the right things – we may not always have a laser focus on our Lord – but, worthy or not, we are the apple of his eye and have always had his undivided attention.
And it showed on the night before he died. Jesus did this very thing for his disciples. In the last, fleeting hours that he would spend with his friends before he was forcibly taken from them – at a time above any other in his earthly life when he deserved to be taken care of – he served them. He dressed himself ready for service. He wrapped a towel around his waist, got down on his hands and knees and washed their feet. The least desirable of all the jobs of a household servant Jesus did unprompted for his disciples to show them the kind of Master he is.
Jesus isn’t on par with us. He is infinitely better, immeasurably more glorious. And yet, he doesn’t lord his mastery over us. He used it to serve us in our greatest need – to come to this world and be forgotten and mistreated and rejected, to be crucified and buried, so that he could give us this promise and this hope for the future – that our God loves us despite our unworthiness of him, that our sins are forgiven through his sacrifice on the cross, that our future is certain because of his impending return to come and take us home to be with him forever in heaven.
We have no idea when that day will come. And that can be hard. But we don’t have to wonder what to do in the meantime. Jesus lays it out for us:
“Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning.”[3]
Keep your lamp burning. Be vigilant. It’s not enough just to be conscious. It’s not enough to coast through life in a daze. Fix your gaze firmly on Jesus. Build meditation on his Word and promises into your daily life and routine, so that you don’t take your faith for granted or forget about it entirely for long stretches at a time. Carve out time to read your Bible, to come to church, to study and pray with your fellow servants, so that when you look out at this world you’re not distracted by all the many things that can so quickly fill up our calendars and agendas, but so that you can always keep your eyes open to the signs of Jesus’ return and have hearts ready and watchful for his coming again.
Be dressed ready for service. It’s not enough just to be active. It’s not enough to be busy. Busy yourself in service – to each other, but ultimately to your Master. Work hard at your school work or office work, not just to put food on the table or advance your career, but to make good use of the gifts God has given you with thankfulness to him in your heart and service to him in your mind. Help each other. Visit the sick in the hospital. Give to the hungry and cold. There are people God has placed in your life right now, who can use your time and attention while you wait for Jesus to come again. What better thing could you do to demonstrate your readiness for his return than to dedicate your life in service to him through your service others?
Waiting is hard. But it’s worth it because your Master and Saviour is coming to take you home, and because he’s given you good work to do in the meantime. Get to it. Amen.
[1] Luke 12:35,36
[2] Luke 12:37
[3] Luke 12:35