Christians, Be Ready!

10 August 2025  Luke 12:32-48

“Gird your loins and light your lamps….” Luke 12:35

Loins girded, lamps lit, people vigilant. No Jew would miss the significance of these words.

This is the Passover, the beginning of the Exodus (see Exodus 12:1-28).

The meaning is clear. Christians are to regard ourselves in light of the Resurrection as the Jews regard themselves in light of the Exodus. As the Exodus is the formative event of the Jewish people, so also Jesus is the event that forms us as a people. Jesus is the event that tells us who we are, why we are, where we are going, and what we are supposed to do. Apart from Jesus our lives are directionless and without meaning.

“Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes” (Luke 12:37). No Jew would miss the significance of those words. Every Jew in Jesus’ day knew what vigilance meant. Every Jew knew that the Law as they knew it began to be formed mostly after the Passover and the Exodus, and vigilance meant the Law. Vigilance meant following the Law, to the letter. Vigilance meant being the people who were odd because of the Law. The meaning is clear. Christians are to be the people who are odd because of Jesus. Christians are to be the people who have saints on their calendars and beads in their pockets. Christians are to be the people who have Bibles on their coffee tables instead of coasters, and who never make plans for Sundays that don’t include Mass. Christians are to be the people who know the truth that makes them odd even while it makes them free.

“If He comes in the second watch or in the third, and finds them so [i.e. vigilant], blessed are those servants” (Luke 12:38). No Jew would miss the significance of those words. The second and third watches were at the darkest time of the night – 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. The Passover, and the ensuing Exodus, happened at night. They ate unleavened bread because they couldn’t take the time for the bread to rise; they had to hurry. To this day, Jews believe that the Messiah will come at night, during the Passover meal. Christians are to be ready, too – every moment of every day – for the return of Jesus. “Who, then, is the faithful and wise steward, whom his Master will set over His household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his Master, when he comes, will find so doing” (Luke 12:42-43). Christians are to be the people who find a way to talk about Jesus, who are ready all the time to talk about Jesus, who anticipate the kinds of questions that people ask about Jesus, who live in such a way that people ask questions.

“Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Luke 12:34). No Jew would miss the significance of those words. The oldest prayer in the Bible is the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-9): “Hear, O Israel: Ther Lord your God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall speak of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be an emblem between your eyes. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house, and on the gates of your cities.” The great treasure of every Jew is to think on the Word of God every hour, every day, everywhere. It is the same for every Christian.

Loins girded, lamps lit, people vigilant. No Christian should miss the significance of these words.