Perspective is crucial. A couple who saves prudently now for their children's future education or for their own retirement lives prospectively. That kind of perspective is harder, because it requires faith and counts on events that have not yet occurred. It is very different from living strictly according to present needs and gratification.
Believers know that Jesus is returning and that all will give an account for their stewardship. Jesus gives a series of three images to underline the importance of living prospectively.
1. The parable of being prepared (vv. 35-38),
2. The parable of waiting for the Son of Man (vv. 39-40)
3. The parable of the kinds of stewards (vv. 41-48)
The nature of the future helps to determine present priorities. Jesus wants to make sure disciples are prepared for what is to come.
1.The parable of being prepared (vv. 35-36),
Let your loins be girded and keep your lamps burning.
These two images both suggest being prepared.
Tying up one's garment around the waist is a picture of constant readiness to move quickly.
The image of lamps burning adds to the sense of watchfulness.
Even in the dark hours of the night we must be ready. Watch at all times.
v.36 Like servants who wait for their master to return from a wedding celebration, disciples should be ready for their Lord to appear anytime at the door.
v. 37 The beatitude has an interesting twist: when the master returns,
he will serve the servants who are faithful. Jesus has always placed a high premium on service, and here he shows that he will honor faithfulness with service. The imagery suggests the blessing of being totally accepted by Jesus.
v. 38 The allusion to the time frame is "deep night," the disciples must be ready because the return may be at any moment, even deep in the night when one normally would not be prepared. Constant vigilance is expected.
2.The parable of waiting for the Son of Man (vv. 39-40)
Jesus extends the call to readiness by comparing his return to a thief's robbing a house at night. For just as we do not know when a thief may come, so we must be ready at all times.
There is spiritual exposure in lack of preparedness. The thief image suggests that the risks of unpreparedness are great.
3. The parable of the kinds of stewards (vv. 41-48) Peter catches the importance of Jesus' remarks and asks who the parable's audience is. When Jesus returns to render judgment, all are subjected to it.
v. 42 If there is an evaluation of stewardship, then what is good and bad stewardship? Jesus begins by noting what a good steward is like.
v. 43 The good servant, the one who waits and is ready, is the one who serves faithfully during the master's absence. Often we think of waiting as an attitude, but Jesus sees it as translating into action.
Life lived prospectively is marked by constant service to God.
44 The reward will be further, expanded responsibility.
The reward seems to involve the future period of Jesus' rule, at which time faithfulness will be honored with more service.
v. 45 But other outcomes are possible. What if the steward's service is blatantly unfaithful? a stewardship that goes exactly opposite .
Instead of the servants' being cared for, they are abused.
Resources are wasted on the steward and not shared with others.
v. 46 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers. The key to the passage is the dismemberment imagery and the idea of having a portion with the unfaithful. The steward is not given a mere beating, but a mortal blow and a total separation. This type of punishment is the most severe possible.
v. 47 Jesus elaborates on other degrees of steward’s unfaithfulness—
the servant exercises poor stewardship by not acting to do what his master wants. This servant suffers a beating with many blows. This is the discipline of a unfaithful steward, but one with some knowledge.
v. 48 Second is the unfaithfulness of one who does not know. Here the servant is still culpable for his failure, but his punishment is a few blows, a discipline less severe than the previous two.
The more one knows, the greater one's responsibility.
Application:
Those who are sensitive to his return and their accountability to him
will serve him faithfully.
Resource: NIV IVP commentary
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