Advent 1A - Additional Thoughts - The Thief

Matthew 24:43

But understand this: if the owner 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.

Let me just play around with the ideas presented in yesterday's entry. If (and this still a big if) we are to understand the 'left behind' people as the forgiven people who remain, and those who were 'taken' are the unrepentant, then this question follows: what's with the owner of the house? Who is the thief? and what is he stealing?

I'm not really comfortable with the suggestion that Jesus is stealing away the unrepentant and that we have to protect them from the thief...and that becomes the logical extension if you allegorize this too much...

However, there might be a message for us in these words:

But understand this: if the Christians had known in what part of the night the Son was going to return, they would have stayed busy at the Great Commission in order that none would be taken away.

Hmmm....something to think about.