Matthew 24:43-51

In The Light Of His Second Coming All Are To Watch Wisely and Work Faithfully (24:43-51).

There now follow a series of parables in which Jesus stresses both the need to watch and the need to work. Indeed their very watchfulness should keep them hard at work, for they are servants waiting for their Master to return, and they must therefore be sure that when He does return they can present to Him an account of work well done. The series begins with a brief exhortation to watch in the same way as a man needs to watch in case a thief breaks through the wall of his house in order to steal his possessions, stressing the need to watch, and immediately goes on to the need for an appointed servant to ensure that he is feeding the Lord's servants, rather than misusing the things that have been put within his charge, stressing the need to work and serve. Both are very necessary.

Analysis.

a “But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what watch the thief was coming, he would have watched, and would not have allowed his house to be broken through” (Matthew 24:43).

b “Therefore be you also ready, for in an hour that you think not, the Son of man comes” (Matthew 24:44).

c “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his lord has set over his household, to give them their food in due season?” (Matthew 24:45).

d “Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he comes shall find so doing. Truly I say to you, that he will set him over all that he has” (Matthew 24:46).

c “But if that evil servant shall say in his heart, ‘My lord delays', and shall begin to beat his fellow-servants, and shall eat and drink with the drunken” (Matthew 24:48).

b “The lord of that servant will come in a day when he does not expect, and in an hour that he does not know” (Matthew 24:50).

a “And shall cut him apart, and appoint his portion with the hypocrites. There will be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 24:51).

Note that in ‘a' the master of the house has allowed his house to be broken into because he did not watch. We are left to imagine his chagrin on coming home and finding the mud wall broken into, and his goods gone, and in the parallel, in a similar way, the unfaithful servant will weep and gnash his teeth at what will happen to him, because he was not in readiness. Both will mourn because they had not watched. In ‘b' the Son of Man will come when He is not expected, and in the parallel the Lord of the servant comes when he is not expected. In ‘c' the wise servant faithfully feeds the household while in the parallel the wicked servant in contrast misuses his position and indulges himself. Centrally in ‘d' the faithful servant is blessed for his faithfulness and fully rewarded.