NEED FOR WATCHFULNESS (MT 24:42-51)
Prayer:
O Jesus, I will watch for your return.
Imagination:
Picture Jesus in the Jerusalem Temple with his disciples.
Context:
This text contains two parables. The first likens God to a thief who breaks in at an unexpected time. The second is a servant. He can be faithful to his work or he can get drunk because the master delays his return.
Gospel text: (Read slowly, possibly aloud)
Jesus said to his disciples, “Stay awake because you do not know the hour in which the Lord will return. Know this. If the owner of the house knew at what hour the thief would come, he would certainly watch and not allow his house to be broken into. In the same way, you must be ready, for you do not know when the Son of Man will come.
Who is the faithful, far-sighted servant whom the Lord will appoint over his family to give them food at the right time? Blessed is that servant whom the Lord shall find at work when he returns. “Amen”, I say to you, “he will place him over all his property.
But if the evil servant says in his heart, “My master is delayed in coming”, and begins to beat his fellow servants and eat and get drunk, the master of that servant shall return on a day when he is not ready and when he least expects him. The master will punish him severely and assign him a place with the hypocrites where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Thoughts: (Read all. Ponder the ones that attract you.)
- We do not know when Jesus will return for us. Time is very uncertain.
- The disciple must always watch and pray.
- One servant faithfully serves the meals. The other gets drunk.
- For both, Jesus will come, to reward the first and to punish the second.
- The faithful servant will be exalted and placed over the whole household.
- The other will be totally cast outside, always lamenting the position that he lost.
Affections. (When one touches your heart, use your own words.)
- O Jesus, I will watch faithfully.
- For you, I will stay awake.
- You come like a thief in the night. I will catch you and you will be mine forever.
- I will not count the hours of service. I will not think “My master delays”.
- If I had to serve you for 1,000 years, it would be as one day.
- O Jesus, never let me be separated from you, or cast out of the Father’s house.
Resolutions: (Possibly you might want to make your own.)
+ I will be faithful to my daily devotions.
+ Today, I will do the works intended by my heavenly Father.
Thought for the Day: (To recall your meditation.)
You must be ready, because you do not know when the Son of Man will come.