"Who, then, is the faithful and wise servant...?"
II - The elements in the parable
There are several elements in the parable that require identification, namely: The Master; the Master’s household; the prominent slave; the other slaves; the circumstance of the absense and return of the Master and when it occurs; the tasks assigned to the slaves. The Master: This is obviously Jesus Christ. The context in Matthew 24:39, 42, 44 is about the “coming” [Greek: parousia, Strong’s # 3952] of the Son of man (v.39), the Lord “coming” [Greek: erchomai, Strong’s #2063] (v.42), the Son of man “come” [erchomai] (v.44). Likewise, the context in Luke 12:40 speaks that the Son of man “comes” [erchomai]. The context in Mark 13:26 speaks of the Son of man “coming [erchomai] in clouds with great power and glory.” The journey / absence of the Master: The parable itself speaks of a Master that is “going on a journey, when he leaves home” and that later “will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning” (Mark 3:34, 35); In Matthew, the absence of the Master is assumed, because he is said to put a slave “in charge of the servants in the household” until “when he returns”. (Matthew 24:45, 46). In Luke the absence of the Master is also assumed, but he is said to appear to be delayed in coming, and yet “the master of that servant will come”. The theme of the journey/absence, and subsequent return/presence, of the Master/Son of man is a recurring theme on several of Jesus’ parables; it can be seen on the parables of the wicked vinedressers (Matthew 21:33-46; Mark 12:1-12; Luke 20:9-19), the Master who went to a wedding feast (Luke 12:36, 37), the wise and foolish virgins (Matthew 25:1-13), the talents and minas (Matthew 25:14-30; Luke 19:12-28). It is at the core of the parable of the faithful and wise slave too. What is this journey that the Master, Jesus Christ, endeavours, that would cause him to be absent from his household? This can only be understood as his resurrection and ascention to heavens. After being resurrected, he spent 40 days with his disciples; during this time, he helped them to discern the Scriptures about himself, provided encouragement, and gave them instructions for the near future. - Luke 24:44-48; Matthew 28:18-20 The return / presence of the Master: What about the return and presence? The words that Jesus used to refer to his return are “parousia” and “erchomai”. The greek term “erchomai” has a basic sense of “to come / to go”; the greek term “parousia” has the sense of “presence”, especially after a “coming” or “arrival”. Regarding the advent of Christ, or his “second coming”, while erchomai tends to be used in regards with the act of returning, parousia seems to focus on the permanence of the presence after such return. However, since Jesus spoke originally in aramaic, the common language of Palestine around the first century AD, and the writers of the gospels used the Koine Greek, one shouldn’t be too dogmatic about the greek terms that supposedly translate accurately what Jesus uttered in his own language. “Parousia” and “erchomai” appear to be used somewhat interchangeably, and the context is the best guide to determine the sense of the original expression. When the disciples asked Jesus “Tell us when this will be; and what will be the sign of your Coming and of the Close of the Age?” (Matthew 24:3), they were well aware that their Lord would leave them sometime soon, only to return later. (Matthew 16:21-27). So they were interested in the question of how could they know when that time was coming near or was already upon them. Notice how the “coming” [parousia] is closely related with the “close of age” [synteleias tou aionos, literally, “completion of the time cycle”]. In the paralell account of Mark 13, after Jesus remarked that the Temple would be destroyed, the disciples asked “what will be the sign when all these predictions are on the point of being fulfilled?" Jesus then tied the “close of age” with the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. The parable of the faithful and wise slave is given in the context of Jesus’ prophecy about the “end of the time cycle”, that is, the end of the Jewish system of things with its worship system based on the Temple; the return of the Son of man is part of this same prophecy. Jesus said: “And then will they see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.” (Mark 13:26); also “then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” (Luke 21:27); also “then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” (Matthew 24:30) The Second Advent of Christ was closely related with the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, which was the last episode of the First Judean War of 66-70 CE, at the hands of the roman armies led by general Titus. Consequently, the return of the Master of the parable of the “faithful and wise slave” corresponded to the Second Coming, or Advent, of Christ, which we can surely say that started at some point before the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. However, neither the disciples nor apparently even Jesus himself knew exactly when such events would finally unravel. (Mark 13:32; Matthew 24:36) Therefore, it was vital that a stern alert was given to the disciples to stay “on guard” and “stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming”, probably even “coming at an hour you do not expect”. - Matthew 24:42; Luke 12:40 The household - What is the Master’s household? Clearly it’s the christian congregation, the disciples of Christ, the Christians. The apostles viewed the congregation as a whole as “God’s Household”, comprising disciples from both Jewish and Gentile origin. Speaking to the gentile brethren in Ephesus, Paul wrote that “you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God”. (Ephesians 2:19) The congregation, like a family of brothers and sisters, is called “the household of faith.” (Galatians 6:10) Peter and Paul agreed that the group of God’s worshipers united in Christ are “the household of God, which is the church of the living God”- 1 Timothy 3:15; 1 Peter 4:17 Once Israel had been the household of God, and Moses was a faithful servant in it, explained the apostle Paul to the congregation in Jerusalem, composed mainly from christians of Jewish origin. “But Christ is faithful as the Son over God's house. And we are his house”, he wrote in Hebrews 3:5, 6. Jehovah is the owner of the household, and Jesus, as his Son, is the Master over the house. Once Israel, now the christian congregation, the household represents all those individuals who worship God professing their faith in Jesus Christ. In the first century, it represented the christian congregation that was founded by Christ in Pentecost 33 CE; and since Christ only started one church, the household represents the entire christianity nowadays, regardless of the different denominations and even the conflicting beliefs. Even Israel, with its many spiritual infidelities, remained God’s household until God saw fit to “end the time cycle” with them and start dealing with a christian, spiritual Israel in its place. (Galatians 3:7; 6:16) Nowadays, everyone confessing Christ is symbolicly a member of the Master’s household, whose individual faithfulness comes under scrutiny from Jesus Christ. - 1 Peter 4:17; Romans 14:12 The servants - The expression “household” in the Bible usually refers, not primarily to the building, or house, but to the people dwelling under its roof. This may include the family, but also the body of servants. 1 Corinthians 1:16; Romans 16:11; Acts 16:15; Phillipians 4:22. Shorthly after he uttered the parabole of the “faithful and wise slave”, on the very last night before he died, he told his disciples: “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.” (John 15:15) Yes, the slaves do not know what the master is dealing with, and they simply do as they’re told. But now, since Jesus revealed to them what they should expect regarding his Second Coming, and the truth about the Kingdom of God, they are no longer slaves, but the Master considers them “friends”. Still, until their Master’s return and they gaining their access to the heavenly kingdom, they’d still be servants, in the sense that they must keep on performing the tasks that were assigned to them by their Lord. “You are my friends if you do what I command”, said Jesus. (John 15:14). While on earth, the disciples of Christ are friends and gain the right to become “sons of God”, but on a conditional basis - if they do what God and Jesus commands them to do. (Matthew 7:21; John 1:12) In order to ensure that they remain in an approved condition before God and Christ, they must remain busy, for the Master “gave authority to his slaves, gave each one his work” within the household, that is, within the christian congregation. (Mark 13:34) Not only that, but they are servants also in the sense that each Christian serves its fellow Christian. Peter wrote: “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace.” - 1 Peter 4:10 What were the tasks that each individual christian should be busy with in the first century, that Jesus instructed them to do, while they awaited his return? Make disciples, teach others, baptize them (Matthew 28:19, 20), wait for the arrival of the “helper”, the Holy Spirit (John 16:13; Acts 1:4), celebrate the last supper in memory of the Lord (Luke 22:19-20), care for those in distress (Matthew 25:34-36), love one another (John 15:12), be ready (Luke 12:40). These were the “tasks” that each Christian should be busy with, in obedience with the instructions from the Master, until the Master’s return. Therefore, in this parabole, each Christian, individually considered, is a servant within the household of the Lord, the christian congregation. The special slave - In each version of this parabole, Jesus singles out a slave for a particular task of greater responsability. In Mark, this slave is assigned to a task of doorkeeper. What was the duty of the doorkeeper? To stay alert and open the door. A doorkeeper opens the door not only for the Master to return, but also for the other servants in their go abouts.That slave should remain obedient to Jesus, who himself “opens doors that no one can shut”, that is, offers opportunities for people to gain access to the Kingdom of God (Revelation 3:8), and who is, himself, the “door of the sheepfold”. (John 10:9) John the Baptist served as a doorkeeper to the “sheepfold” of the early Jewish disciples of Christ, opening the door so that these could follow the shepherd, but now Jesus appointed another servant to occupy the role of doorkeeper. - John 10:3 In the versions of Matthew and Luke, the singled out servant has a special responsability towards the other slaves. He must attend the other servants to “give them their food at the proper time” (Matthew 24:45; Luke 12:42). Naturally, being himself a servant, this is also a Christian person in equal stand with the others regarding salvation, but he’s “the one who has been entrusted with much” (Luke 12:48). What is involved in dispensing “food at the proper time” to his fellow servants? This is “spiritual food”. Jesus himself said: “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work.” (John 4:34) He also said: it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world (...) I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” (John 6:32-35) Therefore, the truth of the Gospel about Jesus and the knowledge about God’s will are the true spiritual nourishment that is required to keep the servants of the household fed. This special task would have to be accomplished “at the proper time” by the specially apointed servant. This expression “at the proper time” is the translation of the greek expression “en kairo”, which literally means “in season”. Instead of transmitting the idea of a repeated task (like preparing and serving a meal several times a day), this transmits the notion of gathering supplies and dispensing food when the time is right, in due season, when the time comes. This is why “readiness” and “keeping awake” is paramount for this servant, because the opportunity to dispense “food at the proper time” is no routine task, like that of a cook or a table waiter. This servant is a household manager; he must pay attention to the signs of time and rise to the task of gathering and dispensing food “at the proper time” to the household; for example, a steward would be responsable for purchasing large quantities of supplies in the market or directly from suppliers (compare with Luke 16:5-8); he would have to be alert to know when such products would be available and make sure he secured them to the household. If he neglected his duties, his fellow servants wouldn’t have supplies and therefore no nourishment. Jesus considered the possibility that this “faithful slave” might become an “evil slave” if he failed to perform his duty faithfully. How could this hypothetical situation happen? Jesus said that if the slave developed a wicked heart by convincing himself that the Master was delaying his arrival, and, as a result of that loss of sense of urgency, negligenced the task of giving spiritual food at the proper time, indulge in spiritual drunkedness and glutonery, and abuse his fellow servants, this would make him an “evil slave”. If such thing would happen as a result of not understanding the instructions of the Master, such slave, upon the sudden return of the Master, would be punished with “few strokes”; however, if he had competently understood the will of the Master and yet failed his mission, such slave would be severely slashed with many strokes and thrown out from the household, where he would suffer bitterly. However, Jesus mentioned this situation hypothetically; there would be no “evil slave” along with a “faithful slave”. This was merely a warning, about what would happen if the “faithful slave” would fail to perform the serious task that was entrusted to him. But, if the Master, upon his return, would find the “faithful and wise servant” performing his assigned task as ordered, the Master would reward him by putting him “in charge of all his posessions”. What are these possessions? The apostles knew that his brothers and sisters were assets to Christ. They were “God’s heritage” (1 Peter 5:3 KJV) On the last night before he was killed, Jesus prayed to his Father and reminded him that he had taken good care of the disciples: “While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except [Judas]” (John 17:12) Revelation tells us that with his blood, the Lamb has “purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation”. (Revelation 5:9) Therefore, ‘all the Master’s possessions’ are individual Christians, upon whom Jesus would assign the “faithful and wise slave” to be in charge of, or responsable for, after his “parousia” had begun. Who, then, was the “faithful and discrete slave” of the parable? The type of embracing reward the the Master awards to the “faithful and wise servant” is such, that Jesus couldn’t be talking neither about individual Christians, nor even about spiritual shepherds within the congregations, nor travelling overseers or missionaries. This servant would receive authority upon the entire Christian congregation. Who would be worthy of being entrusted with such privilege and responsability? Jesus provided the answer. We should start by looking into the context to search for the answer. Who was Jesus talking to when he uttered the parable? Matthew 24:3 tells us that Jesus was addressing his “disciples”, in private. Mark 13:3 says that there were four disciples in particular who heard the parable: Peter, James, John and Andrew. The account of Luke tells us that Jesus was initially addressing the “disciples” (12:22) but then Peter approached Jesus privately and asked: "Lord, are You addressing this parable to us, or to everyone else as well?" (Luke 12:41). Interestingly, the question indicates a difference between “us”, the apostles, and “everyone else”, the rest of the disciples. Who were the “disciples”? The earliest followers of Jesus were called “disciples”. (Matthew 10:1) This earlier group of disciples grew to include more men and women. In fact, “to the jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “if you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples”. (John 8:31; 4:1; 6:66) Later on, from the original group of disciples, Jesus chose twelve disciples to receive a special appointment. “And when day came, He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also named as apostles” (Luke 6:13; Mark 3:14-19) From these moment on, all of those who followed Christ were “disciples”, but only twelve amongst them were “apostles”. These twelve were his inner circle of trust and his most intimate collaborators. Therefore, it appears, according to Mark, that the parabole of the “faithful and wise slave” was uttered only to the group of the apostles, and quite possibly to only four apostles: Peter, James, John and Andrew. It was to this audience that Jesus asked: “Who really is the faithful and wise slave...?” Among the apostles, Simon Peter (renamed Cephas by Jesus, an aramaic word meaning “rock”) was one of the most prominent, if not the most prominent, of all. His impetous and emotions often got him in trouble, and he was one of the most loudspoken amongst the disciples, often acting spontaneously as their spokesman. However, he was one of Jesus’ favourites, who loved him for his loyal, big heart. Peter was part of the inner circle of apostles that included also John and James. (Mark 5:35-43; Matthew 17:1-9; Mark 14:33-42) Jesus saw into Peter that he had a special connection with the Holy Spirit, for he was able to correctly identify Jesus as the Messiah not through his own knowledge, but due to the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit - this, in a time when the Holy Spirit was not yet operating among the apostles. - Matthew 16:16; John 7:39 Jesus made two remarks of great significance regarding Peter. The first one is found in Matthew 16:18. After identifying Jesus as the Messiah through Holy Spirit, Jesus told him: And I declare to you that you are Peter, and that upon this Rock I will build my Church, and the might of Hades shall not triumph over it. Jesus played with words here, for he had renamed Simon as Cephas, an aramaic term meaning “rock”, when they were introduced (John 1:42) The greeks translated the term as Petros, and the latins as Petrus. Thus Simon Cephas became known as Simon Peter. Naturally, Jesus wasn’t saying that he was building the ‘church of Peter’; it was “my church”, the Church of Christ. Jesus was the prophesied “cornerstone” of that new spiritual temple (Psalm 118:22; Mark 12:10; Matthew 21:42) Even the apostle Peter himself acknowledged that, when he wrote to his fellow Christians: “You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God's temple.” (1 Peter 2:4, 7). A cornerstone is the most important stone in a building, since all other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position and orientation of the entire structure. Therefore, Jesus is appropriatedly the “cornerstone” of Christianity. However, Jesus said that he would build his congregation upon the “rock”, Cephas, the apostle Simon Peter. Isn’t this a contradiction? No. The apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians: “You are ... members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ himself as the chief cornerstone”. (Ephesians 2:20) Therefore, Jesus meant that Peter would be given a special foundation role in the Christian congregation, even being designated the foundation stone of the infant Christian church, carrying its weight in its early stages, whereas Christ is the chief “cornerstone”, the one that would give structure and direction to the congregation. Jesus made another special remark about Peter. Shortly before his arrest, Jesus knew that Peter’s faith would momentarily falter, to the point that he would ultimately deny him three times. Yet, Jesus instructed Peter: “But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And you, when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” (Luke 22:32; Mark 14:30). Yes, all of his disciples would abandon him during his trial. Yet, Peter, despite the terrible guilt he felt for denying his Master even three times, was the one that Jesus saw in better position to strenghten his brothers, the apostles and all the other disciples. By decision of the Master, it was now upon him to become the foundation rock of the infant congregation that was soon to be born. Therefore, after his resurrection, Jesus reinstated and reassured Peter with the following dialogue: “When they had finished breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these others do?" "Yes, Master," was his answer; "you know that you are dear to me." "Then feed my lambs," replied Jesus. Again a second time He asked him, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" "Yes, Master," he said, "you know that you are dear to me." "Then be a shepherd to my sheep," He said. A third time Jesus put the question: "Simon, son of John, am I dear to you?" It grieved Peter that Jesus asked him the third time, "Am I dear to you?" "Master," he replied, "you know everything, you can see that you are dear to me." "Then feed my much-loved sheep," said Jesus. - John 21:15-17 This extraordinary mission wasn’t given to any other apostle, not even to the other two of the “inner circle”, James, nor John, the “loved disciple”. This was something that Jesus wanted to put Peter in charge of. It was a special task to serve his brothers, especially, to feed his sheep. Therefore, when Jesus asked the rethorical question “Who really is the faithful and wise slave whom the Master has has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time?”, the answer in his mind was: The apostle Simon Peter. When Jesus was about to return to heaven, he appointed Peter in that capacity. (continued...) by Eden << Back to Part 1 | To Part 3 >> |