Jesus said, “… stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Mt.24.41-44).
The parable teaches the sudden and unpredictable coming of the Lord and is used this way in four other New Testament passages. Paul wrote, “The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, ‘Peace and security,’ then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape” (I Th.5.2-3). Peter said, “The day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed” (II Pe.3.10). Jesus told the Church in Sardis, “If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you” (Re.3.3). He says the same thing later in Revelation: “Behold, I am coming like a thief” (Re.16.15). Each of these verses emphasizes the suddenness of Christ’s return.
But the image of a thief adds two additional factors. First, it adds the matter of value, since the thief comes to steal what is worthwhile. Almost everyone values his or her possessions. No one is careless with money, cars, or jewelry. That is why we protect these things. If we take such great care about these items, things that will all be lost to us or decay over time, should we not at least take that much care about things that are eternal? Should we not be at least equally anxious for the salvation of our souls?
Jesus said on an earlier occasion, “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?” (Mt.16.26). Obviously, it will be no good at all. Such a person will have lost the only thing that really matters, and in the end he will lose the world as well.
The picture of the thief also emphasizes the necessity of being watchful. “Since no one knows at what time, or during what ‘watch,’ the thief might strike, constant vigilance is required,” says D. A. Carson. The need to watch is explicitly stated both in the verse that precedes the words about the thief and in the one that follows. “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come” and, “So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”
Are you keeping watch? Are you ready?
(mar-uh-nath-uh – “Our Lord Comes”)
Pastor Steve can be reached at PastorSteve@MaranathaBibleChurch.org