Luke 12:35-39
35 “Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; 36 and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. 37 Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them. 38 And if he should come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. 39 But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.
“Watch, therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
Advent is a time for watchfulness, repentance, faith, and prayer. Throughout these weeks leading up to Christmas we are steadily focused on nearly everything that the world around us ignores. But unlike the world, we don’t rush into Christmas right after Halloween, or even before. There are still some important things to consider as we resist blowing through or forgetting about Advent altogether. We are reminded of our Lord’s second and final Coming, and that when He comes, He will usher His Bride, the Church, into eternity with Him, and relegate all unbelievers to the eternal damnation they have chosen.
The Christian’s watchfulness, therefore, is not about himself, but about Christ as He is the one who strengthens and keeps us in the one true faith. Never forget what Christ has done for you. He has placed a label on you, and that label says “You are worth My body broken and blood shed on the cross. You are so very precious to Me that I gave My life for you, paid for all your sins, and I give you My promise of eternal life in heaven. I want you in heaven with Me and I have given you My Word and Sacraments to sustain you until I call you Home.”
So, listen to Jesus. Watch, and keep watching. Receive Jesus in all the ways He wants you to have Him. The Bridegroom will come soon enough. And, by watching and using the means God provides, you will be prepared to join the joyful wedding procession into the great heavenly hall where your joy will have no end.
Let us pray: Lord, we pray You, give ear to our prayers and lighten the darkness of our hearts by Your gracious visitation; who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
