Sixth Sunday of Eastertide – May 25, 2025

 

Introduction

  • Luke 12:31: “Seek first his kingdom.” What does that mean practically?
  • Today, we will look at Luke 12:35-59: How to live in daily anticipation of his return.
  • Note the connection between last week’s text and this week’s.

 

Text of Luke 12:35-59 with comments

“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.

  • Combines three ANE pictures: 1.) Be “dressed ready for service” – lit. “have your loins girded”; long robes tucked into belt (Passover:), 2.) Lamps burning – prepared to receive master, 3.) “wedding banquet” – could last 1-2 weeks.
  • Main point: be watching for him: 1 Cor 3:10-15; 4:1-5; 1 Tim 4:12-16; 2 Ptr 2:1-2,13.

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.”

  • “It will be good” – lit. “blessed are those.” Happy, prosperous. Why?
  • “he will dress himself to serve” – Jesus will wait on them! (cf. Rev 19:1-8; Isa 25:6).

41 Peter asked, “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?” 42 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? 43 It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. 44 Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 45 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. 46 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.

47 “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. 48 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.

  • “to us” – the twelve (or the seventy)? Or to all disciples? Answer: to all. Now, he’s going to give a specific teaching to Christian leaders:
  • What think language: “beaten,” “demanded?” Does God have the right to treat us this way? We have domesticated God. Want to make in our image.
  • Main point: with greater knowledge comes greater accountability. Four classes: 1) Defiant, 2) Willful, 3) Ignorant, and 4) “Faithful and wise” (cf., Num 15:22-31).

49 “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 But I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed! 51 Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. 52 From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. 53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

  • “come to bring fire” – judgment (Isa 4:4; Mal 3:2; 1 Cor 3:10-15). He wants it now!
  • “baptism” – inundation, overwhelming experience. Also, a period of waiting.
  • “peace” vs. “division” – Jesus came to wage cosmic war and we must all choose sides now. There is no neutral ground, and the stakes are sky high.

54 He said to the crowd: “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘It’s going to rain,’ and it does. 55 And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It’s going to be hot,’ and it is. 56 Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time?

  • “west…south” – moist air off Mediterranean; sirocco from Arabian peninsula.
  • “this present time” – this time of decision to repent and obey their Messiah!

57 “Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right? 58 As you are going with your adversary to the magistrate, try hard to be reconciled on the way, or your adversary may drag you off to the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. 59 I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.”

  • Sound advice regarding human relationships (Mt 5:25-26). But especially true in human-divine relationships: be reconciled to God, repent, be clean (Jas 4:7-10).

 

Are you ready for Jesus’ return?

Are you “watchful?” Do you live with the sense that he could come any moment? If not, what areas of your life that need to be put in order so you can be ready? Invite the Lord to search your heart and do what he tells you to do.