The Life of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels
WATCHFULNESS
The Life of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels
WATCHFULNESS
Lesson Plan:
1. Watch for the Coming of Our Lord (vs 35-38)
2. Watch Against Enemy Attacks (vs 39, 40)
3. Watch by Doing Our Duty (vs 41-44)
4. Failing to Watch (vs 45-48)
Lesson Setting:
Time: Probably January, A.D. 30, two or three months before the crucifixion.
Place: Still in Perea beyond Jordan, following closely the last lesson. In the same summary of
Jesus' teaching.
Research Thoughts: What is it to watch? In what three directions do we need to watch? The scene of the return home. The robbery scene. The scene of the two servants. Beaten with many stripes, or with few.
Scripture Reading: Luke 12:35-38
1. Watch for the Coming of Our Lord
v 35 ... "Let your loins be girded about." "The long garments of the East are a fatal hindrance to activity" (Int. Crit. Com.). Hence, they must be taken up and fastened under the girdle, for walking or other activities.
v 35 ... "and your lights (lamps) burning," "for the reception of the Master expected to return during the night" (Exp. Gk. Test.). Thus the servant is ready for action, prepared for whatever duty is required of him, at a moment's notice. For the Master is coming in dark times, and we cannot tell when. The very uncertainty of the time is an incentive to be always ready.
v 36 ... "And ye yourselves like unto men that wait (are looking for) their Lord," who is returning from the marriage feast as in the Parable of the Ten Virgins, in Matthew 25.
v 37 ... "Blessed are those servants (found) watching," wide awake, alert, on guard as the lookout on a ship, or a sentry near the enemy. They have the great felicity of heroic patience, victory over temptation to negligence and ease, a clear conscience, the joy of duty done. But more than this, for he will ... "make them to sit down to meat," "and help them to portions of the marriage feast he has brought home with him" (Expositors Greek Testament). He treats them as friends and guests, and does for them just what they were employed to do for him. This is just what Jesus our Lord does for His faithful disciples. He serves them and their interests as they served Him. He feeds their souls with the same heavenly food He Himself enjoys.
v 38 ... "the second ... or ... third watch." The first watch from 6 to 9 in the evening when there would be little temptation to sleep. The second watch was from 9 to midnight, and the third from 12 to 3 in the early morning. They were to be always watching, early or late.
The coming of the Lord: After His death and resurrection, and as He ascended back to His Father in heaven, Jesus promised to return again. His 2nd coming will be sudden, at last revealing the true meaning of forever and eternity.
Watching: The word watching expresses not a mere act, but a state of wakefulness and watching. What Jesus enjoins is not curiosity, straining to be the first to see the returning Master, but the wakefulness and diligence that overlooks no duty, indulges no indolence. We watch by serving the Lord as faithfully as if He were ever looking upon us. We watch by being on our guard against every temptation and danger. Watchfulness is the opposition of careless security; it is a state of readiness. They were to be awake to every duty, to every opportunity to serve their Master and His cause, opening doors to new and wider fields of labor. They were to watch for the coming of their Lord, in whatever form or method.
Scripture Reading: Luke 12:39, 40
2. Watch Against Enemy Attacks
Jesus now pictures a scene which was not uncommon in Palestine in His day.
v 39 ... "if the goodman." The master, the owner.
v 39 ... "had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched." "In the East, which knows not the happy and secure municipal arrangements of Western lands, everyone must be his own policeman. The State punishes, but leaves the prevention and detection of theft and robbery to the individual interested. Hence the watchman is a necessary and important personage everywhere" (Tristram).
v 39 ... "and not have suffered." Permitted. He took the ordinary precautions of bars and bolts. But he should have done more.
v 39 ... "to be broken through." Literally to-be-dug-through, a graphic word, appropriately describing the action required to get into a house whose walls consisted mostly of mud, common in Palestine. Therefore, digging under the walls was the easiest and most noiseless way for a robber to gain entrance.
v 40 ... "the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not." The hour of His coming was kept secret, because from its very nature it was impossible at the time to mark the day or the hour. Nearly all great eras are of this nature. No one living at the time of Christ's coming could have marked the day or year by a study of the events around Him. It was centuries before dates were counted from His birth. No one can tell by experience and observation of the weather when winter ends and spring begins, or when summer ends and winter begins. An astronomer can tell by the heavens, but he cannot make us recognize it in the passing days. God knows times and seasons, but no man can tell when the great moral epochs begin and end. They come without observation. Who can tell the day and the hour of the era of freedom, or of modern civilization, or of the dark ages, or the reformation, or any other great moral change?
Scripture Reading: Luke 12:41-44
3. Watch by Doing Our Duty
v 41 ... "Then Peter said." He wished to know if this great duty belonged only to the leaders, or to all; and could all, or only the apostles, have the glorious promise of verse 37? In other words, how wide was the duty and the reward?
v 42 ... "And the Lord said." Applying the duty and promise to all, as in Mark 13:37.
v 42 ... "Who then is that faithful and wise servant?" Faithful and wise – wise not only in stewardship, but as a man. Our Lord here puts honor on those who serve Him, by comparing them not to menial or ordinary slaves, but to the intelligent, faithful, and trusted head slave of the household, like Joseph in Potiphar's house.
v 42 ... "shall make ruler over his household." While he himself went abroad. This power was conferred because of previous faithfulness and ability – referring to the apostles, preachers, teachers, shepherds; to all Christians in the household of God.
v 42 ... "to give them their portion of meat." "A measured portion of food, a ration ... These rations on Roman estates were served out daily, weekly, or monthly" (Int. Crit. Com.). Here the wisdom of the child of God comes in, distinguished from faithfulness. Talent, wealth and power are never given to men only for personal use, but for the purpose of ministering to others. The most ordinary of Christians are stewards of God, and are wise only when making the best use of time, talents, money, opportunities, knowledge of the gospel, their prayers, their experience of God's goodness and love. This is the way to watch. The faithful performance of duty trains us to watch all the time; keeping us alert, always about our Master's business, with no time or inclination to do otherwise. A Christian's mind is set on other things. This is the true way for a Christian to wait for the good time coming, when we all shall be changed into a spiritual form to meet Jesus.
The Reward: "Blessed" (v 40). He possesses all the beatitudes. In the first Psalm the word for "blessed" is plural. "Oh the blessednesses," blest in many ways, from many sources.
v 44 ... "will make him ruler over all that he hath," over all and every kind of his property, and not simply over his body of domestics (compare Matt. 25:21; Lk. 19:17, 26). That promotion shall not be like earthly promotion, wherein the eminence of one excludes that of another, but rather like the diffusion of love in which the more each has the more there is for all. So each saint owns all of God's possessions, even now (1 Cor. 3:21, 22). The greatest reward is more of the same kind of work; greater success, i.e., more souls redeemed to help others.
Scripture Reading: Luke 12:45-48
4. Failing to Watch
v 45 ... "servant say in his heart (not openly, but in desire and purpose), My lord delayeth," so that it seems safe for him to neglect his master's interests and serve his own, with plenty of time to change before his master comes.
v 45 ... "and ... begin to beat the menservants." Not only neglecting their interests, but actually abusing them in the spirit of a petty tyrant. The fruitful servants were abused because they were faithful, often the case when the spiritually unfaithful do wrong.
v 45 ... "and to be drunken." Carousing at his master's expense, instead of keeping the household in order exercising a prudent economy.
v 46 ... "The lord ... will come." Not expecting his coming will not prevent his coming.
v 46 ... "in a day when he looked not for him." He was looking elsewhere; his interest absorbed in other things.
v 46 ... "cut him in sunder." Swiftly executing him, the usual method in those days.
v 46 ... "appoint him his portion with the unbelievers" (the unfaithful), those guilty of gross abuse of their trusts, whose portion is a "weeping and gnashing of teeth." Would you agree that many an unfaithful man knows what hell is, long before he dies? Isn't this a general principle of life? Isn't the unfaithful clerk, or workman, or capitalist, or business man, on the certain road to ruin? Isn't it true that a person who stays on that road to ruin will get there sooner or later, unless he changes his life?
v 47 ... "And that servant, which knew ..." Verses 47 and 48 state a general principle, which serves to explain the severity of the punishment spoken of in verse 46. Its severity will vary according to the measure of light against which sin has been committed.
v 48 ... "to whomsoever much is given ..." Education, wealth, training, talent, high position, do not excuse those who yield to sin, but they shall be ... "beaten with many stripes." Even disgrace, prison and the pains of conscience fall more heavily on them.
