Transcript
Well, let’s go ahead then and take a look more specifically at the parable of the just and the unjust servant. And I’ll read it, and then maybe you could comment. It’s Matthew 24:45 through 51.
And the Lord says, Who then is a faithful and wise servant whom his master made ruler over his household to give them food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master, when He comes, will find so doing. Assuredly, I say to you that He will make him ruler over all His goods. But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying His coming,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for Him, at an hour that he is not aware of, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Now there are a lot of questions in this passage. For one thing it seems like you’ve got one servant who makes a switch. Although most commentators here seem to think this is two different servants, but it says “if that evil servant.” It sounds like it’s the same servant who has switched from being the good servant and the one who was blessed. Instead suddenly he becomes an evil servant because of his attitude. And that’s one question.
The second question is what’s this business with cutting him in two and appointing him his portion with the hypocrites and the weeping and gnashing of teeth. As you know a lot of people take this as a reference to hell. But we’re talking here about a servant who at the beginning is called a faithful and wise servant. So any help you can give us would be greatly appreciated.
Well you’re right there are a lot of questions there. Let me see what I can do in an effort to answer them. It’s interesting that Jesus begins with a question. Who is the faithful and wise servant? In other words He is offering to us the opportunity to be wise and faithful. But He is also entertaining the possibility that the servant who might have been wise and faithful could turn out to be an evil servant.
So I think you’re quite correct here that this is two sides of a potential coin. On one side the person is a wise and faithful servant who gets his job done and keeps his eyes open for the coming of his Lord. On the other side of the coin is the possibility that exists for every servant of Christ that he may stop watching. He may get careless. He may be drawn into loose behavior and unfaithful service.
Now assuming that we are talking there about a servant who fails to live up to his responsibilities then we get to the second question and the further questions that you asked. First of all the servant is caught unaware by the coming of his master. And we are told that he is cut in two. Right now even if we thought this was an unsaved person which it obviously is not unsaved people are not going to be cut in two. So this is a parable. And it would be incorrect to interpret the parable in a painfully literal way.
What does this mean in terms of a Christian person? Well we’re reminded by the book of Hebrews of the Word of God. It is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing of joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. So the Word of God is going to be the instrument of judgment in the judgment seat of Christ wielded by our master and Lord. And it is going to pierce us penetrate us expose us. And it will probably feel spiritually and emotionally like we’re being cut in two.
So this is parabolic language for the judgment that occurs with the Word of God as the instrument in that judgment. Now because the servant was unfaithful his portion is appointed with the hypocrites. He was not being hypocritical in thinking that his Lord was going to come. Even when he talks about the Lord’s delay in His coming he’s not saying I don’t believe in Him anymore I don’t believe He’s coming. He believes that He’s coming but he thinks it’s not for a while.
So instead of fulfilling his role as a servant he pleases himself. He begins to eat and drink with the drunkards. And he begins to beat his fellow servants. His behavior even though he is in the role and position of a servant of the Lord is contradictory to that and therefore hypocritical. It is a tragic fact that we can be involved in the service of the Lord and be serving our own interests in the process. And that’s one of the things that we all need to be very careful to examine ourselves about.
Because if I am really using the service of Christ as a means for my own self-satisfaction in some way if I’m not treating the people I’m supposed to be ministering to in the proper way if I’m careless with my personal habits the number of ministers in the ministry of whom these things can be said is legion. If that’s my behavior then I’m behaving like a hypocrite. I’m posing as a servant of Christ when I’m really serving myself. So the idea here is that his portion will be the same as other hypocrites like himself. And in the light of the larger New Testament teaching we would say they will be deprived of the rewards and privileges that go to faithful servants.
A couple related questions. One of them is what about this weeping and gnashing of teeth. We know that in hell there will be a lot of weeping and gnashing of teeth. And a lot of people once they see the expression weeping and gnashing of teeth they assume it’s talking about hell. Therefore they conclude this must be an unregenerate person. But would you comment on that expression the weeping and gnashing of teeth?
Okay it seems to me that what is really the problem here is that we are Westerners who have a tendency to be more restrained in the expressions of our grief. Although I’ve been in some situations where the grief was pretty vividly expressed. But in the Middle East it would be not at all unusual for example for a person who has lost a young child or a beloved wife or somebody like that to weep and to wail and to gnash their teeth.
There is nothing about the description of the grief that has to be interpreted in connection with hell. This is simply an expression of intense grief expressed in a very vivid way by the person who is grieving. That is not unusual in the context of the oriental world. And I don’t think anybody in Jesus’ day would have automatically connected this description with eternal torment.
So since we are talking here about a real servant of Christ who has lost the promotion and the rewards they could have been his by being faithful and remember that when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ we will no longer have our sin nature. We will be perfect. And therefore we will be able to see with painful clarity what it is that we have lost. Grief is an appropriate response to that.
Now this does not say that he’s going to weep and gnash his teeth forever and ever and ever and ever. And we know that God will wipe away all tears from every eye. But it is unrealistic for us to think that people can stand before the judgment seat of Christ and see basically their life go up in the fires of that judgment the wood hay and stubble burned up and maintain a perfectly calm attitude about that. That wouldn’t even be very holy. If we see that kind of result from our earthly life the appropriate response would be grief.
Okay let’s just talk for a quick second about what is lost. It’s interesting that in verse 45 He speaks of the faithful and wise servant whom his master made ruler over his household to give them food in due season. That’s in this life. But then it says if this person is still that way when the master comes verse 46 according to verse 47 He will in the future make him ruler over all His goods. In other words the ruler now if he’s faithful until Christ comes will be a ruler. Is He not saying this forever?
And so could you talk about this idea of rulership and why it would cause so much grief if a person missed out on being a ruler in the life to come? That’s a very good question of course. And one of the major themes in the New Testament with regard to the future is the theme of co-ruling with Christ. And we have the statement that is made by Paul to Timothy if we endure we shall also reign with Him.
And we have the statement made by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself that he who has my commandments and keeps them to the end to him I will give power over the nations he shall rule them with the rod of iron. Yes. So here obviously we are talking about the possibility of being promoted to a very significant rulership in that we call reign with Jesus Christ. And we have areas of responsibility.
And as you correctly said the servant who is faithful and who rules his Lord’s household properly will get promotion. And I think the Lord’s references to this kind of promotion that he will be promoted to a place of co-rulership with his master. But conversely if the person is unfaithful he doesn’t get this promotion he doesn’t co-reign with Jesus Christ.
So I think that this doctrine which is told in various places in the New Testament lies in the background here. It’s not a major point but it’s obviously a significant point here. The person who rules well in this life will rule even more significantly in the kingdom of God. The person who rules poorly in this life will be deprived of that promotion when our Lord returns.
And one quick point related to that because you’ve got this person who’s supposed to feed his servants and then later on he beats them. And feeding a servant sounds like some sort of figure of speech for discipling other Christians or whatever. It seems to me this at least has to refer to people like elders in local churches and pastors and missionaries and Bible teachers things like that.
But wouldn’t it refer in one sense at least to every Christian? In other words every Christian has somebody they’re teaching or discipling whether it’s their children their family members their friends. Everybody in a sense is a ruler in some way in this life. And there’s a chance of promotion or demotion in the life to come. But does this have some kind of special reference to people who have authority over teaching other Christians?
I think that the most obvious immediate reference is exactly as you’ve said to teachers and ministers of the Word and so on. But I also think what you’ve said subsequently to that is completely appropriate. That there is a sense in which all of us as Christians are given some kind of a responsibility that involves a ruling a ruling of some sort.
For example suppose all I do is teach Sunday school and I’ve got boys and girls in my classroom. Well I’m in the position of a ruler there because I’m telling them what God says right. I’m telling them what they should do. I’m saying to the little boys and girls after hopefully we’ve won them to the Lord I am saying to them you know you’ve got to go out and let your light shine you’ve got to live for Jesus.
That’s a ruling function because I’m communicating truth authoritatively to these people. So I think that you’re one hundred percent correct that in a sense every Christian has some kind of ruling operation or ministry that he’s engaged in or should be engaged in. And of course if God assigned us a ministry that we refuse to take then we’re on the outside of faithful ministry. But this is a parable about people who have accepted some ministry from their master right.
The Lord made this man a ruler over his household. Now his choice is between fidelity and unfaithfulness. One final point and then we’ll look at the ten virgins. But the final point is the wrong attitude that causes this servant to go into a tailspin. He says my master is delaying His coming.
Could you just comment briefly on how that could happen to a Christian? Obviously a Christian can decide the Lord is not going to come back anytime soon. In nineteen hundred years and it’ll probably be another hundred years and he’s dead and gone and so on. So a Christian who lives today could obviously take the same attitude.
I’m reminded of First John 2:28 where John says little children abide in Him that if He should be manifested we may have boldness and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. He says look stay in union with Him stay in fellowship with Him because He might come and then He would catch us by surprise and we would be embarrassed by this.
So I think it is the perspective of the New Testament that the imminent coming of the Lord the possibility that He could come at any time is a powerful moral and spiritual motivator. So once I have subtracted that motivation from my total Christian motivation I am in danger of slipping down or sliding down the slippery slope in the way that this particular servant did. We tend to underestimate the effectiveness of this truth in keeping us faithful.
So I may for example say okay I don’t think He’s going to be here this year so I’ll get around to serving next year. Or I’ll do this or that that I’ve always been thinking of doing next year because I don’t think the chances are good that we’ll be here this year you know. But it’s the same thing. It’s the same trap into which this unfaithful servant fell.