Luke 12:35-48 · Devotional
From the series and sermon: The Savior of All — Expectant and Faithful
Have you ever had someone show up at your front door when you were not expecting them? You’re still in your pajamas. The kitchen is a disaster. You crack the door open just enough to say “give me a minute” while you frantically throw things in the closet and wonder if the living room is salvageable. It is an awful, exposed feeling — and nobody enjoys it.
Jesus didn’t want that for His disciples. And He doesn’t want it for us.
In Luke 12, after warning His followers about hypocrisy, greed, and the pull of everyday anxiety, Jesus turned to a theme He would return to again and again throughout His ministry: the call to live ready. Not tensed-up and fearful, but oriented — hearts focused on what matters, hands busy with what He has entrusted to us, eyes lifted with genuine expectation for what is still to come.
“Be dressed for service and keep your lamps burning, as though you are waiting for your master to return from a wedding feast.”— Luke 12:35-36 NLT
He Is Coming Back
Before anything else, Jesus wanted this reality seared into the hearts of His disciples: He was going away — and He was coming back. The night before the Cross, He told them plainly:
“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”— John 14:3
Six weeks later, as Jesus ascended to the Father and the disciples stood staring into the sky, two angels appeared and made sure no one missed the message:
“This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”— Acts 1:11
This is not a minor doctrinal footnote. The return of Jesus is one of the most repeated promises in all of the New Testament. It is the anchor of Christian hope — the assurance that history is not drifting aimlessly but moving toward a definitive, glorious conclusion. Jesus left. Jesus will return. That is not wishful thinking. It is the declared intention of God.
And the fact that we do not know exactly when it will happen was not an oversight. It was intentional. Because the right response to “it could be any moment” is not panic — it is readiness.
The Servants Who Were Ready
Jesus painted a scene His disciples would have visualized immediately. A master leaves his household servants and goes off to a wedding — the kind of celebration that in that culture could go on for days. The servants do not know when he will return. It could be the second watch of the night, around midnight. It could be the third watch, somewhere between midnight and three in the morning. They simply do not know.
The good servants — the ones who understand their role — do not take the absence as an opportunity to relax, change into comfortable clothes, and put out the lamps. They stay dressed. They keep the lamps burning. They remain alert, ready to open the door the moment they hear the knock.
And when the master comes home and finds them waiting? He does something that would have shocked every person listening to this story. He puts on an apron, has them sit down at the table, and serves them dinner. The master becomes the servant. The faithful servants are honored beyond anything they could have earned or expected.
This is a picture of the reward that awaits those who live with genuine, sustained expectancy — not just in a burst of spiritual enthusiasm, but over the long haul, day after day, regardless of how long the master has been gone.
What Expectancy Actually Looks Like
Living expectantly is not about staring at the sky, memorizing end-times charts, or withdrawing from the world to wait. It is a daily orientation of the heart that produces two very practical convictions:
| Conviction | What It Means in Practice |
| Every day matters. | “See then that you walk circumspectly… redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” (Eph. 5:15-16). Time is a stewardship. This day will not come back. |
| The mission is urgent. | “I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work.” (John 9:4). There is a window. It is open now. |
When the return of Jesus is a real and present conviction — not just a theological position we hold at arm’s length — it changes how we use Tuesday afternoon. It changes what we say yes to and what we say no to. It shapes how urgently we pray for the people in our lives who are far from God, how generously we give, how seriously we take the discipleship of the next generation.
Faithful While He Is Away
When Peter heard the parable of the expectant servants, he asked Jesus whether it was intended only for the disciples or for everyone. Jesus answered with another parable — and in doing so, He identified the specific quality that God looks for in those He entrusts with His resources and mission: faithfulness.
He described the kind of household manager a master can rely on — someone faithful and wise enough to care for the rest of the servants, make sure they are fed and provided for, and handle the master’s affairs with integrity while the master is away. When the master returns and finds his household manager doing exactly what he was supposed to be doing, the reward is extraordinary: the master entrusts everything he has to that servant.
“Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.”— Matthew 25:21
But then Jesus showed the other side. A servant who begins to think the master is delayed, who uses the freedom to abuse his authority and indulge his own appetites — that servant is caught completely off guard when the master returns unexpectedly. And the consequences are severe.
This is not a story about earning salvation. It is a story about the seriousness of stewardship. God has entrusted every follower of Jesus with something: gifts, resources, relationships, influence, opportunities to share the Gospel. What we do with what we have been given matters — and one day we will give an account for it.
Greater Privilege, Greater Responsibility
Jesus closed this section with a principle that runs through all of His teaching on stewardship:
“From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.”— Luke 12:48
The servant who knew the master’s will and ignored it faces a harder accounting than the servant who simply didn’t know. And for us — who have the complete Word of God, the indwelling Holy Spirit, the testimony of two thousand years of Church history, and the full message of the Cross and Resurrection — the privilege is extraordinary. And so is the responsibility.
This is not a word meant to burden you. It is a word meant to mobilize you. You have been entrusted with something extraordinary. The Gospel. The mission. The privilege of being a child of God who carries His presence and His message into every room you walk into. Don’t waste it. Don’t let the seeming delay of Jesus’ return lull you into spiritual laziness or distraction.
Peter, who heard this parable firsthand, wrote this near the end of his life — a man who knew something about what it meant to let his guard down at the wrong moment:
“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”— 2 Peter 3:9
The reason Jesus has not yet returned is not forgetfulness or delay. It is grace — extended time for more people to hear the Gospel and respond. Every day He has not yet returned is a day the door is still open. Every day is another opportunity to be found faithful.
Dress for service. Keep the lamp burning. The Master is coming.
✦ Reflect & Respond
- If Jesus returned today, would He find you doing what He has called you to do — or would He catch you unprepared? Not to produce guilt, but to spark honest reflection: is there something you have been putting off that God has been asking you to do?
- “Every day matters.” How would your use of today change if you genuinely believed — deep in your bones, not just as a theological idea — that Jesus could return before it was over?
- What has God specifically entrusted to you — a gift, a relationship, a platform, an opportunity to share the Gospel? Are you being faithful with it? What would “well done, good and faithful servant” look like in your life right now?
Lord Jesus, I confess that I often live as though Your return is a distant idea rather than an imminent reality. Forgive me for the days I have wasted, the opportunities I have let pass, and the mission I have treated as optional. You are coming back. Today I choose to live like I believe that. Keep my heart focused on You, my hands busy with what You have entrusted to me, and my eyes lifted in genuine expectation. Find me faithful. Amen.
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