Unexpecting and unbelieving...

"Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master when he comes will find so doing. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that wicked servant says to himself, 'My master is delayed,' and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eats and drinks with the drunken, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will punish him, and put him with the hypocrites; there men will weep and gnash their teeth." - Matthew 24:45-51

This passage speaks to two different people in two different ways. You have the people of God on a whole. The servants of the Master who are tending to the duties of His household while He is away. You also have the leaders placed over their fellow servants and given the charge to run the orders of the day.

Both have expectations on them. They must feed the flock. Care for the fellow servants and nourish them with all that is provided for us through Christ. Daily meditations on the cross and the love shown through it. Reminding one another of the nature of our inheritance and the blood by which we have been sealed. This is all done when it is expected. Given at the "proper time" by the faithful and wise disciples.

However, those who lack faith in the Master, who wander from the calling and give into the notion that the Lord has forgotten us, will not fair so well. They are ones who believe He is delayed or is not truly going to come for His people. This leads to a lack of reverence for the Master and is compounded by how they/we treat those who follow Him. We usually then make life in this world difficult for them. Beating them down with the Law and shackling them without grace or mercy, but then following after sin and sinners. Becoming true hypocrites by saying one thing and then doing another.

You see it everyday. A particular church preaches the Law in a manner that it might save its followers. They command certain degrees of stringent legalism in areas of marriage and procreation, but then find their pastors and priests molesting children. Or a minister who spoke against gay marriage and the lifestyle therein, but then is found to be living that lifestyle in the shadows. When the Law is our Gospel it then becomes an even greater yoke of slavery then we had before.

It is then that we lose perspective and not expect the return of the King. We may see the dawn of the new creation only to discover our surroundings have changed and we are weeping and gnashing our teeth in anger. Not at Him who gives life, but because we were too self-centered to believe it. We choose to be unexpecting and unbelieving. We choose not to trust that He will do what He says He will do. He took the cross and the shame for us and cast away our transgressions, and said He would return to gather us for Himself. This seems too good to be true and so when we are surprised that it is, then there is nothing left to wonder why we end up outside the doors of His Kingdom.

TW