Luke 12:36 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Luke 12:36

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Now that window of time was a week or so, maybe a little longer. And the amazing thing in this parable is the possibility that the servants of that wealthy young man really just do whatever they like. They have only got a short time to wait, but in that week or two they neglect their duties. Maybe they throw a party of their own – we can use our imaginations – and do all sorts of things. They get the place utterly messed up, and there is no preparation, no state of readiness. They must be crazy, because this is their livelihood. Everything depends upon being ready for the bridegroom’s return. They have got a very good master, and he will richly reward them for their faithfulness and hard work but they neglect everything. Who are these people? In the culture of those times they would be homeless and penniless without him, and yet they are going to take the risk of behaving as though this wedding is never going to happen, as though the bridegroom is gone and he is never coming back, and they can do whatever they like. The parable is supposed to produce in our minds this reaction: how crazy! How mindless they are! How foolish to throw away their lives in this way, and to invite punishment and disgrace to the bridegroom who pays them and looks after them!

Application

What about us? Well, we have got more than a fortnight. We might have 60 or 70 years, but measured against eternity it is a very short time. What are we doing? Playing on the very brink of catastrophe, this short window of opportunity in this life? We are supposed to be God’s servants. In the parable the bridegroom will return, and God will return to take us into eternity, either when it is time for our lives to end, or when he comes again and ends this world altogether. Whichever is first, he is going to return like the bridegroom, and the question is, will we be ready? Will we have been watching?

What an absurd thing to be born into this world, to have human life with all its powers and capacities, and yet we behave as though the Lord is certainly not going to return. We have these things and we are created beings, heading for eternity, and yet we ignore the one who is our Lord and our Master, and live as if all that we have is ours forever by right. Using the language of the parable we are to watch for him: that is to say, we take seriously issues of eternity. We find out about Christ, and how we need him, and what he can do for us to help us. We watch for him, seek to find him, and to love him when he comes and takes us into eternity.

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Luke 12:36 Commentary and Bible Study