Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary
In today’s Gospel reading, Luke 12:32-40, Jesus continues urging his followers to invest in the coming reign of God, free of material concerns. The text unfolds in three sections. Verses 32-34 warn against being preoccupied with a deluded quest for possessions, imagining that these can offer us lasting security and status. The section opens with the characteristically Lukan phrase, “Do not fear;” it occurs repeatedly in Luke 1 and 2 as angels address Zechariah, Mary, and the shepherds. Jesus names the force that drives our endless, restless materialism: fear. Some of us fear future scarcity. Others fret, lest without certain material possessions, we fail to win others’ respect. The Father has already decided—with joy!—to give us no less than the Kingdom (v 32). Listeners will benefit if we connect these verses with the preceding section, which promises God’s trustworthy provision for all creation (vv 22-31). Ultimately, what we count as our treasure reveals our heart’s deepest loyalties.
In vv 35-40 Jesus shifts our gaze to the eschatological horizon. Two parabolic scenarios characterize active anticipation of the coming reign of God. First (vv 35-38), we are cast in the role of household servants awaiting their master’s return from a wedding banquet. Notably, while the servant/master trope may trouble us, it would not be disturbing for Luke’s late-first century audience. They would readily recognize “being dressed for action” with “lamps lit” as sure signs of expectant readiness for a householder’s return or the arrival of guests. Trimming lamp wicks and replenishing oil was a time consuming but crucial task, especially after dark. Here, Jesus surprises us with an astonishing role reversal: the returning master, finding the servants ready and alert, will “fasten his belt” (robes gathered so as not to inhibit work), seat those servants at the table, and become their servant! The kingdom Jesus represents, and the kingdom we await, is one of radical social reversal.
If presenting the returning master as a servant has not sufficiently shocked us, Jesus appears in vv 39-40 to liken him to a thief. Preachers have taken two paths with this parable. Some treat it as a trope of contrast: if one ought to be alert to the possible arrival of a thief, how much more when the one we await is our Master? Yet, as we shall discover next week in the parable of the shrewd accountant, Luke’s parables are not always so straightforward. Some scholars suggest that the tone here is ironic: the Master will indeed come to part us from the possessions in which we invest so much misplaced trust, giving us instead the treasures of the reign of God. (Blessed thievery, indeed!) Awaiting God’s reign is not passive. Jesus urges us to “lean in” to the coming reign of God. Forsaking the false security of hand-wringing acquisitiveness, we awaken each day ready to recognize and welcome God’s inbreaking reign—not only in a distant future, but in the here-and-now of our ordinary lives.
Insights into Biblical Greek Grammar and Syntax 