Luke 12:22-48

22 Then Jesus said to his disciples: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. 23 Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. 24 Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! 25 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? 26 Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
27 "Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 28 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! 29 And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. 30 For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.
32 "Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
35 "Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 36 like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. 37 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. 38 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak. 39 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him."
41 Peter asked, "Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?"
42 The Lord answered, "Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? 43 It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. 44 Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 45 But suppose the servant says to himself, 'My master is taking a long time in coming,' and he then begins to beat the other servants, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk. 46 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers.
47 "The servant who knows the master's will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. 48 But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. “

Points of Interest:

• ‘Therefore I tell you’—this teaching follows directly on yesterday’s. Seeing as the amazingly successful businessman from Jesus’ story yesterday couldn’t guarantee happiness for himself, what should we do? Work as hard as we possibly can, because that’s the only way we’ll have any chance? Give up, because we have no hope? The lesson Jesus draws from the story is that we shouldn’t allow ourselves to get preoccupied with the question of whether or not we will have enough. The best thing we can do is not worry. In this passage, Jesus assembles a very impressive list of good reasons not to worry:

• Life is more than food’—if all we do is live to work and work to live, we’re not really getting anything out of life. Even for those of us who are not actually wondering where our next meal will come from, it’s easy to slip into survival mode, when the biggest goal for our week is just getting through it. Jesus is saying, ‘What’s the point of a life lived that way?’ Our sights need to be set higher, or life’s not worth living.

• ‘they have no storeroom or barn’—in contrast to the rich fool from the story Jesus told yesterday, the ravens don’t save up for the future, but they seem to get along just fine. Worrying isn’t necessary.

• ‘Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?’—worrying does no good. We might feel as if, by worrying, we are taking our problems seriously; but actually, we’re doing no practical good.

• ‘not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these’—this is humbling. Solomon, the most fabulously wealthy man they could imagine, was not quite able to match the splendor of a flower. He’d lose in a beauty contest with grass. Even huge success with maximum effort doesn’t get us very far.

• ‘your Father knows that you need them’—we have a rich and powerful father who wants to give us good gifts. There’s no need for us to worry. Do trust fund kids worry about whether they’ll have enough clothes or enough food to eat? Our father will take care of us.

• ‘seek his kingdom’—we have more important things to pay attention to than mere survival. It’s God’s strong rooting interest, not just to take care of our basic needs, but to give us his abundant and joyful kingdom. We can be so confident about this that, not only do we not need to worry, but we can afford to give to others freely.

• ‘where your treasure is, there your heart will be also’—our heart follows our treasure, rather than our treasure following our heart. Someone recently suggested to me a pretty compelling way to interpret this verse: you can tell where your heart is by looking at what you spend your money on. That has the ring of truth to me—and it’s very challenging.

• ‘like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet’—while the master is out partying, the servants stay at home to make sure that the lights are on and the fire is warm for the master when he returns.

• ‘he will dress himself to serve’—this is a strange turn of events. The master wants the servants to stay up and alert not so that they can serve him when he returns, but so that he can serve them. He puts on his butler uniform and throws them a little party. If they don’t stay awake, they’ll miss out.

• ‘at what hour the thief was coming’—a sudden change of metaphor. This image of the thief in the night reminds me of Jesus’ analogy from Monday of overcoming the strong man to plunder his house. Jesus changes scene: in one scene, he is the master of the house and we are the servants; in the other, the devil is the owner of the house, and Jesus is the thief. The very same event—Jesus’ coming—is looked at very differently, depending on your perspective. For those who are faithfully waiting (like Simeon and Anna from earlier in our story), Jesus’ coming is the wonderful return of a generous master bearing gifts. For the greedy and the oppressive, of whom the devil himself is the leader and primary example, it’s a catastrophe.
Jesus has yet to explain exactly what he’s referring to when he talks of his coming: hasn’t he already come? Or is there some future arrival? Is he referring to both simultaneously? In the context of this particular teaching, it seems like one thing we can learn is that God’s provision for people who seek his kingdom will come at an unexpected time in unexpected ways. Those who wait well and are on the lookout for it will be amply rewarded. Those who get tired of waiting and try to meet their needs by taking advantage of other people . . . well, it will be a bit awkward for them when God’s help arrives.

• ‘From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded’—this is the answer to Peter’s question. Peter asks, ‘Are you talking to us, or to everyone?’ and Jesus answers, ‘Yes.’ This is a truth that applies to everyone, but to differing degrees, depending on how well you know the master and what he expects.

Taking it home:

• For you and your family: Let’s say for a minute that what we spend money on indicates where our heart will be. If that were the case, what would your recent purchases tell you about your heart? Does it feel true that you’ve invested some of your heart in the things you’ve recently bought? If so (and it may not be), how do you feel about that? Where would you like your heart to be? How could you use money to help point your heart in that direction?

• For your friends: Pray that Jesus would free your friends from the power of worry.

• For our city: Pray that Jesus’ coming would be good news to our city. Pray that when he offers gifts to our city, we would be ready and on the lookout to accept those gifts. Pray that we would not miss one opportunity to experience God’s excellent service.