NOTES for Luk 12:42-48
In answering the Apostle Peter’s question about the parable of people awaiting their master’s return, Christ speaks of two things that are very important in our relationship with God. The first is faithfulness to God, the readiness to do His will in whatever He sees fit to entrust to you. In several parables the Lord uses this image: an absent master or king who has left his property in the care of servants. We may suppose that this image conveys something essential about the position in which God places us and the tasks He sets before us. And we can carry out this commission, which gives meaning to human existence, either according to the Master’s will or at our own discretion. It is of the fruits of this choice that the Lord speaks: ‘Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find doing so.’ This is said of the faithful steward, faithful precisely to the Master’s commission.
The second important point is contained in the words: ‘…from everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required.’ This refers first of all to the people of God, both old and new, to those who truly know the Master’s will, which has been declared to them plainly: ‘He has told you, O man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you: to act justly, to love deeds of mercy and to walk humbly before your God’ (Mic 6:8). But in a broader sense these words refer to humanity’s unique place in creation: to be the image and likeness of God, part of the Body of Christ.