Jesus says of the day and hour 36"no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only." That is a striking admission from the Son. Matthew has already shown him asleep in a boat in a storm (Matthew 8:24), and he took on real human limits. The timing of his own return he leaves with the Father. If even the Son does not name the hour, no one else has standing to claim it.
Jesus points to a memory every hearer knew, the days of Noah. People were 38"eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage," 38"until the day when Noah entered the ark." Jesus describes the pre-flood world by its ordinary life, which carried on until the flood came and 39"swept them all away," and the people were unaware until it did. The danger is distraction. Two men work the same field and two women grind at the same mill, side by side, until 40"one will be taken and one left." Ordinary life is not innocent simply because it is ordinary.
The conclusion is plain: 42"stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming." If a householder had known which part of the night the thief would come, he would have stayed awake for that part. Since he does not know, the whole night is his watch. No timeline can be calculated here, and readiness becomes a way of living.
Jesus makes it concrete with two servants left in charge of one household. The faithful servant gives the household their food 45"at the proper time," whether the master returns that afternoon or a year from now. His reward is more responsibility, for the master puts him over all his possessions. The wicked servant begins with a thought: 48"My master is delayed." That single sentence said to himself is where everything goes wrong. Once he decides the master is slow, he beats his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards. Presumption on delay turns into cruelty and self-indulgence, and what we believe about when Christ is coming back shapes how we treat the people under our care.
The word for stay awake is the word Jesus will use in Gethsemane, when he asks Peter, James, and John to watch with him: "could you not watch with me one hour?" (Matthew 26:40). The disciples who heard this teaching fall asleep when watching mattered most. Anyone who hears stay awake finds, sooner or later, that we cannot keep it up by ourselves. That night Jesus stayed awake alone through everything that was coming, so that our standing never rests on how well we manage to watch. He asks us to watch, and when we fail, he does not leave.
Ask what the master has put in your hands, and do that work today as if he might come this afternoon.
Prayer
Father, we confess how easily ordinary life lulls us into forgetting that Christ is coming back. Forgive the moments we have decided, like the wicked servant, that his return is far enough away to leave today alone. Thank you that Jesus stayed awake when we could not. Make us faithful with what you have placed in our care, found doing what you asked, whenever you come. In Jesus' name, amen.