Biblion Bible Commentary
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Dressed and Ready
Luke 12:35-40
35 “Let your waist be dressed and your lamps burning. · WEB
Servants waiting up for a master's return — and when he comes in, he puts on the apron.
"Let your waist be dressed and your lamps burning" Luke 12:35.
Two images of readiness, both practical. A long robe was gathered and belted before a man could move quickly, so dressed means already girded rather than about to be. And a lamp burning through the night has to be trimmed and refilled, which is the only reason it is still alight at the second watch.
"Be like men watching for their lord when he returns from the wedding feast, that when he comes and knocks, they may immediately open to him" Luke 12:36.
The situation is exactly drawn. Nobody knows when a wedding feast will end; the servants have a certain event with an uncertain hour, and their whole task is to be able to open the door at once. Not to do anything impressive — to open a door without delay.
"Blessed are those servants whom the lord will find watching when he comes" Luke 12:37. The blessing attaches to being found in the act, which is this book's consistent picture of readiness Luke 12:43.
Then the sentence that makes the parable this Gospel's own.
"Most certainly I tell you that he will dress himself, make them recline, and will come and serve them."
The master ties up his own robe, seats his servants at the table and waits on them. Nothing in the ancient world made that anything but shocking; it inverts the entire arrangement of a household, and it is stated as the reward for staying awake.
It is also a promise this book keeps. Two chapters from the end he says I am among you as one who serves Luke 22:27, at a table, on the last night — and the man who says it has just settled an argument about which of them was greatest.
"They will be blessed if he comes in the second or third watch" Luke 12:38. The middle and last watches of the night are the hard ones. The blessing is specified for the servants whose waiting ran long past reasonable.
"If the master of the house had known in what hour the thief was coming, he would have watched" Luke 12:39. The image changes to a burglary, and the point of the change is the manner rather than the character: unannounced, at the worst hour, with no second chance to have prepared.
"Therefore be ready also, for the Son of Man is coming in an hour that you don't expect him" Luke 12:40. Readiness, not calculation — and the two pictures together say why. A man who knew the hour would not need to be ready; he would need only to be punctual.
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