Luke 12:35-48

Exhortation to vigilance. The greater part of it appears also (and most appropriately) in Matthew 24. The apostles and other ministers of the word are chiefly addressed, though there is a lesson for all (Luke 12:41.). The question of Peter (Luke 12:41) is peculiar to Lk.

35, 36. A little parable peculiar to Luke, warning the apostles to be ready for Christ's second coming, which will be sudden. The apostles are compared to slaves left to watch the house (the Church) while the master (Christ) goes to a wedding feast (i. e. ascends into heaven). Their loins are girded because they have housework to do (preaching the gospel and ruling the Church), and they have lighted lamps, because their task is to enlighten a dark and sinful world by their shining example. Christ's return from the marriage feast is His Second Advent, or it may mean His judgment of each individual soul at death. The 'marriage feast' here is not the final joy of the blessed, as in the. parable of the Ten Virgins, but Christ's session at the right hand of God between the Ascension and Second Advent.

The parable, though primarily intended for the rulers of the Church, is applicable to all Christians, for all have received some kind of commission from Christ.

37, 38. See on Matthew 24:46. These vv. continue the parable. Those whom Christ shall find watching at His Second Coming, He will invite to share in the final feast (the joy of heaven); when He Himself will serve them, supplying them with all blessedness, and wiping away all tears from their eyes. The second and third watches are the second and third of the Roman four watches (Matthew 14:25). They thus represent the dead of night, and by metaphor the unexpectedness of the Second Advent. The Jews reckoned only three night watches.

39, 40. See on Matthew 24:43; Another parable in which, by a curious inversion, the goodman (master) of the house means the apostles, and the thief Christ. Christ is so called from the secrecy and unexpectedness of His coming.