The Saturday after the Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on November 16, 2024 by under
Scripture: St. Matthew 24:43-51 (NKJV)
24:43 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. 44 Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
45 “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? 46 Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. 47 Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. 48 But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ 49 and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, 50 the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, 51 and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Devotion
“Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
Our Lord gives us a most profound insight into the wisdom of God. “Why,” one might ask, “does He not tell us when the end will be?” We think, “If only He would tell us, we could be ready! We could prepare!” But let us unpack what that means. In reality, our old sinful flesh would be sorely tempted to procrastinate about preparation until the last possible moment (as many of us are tempted to do with so many things!). We would end up not preparing until we had to.
Instead, our Lord admonishes us to “be ready,” that is, all the time. If we do not know when it will happen, we find ourselves invited to be ready for it at all times, and this is wisdom from God. So consider what it means to be ready: to be sincerely repentant, to trust in Christ Jesus for our salvation, to be devoted to the things of the Lord, particularly His Word and Sacraments. God grant us this day (and every day) to be ready: repentantly ready, faithfully ready, sacramentally ready.
Collect: Almighty God, we beseech Thee, show Thy mercy unto Thy humble servants, that we who put no trust in our own merits may not be dealt with after the severity of Thy judgment, but according to Thy mercy; 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.
