Luke 17:1-10 - Being a Careful Christian

To be vigilant means to be carefully observant and attentive, especially to potential danger or trouble. Like a mom watching her kids play at the city pool, she remains vigilant. She's vigilant about protecting them from the harmful rays of the sun, applying generous amounts of sun screen on all their exposed skin. She's vigilant about their safety while playing in and around the water. She makes sure the ones who don’t know how to swim have their floaties fastened and remain in the shallow end of the pool. She’s vigilant about who her kids interact with, the other children, but especially other adults who are strangers. She dutifully pays attention to her children. 

As we continue reading in our salvation story, Jesus implores his disciples to pay attention to themselves. In the previous episode Jesus told the story of a certain rich man who was surprised to find himself enduring the horrors of hell. Jesus’ teaching was directed at the prideful, presumptuous Pharisees. Pride and presumption cause a person to think it could never happen to me. Vigilance requires humility. Different from the Pharisees, Jesus’ disciples are to be humble, watchful servants. Using a series of hyperbolic examples, Jesus warns his disciples about a variety of instances in which they are to remain vigilant.