Restaurant managers know that inspectors from the health department will stop in unannounced to evaluate the condition of their stores. Some have “connections” with the inspectors and are able to get advanced warning the week of their visit. Knowing when the health department will arrive, they mobilize the workers to stay energetic, keep the place spotless, and be ready to welcome the inspectors with smiles on their faces. They celebrate when an “A” rating is posted on the door. If the employees waited until they saw the health department vehicle appear in the parking lot to get down to work, it would be too late.
Jesus knows that a day of evaluation is coming soon. It may be a day when death descends on us unexpectedly, or it may be the day of his final return. Whatever the case he calls us to get down to work and be ready for that day. He knows our tendency to get tired of waiting and become sloppy in our spiritual disciplines. He also knows that the devil keeps whispering in our ears “you have plenty of time.” Just as it is easier for restaurant employees to loaf and tell themselves that the inspector’s visit is weeks away, so it is easier for us to take the path of least resistance and ignore Jesus’ warning. Let’s read what Jesus told his disciples (Luke 12:35-38).
“Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant at his arrival.”
Vigilant! That’s the word Jesus has for each of us. Servants who know their master in on his way do not hang around in their pajamas and slippers, nor do they forget to light their candles. They are dressed with candles in their hands at all times, because as Jesus said, he may come even in the second or third watch of night.
“And should he come in the second or third watch and find them prepared in this way, blessed are those servants.”
It seems to me that we are in the “second or third watch” of history. We become weary of waiting and expecting. We’d prefer to sleep and give up on the belief that Jesus will return. We’d prefer to embrace the denial of the world that scoffs about the thought that Jesus Christ will return someday to this earth in glory.
We followers of Jesus are the blessed one. We have “connections” with the inspectors who remind us to wake up and be ready. God’s Word and the Church call us into God’s office for an important meeting. How privileged we are to know in advance what is going to happen. We are not like those of the world who will be caught off guard. In Matthew’s gospel we listen to the sobering words of Jesus about how ill-prepared people will be for his return.
“For as it was in the days of Noah so will it be at the coming of the Son of Man. In those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and given to marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark.”
People were too busy planning dinner and making final plans for their daughter’s wedding—they didn’t have time to think about the possibility of a flood.
Noah was not called to preach about the impending disaster. No, he was called to stay focused on building an ark. That is the model he gives us for how to stay vigilant, dressed, and ready. He didn’t sit around complaining about the weather, nor did he let himself get discouraged when his project became difficult.
Yes, we live as though Jesus is coming tonight. We devote ourselves to building the portion of the “Ark” that Jesus assigned to us. Rather than look around to see if others are doing their jobs, we apply ourselves diligently to ours as best we can. Though the world may laugh at our message, they will be inspired and won over by the hope we have, the joy that they see in us, and the love we have for one another. Some will be stirred to join us in getting God’s “restaurant” ready for the inspectors.
“Blessed are those servants whom the master find vigilant on his arrival. Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself, have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them” (same passage of Luke).
