JESUS 1: Do not live in fear, little flock. It has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give alms. Make investments that never depreciate; establish inexhaustible accounts for yourselves in the heavens. For wherever your treasure is, there your heart will be, too.
JESUS 2: Be dressed for hard work; keep your lamps burning. Be like people expecting their master to return from the wedding feast, ready to open up for him the moment he comes and knocks. How fortunate are those servants whom the master finds alert when he returns! I assure you, he will put on an apron and seat them at the table, and he will come and serve them. If he comes in the late night or the early morning, how fortunate those servants will be!
JESUS 3: But bear this in mind: if a householder could know just when the thief would break in, the householder would never leave the house to be broken into! You have to be ready the same way, for the Son of Man will come at an hour you don’t expect.
PETER: Lord, are you directing this parable at us, or is it for everyone?
JESUS 1: Consider this: who is the faithful and wise servant whom the master can leave in charge of the household, to keep everyone fed on schedule? How fortunate are those servants when the master finds them doing this! I assure you, that kind of servant will be put in charge of the estate!
JESUS 2: But if a servant imagines, “My master is delayed,” and begins to abuse the other servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk—that servant’s master will come on an unexpected day, at an unknown hour, and that servant will be punished and thrown among the faithless. The servant who knew the master’s wishes but made no preparations to carry them out will receive a severe beating. But the servant who did nothing, unaware of the master’s wishes, will receive only a light beating.
JESUS 3: You see, from those to whom much has been given, much will be required; from those to whom much is committed, how much greater the demand!
Luke 12.32-48
Sunday Readings: Wisdom 18.6-9, Hebrews 11.1-2, 8-19, Luke 12.32-48