Matthew 24:45-51

Matthew 24:45-51

Who then is the faithful and wise slave whom the Lord puts in charge upon his household – to give to them the food in the proper time?  Blessed is that slave whom after his Lord comes back he will find him doing this!  Amen, I say to you that upon all his possessions he will put him in charge.  But if that wicked slave should say to in his heart, “My lord is spending a long time away,” and he should begin to beat his fellow slaves and he should eat and drink with the ones who become drunk, the lord of that slave will arrive in a day that he does not anticipate and in an hour that he does not know.  And he will punish him severely and set him in his place with the pretenders.   In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

The first two verses of this passage are a bit difficult in the way that they are worded.  However, the message of Jesus is very clear.  Jesus wants to tell us what it looks like to be a blessed slave in the Father’s kingdom.  The slave who is blessed is the one who feeds the rest of His kingdom!  In other words, the blessed one of the kingdom is the one who spends their time building up the rest of the kingdom.  In the end, this should really make sense.  What is it that Jesus came and did when He wasn’t dying on the cross and bringing salvation to us?  He was feeding the kingdom of God.  What is it to be blessed?  It is imitating the Son!

How are you feeding the kingdom?  What does it mean to you to feed the kingdom?

Second Thought:

As we would expect, this is yet another passage about being prepared.  We have a comparison between two slaves.  The first slave does as he is asked and finds himself rewarded.  He doesn’t worry about the timing, he just goes about his job.  He is loyal and faithful regardless of the lord’s timing.  The second slave is faithful at first, but when the lord takes a while in coming back the slave begins to reveal what is in his heart and does that.  This is why he is a pretender.  The evil slave looks like he can be trusted at first, but in time his true heart is revealed.  This is why we need to be prepared.  If we are not careful, we will slip and slide into our humanity and become a pretender.  By being prepared, we can avoid the pitfall of being tempted into the passions of our heart and instead be loyal to the task at hand to which the Lord has set us.

What has the Lord called you to do?  How do you avoid the pitfall of having your life slide into lesser human tendencies instead of the great work to which the Lord has called you?

Third Thought:

 Speaking of punishment, the Greek word that Jesus uses to speak about being punished severely is quite unique.  The actual word is dichotomeo (διχοτομέω) and it clearly is the root word for our English word dichotomy.  The word literally means “to cut into two pieces.”  You don’t get more of a severe punishment than being cut into two pieces!  The result of disobedience is being put in our place.  The result of wasting our time that God has given to us is to be labeled a pretender and put aside.

Does this passage put a little fear into you?  How would it feel to stand before God and be labeled a pretender?  How can you respond genuinely to God and spend your time here on this earth feeding His kingdom as He asks?

Passage for Tomorrow: Matthew 25:1-13