Imagine this scenario. A married couple has a teenage son. An emergency situation comes up, and the parents have to leave their son at home by himself for an uncertain period of time. They tell him, “Look, son, we’re going to be gone for a little while, and we can’t be sure when we’ll be back — maybe the whole weekend. We’re leaving you in charge of the house. Be good while we’re gone.”

What do you think will happen?

Good or bad, what happens next will show the teenager’s trustworthiness. If the kid has internalized his parents’ values, he’ll willingly do as he’s told, and it won’t feel like a burden. But if he hasn’t… well, you can fill in the rest of the story. He’ll be on the lookout for his parents’ return — because he’ll need to get rid of the beer bottles before they walk in the house.

As I suggested in the previous post, the Olivet Discourse of Matthew 24 and 25 is shot through with the theme of watchfulness. And although the Parable of the Faithful Servant doesn’t explicitly use the language of staying ready or keeping watch for the master’s return, that is its context. Here again is the parable, this time from the Common English Bible:

Who then are the faithful and wise servants whom their master puts in charge of giving food at the right time to those who live in his house? Happy are those servants whom the master finds fulfilling their responsibilities when he comes. I assure you that he will put them in charge of all his possessions. But suppose those bad servants should say to themselves, My master won’t come until later. And suppose they began to beat their fellow servants and to eat and drink with the drunks? The master of those servants will come on a day when they are not expecting him, at a time they couldn’t predict. He will cut them in pieces and put them in a place with the hypocrites. People there will be weeping and grinding their teeth. (Matt 24:45-51)

The task assigned by the master is a simple one: make sure all the servants are fed. But it’s an important responsibility, one that expresses the master’s care for his servants. That’s part of what makes the behavior of the bad servants so reprehensible. They don’t care about their fellow servants; quite the contrary, they abuse them and abuse their newfound power. They don’t care about representing the master well. All they want to do is go drinking with their buddies.

They know they’re being disobedient. And it’s not that they don’t anticipate the master’s return. But they arrogantly assume they know when he’ll be back.

Unfortunately for them, they’re dead wrong.

By contrast, for the faithful servants, there isn’t the same need to be on the lookout for the master’s return. Indeed, through their faithful obedience, they embody the master’s compassionate presence; he is present in spirit even if absent in body.

But that doesn’t mean they’re not watchful. It’s important to read this parable in the context of the two that follow on its heels: the Parable of the Bridesmaids, and the Parable of the Talents. Because in that context, as we’ll see, we might read the faithful servants as being obedient because they wanted to please their master.