Parable of the Faithful Servant

In Matthew's Gospel, it immediately precedes the Parable of the Ten Virgins, which has a similar eschatological theme of being prepared for the day of reckoning.

In Mark's Gospel, "the day and the hour", for which Jesus says his disciples must remain watchful, is compared to a man going to a far country who is to return at some point.

This comparison forms the final exhortation in Mark's Gospel before the evangelist commences his narrative of Jesus' passion.

Be like men watching for their lord, when he returns from the marriage feast; that, when he comes and knocks, they may immediately open to him.

But if that servant says in his heart, 'My lord delays his coming,' and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken, then the lord of that servant will come in a day when he isn't expecting him, and in an hour that he doesn't know, and will cut him in two, and place his portion with the unfaithful.