The Faithful and Wise Servant
45 “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his lord has set over his household, to give them their food in due season? 46 Blessed is that servant whom his lord finds doing so when he comes. 47 Most certainly I tell you that he will set him over all that he has. 48 But if that evil servant should say in his heart, ‘My lord is delaying his coming,’ 49 and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eat and drink with the drunkards, 50 the lord of that servant will come in a day when he doesn’t expect it and in an hour when he doesn’t know it, 51 and will cut him in pieces and appoint his portion with the hypocrites. That is where the weeping and grinding of teeth will be.
A servant left in charge of feeding the household — and what he becomes when he decides the master is late.
“Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his lord has set over his household, to give them their food in due season?
The first of the waiting parables is about a servant with authority over other servants, and his job is stated exactly: feeding people, on time. Nothing grander is asked, and nothing in the parable suggests he was left instructions beyond that.
Blessed is that servant whom his lord finds doing so when he comes.
The blessing attaches to being caught in the act of ordinary work, which is the whole content of readiness in this chapter. He is not found watching the road; he is found handing out food.
But if that evil servant should say in his heart, ‘My lord is delaying his coming,’
Everything turns on that sentence, and it is said in his heart — nothing public, no announced change of belief. The delay is the same for both servants; only the conclusion drawn from it differs.
and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eat and drink with the drunkards,
What the conclusion produces is not idleness. He becomes a tyrant over the people he was appointed to feed, and he transfers his company to those with no stake in the house. The authority given for service is used for domination, which is exactly what was forbidden on the road Matthew 20:25–26.
the lord of that servant will come in a day when he doesn’t expect it and in an hour when he doesn’t know it,
The expectation he adjusted turns out not to have moved anything. A master's timetable is not affected by a servant's estimate of it.
"and appoint his portion with the hypocrites" Matthew 24:51. The word is the one used through chapter 23 for men whose outside and inside did not match, and it is the right classification: he kept the position while abandoning what it was for.
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