45 “Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46 Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. 47 Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48 But if that evil slave says in his heart, ‘My master is not coming for a long time,’ 49 and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards; 50 the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, 51 and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Black and white, the responses are binary. Jesus brought the parable to its moral and spiritual conclusion. There are, in the end, only two responses. Either we are good stewards of God’s assignment for us or we are “evil” stewards, not being faithful to our assignment from God.
A steward is someone who is given the responsibility of looking after his master’s property. In this story, Jesus used the first century practice of slavery to drive home His point. He was not condoning the practice, but simply using it for illustration purposes. Elsewhere in Scripture we find teaching that transforms the practice of slavery by the application of Christian principles to relationships (see the book of Philemon, for example).
The slave in this story was given a stewardship, namely, to look after his master’s possessions. By analogy, God is the master. But who do the stewards represent? One obvious answer would be the Jewish religious leaders, who were clearly not being faithful in their stewardship, as exemplified in their rejection of Jesus and His teachings. Faithfulness to God should have led them to belief in Christ. In contrast, the apostles were faithful to the message, and God ultimately would appoint them to greater things. Jesus earlier had said, “Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matt 19:28, see also Rev 21:14). Jesus pulls no punches in His graphic depiction. For the believer, the suddenness of Christ’s return will be a joyous surprise. The unbeliever will be horror struck.
God is still looking for faithfulness, “… it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy” (1 Cor 4:2). What is needed today, more than ever, is trustworthy Christians, whose central focus of life is Jesus Christ, who see themselves simply as ambassadors for His Kingdom!
Lord, I confess to You that much of my life is spent in self-advancing, self-comfort efforts. Thank You for reminding me that I am to be simply Your steward, given responsibility to faithfully carry out Your will.
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