Read­ing Time: 3 minutes

Introductory Words

After present­ing his con­vin­cing and theo­lo­gic­ally foun­ded argu­ment in defence of his stand that life’s worth does not con­sist in the abund­ance of a person’s mater­i­al pos­ses­sion, Jesus invites his dis­ciples not to pre­oc­cupy them­selves with the things of the world. They should neither worry for life, for what to eat, for what to drink, what to wear nor for life itself because God, the abso­lute pro­pri­et­or of life knows how to provide these things and how to take prop­er care of life too. Atten­tion! This is not a call to lazi­ness. It is dis­heart­en­ing how some people espe­cially in Niger­ia lock their shops, teach­ers who aban­don their pupil in the classrooms and work­ers who absent from their duties all in the name of pray­er. More wor­ri­some is the fact that these things hap­pen on nor­mal work­days. When Jesus in Mat­thew 6:34 says we should not think or worry about tomor­row since tomor­row will take care of itself, it does not mean we should not have plans for tomor­row. Jesus made such state­ment due to the last phrase of that same verse. Jesus advises people not to begin today to worry about tomor­row because today’s troubles are enough for today. This is a ser­i­ous psy­cho­lo­gic­al advice. People should learn to lim­it their wor­ries to each day.

Watchfulness

“Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are wait­ing for their mas­ter to return from the wed­ding ban­quet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the mas­ter finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. If he comes dur­ing the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves. But know this: if the own­er of the house had known at what hour the thief was com­ing, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is com­ing at an unex­pec­ted hour” (Luke 12:35–40). Unless the dis­ciples ful­fil the terms and con­di­tions lis­ted above, they can nev­er be watch­ful. And by not being watch­ful, they risk remain­ing out­side the king­dom. In Luke 12:35–40, Jesus dis­tin­guishes between the watch­ful and the unwatch­ful ser­vant. Nat­ur­ally, he expects dis­ciples and Chris­ti­ans to be among the watch­ful ser­vants. The anec­dote employed by Jesus is for the dis­ciples to avoid ocu­los ser­vi­entes (eye ser­vice, hypo­crisy). In his advice to slaves, Paul implored them to avoid eye ser­vice with the fol­low­ing words “non ad oculum ser­vi­entes quasi hom­inibus pla­cen­tes sed ut servi Christi facientes vol­un­t­atem Dei ex animo, cum bona vol­un­t­ate ser­vi­entes sicut Dom­ino et non hom­inibus – not only while being watched, and in order to please them, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. Render ser­vice with enthu­si­asm, as to the Lord and not to people” (Eph 6:6–7). In like man­ner, dis­ciples should live their reli­gious life object­ively instead of seek­ing to please someone for some favour, an atti­tude that breeds cor­rup­tion, hypo­crisy, super­fi­ci­al­ity, and spir­itu­al misbehaviour.

Concluding Words

“Sell your pos­ses­sions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfail­ing treas­ure in heav­en, where no thief comes near and no moth des­troys” (Luke 12:33). As stated above, Jesus expects us to cul­tiv­ate the cul­ture of think­ing and caring about oth­ers, espe­cially, the needy. This is the mean­ing of “selling your pos­ses­sions.” Let us remem­ber that each of us can be in need of some­thing at any time. By assist­ing oth­ers, we are being watch­ful. There are so many ways of being watch­ful. Shar­ing our mater­i­al pos­ses­sion is one of them. Oth­er ways include, speak­ing and stand­ing by the truth, hon­esty, prac­tising justice, not tak­ing part in evil, being impar­tial in treat­ing people, and defend­ing the oppressed.

FOR DETAILS, GET YOUR OWN COPIES OF THE BOOK “THE WORD OF LIFE:
SUNDAY REFLECTIONS” (vols. I‑II-III)!! The reflec­tion for the 19^th Sunday is found in The Word of Life, vol. III, pages 436–447. Happy reading!

For details on how to get it, con­tact the author on this link: https://m.me/uchennabiblia?fbclid=IwAR2yeg4a6sDGBp9QGkIvKj6FSADumMokN6lshdE0zuo-JHs6qOmlhA7jyHo
or email me at: postmaster@uchennabiblia.com
or simply send an SMS on 08116100926, and I will get back to you.

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