What The Attitude Of His Disciples Should Be (12:35-40).
The parable that follows confirms that Jesus will have been previously laying out the background to them (we know so little of the much that He taught them). He had certainly told them that He would die, and rise again (Luke 9:22; Luke 9:31; Luke 9:44; Luke 12:8 assumes it), and as Mark makes clear it was a lesson repeated a number of times (Mark 8:31; Mark 9:12; Mark 9:31; Mark 10:45. Note how the verbs demonstrate that it was constant teaching). And we need not doubt that He had equally constantly repeated to them that He would return again (Luke 9:26). Furthermore every parable that He gave, like the one that follows, was a reminder of these facts, for without these facts such parables had a limited meaning.
So they had no real grounds for not appreciating what was to come. And possibly in theory they had taken much of it in. But it was not as something that was going to affect them here and now. For they were innocently complacent, and were totally shocked when it did happen. It was like theology is to all too many. Something to be brought out at religious moments, but not relevant to their daily lives.
Here Jesus seeks to make it relevant. For He portrays a situation when He will have gone away, and urges them that when that happens it will be necessary for them to remember that one day He will return unexpectedly. So these parables, while having individual messages to give, were also another way of bringing home to them the fact of His impending departure. Their aim was to make them continually think in terms of eternity (Luke 12:1-10) and to be ‘straight' in their thinking, free from Satan's attempts to keep the world in distortion and ignorance (Luke 13:10-17). They explained why they should live as he had called on them to do (Luke 12:22-34).
The Parables of the Servants and the Thief, And The Warning Of His Unexpected Coming.
The first parable is about an important man who goes to a friend's wedding feast, leaving his servants at home, so that they can keep all ready for his return. And like all good servants they are to await his return and are not to sleep until he has returned. It is then followed by a parable about a thief who comes when a householder is not expecting it.
Analysis.
a “Let your loins be girded about, and your lamps burning” (Luke 12:35).
b “And be you yourselves like to men looking for their lord, when he shall return from the marriage feast, that, when he comes and knocks, they may open to him straight away” (Luke 12:36).
c “Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he comes will find watching” (Luke 12:37 a).
d “Truly I say to you, that he will gird himself, and make them sit down to food, and will come and serve them” (Luke 12:37 b).
c “And if he shall come in the second watch, and if in the third, and find them so, blessed are those servants” (Luke 12:38).
b “But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what hour the thief was coming, he would have watched, and not have left his house to be broken through” (Luke 12:39).
a “You be also ready, for in an hour that you think not the Son of man comes” (Luke 12:40).
Note that in ‘a' they are to be working hard in readiness, and in the parallel they are to be ready. In ‘b' they should be watching for their lord, and in the parallel the master of the house should have watched for burglars. In ‘c' the servants are blessed if they are found watching, and in the parallel the same applies. In ‘d', and centrally The Lord will reward His faithful servants at Messiah's table.