Lectionary: Proper 14(C)
Texts: Luke 12:32-40
When you return home from a late-night party, do you knock
on the door of your home to be let in?
Hold that thought. We’ll come back to it.
Today’s gospel lection is both interesting and difficult. It
is at an intersection where literary images and themes converge and diverge. Each
part can stand alone, yet its meanings can only be fully appreciated by seeing
how it is informed by what came before and how it informs what comes after.
For example, the first few texts about not being afraid belong
to an extended section that was not read. The parable in the middle stands
alone, yet it can be more powerful when contrasted with the parable of the rich
fool from last Sunday, and the theme of things happening unexpectedly are
repeated in the following sections.
The last two verses share a motif with the parable, but its
emphases and symbolisms change. Locating parallel texts in the other gospel
accounts, these verses don’t seem to be part of the original parable.
Finally, ironically, these two parts are quite distinct and
separate. Commentaries that follow the lectionary readings either try to force
the whole thing together or choose one to comment on and omit the rest. I will
be taking the latter option and selecting the parable in the middle.
The master has gone away some
distance to a wedding celebration. The servants/slaves don’t know when their
master will return. But they need to remain vigilant and be ready to wait on
him when he returns. When the master returns late at night, or even very early
in the dark of the morning, he knocks on the door, and the servants rush to
greet him. When he enters, instead of being served, he readies himself to
serve. To the surprise of the servants/slaves, he tells them to seat themselves
and waits on them.
I will now read Bailey’s translation of Luke 12:35-38.
Let your waist be girded and your
lamps burning, and be like people who are expecting their master when he
withdraws from the wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks,
immediately they may open to him.
Blessed are those slaves who
coming, the master finds awake.
Amen, I say to you, he will gird
himself and cause them to recline [to eat], and come to them and serve them.
If (in the second of third watch), he
comes and finds thus, blessed are those slaves.[2]
Did you catch the numerous nuances that are different in
Bailey’s translation over nearly all English ones?
I think that the key difference and one that changes the
approach to interpretation is the idea that the master is the host of the
wedding banquet. If he himself isn’t the groom, then his son or another key
family member is the groom. The celebration is taking place at his own estate.
It might very well be in the same building, or perhaps a detached one on the
same grounds.
The master does not return from the celebration but rather, withdraws
from it. The celebration is continuing in the public area of the estate. The
master takes a discreet leave away from the party.
He comes to the private area of the estate—the private
living and sleeping areas. He knocks at the door to the servants’ quarters.
Why?
Bailey describes Middle Eastern custom where only strangers
knock at the door. Known individuals announce themselves (loudly) so that the
homeowner knows who is outside and knows that it is safe to open the door.
The master, however, knocks on the door and expects the door
to be opened. This implies that this is an interior door (or perhaps a separate
building in a secure part of the estate) so it would be no stranger knocking.
The reason for the master to knock is because he does not want to raise his
voice, which would alert the wedding guests that he has withdrawn from them.
The servants were not merely waiting (as in most English
translations), but they were expecting the master to come. Perhaps they were expecting him to need
mid-celebration spiffing up, perhaps a short respite before returning to the
party, or perhaps additional directions in regards the ongoing event. In any
case, they were not just spending their time waiting, but they were
anticipating their master’s needs should he come to them.
But then, the
unexpected occurs. The master, rather than asking the servants to serve him, he
begins to take the actions of a servant. He girds himself up so that he can be
more mobile. Then he directs his servants to recline at the triclinium. This
direction can only mean one thing: the servants will be served dinner as
honored individuals.
But where will the
food and drink come from? All the prepared food is out at the banquet. There is
nothing held back. The food and drink must come from the banquet itself. How
the master was able to discreetly pack and cart away enough food to serve all
his servants is left up to the imagination. The servants don’t get lesser fare.
They receive the abundance of the wedding banquet.
In this parable we
can see elements of the eschatological wedding and the wedding feast, the
Eucharist, and the servanthood of Christ. In the master’s withdrawing from the
celebration, we can see echoes of Christ’s incarnation. In the reversal of
roles, we see how the kingdom reverses the world’s ideas of power and the
powerful.
We can see too,
that in fact this parable does have a thread that connects it to the earlier
sayings about worry and fear. We don’t need to worry or fear because God will
bring the bounties of the kingdom and serve God’s people.
We might also find a
contrast between the master of this parable vs. the rich fool. Where the rich
fool had no celebration and thought only of himself and hoarding, the master brings
a share of the banquet to his servants.
We might also
reflect on a thread that connects this parable with the parables of the sower
and the seeds. In these parables of growth, one of the key points made is that
the kingdom starts out small and unnoticed; it grows without drawing attention
to itself until it reaches full growth and maturity when it is finally noticed.
I see an echo to
that theme in the quiet withdrawal of the master. He does not announce what he
is doing. He does not seek accolades for his generosity. He does not draw
attention to his role reversal. He just does what his love for his servants compels
him to do.
When we think about
church and denominational public relations, advertising, and marketing, I have
questions. Questions about whether it is because those are the methods the world
promotes, and we’ve just adopted them. Or how much of it is about feeding our
own egos.
As Jesus continues
to travel up to Jerusalem, then through it, and to Golgotha, he teaches what
the kingdom is like and what God is like, he identifies himself with humanity
and becomes a servant to all, a servant even to suffer the death of the worst slave
and criminal. In return, he offers the kingdom and its banquet to all who would
follow his way of love, mercy, and forgiveness.
May we enter into
his joy with praise and thanksgiving!
In the name of God
who Creates Joy,
In the name of God
who Celebrates,
And in the name of
God who challenges us to serve, Amen.
Bibliography
Bailey, K. E. (2008). Jesus Through Middle
Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels. Downers Grove, IL:
InterVarsity Press.
Bartlett, D. L., & Brown Taylor, B. (2010). Feasting
on the Word: Year C, Volume 3. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox
Press.
Green, J. B. (1997). New International Commentary
on the New Testament: The Gospel of Luke. Grand Rapids, MI: William B.
Eerdmans.
William B. Eerdmans. (2003). Eerdman's Commentary
on the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans.
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