Monday after the Ninth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on August 7, 2023 by under
Scripture: St. Luke 12:32-48 (NKJV)
12:32 “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell what you have and give alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
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. 40 Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
41 Then Peter said to Him, “Lord, do You speak this parable only to us, or to all people?”
42 And the Lord said, “Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season? 43 Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. 44 Truly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that he has. 45 But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk, 46 the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. 47 And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. 48 But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.”
Devotion
The First Commandment: “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” Luther explains in the Large Catechism, “A god signifies a being to whom we should look for all good, and to whom we should have recourse in every necessity; so that, to have a god, is nothing else but to rely on and to believe in him cordially… Upon whatever, then, I say, you depend and have your heart fixed, that is properly your god” (Large Catechism).
In today’s text the words “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” describe the First Commandment. That which is your treasure is in fact your god. For the Christian, the stuff of this world is just that, temporal. We need not worry about God’s provisions, because He provides for us. We use the earthly blessings which He gives us, but they are not our treasure. Jesus speaks of “a treasure in the heavens that does not fail.” Way before we came to know that our treasure is in heaven, and before we sought to serve the Triune God with our life, our heavenly Father sent us His Son to turn us from our sin and save us. ASBH #39, stanza 4, says, “He sent His dearest Treasure that our weak hearts may see His good and gracious will.” Our salvation was earned by Christ, and it is the Father’s good pleasure to give it to us to be received by faith.
Prayer: Let Thy merciful ears, O Lord, be open to the prayers of Thy humble servants; and, that they may obtain their petitions, make them to ask such things as shall please Thee; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
