Always Remain Watchful Series

This evening’s message is entitled “Always Remain Watchful,” and it’s taken from two short parables commonly called “The Parable of the Faithful and Evil Servant” and “The Parable of the Thief.” In these two short parables Jesus spoke a word about faithfulness; the kind of faithfulness that leads to perseverance in our Christian walk.

In the movie “Chariots of Fire,” young Harold Abrahams, a champion sprinter, had just suffered his first ever defeat. After the race he sat alone, pouting in the bleachers. When his girlfriend tried to encourage him, he shouted, “If I can’t win, I won’t run!” To which she wisely replied, “If you don’t run, you can’t win.” Abrahams went on to win the 1924 Olympic Gold Medal in the hundred-meter run.(1)

This is how some believers feel. They feel defeated, and so they don’t even try to run for Jesus; thereby, refusing to continue in the work of the kingdom. Sometimes Christians will take their eyes off of Jesus altogether, and fall into spiritual dryness. Some will even lose hope in believing that He will one day return to destroy the works of the devil, and bring His people home.

In the first of the following parables, Jesus told about some servants who failed to continue working for their master, because the master was late in returning home; and in the second, He spoke of a homeowner who failed to guard his house against intruding thieves. Jesus taught two lessons about persevering in our work for the kingdom, even though we don’t know when the kingdom will arrive in all its fullness. So, let’s dig in to these parables and see what message is in store for us.

The Servant Who Watches (vv. 35-38)

35 Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; 36 and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. 37 Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them. 38 And if he should come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.

In verse 35, we see the admonition to keep one’s waist girded. So, what does this expression mean? The best way to answer this question is to figure out what a person’s waist would have been girded with in ancient Palestine. The New Bible Dictionary tells us that what was worn around a person’s waist was the Hebrew hagora, which “means belt, waistband or [sash] . . . People at work commonly tucked up their clothes into their [sash], as is done in the East today.”(2) They tucked up their clothes in order to keep them out of the way while working.

Jesus was telling the disciples not to let their garments down from their sash, as though finished with their labor, but to keep their clothes tucked up, because their work was not yet through. The same meaning can be derived from keeping one’s lamp burning, which is also mentioned in verse 35. While waiting for the master to return a person may be tempted to blow out their lamp and rest, because of the seemingly long delay. Jesus told the disciples, in verse 36, to wait for the master until he returned from the wedding, so that they would be ready to let him in. So, we must now ask, who is the master to whom Jesus was referring, and what is the wedding?

The master is easy to identify, for in many of the parables the master turns out to represent the exact same person. The master in this parable is none other than Jesus. Now, what is the wedding from which the master will return? It could be the marriage ceremony of the Lamb, where Christ is joined to His bride, the Church. However, there is a slight problem with the interpretation if this is the case, because the marriage ceremony is supposed to take place after Jesus returns, and not before. Christ must bring His bride, the Church, to the wedding ceremony in order to be married to Him, and that can’t happen if He has already been to the wedding.

Both the New International Version and the New Revised Standard Version state that the master had returned from a “wedding banquet,” and not a wedding. This makes a lot more sense. In ancient Palestine, a wedding banquet would have occurred before the actual wedding ceremony. Interpreting this parable according to this specific sequence of events allows us to understand that Jesus has gone away to attend a great celebration – one which has been going on ever since He ascended into heaven – and then He will one day return to gather His people, and take them to the wedding ceremony.