The
time is intense. The arrest of Jesus is imminent; his earthly ministry is
quickly drawing to a close. The sense of the passage from Matthew 23 to Matthew
25 is that Jesus is trying to teach his disciples as much as he can before it
all comes to an end.
He
warns against religious leaders and condemns them (“You snakes! You brood of
vipers!”). He grieves over Jerusalem. And then, on the Mount of Olives, he
teaches his disciples, using stories and parables. Be watchful. Be ready and
waiting. Be expectant. The last days are coming. Learn from the stories of the
10 bridesmaids and the loaned money. And let me tell you about the final
judgment.
This
is his last extended time to teach them, and Jesus is packing it in.
Tucked
among the various teachings is a warning about being ready. Jesus uses the
analogy of the wise and evil servants. The wise and faithful servant, put in charge
of the servants of the household, cares for them and feeds them at the proper
time. “It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he
returns. I tell you the truth, he will be put in charge of all his possessions.”
The
evil or wicked servant, however, waiting and waiting for the master’s return,
gets tired of waiting and “then begins to beat his fellow servants and eat and
drink with drunkards.” In his case, the master arrives unexpectedly. “He will
cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will
be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (I’ve always like that phrase – “gnashing of
teeth” – even though it makes my mouth hurt to think of it.)
Bob
Sorge, in The Fire of
Delayed Answers, notes
that two things happen to the evil servant: “He loses his heart for the
household, and he surrenders his self-control.” The two are inevitably linked;
one follows almost naturally from the other. The delay in the master’s return creates
both a crisis of the spirit and a crisis of behavior.
The causal problem in facing delay
is the loss of heart. At work, we’ve been experiencing major organizational and
management changes. What the new organization and leadership will be won’t be
known for some weeks. There are good reasons for the delay, but the waiting is
wearing on people. Anxiety is not uncommon. Speculation abounds. Things overheard
in casual conversations become amplified into statements of fact.
The reality is that, regardless of
anxiety and speculation, we still have to get work done. Work hasn’t gone away.
It didn’t decide to take a holiday while we worried and fretted.
That’s what the wise servant
understands and practices. He keeps focused on what he’s been entrusted with,
as difficult as that can be at times.
He is faithful. He doesn’t lose
heart.
Led
by Jason Stasyszen and Sarah Salter, we’ve been reading The Fire of Delayed
Answers. To see more posts on this chapter, “Jesus’ Teaching on Delay,” please
visit Sarah at Living Between
the Lines.
Photograph by Nuzrath Nuzree via Public
Domain Pictures. Used with permission.
