And throw this worthless servant out into the outer darkness. There there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.”
Jesus describes the final judgment of the worthless servant, casting him into the “outer darkness,” where weeping and gnashing of teeth symbolize the pain of loss and belated repentance. The darkness represents the condition in which God’s light is absent, and the heart stands before the consequences of its own choice. The worthless servant is condemned not so much for the amount of profit, but because he did not put to use the grace given to him. Idleness and the closedness born of fear gradually draw a person away from the Lord, and therefore, in such a case, the grace once possessed also is extinguished. For this reason, casting the servant out shows the righteous judgment: whoever does not live by grace, in the end finds himself in the darkness that has arisen as a result of his idleness and unfaithfulness.