YES, HE is Talking to YOU! (continued)
Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
The next parable that we will discuss here is called the Parable of the Faithful Servant. This parable appears in all three of the synoptic gospels and is slightly different in each. In both the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Mark, the Master tells the story after telling His disciples about what we interpret as the end time causing this parable to be classified as eschatological. In the Gospel of Luke this parable occurs just after Luke’s version of the Sermon on the Mount and just before Jesus explanation of the result of His presence in the World. We will look at the three versions together as they comprise one teaching on awareness and readiness. Let us look at the three:
- From Matthew: “Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. 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. Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods. But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; And shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 24:42-51).
- From Mark: “Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock crowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch” (Mark 13:33-37).
- From Luke: “Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself , and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not. Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all? And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the men servants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more” (Luke 12:35-48).
Note how short is the version in Mark’s Gospel and how long it appears in Luke. Mark is quick and to the point but Luke reveals that same idea and more. Matthew’s version is like a shortened version of Luke but Matthew also misses some of what Luke provides. Let us look at these idea by idea.
Both Matthew and Mark, because they begin this parable immediately after telling of what we call the end time, start with a warning to watch because we know not when the end will be. This saying becomes the crux of Jesus message and it is developed further in the story of all three gospels. In Matthew the story is twofold; first we are told of the thief in that if we knew that when the thief would come we would be prepared and the thief would not be allowed access. The second part is of a householder who is given charge; if he takes care as he should he is ready when his master comes and will be rewarded but, if he does not take care and takes advantage of being left in charge, he will find himself in much difficulty should his master should come and catch him. In Mark’s version the master leaves all the servants to their work with none knowing when he will return and he uses this as an amplification of his original idea of watch. Let us address these two ideas before proceeding to Luke as they are directly related to what we interpret as the end time.
For the most part the end time depicted in Matthew and in Mark appears to be the fall of Jerusalem which occurred around 70AD and in the lifetime of many of the disciples that Jesus was speaking to. Other parts appear outside of this event and refer to a second coming of the Christ. While we do know that He did say that He will return, (in fact, He said He would be with us always) we can only guess at the method and the timing which the church is very prone to do. The scripture is so intentionally vague and ambiguous that we really cannot tell what His is saying to us. However, all this does not really matter; a time will come and some thing will happen and whether it be the end or not does not matter in the least because the reality of Life is that we are not this personality that is making its appearance on the Earth. We are the Spirit and the Life and we will be this well beyond any end time that we may believe is written of here. Beyond all this then the message should be clear; be ready and watch. Not only for the end time as we believe may happen but for the end of our own Earth life’s existence. Be ready to leave at any time; have always your life in order. This is the message to be found in watch and in be ready.
What is it that we need watch for in either of these events; the end time or the end of our own time on Earth? Simply this: we are here with an opportunity to gain access to the Kingdom of God and once we leave this world that opportunity may not any longer be available. Watch and be ready, according to the parables, means that we are doing what the Master would expect us to be doing and that is His word and His teaching. It means we have taken every opportunity given to us to gain the Kingdom and it means that we have not wasted or ignored whatever our own individual abilities to further the Kingdom of God are as we are cautioned about in the parable from Luke which we shall discuss. Much time and energy is spent in trying to discern what the Master means regarding the end time. Too much time is spent on this and on the end time ideas of Paul in his epistles and John’s Revelation that should be spent on teaching the way to the Kingdom which, as we know, is what the Master teaches. All of the interpretations we can render of the end time are but our own imaginings of things uncertain and do nothing to foster that Love that the Christ teaches. We do not know, and those who say they do are but telling us what they believe and what they imagine. We do not know what is the “sign of the Son of man in heaven“; nor can we understand the meaning of “the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven“. Nor can we know the real meaning of “And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other“. Least of all can we even grasp an idea of what it may mean for the “sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken” (Matthew 24:30:31, 29), especially knowing the structure of the universe as we know it today. These are likely depictions of spiritual things that we are trying to understand with the minds of men. But again, all of this does not really matter at all in the great scheme of things, the Plan of God. What matters is only what we do with the life we have and the time we have and hence, His caution that we watch and we be ready.
The story line of watch and be ready, although more elaborate and detailed, is about the same in Luke’s Gospel. However, in the Gospel of Luke there are some hard hitting verses for those of us who know, or even think that we know, the will of the Lord and what it is that He wants from us, His people. The sayings of the Master in Luke compound the ideas of “watch and pray” and “be ye also ready” saying that this may be good enough for them who stand by and claim no understanding but for us who proclaim to know Him there is quite a different scene painted by Jesus in the form of another parable within our subject parable. We can presume that this is for His disciples alone as it is said in answer to the question by the Apostle Peter. The gist of the Master’s saying is that they, the disciples and acknowledged followers (or aspiring disciples as many of us believe we are), know more and, in knowing, they have a greater accountability. He says this: “And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes“. What the meaning of this is, in the context of the greater parable, should be clear to us all and teaches us again along the lines of responsibility.
The Master closes this thought and this parable saying that “for unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more“. This is a bit different than what the Master generally tells us; in other places He says this about how we hear: “take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have” (Luke 8:18) and again a similar saying to His disciples: “Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath” (Matthew 13:11-12). Two points come from these verses:
- First, lets us take for example what we may have in wisdom and in understanding and in Love and how this determines what more of the same we will get. As regards what how we hear this can be seen as a our gift or as our warning. If we hear of the things of God and we value these and keep them in our hearts, we will find ever more value in this; conversely, if we hear these same things but they have no meaning to us and we don’t value them, then they work to cause us to value them even less. We can see these things at work in the world in many ways and in this context it is like a person who does not believe for whatever reason in what he is hearing from the word of God or any interpretation of it; this makes this person ever more resentful of the word he is hearing and takes him yet further from that word. Look at the teachings of the Master and what religious people have done to their fellowman over the centuries in the name of Jesus; these religious people heard His word against what they were doing but reasoned in themselves a better answer taking them yet further away. The Crusades, the Reformation Wars and even slavery and racial discrimination are examples of this. Ponder on this; in what ways does this type of attitude continue today? There is another idea here too that is hidden in the words seemeth to have and this is presumably for those who believe that they hear the good and religious words but they do not do them and do not keep His word in their hearts. Similarly, is knowledge of the Kingdom; the Master tells His disciples that it is given to us to know these mysteries but not to the world and then repeats the same dynamic as above. This shows us that in our knowledge we will get more knowledge because we are seeking it but for those who have little knowledge of the Kingdom will actually lose whatever they may have had as they spend their time and their energy on the things of the flesh alone and never heeding the call of the Soul.
- The second point is that for those who do have the wisdom and the understanding and the Love of the Kingdom. Not only do we get more of this because we are valuing it and keeping His word but we are also expected, rather required, to use it and the only use that we can glean from scripture is that which benefits our fellowman and furthers the principals of the Kingdom of God.
This then is the Parable of the Faithful Servant. First we must watch and pray and then be also ready and this is the Master’s instruction to us so that at whatever end we may face, the end time or the end of our Earthly existence, we are found to be in His word and in His Kingdom. Second is that whatever Kingdom tools we have we must use for the fostering of the precepts of the Kingdom of God on Earth; that we can be found heeding His call that we “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).
Note on the Quote of the Day
This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment.
Leaving yesterday’s Quote of the Day
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)
Today’s Quote of the Day is an expression of the nature of God in the knowledge that we are sons. We should understand that we will see Him as He is when we are in His Presence and in His Kingdom and this is done by doing His word. In this also can we say that we are ready
