Get Ready, Get Ready, Get Ready

September 4, 2022

Luke 12:35-48

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.

Read Luke 12:35-40

1. In your own words, what is Jesus saying in this passage?
2. These verses speak quite a bit about being ready. What does ‘readiness’ look like for us in this day and in this world?
3. Verse 37 paints a picture of a master serving waiting on his own servants. Where else do we see this in scripture?

Read Luke 12:41

1. Why do you think Peter asked this question?

Read Luke 12:42-46

1. Did you notice that the manager/steward described as wise and faithful at the beginning of this passage actually becomes the faithless servant later on in the story? Same guy! What does this suggest about our capacity to wander back and forth between faithfulness and foolishness?
2. From this passage, what causes the servant to begin the slide from faithful to faithless? What does that suggest about what can be done to prevent such a slide?

Read Luke 12:47-48

1. These verses examine the punishment given to servants who failed to follow the master’s instructions. It appears that not knowing what those instructions are would decrease (but not eliminate) the punishment. What does this suggest about people who may not know the specifics of how God asks His people to live? Does this seem fair to you? Why or why not?
2. Do you consider yourself someone who knows what Jesus’ instructions are? Or someone is doesn’t really know His instructions very well?
3. Discuss the idea of accountability as described in the final part of verse 48.