LUKE 12: 35-40
35 Gird up your loins, and light your lamps; 36 And you turn back like men waiting for their lord to come back from the wedding, so when he comes and knocks, they immediately open it. 37 Blessed is the servant who awakens when his master returns. I really tell you that he gets attached and lets them sit at the table to serve them. 38 And even if it’s the second watch, and even if it’s the third watch, if I find them like this, these servants are blessed. 39 But know this, that if the owner of the house had known what time the thief would come, he would certainly look and not let his house be mined. 40 Therefore you are ready, because when you do not think about it, the Son of Man will come.
REFLECTION:
This parable is related to the faithful and unfaithful servant (Luke 12: 41-48) through the question that Peter asks in verse 41 “Then Peter said to him: ‘Lord, are you telling this parable to us or to all of us? ”. It is unique to Luke, although some commentators think it parallels the parable of the owner of the house in Mark 13: 33-37, the details are not identical, but the central theme of the two parables is.
Its central theme is the preparation as disciples for the return from heaven of our Lord Jesus Christ. This means that Jesus’ call to his disciples is not to lower their guard, to be alert and more so when we are in a world that constantly tries to seduce Christians into turning back and subjecting them to slavery again.
In vs. 35-36 tells us that when the loins are surrounded and the lights are turned on when the lord of the house who is at the wedding arrives, the door opens immediately, it is a sign of being prepared with our tight clothes and ready as for a way to receive our Lord and the lighted lamps, denoting the need for preparation for initiation and obedience and bearing the fruit that God wants, as well as the lighted lamps for the sensitive virgins in the parable of the ten virgins, were prepared, not sleeping, nor distracted, but with the lamp and enough oil (for further expansion you can read the parable of the ten virgins Matthew 25: 1-13).
In v. 37 His servants are called blessed, if you find them watching when their master comes in the same way, all the servants who are in vigilance and fidelity, do what our Lord sent us to do, that is, to give their fruits. and confess the gospel of the kingdom, faithful to the Lord, without fornication with other gods; that God can be the love of money, because it turns into idolatry (Colossians 3: 5). And it is said that the Lord will fasten his belt and we will sit at the table and serve. We must not confuse this, but understand it in the spiritual realm. Yes, the Lord Jesus Christ did it with the apostles described in John 13: 1-20, but we see specifically in John 13: 15-17 “For I have set an example for you, as I have done for you, do so. Truly, truly, I tell you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is the one sent greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you will be blessed if you do.
In v. 38 The word is repeated, blessed are the servants who, although they come in the second or third watch, find them like this. The Jews divide the night into three bells, and possibly it comes in the second, because the wedding still took place during the first.
In the V. 39 says that we must be prepared, just like the father of a family who does not know what time of night a thief would come, then he would watch. In the same way, we do not know the day or time, but we are urged to constantly monitor.
In the V. 40 the central theme is “be prepared”, this exhortation is found in several places, we are always warned to look, so that we do not find ourselves asleep or distracted, as we find in Matthew 24:36 “But of the day and hour nobody knows , not even the angels of heaven, but only my Father “, even in Luke 21: 34-35” See also for yourselves that your hearts are not full of gluttony and drunkenness and the anguish of this life and suddenly that day will come upon because it will come as a snare on all who dwell in all the earth “and in another quote in 2 Peter 3:10” But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; it will be destroyed, and the earth and the works that there will be burned. ”It is a very direct and sincere call not to neglect this great salvation,