The verse offers hope where the lyrics do not in “Matthew 25:21.”

Track: “Matthew 25:21”
Album: The Life of the World to Come (2009) and The Life of the World in Flux (2009)

Early in his career, John Darnielle wrote few songs about himself. That didn’t stop people from assuming he was the narrator in every song, but most of those characters were fictional. The narrator in “Matthew 25:21” is John Darnielle, visiting his mother-in-law as she deals, directly in the third verse, with treatment for cancer. Darnielle has said that he had to cancel a show to make the trip he describes in the lyrics and the song came out of the feelings that followed the events as described. It is literal, but it does not suffer for being so. I still find it difficult to listen to, even after hearing it likely hundreds of times.

The title comes from a verse, as does every song on this album, which describes a servant left with a sum of money over a long period of time. The servant doubles the money and is rewarded for diligence, which we can extrapolate into a statement about faith and works. This is contrasted with another servant who does not work and thus does not further their master’s goals. There are a few lessons here, but the one I take is that it is better to work than to be idle, but also that this work will be rewarded. The song is a crushing tale of loss told during and after the events, but the title holds a hope that something that comes next will mitigate how you feel right now. It’s a nice thought, for the servant, but the song reminds us to keep that in mind as we find no respite for ourselves.