'Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord, when He
cometh, shall find watching: Verily I shall say unto
you, that He shall gird Himself, and make them to sit
down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.
Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when He cometh,
shall find so doing. 44. Of a truth I say unto you,
that He will make him ruler over all that he hath.
--LUKE xii. 37, 43, and 44.
You will, of course, observe that these two passages are strictly
parallel in form. Our Lord evidently intends them to run side by
side, and to be taken together. The divergences are as significant
and instructive as the similarities, and the force of these will be
best brought out by just recalling, in a sentence or two, the
occasion for the utterance of the second of the two passages which I
have taken for my text. When our Lord had finished His previous
address and exhortations, Peter characteristically pushed his oar in
with the question, 'Do these commandments refer to us, the Apostles,
or to all,' the whole body of disciples? Our Lord admits the
distinction, recognises in His answer that the 'us,' the Twelve,
were nearer Christ than the general mass of His followers, and
answers Peter's question by reiterating what He has been saying in a
slightly different form. He had spoken before about servants. Now He
speaks about 'stewards,' because the Apostles did stand in that
relation to the other disciples, as being slaves indeed, like the
rest of the household, but slaves in a certain position of
authority, by the Master's appointment, and charged with providing
the nourishment which, of course, means the religious instruction,
of their fellow-servants.
So, notice that the first benediction is upon the 'servants,' the
second is upon the servants who are 'stewards.' The first
exhortation requires that when the Master comes He shall find the
servants watching; the second demands that when He comes He shall
find the stewards doing their work. The first promise of reward
gives the assurance that the watching servants shall be welcomed
into the house, and be waited on by the Master himself; the second
gives the assurance that the faithful steward shall be promoted to
higher work. We are all servants, and we are all, if we are
Christian men, stewards of the manifold grace of God.
So, then, out of these two passages thus brought together, as our
Lord intended that they should be, we gather two things: the twofold
aspect of life on earth--watchfulness and work; and the twofold hope
of life in heaven--rest and rule. 'Blessed is that servant whom his
Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching.' 'Blessed is that steward
whom his Lord, when He cometh, shall find'--not merely watching,
but--'so doing.'