Who Then? You?

45 “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?46 Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. 47 Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions.48 But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’49 and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, 50 the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know 51 and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 24)
Jesus had a lot of criticism for those who were supposed to be the spiritual leaders of the day.  In a sense, we can see Him directing these words toward them. They had been entrusted with the temple, the Word of God, and the way to God, but had made the spiritual life of most people difficult. They were living as if they were the masters.  Jesus was willing to label them outright hypocrites. Of course, the problem with doing so is that we put our place in becoming like them ourselves.  As perfect, Jesus never faced that problem; we do.  What kind of servants are we, those entrusted with the Gospel, if we beat people with our Bibles or compromised Biblical standards, acting as if the Son of Man is not going to return - almost as if God does not even exist.  Jesus asks each of us this very first question: are you faithful and wise? Are we feeding people what He has entrusted to us? Are we living like He will never return, or as if we think we know when He will, and it will not be today?   May we beware.