“Be
dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 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. 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.” (Luke 12:35-37)
Advent is
a time of mystery, a time of wonder. It can be either disorienting or grounding:
we look forward to the second coming of Christ even as we remember his first
coming. Just when you feel you have a handle on the difference between the two,
Jesus goes and says something like what he said above.
At first,
it appears to us that Jesus is talking about his second coming when he employs
the imagery of a wedding banquet and servants who are admonished to be
watchful.
But the
coming of the Son of Man (an image of majesty and power Jesus employs both
prior to and after this text) is framed in an interesting way here. To
understand what Jesus is saying, we need to keep in mind that as the Son of Man comes...so comes the "kingdom of God" (a precise phrase Luke
employs more than any other Gospel writer).
The
kingdom of God is a mystery because it cannot be found in a precise time and
place per se, but it breaks in to our
time and place. That is why scholars refer to the kingdom of God in terms of
two axes, a vertical axis and a horizontal axis. The vertical axis deals with
the “where” of the kingdom: in heaven or on earth—or both? The horizontal axis
deals with the “when” of the kingdom: the past, present or future—or all three?
Jesus
tells parables about the kingdom because the kingdom of God is a mystery and
parable is the best way to talk about mysterious things. In parable our neatly
defined rational categories are challenged. In this case, for example, we become
aware that reason dictates a forced choice between the three options of the
kingdom’s horizontal axis. But parable invites us to see that…
…what
has happened
is still
happening
and
will happen again.
This text
is a case in point. Jesus might be talking about his second coming in this story
but he might also be talking about what was happening and what would soon happen
in his first advent.
The people
who were listening are admonished by Jesus through this story to
be watchful or they would miss the arrival of the Son of Man (who was, to be
sure, already in their midst). Jesus tells the listeners that those servants who
are alert and perceive his coming will be in for a surprise: the master will
serve the servants. He will become a servant of servants.
The image
of servant was a potent image for the people of Israel in Jesus’ day. It called
forth the great section of Isaiah (chapters 40-55) where the prophet describes
a “servant” who will do what God wants, restoring peace and justice in the
world. Isaiah 42:1-4 is a classic text portraying the Servant:
“Here is my servant, whom I
uphold,
my chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
and he will bring justice to the nations.
He will not shout or cry
out,
or raise his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not
break,
and a smoldering wick he will not snuff
out.
In faithfulness he will
bring forth justice;
he will not falter or be discouraged
till he establishes justice
on earth.
In his teaching the islands will put their
hope.”
Though God
speaks through the prophet about the Servant as a specific person, in this
section of Scripture (chapters 40-55) he also refers to Israel collectively in this
vein:
“You are my witnesses,”
declares the Lord,
“and my servant whom I have chosen,
so that you may know and
believe me
and understand that I am he.” (Isaiah
43:10)
It is
likely that in Jesus’ time, the Jewish people thought of themselves as the Isaianic
Servant so when Jesus gives them this image of a master who becomes a servant
of servants he really messes with their minds. He both confirms their
understanding of the Servant and completely overhauls it.
In doing
so, he shows how God will go about restoring peace and justice, how the kingdom
of God will break in: through a God who serves…in order to teach the servants
how to serve.
This is
also a powerful image not just for the Jewish people but for Gentiles as well. Biblical
scholar Andrew Clark notes: “The early Roman Empire continued to operate a
long-established, pervasive and legally codified slave economy in which all
human beings were classed either as slaves, or former slaves, or freeborn.”[i]
He points out that the terms “slave” and “servant” were placed together in some
texts; additionally, he describes three kinds of “servant”: diakonos (meaning “servant, attendant,
agent, intermediary”); pais (meaning “young
person, boy, child, servant, slave”); and hyperetes
(meaning “helper, assistant, servant”).
I mention this
here because society in Jesus’ day was highly stratified along the lines of free-persons and slaves/servants. You
were either a master or slave, a servant or lord—and the
well-being of the world depended on keeping straight who was who (or so they thought).
The
parable of the Prodigal Son references this social order. When the son decides to return
home, he views himself as one who has lost his freedom. He settles in his mind
that it will be better for him to be a hired hand (a servant) in his father’s
house than to continue eking out a meager existence feeding pigs. When he
returns, he is prepared to ask his father to make him a servant, but his father
instead surprises him and throws a banquet for him. The father puts the best
robe on him, a ring on his finger and sandals on his bare feet. He receives him
as a son.
That parable is just as
shocking as this one Luke tells only a few chapters earlier. It is shocking because
it disrupts the mentality of shame and honor that formed the foundation of
society’s social stratification. The audience would have felt through Jesus’
story that the father honors someone who should not be honored. The son should
be ashamed because it is only through his sense of shame and a long period of
servanthood that he can regain his honor.
What Jesus
portrays in the parable of the Prodigal Son and in this parable in Luke 12
disrupts the culture of shame and honor by messing with the societal order of
human relationships. He portrays God as someone who is eager to take away our
shame; he portrays God as someone who is eager to be a servant, to take the
lowest position—to be a servant of servants.
Jesus
fulfilled the past Isaianic prophecy in his lifetime to those who were present
at the time. He shows them that, though Israel is indeed the Servant, so is
God. If God, their master and lord, is a servant then there is no more reason
for us to be lords over one another. He levels the playing field.
In the
parable in Luke 12 he tells us how he will do this: “Truly I tell you, he will
dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and
wait on them.”
Jesus
literally did this at his Last Supper. It is no mistake that Luke includes the
detail in his writing about the Last Supper that they were all reclining at the
table. John’s Gospel also includes the detail about Jesus “wrapping a towel”,
dressing himself as a servant. In Jesus the Son of Man has come—and he waits on
them. His authority derives from his servanthood.
What has
happened (the prophecy in Isaiah) happens (the fulfillment in Christ/Israel),
keeps happening (the present fulfillment today) and will happen (the coming we await).
The advent
of Christ is just as much an event of perception and present participation as it is an event of history. It has
both objective and subjective content. It happens and will happen but the question
Jesus poses to us is: “Does it happen for
you? Will you accept this story? Will you participate in it?”
The “you”
is both personal and collective. It can be viewed as a “we” but I must say that
it is a choice every individual has to make. The kingdom of God is present to
us as One who Serves. It is a kingdom whose economy is ordered by a Servant serving servants and inviting his servants to do the same. It feels more like a party, a feast whose Host and Guests are only servants. The citizenship of God’s kingdom consists of servants whose shame has
been taken away by the Lord Who Serves. This Lord is our Father who is eager to
remove disgrace by his unquenchable love and joy.
In this season
of Advent, as we wait for the second coming of the Lord Jesus, let’s not miss
the invitation he extends to experience his humble first coming anew by faith. I
encourage you, in whatever simple way you know, to just tell him “Thank you for
the gift of love you’ve offered. I receive it gratefully. I place my life in
your hands, Lord.”
[i]
A.D. Clark. “Slave, Servant” in Dictionary
of Jesus and the Gospels, ed. Joel B. Green, et. al (Downers Grove: IVP
Academic, 2013), 869.
No comments:
Post a Comment