Watchful Slaves

The gospel reading today calls us to be ALERT to the Lord’s coming and his presence. It is a call to be FAITHFUL, to be found ATTENTIVE to the Lord, whenever the Lord comes and knocks. We often think of the Lord coming at the end of our lives, but it’s not so the Lord comes and knocks on the door of our lives every day. In the book of Revelation the risen Lord says, ‘Behold I stand at the door and knock’. The Lord comes to us in and through the people and events that make up our day. If we are attentive and alert to the Lord’s daily coming, we will also be alert to his coming to us at the end of our lives.

Next we read the unusual image and an extraordinary reversal of roles in the gospel reading. The Lord who finds his servants faithfully watching and waiting becomes their servant, putting an apron on himself, sitting his servants down at table and serving them. This would have been unheard of in Jesus’ time for a master to behave like a servant towards his servants, treating them effectively as if they were the master.

Thus Jesus is promising that if we are faithful to him, if we are attentive to the various ways that he comes and knocks on the door of our lives, if we keep the flame of faith alive in our hearts no matter what the hardships and suffering we are going through, he will serve us in ways that will amaze us. In giving to the Lord, we will receive from him in greater abundance.

The servants here did not forget their master simply because he was away for a time. They kept him in mind; they were as mindful of him as if he were physically present. In return they experienced his unconventional generosity.

So like always the Words of Jesus is not something outdated or irrelevant to our times, but his promise stands firm for us even today that if we keep the Lord in mind in all we say and do, even during those times when he seems remote from us, we too will know his loving service for he always stands ready to serve us, now and at the end of our earthly journey. What he asks of us is that we would be his faithful servants in our ordinary daily tasks. If we are, he will serve us in ways that far exceed how we serve him.