Reflecting upon past events could be used to examine past mistakes to avoid repeating them in the future. However, I also believe there is benefit in looking prospectively at life to organize present activities in anticipation for things to come. What is to come? The blessed hope of Jesus Christ’s return.
This blog will explore the importance of living prospectively, drawing insight from three parables of Jesus from the Gospel of Luke which emphasize vigilance and unexpected comings: the master returning from a wedding feast, the thief in the night, and the faithful and wise servant.
Jesus first tells a parable about stewards being prepared for the arrival of their master from a wedding feast:
Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants! (Lk. 12:35-38).[1]
Christians are encouraged to be dressed and ready with lamps burning, like those stewards awaiting their master’s from a journey. This illustrates the importance of living with a sense of expectancy and readiness. The “blessed” are awake when the master arrives.
Now the returned master surprisingly changes clothes and begins tending to the servants, which “envisions a reversal of roles that was unheard of in Palestine.”[2] Such a role reversal is unique to Jesus. Unlike the earthly kings who ruled through might and subjugation, the Lord comes as the servant leader. He is not the one to be served, but the one to serve, and give His life as a ransom for many (Mk. 10:45; cf. Matt. 20:28). Thus, in Jesus’ kingdom, it is the servant who is the greatest of all (Matt. 18:1–5; Mark 9:34–37; Luke 9:46–48; 22:25-27.).
Jesus’ second parable concerns the folly of a master who fails to secure the house against the potential thief:
But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. (Lk. 12:39-40)
Had that master realized the clear and present danger of the crafty thief, he would have secured the house. Just as locking the doors and shutting the windows anticipates the potential robber, so too the Christian must keep steady vigilance in anticipation of the unexpected time of the Son of Man’s return. This parable “demonstrates that the disciples cannot predict with certainty when the Son of Man will come; therefore, they must always be ready.”[3]
Peter wonders whether the Lord is speaking directly to the disciples or all those present listening into the talk (Lk. 12:41), but Jesus moves on to the third parable concerning the faithful and wise steward:
Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that servant says to himself, “My master is delayed in coming,” and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more. (Lk. 12:42-48).
The faithful and wise manager in the story implies the disciples are the one being directly addressed but certainly the principle conveyed has significance to all of Christ’s followers.
The steward who manages the household is to be faithful and wise, and not to forsake his duties. Those who are found faithful when the master returns will be rewarded greatly, while the unfaithful will face consequences. The “cutting in pieces” the unfaithful servant would have been “horrifying” to Luke’s audience, yet “the subsequent banishment with unbelievers could mean that he was deprived of decent burial; but in the parable it especially points to the Jewish doctrine of hell (Gehinnom) for idolaters.”[4] The unfaithful servant exemplifies the one who resists and despises the good news of the Christ.
Notice how servants are accountable to what they are entrusted and “all punishment will not be equal because those who are entrusted with more responsibility and knowledge will pay a greater penalty (12:47–48).”[5] Those who irresponsible to the greater light of revelation are punished severely whereas those irresponsible to the lesser light of revelation are punished accordingly. Pagans who take the truth of God from the book of nature and exchange it for a lie, worshipping the creation instead of the Creator, are subject to divine wrath (Rm. 1:18-32). However, Jews entrusted with the special revelation of the Lord, codified in the written revelation of Scripture, who despise and forsake the truth, rejecting the very incarnation of the Son of God, are subject to the more severe punishment (Lk. 11:29-33; Matt. 12:30-32; Heb. 6:1-8; 10:21-31; Jas. 3:1).
Now just what is the future that Luke had in mind? In the Hebrew Scriptures, the prophet Daniel saw a vision of the Ancient of Days being seated to judge the nations on behalf of the saints of the Most High (Dan.7:9-10). Coinciding with the judgment is the Son of Man being enthroned in glory (Dan. 7:13-14).
Other Old Testament writers similarly anticipated a final judgment. Psalm 1 declares, “The wicked will not stand in the judgment, | nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous” (Psa. 1:5). Solomon the Preacher said, “God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work” and “God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil” (Eccl. 3:17, 12:14). Even the young man is admonished, “Rejoice… in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment” (Eccl. 11:9).
Resurrection from the dead was also anticipated among Old Testament writers. Daniel wrote that “many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan. 12:2). Isaiah, likewise, pronounced “Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. | You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! | For your dew is a dew of light, | and the earth will give birth to the dead (Isa. 26:19). Moreover, Job declared, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, | and at the last he will stand upon the earth. | And after my skin has been thus destroyed, | yet in my flesh I shall see God, | whom I shall see for myself, |and my eyes shall behold, and not another” (Job. 19:25-27).
Luke wants readers to know that Jesus of Nazareth is without a doubt the Son of Man, and that the messianic vocation of the Son of Man involves His own crucifixion and resurrection (Lk. 9:22). Luke is also aware that Jesus ascended to heaven and will return (Acts 1:9-11). But the duration of the time between the ascension and return remains unknown. In due time, however, Christ will appear again, and the resurrection and final judgment will take place. Christians are then to remain vigilant, and keep the faith in this time between the ascension and return. To get this point across, Luke recalls the three parables on unexpected comings.
Jesus thus affirms the final judgment when all will give an account for their stewardship. The parables of the stewards awaiting the master’s return, the master securing the house against thieves, and the faithful and wise steward prepare us to live prospectively. Put it another way: “The nature of the future helps to determine present priorities” and “Faith means trusting God, not only or the present but also for the future, by walking faithfully with him until he returns. What God will do affects what we do.”[6]
Living prospectively is never about drawing up some kind of end time chart that outlines a countdown to Armageddon and going around shouting “THE END IS NIGH.” It is fool’s errand to spend time formulating end time charts with arrows pointing up and down alongside proof texts and newspaper clippings in attempts of calculating the date and/or season of the return. Such attempts have proven to be wrong 100% of the time. I think it is foolish to make any predictions about Jesus’ return based upon the present Russian invasion of the Ukraine and the Israel war with Hamas. Scriptures never give us a sign to signify that countdown to Armageddon has begun, but Christians are only told to always be ready.[7] We ought to avoid doing this at all cost.
But I am saying is that what we do today really matters, since Christ will appear again a second time to judge the living and the dead.
Living prospectively in the light of Christ’s return calls for the maintaining a strong moral compass, working towards personal spiritual growth, and guarding against the distractions and temptations that divert our focus away from Christ. We thus participate in the life of the community of Christ, gathering to worship the one true Triune God of the universe in spirit and truth. We consecrate our lives, putting off former sinful ways, and putting on the new life characteristic of the chosen, holy, and beloved of God. We commune with God through reading Scriptures, daily prayers, and feasting and fasting. We secure the house of the Lord from the thieves who would steal away the pure faith from the community of Christ. The Devil is most certainly out to rob us of the pure faith we possess. Finally, we find our greatness in serving one another, showing compassion to the hungry, thirsty, sick, and imprisoned, for Christ has solidarity with the least and lowly of the world, and kindness done to them is a kindness done to Him (Matt. 25:31-46).
“…He will come to judge both the living and the dead…” (Creed of Nicaea, AD 325)
— WGN
Notes:
[1] All Scripture cited from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), unless noted.
[2] Thomas R. Schreiner, The Baker Illustrated Bible Commentary, ed. Gary M. Burge and Andrew E. Hill (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2012), 1087.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), Lk 12:46.
[5] Schreiner, 1087.
[6] Darrell L. Bock, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series: Luke, vol. 3, ed. Grant R. Osborne (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994), 230.
[7] For further reading on the folly of making end time predictions, I recommend: Hank Hanegraaff, The Apocalypse Code: Find Out What the Bible Really Says About the End Times…And Why It Matters Today (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2007) and Richard Abanes, End-Time Visions: The Dooms Day Obsession (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1998).
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