The Wise and the Wicked (Matthew 24: 45-51) 

Often when Christians we first hear that Jesus Christ is coming back, they get excited, then like a new phone or the latest gadget the excitement can often wear off. The news that Jesus Christ is coming again becomes old news. Like many of us older Christians I suspect, like me when you first read the late great planet earth by Hal Lindsay, we thought that Jesus must be coming back any day soon. My father told me that he remembered many people thought the Lord was coming back shortly after the 2nd world war ended. I am sure the 1917 Balfour declaration followed by the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 that year prompted many people to think that way.

But taking a longer view of history shows that for 2000 years people have looked at what is going on and felt for sure that the second coming of Jesus Christ was imminent.   This sense of always waiting can sometimes make me and perhaps others grow complacent about the reality that he is really coming back and that can be a problem. Expectation and excitement can wear thin and after a while we become complacent about the reality that Jesus Christ is really coming back to receive us unto himself. Needless to say, that not the correct response to that wonderful news. As a matter of fact, responding that way can have devastating consequence both in this life and for that matter in the life to come.

In Matthew chapter 24 and chapter 25 Jesus gives us what is commonly called, “The Olivet Discourse”, for the simple reason he spoke it on, The Mount of Olives, and it was he talked about the fact that before he would come back there would be a time of great tribulation, and he also talked about the fact that there would be a rapture and that Christian believers would be taken out before that tribulation ended. So having given that overall context, he then began at that point to teach a sermon bookended with 3 parables.

In those three parables he gives any of us who are waiting for his return a rather stern warning, as a matter of fact there’s some rather disturbing and even shocking things taught in these parables.  I want us to look at today is one of the things that can happen if we decide with a yawn that yes, the Lord is coming back but we are not that bothered or excited about it.

The Faithful Servant and the Evil Servant

“Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  (Matthew 24: 45-51)

Jesus here is simply telling us about two different kinds of servants, the first one is called a faithful servant, and the second he describes as an evil servant. What I want us to look do is just look at this faithful servant and the wicked servant and see what the Lord tells us about each of those people.

Let’s begin with the faithful servant,  whom the opening verse tells us is a faithful and a wise servant whom his master allowed to rule over his household. Note this wise servant is given a responsibility, he’s given the responsibility of being in charge of the household including the distributing of food to the other servants. We are told that this faithful servant, when he expresses his  responsibilities well will receive a reward from his master. Verse 46 tells us that “Blessed is that servant whom when his master returns has done what he was told to do”.

The key to his faithfulness was in his consistently,  faithfulness is not demonstrated over for a short time, he was seen to be faithful to the very end. He was faithful until the time when the master came back and that is very important. So, he was faithful, and he was wise, and because of that the text says that he will be blessed. By simply fulfilling his responsibility, he is blessed. God blesses those who are faithful and who wisely discharge the responsibilities God has given them. So, when the master returns this is how Jesus says he will bless him. He will him ruler over all his possessions. Jesus says he who fulfils his responsibilities, when he returns, they will be rewarded.  Let me just make a little observation here, what is the reward for faithfully serving the Lord, the answer is, more work,  Alright you did a good job so I’m going to give you more work to do, but seriously isn’t that the way it is in life. If you get a job and do a good job, what are they going to do, they’re probably going to give you a promotion and more responsibility. Those who demonstrate their capability and responsibility are usually given more responsibility.

But that’s a spiritual principle here as well. Those who are faithful in little things, as Jesus also taught in Luke 16, are given responsibility over the big things. I think the reward for doing a good job is always more responsibility. 

Then he tells of what I’m going to call a wicked servant and he contrasts that by saying what happens this second servant says in his heart, my master is delaying his return. Let me pause here for a second because now Jesus is going to talk about a wicked servant and that's an obvious contrast to the wise servant. The question is who does this fellow represent, and there are two possible answers to that. One answer some people suggest is that he is an unbeliever and that’s based on the fact of what the passage says about his conduct. He began to beat his fellow servants and ate and drank with the local drunks, so his conduct seems to indicate that this is not a genuine believer. Look at what else he did, he mistreated people, but the really disturbing part and the thing that convinces some people this is an unbeliever is in verse 51 which says that as a result of what he did, he will be cut into two pieces, and he will be appointed with the hypocrites and there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Some automatically assumed that the place of the wailing and gnashing of teeth is a description of hell and so the conclusion of some is that this fellow is not a believer and he ends up in hell. However, is someone conduct the only criteria we can apply to deciding whether or not someone is a believer or not.

I think there’s a second possibility, which says no, he’s actually a believer, who has back into his old ways. Let’s look at the evidence. In the first place he’s called a servant look at verse 48 he’s a servant, an evil servant granted. The other guy was called a wise servant, but they are both called servants non the less. Furthermore, he believed the Lord was coming back, he said in his heart my master is delaying his coming, so he might not have believed the master was coming back, that day, but he did believe the master was coming back eventually.

The analogy indicates he served the Lord, badly and with poor intentions, and he believed the Lord is coming back. He believed in the second coming of Christ but had given up worrying or even thinking about when that day might be. They’re both serving the master, they’re both waiting for him to come back, and if he had been wise he too could have had a reward.  In my personal opinion I think this fellow is a believer because he’s a servant and he calls the master, master. So, I think he’s a genuine believer.

If that’s the case, how do you explain all this other stuff and it really is sobering to look. This guy says my master is delaying his return, so he thinks he’s got more time. He’s coming back, but not imminently. The next thing it says of him is that he beats his fellow servants and eat and drink with drunks. What was he supposed to be doing, he was meant to be feeding the others.  As a matter of fact, many commentators have concluded this passage is really talking about preachers because they’re should be feeding the other servants with the word of God, they are supposed to be ministering to those other people by feeding them and instead of which he neglects and mistreats them.

One observer of the text has suggested that there is a downwards progression in this man’s life. First in his heart he denied the imminent return of the Lord. Secondly, he decided that he could get away with mistreating others, and thirdly he ends up with the drunks. In other words, his downfall began by miscalculating the Lord’s return, it then progressed to the point where he thought he could get away with mistreating other people and finally it affected every aspect of his personal behaviour.

Let me put it like this, first there was an error regarding his understanding of the Lord return, then there was an error in regard to how he treated Lord’s people, he began to abuse them and finally, there is an error in regarding to himself, it ended in depravity and self-abuse. First, first he loses the sense of the nearness of God, then he loses the sense of the law of God and finally he loses the capacity of self-control. Interesting.

The question for you then becomes, do you believe in the doctrine of the second coming of Christ? This passage tells me that having a wrong view of that doctrine can led to devastating consequences.  In this man’s life because he decided the Lord was going to delay his coming and he made a serious spiritual miscalculation that he thought he could get away with, treating other people badly and he thought he could get away with sin. 

The result of his response is given in verses 50 and 51 which says, the master will come on a day when he’s not looking out for him for him and at an hour, he is not aware of and then the master is going to cut him into apart and assign a place with the hypocrites and there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. How do you explain all of that. Well, in the first place it’s immediately obvious that some of this is hyperbole is being used here, it’s highly figurative language. This is not meant to be read as something physical that is literally going to happen to this guy. One Bible teacher has made what I think is a fascinating suggestion, he suggests that you look at Hebrews chapter 4 Hebrews chapter 4 says this it says, “The word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the division of soul and spirit”. It continues, “It is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”.

Figuratively speaking you gets divided in two every time the Word of God is allowed to fall like a sharp-edged sword into a human situation. Because the Word of God is the division between truth and error.  The reason I also feels it is justified to apply that verse to this passage in Matthew 24, is that it is saying the same thing spiritually, in the sense that all things are open to his to the eyes of God to whom we must one day give an account. Clearly the scripture teaches us that one day we as believers are called to give an account to the Lord, and it says that when we do it, it will be the word of God that’s going to be able to discern the difference between what we say, and and the thoughts and the intents of the heart, and of course what we actually do.

I think that Matthew chapter 24 when it talks about being divided is probably a reference to the fact that at the judgment seat of Christ were all going to be divided by what we profess,  and what we really believed which will be evidenced by what we actually did when set alongside what the Word of God teaches, we should have done.  On that day the sword of the Spirit will fall upon our lives dividing what was true from what was not true. So, it is in that wicked way a portion of our lives will be assigned with the hypocrites. That side of our spiritual lives will be sent to hell, so to speak.

If you’ve been tracking with me as we’ve been tracking through the book of Matthew, you know that earlier Jesus warned the disciples against the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. It is possible for a Christian to pretend to be something he is not, as a matter of fact in Galatians chapter 2 the apostle Paul accused no less than the apostle Peter of being a hypocrite, imagine that. Galatians chapter 2 as well as first Peter chapter two clearly indicates that a some at the judgment seat of Christ, will be shown to be hypocrites in how they lived their lives. 

The is not about whether someone was a Christian or not, that’s already been decided. This is about the hypocrisy of some who were not faithful servant and custodians of what they were given. This  has to do with not being a faithful servant of the Lord, in that they didn’t use their Christian faith to inspire or help other people. He or she may have been a Christian, but they still hurt people and in that they were a hypocrite in their profession of being a servant. One commentator has said it like this, “There is no doubt the kind of person of whom the Lord’s parable describes is someone who finds themselves at the judgment seat of Christ and being there finds that an extremely emotionally painful situation.

The sharp two-edged sword of the divine Word will bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and reveal the secret desires and machinations of the heart. No doubt when our Lord judges’ some servant as unfaithful by his penetrating word, such servants will feel like they’ve been cut in two, rebuked by Christ, and that the judgment seat will certainly be a spiritual painful experience.

This is all about being exposed by the Word of God, to the plans of God. The hypocrisy of saying you our serving the Lord when in reality you were doing nothing more than serving your own selfish self-interests, all of that will be laid bare for some. Remember these are genuine believers, but there are some who say they are serving the Lord, but they’re in reality serving themselves. 

What this passage is doing is giving a picture that when the Lord comes back, we’re all going to stand before him we’re going to give an account and it is the word of God that’s going to cut to the core. It’s going to reveal the hypocrisy, and you can only imagine what happens next, Matthew chapter 24 says there’s going to be weeping and gnashing of teeth. True, elsewhere that expression is used elsewhere of hell, and certainly it can be used of hell, but this was also a common expression used to describe any painful experience, just as wearing sack cloth and ashes was a proverbial express used to describe regret or mourning. I believe this phrase is used in other places, both biblical and apocryphal to describe believers who are in deep grief over what they have done.

The whole picture in the context of the entire passage is one of pain and loss, so this does not suggest punitive measures at the judgment seat of Christ because anyway we will have glorified bodies in eternity, but it does suggest loss of reward and of opportunity in the ministry of the Kingdom of God. And they is going to be terribly tormented by being confronted with that truth. To the point where he or she will breakdown and weep at the loss of the opportunity to serve the Lord in this live, and the loss of reward at the judgment seat of Christ. By the way, these tears are genuine, but they are not eternal. Remember Revelation 21, says he’s going to wipe away every tear.

What that tells us that one day we will stand before the Lord and be presented with the truth as arbitrated by the Word of God and for some that will be a good thing, and for some that will be bad. However, may I suggest that if you’re a believer in Jesus Christ both types of servants are in you and me. I don’t think this is a case of the wise serpent being on one end and the wicked servant being on the other side, I think it a spectrum and there’s probably gradations between the two in all of our lives. There have been those moments in my life, times when I have behaved like the wise servant and there’s no doubt been those moments in my life when I think I’m going to have to give account for this one day. Thankfully I can allowed Jesus to carry the consequences of those aspects of my life at the cross.

There is an unmistakable pattern in this passage, and we need to thing carefully about what was identified as the start of this process of degeneration. It began with the decline of someone who was a servant of God becoming and faithful and in the end was behaving in wicked and evil ways. I would suggest it began when he ceased to expect the Lord to return soon.

Let me ask you a question do you believe in the second coming of Jesus Christ, do you believe the Lord is coming back, do you believe that’s for you it’s going to happen during your life, or at the end of your life. I would like to suggest that is the problem here, we all need to wake up every morning expecting well maybe it’s today. I confess that many days I don’t do that, but since I’ve been studying this, I’ve started waking up in the morning saying maybe it’s today. I think this passage teaches us that if we don’t really believe the Lord’s coming back, soon our heart of hearts will begin to plan to do things we really should not.

I am sure you have made some plans about what you are going to do between now and the end of the year, maybe you have planned your next holiday. Maybe you have planned what you are going to do in your retirement, but also remember to plan everything you do based upon the precept that the Lord might return, today. The process for this wicked servant was that he didn’t do that. It started with procrastination, but it leads to out and out wickedness.  No one knows the day, or the hour the Lord’s going to come back, and because of that we need to think it might happen today. What this wicked servant did is he said, no, my masters has delayed his coming, therefore he pushed it to the back of his mind and he thought how could go out in the world and sin and get away with it

The theological conclusion we need to learn here is  that the Lord in delaying his coming leads to some devastating consequences for some people. However, if we expect the Lord to come back at any moment, then we need to be mindful that what you need to be doing is ministering to people, because I want him to find me doing that sort of stuff when he returns. If he is going to come back, right now, maybe I should be sure I am doing what he told me to do when he gets here, and that means doing it all the time. We need to take this very seriously. 

I used to think when I got to the ripe old age of 60 or 65, I’d retire. I’m 62 now and I am busier in the Lords work that I have ever been. This podcast project alone will probably take up 8 hours a day for the next 10 years of my life, and I am happy about that. I think that as long as I have breath and I need to be serving the Lord. Because I don’t know when he’s coming back, but this I do know, the wise servant was caught in the act of doing what he was supposed to be doing when the master came back, and I want to be like him.

Studying the Bible has always been by sacred addiction, not my secret addiction, my sacred addiction, and there are many causes of addiction, but the one for me is not a spirit in a bottle, but the Holy Spirit that has motivated me to study and preach and teach from the bible for over 35 years now. I know that if you put your life in the hands of the Holy Spirit he wants you to help you achieve lifelong spiritual habits that honour and serve the Lord, and then you are much less likely to be caught doing something else when he returns or calls you home.

My suggestion is that you think long and hard about the progression that led the wicked servant to his wickedness and flip it. Because doing the Lords work under the prompting of God’s Holy Spirit can lead you into being like the wise servant, who will be rewarded for their faithfulness. Rewarded in the kingdom. So, change the way you think, change your attitude, today, in the knowledge that maybe today, he will return for you.