45"Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? 46Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. 47Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. 48But if that evil servant says in his heart, "My master is delaying his coming,' 49and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, 50the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, 51and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Again, there is a word that surprised me here. When I read this before, I thought it was saying that the faithful and wise servant would give His master his due -- for example, his share of the harvest, welcoming food and comfort when he arrives, etc.. But here it says “to give them food in due season”. The master, when he comes, does not come for special treatment for himself, but wants proper care given to his household, whom the master made the servant ruler over.
But the evil servant who does not expect the master’s return does not take proper care of that which he was given rule over, and ignores his responsibilities by continuing in self indulgence. Does this servant simply think he is unaccountable since the master is not there to see it? Or is he simply a procrastinator who feels he has plenty of time to make things right later? In either case, he will one day be surprised, as the master will appear when he least expects it. His punishment will be swift and there will be no time to make things right. His punishment will be for the hypocrite that he is.
There will be no time to make things right? Jesus, who is always so full of compassion, who will always forgive us, won’t listen to our pleas if we at that time discover the error of our ways? I don’t think so, because here He says there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. I can only assume that will be from those who learn too late they should have done better in their lives.
So what is expected of us? This parable is about a servant who was made ruler over the master’s household. We too have been made ruler over what is really God’s. We rule over this wonderful planet God gave us. We rule over the birds and animals. We rule over our children. We may be in a position of rule over other people, other servants of God. Even though we may not feel that we are in a position of rule over others, we are all in a position of influence of some kind over many others.
And what do we do with that influence? The master expects the servant to give the rest of the household food in due season. We are expected to care for those we rule over. It is not just food that we are to give to others, but whatever they need, whether it is to meet physical, emotional, or spiritual needs. Sure, we can’t do everything for everybody, but there is a due season for everything that we are able to do, that we are expected to do.
Do we, like the evil servant, abuse the status we are given? Do we try to claim for our own what really belongs to God? Do we ignore our responsibility? Do we procrastinate as we focus on our self indulgences? Are we hypocrites who say that we want to do the will of God then do otherwise? The master will come when we least expect it. We cannot afford to put off what we should be doing now.
OK, so you don’t believe you are seeing signs of the end times. If the world really doesn’t end tomorrow, does this really apply to you? Yes! Even if the world doesn’t end tomorrow, there is nothing that says your life may not end tomorrow. This advice of being prepared because you do not know when the master will come also applies to being prepared because you do not know when you will be going to the master.
Be prepared, be ready: take proper care of the household that God has given you. For if you do so, you will be given all that is God’s, in heaven and on earth. If not, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.