Luke 12:35-48
Can you imagine Jesus warning his disciples about the coming of the Lord? He did it by teaching in stories that most everyone can understand.
In the first story, Jesus likens our waiting-for God, waiting-for-the-Son, with that of a household of servants waiting up for their master's arrival home. The watchful, faithful servants are awake and alert, prepared to jump up and open the door the moment the master crosses the threshold.
But no matter how prepared these servants may have thought themselves they may have the master's night clothes laid out, a favorite wine ready to pour, a late-night snack ready to be served there's no way these watchful domestics could have been prepared for what Jesus next suggests.
Jesus puts a twist in his teaching. Once the master arrives home, when his household servants greet him promptly, this master suddenly takes on the role of servant to the servants. His unknown arrival time pales in significance to this unexpected, unbelievable behavior. Imagining this scene in today’s culture would be like offering your vacuum cleaner a steak dinner, or putting your washing machine in a bubble bath.
Questions for reflection and comment:
How do you think people reacted as Jesus told these stories?
Do think people understood the warning?
Do you think they thought the warnings were important for their attention immediately?
Do you think people were fearful?
At least in the second parable Jesus says the master would cut the unfaithful servant into pieces… I think that might cause some fear.
Eugene Peterson translates that sentence differently. He says, the master “gives him the thrashing of his life, and put him back in the kitchen peeling potatoes.”
How do you imagine Jesus telling this story?
Does the translation make a difference to what Jesus is trying to teach?
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