Bible Study series: Matthew 24:45-51. We better be faithful and find ourselves busy with God’s call on our lives. If we get abusive with his people, we will not have a happy, final judgment.
A warm welcome to this Bible study! I write to learn, so let’s learn together. I also translate to learn. The translations are mine, unless otherwise noted. If you would like to see many others, please click on this link:
In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Matthew 24:45-51
45 “Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant whom the master appointed over his household servants, and he gives food at the right time? 46 Blessed is that servant whom, when the master comes, he shall find him acting in that way. 47 I tell you the truth: he will appoint him over all his possessions. 48 But if that bad servant were to say in his heart, ‘My master delays,’ 49 and he began to beat his fellow servants, and he ate and drank with alcoholics, 50 then the master of that servant will come on a day which he did not expect and at an hour which he did not realize; 51 and he will cut him in two and will place his share with the hypocrites. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matt. 24:45-51)
Comments:
This is the first of three parables illustrating readiness before the parousia. Jesus is still answering the disciples’ second question. What will be the sign of Jesus’s parousia and close out of the age?
The basic meaning of this parable is that the good servant is blessed because the master finds him giving food or taking care of business at the right time. But the bad servant abused his authority, and the master came and found him misbehaving. The master came when the bad servant did not expect it, so he got punished severely.
One final point: what is a parable?
45:
One must get promoted from the ground up. Do you want to be a leader who gives food—spiritual food, the bread of life (John 6:30-40)—to people in accordance to how much they can take? An allotment of bread for the mature in their faith and the immature in their faith? Then know how to feed his sheep. Then that is a sign of a faithful and wise servant. Food allowance also speaks of the Word of God. Feed his sheep with it.
“faithful”: it is the adjective that means: “trustworthy, faithful, dependable, inspiring trust or faith”; or in other context it means “trusting, cherishing faith or trust, also believing, faithful.” So you have to be consistent in your service. Are you willing to stack chairs, to set up before the service, to rehearse with the worship team, to go to choir practice? Or do you show up intermittently, when you feel like it?
“wise”: it comes from the adjective that means: “sensible, thoughtful, prudent, wise.” A wise and prudent manager of God’s household or portion of his kingdom can figure things out by the Spirit. He knows how to plan and surrender his plan to God. He is in constant communication with God through prayer. God gives him heavenly wisdom to apply God’s kingdom principles to everyday life. It is God-given know-how. It may even include shrewdness (Luke 16:8). He is smart or wise enough to run a household faithfully and with business savvy.
“servants”: In Jewish culture a Hebrew man who sold himself into servitude to his fellow Jew was like an indentured servant whose term of service had a limit; he was freed in the seventh year. But then the indentured servant could stay with his family, if he liked his owner (Exod. 21:2-6; Lev. 25:38-46; Deut. 15:12-18). So there was a lot of liberty even in servitude, in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament).
Slavery and Freedom in the Bible
“master”: it is the noun that typically means Lord, as in the Lord Jesus Christ or lord or master or even sir in some contexts. Here it means both: Jesus is the master who returns, and he is the Lord. When Jesus appears on the scene at his return, he changes the title manager to servant. All of us in leadership are manager-servants. We are not the boss. He alone is the boss.
“right time”: the noun here is kairos (pronounced kye-ross and is used 85 times), which speaks more of a quality time than quantity. BDAG is considered by many to be the authoritative lexicon of the Greek NT, and it defines the noun as follows: (1) a point of time or period of time, time, period, frequently with the implication of being especially fit for something and without emphasis on precise chronology. (a) Generally a welcome time or difficult time … fruitful times; (b) a moment or period as especially appropriate the right, proper, favorable time … at the right time; (2) a defined period for an event, definite, fixed time (e.g. period of fasting or mourning in accord with the changes in season), in due time (Gal. 6:9); (3) a period characterized by some aspect of special crisis, time; (a) generally the present time (Rom. 13:11; 12:11); (b) One of the chief terms relating to the endtime … the time of crisis, the last times.
All of this stand in a mild contrast—not a sharp contrast—from chronos. Greek has another word for time: chronos (pronounced khro-noss), which measures one day, one week or one month after another.
In this context, the prudent servant follows the first definition and (b).
46-47:
Jesus call this household servant blessed. Why? When the master returns and find his lead servant feeding his servants or taking care of the household business, then that servant is blessed.
Do you want promotion in God’s kingdom? Then do the small things, like feeding the little lambs their food allowance at the proper time in Sunday School. Feed the elderly lambs in the convalescent or rest home with their food allowance at the proper time. Go out to the highways and hedges to draw—compel—people into the banquet, to give them their food allowance at the proper time (Matt. 22:9-10). God promotes faithful and wise servants. He will put you in charge over all his possessions.
“blessed”: it is an adjective or descriptor of who we are in Christ.
Note that the master appoints the faithful and wise servant over all his possessions. This indicates that when the parousia happens, we will not be sitting around and playing harps for eternity. We will have things to do.
48-49:
Now Jesus introduces a different kind of servant who stands in contrast to the blessed one. This one, appointed to leadership, becomes arrogant, which comes from self-deception. He is being pulled away from his duties by the lust of his flesh. He sees that his authority has been God-given and people respect him, and this respect and admiration opens the door just a crack, so that self-deception and arrogance creeps in. This is similar (some say) to the pride of Lucifer or Satan, who had been given God’s authority, but pride filled his heart when the heavenly beings admired him and worshiped under his leadership (see Is. 14:12-20 for a possible reference to this). One thing is certain: novices or recent converts should not be appointed to be leaders in the church, or else they will fall into the punishment of the devil (1 Tim. 3:6). But are these leaders necessarily novices? No, but something is going wrong. One of the wrong things is the seeming delay of the Lord. This manager-servant misinterpret the long time of his return as a license to escape judgment and therefore do as they please.
“delays”: it is the verb that means, depending on the context: (1) “take time, linger, fail to come (or stay away), for a long time … (2) delay, take a long time in doing something; (3) stay (somewhere for a long time)” (Shorter Lexicon). The best definition here is the second one. It appears in 25:5, the Parable of the Ten Maidens, so the two parables are connected by the same themes and wording. The main point is to be alert because you don’t know the day or the hour of the parousia.
These verses speak of scoffers who sneer at the delay:
4 They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” 5 But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 7 By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. (2 Pet. 3:4-10, NIV).
The scoffers need to be careful! They will be shocked when the Lord returns in his parousia. (Incidentally, those verses do not teach a separate rapture; they teach the Second Coming and judgment and new creation, following the same sequence of events, just as Jesus also taught (see below).
What actions does the manager-servant do? He “eats and drinks” and hangs out with drunkards (a possible translation of the term). This is more than just eating and drinking for daily sustenance. It refers to Is. 22:13, which says that some people say they should eat and drink, for tomorrow they will die (see 1 Cor. 15:32). More precisely it refers to Is. 56:12 which shows some people getting strong, intoxicating wine, because tomorrow will be just like any other day. And that’s why Jesus finished his three-fold description of a deficient manager-servant as getting drunk. Not every day will be like the last day. One day will be unlike any other—the return of the Lord. The added wrongdoing is that this misguided leader used the resources of the kingdom for their own selfish benefit. Worst of all, they have lost the ability to provide the allowance or allotment of food for the various citizens of the kingdom at the proper time.
50-51:
Verse 50, along with 46, is the main point of the clear parable. The bad servant did not expect or recognize when his master was coming back, so he was caught flatfooted—worse than that—he was misbehaving and acting unrighteously. In contrast, the good servant was rewarded with more oversight of all the master’s possessions.
“cut … in two”: the phrase is not to be taken literally but shows the severity of judgment. It seems that when Jesus ends his parables with a severe punishment, he is stating this principle, from the Torah: the severer the punishment, the severer the crime; the severer the punishment the more seriously we must take the story.
This is clearly hyperbole (pronounced hy-PER-boh-lee), designed to shock the reader. Remember that hyperbole is a deliberate exaggeration to startle the listener. Example: “Wow! The ice cream man is super-generous! He piled on the ice cream a mile high on my cone!” So no, I don’t believe God will literally cut some in two at final judgment. Jesus is simply adding another rhetorical effect to startle the listener. He once again uses a startling image, which he has done throughout the Gospel of Matthew. In 22:13, the outcast was bound hand and foot and thrown into darkness. In 25:30 a useless servant is thrown into outer darkness.
What is interesting is that the punishment is severe and the manager-servant is to be assigned to the place of the hypocrites.
“hypocrites”: originally it comes from the Greek play actor on the stage. They wore masks and played roles. There were stock characters, such as the buffoon, the bombastic soldier, or the old miser. The Septuagint (pronounced sep-TOO-ah-gent and abbreviated LXX for the “seventy” scholars who worked on it) is a third to second century translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek. It uses the term hypocrite to mean the godless. However, in Matthew’s Gospel (it is used only once in Mark 7:6 and three times in Luke 6:42; 12:56; 13:15), it is more nuanced. Hypocrites appeared one way, but in reality they were different. They appeared outwardly religious, but inwardly they were full of dead men’s bones (Matt. 23:27). They wore religious masks. They actually did many things that the law required, but they failed to understand God’s view of righteousness. They were more self-deceived than deceivers, though in Matt. 23, Jesus denounced the Pharisees and experts in the law for teaching one thing but living another. They are religious show-offs who act out their righteousness to impress others but are out of touch with God’s mercy and love. Eccl. 7:16 says not to be overly righteous, but that is what they were and displayed it publicly.
Jesus now used the hypocrites as the type of person who is worthy of severe punishment. He has no respect for them, nor should he.
“in that place”: Here it is more awkwardly but accurate: “The weeping and the gnashing will be there.” The clearer translation is as I have it.
“weeping and gnashing”: In their comments at 8:12, Keener says that weeping means mourning over damnation, and gnashing of teeth may indicate anger or a strong emotion similar to it. Carson says weeping may indicate suffering, and gnashing indicates despair, and Osborne agrees. In any case, existence in punishment is unhappy and produces despair and even anger. Perhaps the gnashing can also mean cursing in anger. (See these verses for gnashing: Acts 7:54; Job 16:9; Pss. 34:16; 36:12; 112:10; Lam. 2:16). Since weeping indicates remorse, it is not quite accurate to claim that hell is locked from the inside as if people want to be there, though maybe only the enraged do want this.
Finally, in the above pericope, we find this sequence:
Parousia → Judgment → Kingdom Age (reward for good servant)
Recall that the parousia means the Second Coming or the Return. The good servant was rewarded, which speaks of a positive judgment and entry into the Kingdom Age.
GrowApp for Matt. 24:45-51
1. Jesus told this parable to spur us on to faithful service. What are the ways that you can serve him faithfully in your own life?
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1. Church Fathers and Matthew’s Gospel
2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels
14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
SOURCES AND MORE
To see the bibliography, please click on this link and scroll down to the bottom. You will also find a “Summary and Conclusion” for discipleship.
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