Jesus is teaching me that following him involves a little more giving of myself than what I normally give to him or to others. Perhaps I am being influenced by Dr. deSilva’s Facebook Sunday School class, but a question he asked resonates within this passage for me. In the class he suggested rather than asking, “what would Jesus do?” we could ask, “what does Jesus deserve?” As Jesus talks about the days to come, how some may fall aside or how some may be unprepared, this question of what Jesus deserves presses me.
In Matthew 24, Jesus uses a lot of imagery to talk about the last days, signs that we can look for to help us see what might be happening, but ultimate he says, “about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (v36). For me as I read this passage, the point is not for me to decipher the signs, but to maintain a sense of preparedness, of being ready, of already living as part of the kingdom of heaven come to earth.
“Who then is faithful,” Jesus asks. “Blessed is the one who is working,” but woe to those who misuse what the master has given them because “the master is delayed” (vv 45-51). What Jesus deserves from me is “my soul, my life, my all” (When I Survey the Wondrous Cross). What parts of my life am I withholding from Jesus? What parts of my life have I not offered up to Jesus?