IN the preceding verses our Lord presented His coming as claiming the affections of the saints and dealing with their moral state. Their loins were to be girded about, their lights burning, themselves like unto men waiting for their Lord. For, their treasure being in the heavens, their hearts would be there also. This connects itself too with immediate readiness in receiving Himself, that “when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.” It is the blessedness of watching for Christ, with its infinite joy in result. “Verily, I say unto you, that he shall gird himself and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.”
If He does tarry, and the heart that loves Him finds it long and has need of patience, it is well worth waiting for Him whatever the delay. “And if he shall come in the second watch or come in the third watch and find them so, blessed are those servants.” At the same time it is important to add the aspect of His coming for the conscience. The return from the wedding does not present this. But “this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not have suffered his house to be broken through.” Present ease and unwatchfulness in such a world as this always make the return of the Lord to be more or less unwelcome. The only right place for love or conscience is the attitude of watching for Him. “Be ye therefore ready also, for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.”
“Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all? And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household to give them their portion of meat in due season?” Now here again appears another aspect. It is the position of one called to be faithful and wise as a steward. It is one whose duty it is, ruling over the master's household, to give their meat in due season, a grave and honorable work. Still it has not necessarily the intimacy of personal affection, which the continual watching for Him supposes. Man, no doubt, thinks very differently; but we are hearing the word of the Lord, and His word ever judges and was meant to judge the thoughts of men. Accordingly there is a difference in the result. “Blessed is that servant whom his lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you that he will make him ruler over all that he hath.” It is not the return of His love so much as the post of honor in His kingdom. “Blessed” indeed are both; but the heart ought to need little light to discern which is the better of the two. May we answer His love and be true to His trust, and know both blessednesses as our portion when He comes again!
Undoubtedly much was left here as elsewhere to be filled up by the Spirit of God. Our Lord had many things to say, but His disciples could not bear them all then. The accomplishment of redemption, the fall of Israel definitively for the time, the call of the Gentiles, and above all, the revelation of “the mystery,” had an immense influence in giving development to the truth of the Lord's return. Nevertheless, it is deeply interesting to notice how admirably the words of the Lord on this occasion present that truth in its two main aspects of grace and responsibility. On these however I do not dwell, because the scripture before us does not enter into detail. It is enough to point out the general truth—a truth, be assured, of great importance to seize in its principles and in its practical consequences.
The Lord next looks at the vast scene of profession, and shows us in a few solemn words how it will be affected by His return. Christendom and man at large will assuredly be judged then, for we are not here looking at the judgment of the great white throne; it is the judgment of the quick, not yet of the dead—a judgment too much forgotten, not only by the careless but by those who exercise the largest influence in the religious world. Judaism always tended to swamp the final judgment by bringing into exclusive prominence the judgment of the world when the nations shall be put down, and Israel, bumbled by grace, at length shall bear to be exalted to their promised supremacy under Messiah and the new covenant. But Christendom forgets the judgment of the quick, and its forgetfulness of it is no small part of Satan's device to ruin the testimony of Christ. Not only is the truth of His coming lost as a practical joy for the heart, and as a solemn test for the work, but the bare fact itself is disallowed by confounding that day with the judgment of the dead.
The unbelief of man however will not nullify but rather prove the value of the warning of the Lord. “But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; the lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.”
How exact the sketch, save indeed that the ruins of Christendom have brought out added horrors to what is depicted here, no less than the epistles furnished the fuller display of the truth of Christ's coming. And these horrors are given us at length in such scriptures as 2 Thessalonians; 1 and 2 Timothy; Rev. 17; 19.
We see that Christendom having taken the place of Christian privilege will be judged accordingly. It is “that servant.” Having no heart nor faith in Christ's coming, men were willing that it should be deferred. The heart was rather relieved than made sick through a hope deferred that was no hope. They said in their heart “my lord delayeth his coming.” The wish was parent to the thought; and in such a state of feeling circumstances will readily be found to justify it. But the moral consequences are soon seen. With Christ's coming no longer before the eye, that servant ere long began “to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink and to be drunken.” The spirit of haughty assumption and intolerance was developed on the one hand, and a demoralizing intercourse with the world on the other. “But the lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and shall cut him in two, and appoint him a part with the unbelievers.” Whatever its profession, the heart of Christendom in that day will be proved to be infidel. No disguises of creed or rite, no activity, nor zeal, will shield it from the just judgment of the Lord at His coming.
Nevertheless the Lord is always just, and in that day there will be a marked difference in His dealings with the quick, as He says here. For the servant who “knew his lord's will, and had not prepared himself nor done it, shall be beaten with many stripes;” whereas be who knew it not yet was guilty, though he will not escape, will be beaten with few stripes. The less favored heathen therefore will not fare so ill in that day as she who sits as a queen with a vain presumption that she will see no sorrow. “Therefore shall her plagues come in one day; death, and mourning and famine, and she shall be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.” For it is a fixed thing with Him that where much has been given much shall be required, as even man's conscience and practice confess every day: “For to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.”