Mark 13:33-37 reads:

“Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is. It is like a man going out to a far country, who left his house and gave authority to his servants, and to each his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to watch. Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming-in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning- lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. And what I say to you, I say to you all: Watch!”

Throughout the New Testament, Jesus shared all about the signs of the time. He had been sharing that there will be false Christs and there will be tribulation. The stars of Heaven will fall and all sorts of things will happen before the coming of the end of days.

Jesus is much more than a wonderful person. While reading or listening to these parables, I hope you will fully understand who He is and what is really going on. Today, Jesus has in fact gone to a far country. This is no longer a parable. While it is true that when Jesus was on earth, this was a parable with a funny significance, He had not yet gone to that far country but now Jesus has gone away. It says just before this, concerning the day of his second coming, of that day no one knows, not even the angels in Heaven nor the Son, but only the Father.

I have heard many recent accounts of people who have met Jesus in Heaven, and have met the Father in Heaven. They have said that the time is very near. Time is very short and Jesus is coming back very soon.

But here is a parable. Jesus often talks about leaving people in charge. In the Parable of the Ten Talents and the Parable of the Minas, Jesus speaks about going away and leaving us to do something good and faithful while He is gone. In the Parable of the Five Foolish Virgins, people were waiting for a time and for the bridegroom to come back and that the coming was delayed. In the Parable of the Wedding Feast the king sent out for people to come to the feast, but they would not come. Jesus was often pointing people towards His return.

And in this parable, the topic of His return is nothing new. Jesus here is talking about coming back at a time that no one knows. So, what do you do? What do you do if you are one of these people who the Lord has left in charge? What do you do when a master is not yet coming back, but is delayed? How do you conduct your business?

I remember when I worked for McDonald’s Corporation at four different restaurants, three times. Some stores were privately owned, each by a franchisee. Each franchisee operated the McDonald’s business as his own. He paid McDonald’s commissions on all the sales he did, he bought all his food from McDonald’s, and he paid the lease of his building to them, as well. But essentially, he owned the business. These owners I worked for – the two men – were fantastic guys. They were really friendly to me and treated me like a son.

There was also a time I worked for a McDonald’s store that was owned by the corporation. It had a manager in charge, but the store management and the management team had no ownership in the store. In other words, the store did not have a private owner. The McDonald’s Corporation owned the store because it was new and it did not have enough sales per week to sell to a private owner. It was not yet successful. The corporation was waiting for the few years it would take for new development to be completed in the area.

When I worked for the corporate-owned store, McDonald’s had an area supervisor who used to come and check on our store. He had a number of stores under his authority. Sometimes, another store would tip us off and say, “He has just left our store. He is going to your store now.” And as soon as our managers heard he was coming, there would be a scurry of activity. They would tell us to clean the cooking area and all parts of the store. We would all be rushing like madmen to make the store shine spic and span.

For awhile, I would go along with these requests. But one day, I put my foot down, first with the manager on duty and then with the store manager. I said, “Every time you put pressure on the staff to clean up the store because this area supervisor is coming, that is total disrespect for the McDonald’s Corporation. We are not supposed to clean and scour because the area supervisor is coming. The store is meant to be clean all the time. People are meant to be doing their jobs all the time. The store is meant to be looking good all the time and you should manage your store that way. You should not be putting pressure on the staff to get the store cleaned in 10 minutes because an area supervisor is coming around.” You can only imagine how that went down with the store manager.

This is similar to what Jesus is saying – that we, as Christians, should live our life in such a way that we are doing the Christian life perfectly, in the most beneficial way to other people who live on this earth. In the Parable of the Five Foolish Virgins, I share that the wise virgins lived a life that consisted of joy in the presense of the Holy Spirit; they had peace and love. They lived joyfully in an abiding relationship with Jesus.

This is how the Christian life should be lived. There should be no fear of Jesus coming back. You should have “no hands in the cookie jar.” There should be no one stealing, no one treating people indifferently, no one having bad attitudes. There should be nothing going wrong. There should be nothing wrong with your life on a day-to-day basis. Jesus should not catch you off guard. Instead, you should be feeling joy. You should live a life of peace from sunrise to the time you go to sleep. You should feel contented and know that you are loved and accepted by Jesus Christ. We are meant to live in a relationship where everything is fine and dandy all the time.

Life has its struggles – its ups and downs. It has its hard, difficult times. This parable is not saying that life has to be always rosy and that the sun has to be shining on you every day and it is certainly not saying that you can live in a sinful way where if the master came back early, would surprise you and cause any trouble.

One parable talks of the wise and faithful servant who is doing what his master commands him to do. It also talks of the evil servant who is treating people badly and drinking with other people. Sadly, many Christians live a lifestyle where there is not much difference between them and the non-Christians in the world. This is not the way we should be living in our world.

I am not laying down the law and condemning people for drinking or having a life that has sin in it. I readily admit that I have lived a life of sin. I have struggled with many sins. For many years, I lived under an indoctrination of judgment and condemnation. No longer do I condemn others. No longer do I pretend to be self-righteous in order to be accepted by God. Regardless of my own feelings, there is a warning in Jesus’ parables that we should be conducting our lives in holy and righteous ways. We should be strong and resist temptations. Every person should live a righteous life all of the time.

Holiness does not come from self worth. It comes from the power and the enabling of the Holy Spirit through the grace of God and from the finished work of the cross by Jesus Christ. With this parable, Jesus is saying that we should be living in a manner that is ready for Him to come back at any time. We should be conducting our personal life and our business affairs appropriately – in a way that brings honor to the Lord Jesus Christ.

I hope that you have learned something from this: that there are many things in the Bible that Jesus asks us to do. Essentially, we need to love God and our fellow man. I think that one of the signs of the times that are mentioned in the Bible is that “the love of many grows cold” and we are living in a society where many people simply do not care for each other and so many people are bound up in selfishness and living for self. I think that anyone who wants to act righteously and honorably for Jesus Christ would be giving up some of their time and their money to help less fortunate people. This is being a Christ-like person. A Christian means “little Christ” – a life of self denial, a life where you imitate Jesus or you imitate Paul. Paul was not someone who was given to his own luxuries and given to an easy life.

I am not saying that the Christian life should be sad or hard or anything laborious. The Christian life is something that should be enjoyed and we need to learn to find our calling and purpose so we can live it. I hope that you have enjoyed this parable. I pray that God will find you in the right place when Jesus comes to collect you.

Author Bio: If you have enjoyed my article you can read a soon to be published book called “The parables of Jesus made simple” for free here in its entirety or just selected parables in chapters at http://www.parables-of-jesus-christ.net/ The book will be available in early 2011 For prophetic counsel, Christian life coaching, Dream interpretation, Christian chat and great Kingdom Teaching come and see us at http://www.kingdomassignments.com.au

Category: Religion
Keywords: parable of Jesus Christ