A Faithful and Wise Servant

“Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?  Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.”  Matthew 24:45-46

Who is this faithful and wise servant that Jesus is talking about?  Some commentators believe that Jesus is addressing the ministers and pastors because they are responsible for the overseeing of the flock, those who have come to believe in Christ.  Their reasoning is based on the fact that Jesus was speaking to His disciples, and they would be the ones responsible for the flock immediately after His resurrection and ascension.  His message was also for all those ministers of the gospel who would come after them.  However, are not all believers Jesus’ servants who have the responsibility and privilege of feeding and tending to each other in the family of God?

What is a faithful servant?  Is it not one who remains completely loyal to his or her master putting the service of the master ahead of all other personal duties and desires?  The wise servant is one who follows the directions and instructions of the master and doesn’t deviate from it even if he or she think he or she has a better plan.  The wise servant will serve in a manner that most benefits his or her master and in so doing will be benefited by it.  Responsibilities are taken seriously, and the servant is a good representative of his or her master.  Jesus said that this is the kind of servant who will be blessed when his master comes and sees that he has been faithful to him, even though the master was not physically in his presence.  The mark of a good servant or Christian is that he or she does the right thing even if no one is looking.  Those who are trustworthy will usually be promoted and given greater responsibility.

What about the servant who is not faithful and wise, one whom Jesus calls an “evil servant”?  Is this the same servant who was once wise and faithful but turned evil?  How could one who has received the forgiveness of sins and entered into the holy state of matrimony with the loving Savior who sacrificed Himself because of His great love for mankind ever give up that blessed state of acceptance and re-enter a world of sin, hate, and confusion?  Perhaps the evil servant in this narrative represents those who may also be serving the master, not from a heart of love, but for purely selfish motives, believing his service is sufficient for acceptance.  However, he gets tired of waiting for his reward and decides that the master is not yet on his way, or maybe he is not coming at all.  He begins to take out his frustrations, over the lack of what he perceived he should receive, on to his fellow servants.  He did not really care about being faithful or being wise.  What he was lacking in his own soul he tried to fulfill by striking out at those around him.  Why should he try to be a good servant when it seemingly did not benefit him?  He decided in his heart to go out and get drunk.  He thought, “What’s the difference”?  He reminds me of the Hebrew people who got impatient for Moses to return from Mt. Sinai and made a golden calf to worship.

This evil servant, believing he will not be found out and believing that he has escaped the wrath of his master, goes about his business and is completely caught by surprise when his master is standing right in front of him with not only a look of anger, but of sad disappointment, knowing that justice must be served.  The evil servant had squandered his opportunity to be blessed.  Both of these servants served the same master.  They both knew what was expected of them and that the master would return eventually.  Matthew Henry wrote concerning all the indications that have been given as to Christ’s return: “…these (the lost) will be adjudged sufficient legal notice given, whether taken or no; and no unfairness can be charged on Christ, if He come suddenly, without giving other notice.  Behold, He has told us before”.  In other words, we’ve been warned.  There is no ambiguity in the gospel.  Men and women are sinners by nature separated from their Creator by their sin.  God required a sinless sacrifice in order to satisfy the penalty for sin.  Christ came, suffered, died, and rose again to redeem sinners.  All those who repent of sin and trust in Christ are reconciled with God, no longer separated from Him, and become members of His eternal family–simple, yet profound.

I can’t help but think that when those servants who have tried to fill that void with everything other than Christ stand before God, the Judge of all the earth, He will be very sad because they refused to repent and believe in His Son.  Some unknowledgeable folks picture God as a tyrant who enjoys judging and punishing people, just waiting to zap them for some sin, but God is not like that at all.  In Ezekiel 33:11, God instructed the prophet to tell the people, “As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live…”  No father that I have ever known takes any pleasure in punishing his child.  He desires that the child do right, and the best way is to punish him when he does wrong.  God is our Father.  He is also a God of justice.  He set the boundaries and the consequences of violating those boundaries.  But in His mercy, He gave us a way to avoid His wrath by sending His Son, Jesus, to pay the penalty for sin.  My prayer is that sinners would wake up before it is too late.