Ignoring Jesus

Gospel: Luke 12: 32-48

The disciple of Jesus must always be ready to serve the Lord at any time or place.  We have been conditioned to see this parable in terms of the final coming of Jesus, or in some abstraction of Jesus in esoteric terms.  But such is not the case.  This parable is an ordinary occurrence in the house of any master with servants in those days.  It is not a final coming; it is just the usual comings and goings in the regular course of business.

We encounter Jesus everyday in our lives in the guise of other people.  He is the sick person in the hospital, the elderly person in a nursing home, the immigrant and refugee seeking a new home, the homeless man in need of a meal, the lonely person on the bus, the young person nervous starting their first job.  We encounter the Lord each and every day, and so often we ignore him in these people or, sadly, deliberately malign them.

If we are not able or willing to recognize the coming of the Lord in our daily lives, we are not likely to recognize him on the final day, and he is not likely to recognize us either.  How we treat our fellow servants was the point of this Gospel passage, and it is the entire point of our lives, for it is in them that we see Jesus in our midst.  Today is a day to begin anew at seeing the Lord Jesus present in others, and in treating them accordingly.