Our Gospel parable today of the Supervising Servant tells us that everybody has a day when we will be judged immediately after death, but the day and time is unspecified, and so Jesus is giving a series of admonitions saying to be prepared and vigilant.
Jesus probably delivered the parable as a warning to the religious leaders like the scribes and the priestly class, but he tells Peter that it applies to us too.
Alertness is equated to conscientious stewardship, while harassing or abusive treatment of others or self-indulgence are both equated to lack of vigilance and infidelity.1
Punishment is based on the degree of responsibility. There is no acquittal based on ignorance. The picture is of a large household living under tension. The master is away. He may return at any time. The mood of fear is evoked in each of the three punishments according to Jewish biblical-era legislation (called halakhic legislation). Preparedness is the point of the parable.
The damned servant practices an internal causal false attribution—"But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, to eat and drink and get drunk.” This is stereotyped behavior; it’s the same as, “clubbing, dancing, drinking, and drugs,” and/or physically raging against others.
The consequence is that the servant’s master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour and will punish the servant severely and assign him a place with the unfaithful. This means losing one's salvation. Count No Man Happy Until the End Is Known.
Fr. Francis Gonsalves tells a story of a Master who admonished his disciple. The Master said, “You’re destroying yourself by your easygoing lifestyle. Only disaster can save you.” The disciple queried, “How so?” The Master explained, “Throw a frog into boiling water and it’ll jump out immediately. But place it in a vessel that’s being heated very slowly and it’ll lose the tension to spring out when the moment to leap arrives.” Jesus tells his easygoing disciples: “Get dressed for action; gird your loins, and have your lamps lit!”
It’s bad but the person is saved in verse 12:47, where the servant is neither prepared for action, nor doing what is expected, though the person fully knows the master’s will. That servant “shall be beaten severely.”
James 2:10-11: For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” said also, “Do not kill.”
This means that keeping 9 of the commandments but not all 10, is still not living the ten commandments.
St. James never says anything remotely related to “all sins are equal.” He does not say, “If you commit adultery, you are also guilty of gossiping.”
I say this because a strange thing about some Christian theology which declares that all sin is deadly or mortal and they yet admit they sin, but they are nevertheless saved and going to heaven no matter what with no requirement to repent.
Yet, their intuition is better than their theology because they know that stealing a cookie when your mom said, “no,” is not as serious as murder (cf. 1 John 5:16-17).
In contrast, our parable today in Luke 12:47-48, teaches, that some sins deserve “a light beating,” while others deserve “a severe beating,” and the first servant was damned by mortal sin, which destroys charity in the heart of man by a grave violation of God’s law; it turns man away from God by preferring an inferior good to him.
Believers who did attach to non-mortal sin will suffer retribution in the next life. They are still saved, but there’s a temporary punishment involved like purgation.
e.g. “I will just go repent later or confess to God or in the sacrament and presume on God’s mercy.” That servant “shall be beaten severely” by unless there is contrition and amendment of life.
The least bad case scenario (verse 12:48) is found to be doing something "deserving punishment," because of not bothering to know the master’s will, wish, or desire.
But, there is still angst because of culpable ignorance or careless indifference will cost you pains.
The Good News is that there is a treasure which is not lost through death. Human beings accumulate their own personal treasury of good deeds through Christ. Each will be rewarded immediately after life in accordance with one’s works and faith.
In Luke 12:32, “Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.” By addressing his disciples as “little flock” Jesus shows that he loves his people very much though they are small and insignificant in number.
How does my hope in God’s kingdom dispel my fear? How can I help build God’s kingdom? How is God part of my vision for the future?
For those good servants, the Master will be table waiter and wait on them. That is image that those who are ready will be blessed beyond their wildest expectations.
In sum, Jesus is coming for you when he is ready, not when you get ready.
I will close with a story that sums up the tone and teaching of our main Gospel text about the servants—
The story is told of a lazy boy who went with his mother and aunt on a blueberry-picking hike into the woods. The boy carried the smallest bucket or pail possible. While the others worked hard at picking berries, he lolled about, chasing a butterfly and playing hide-and-seek with a squirrel.
Soon it was approaching time to leave. In a panic, he filled his pail mostly with moss and then topped it off with a thin layer of berries, so that the pail looked full of berries. His mother and aunt commended him highly for his effort.
The next morning his mother baked some pies, and she made a special “saucer-sized” pie just for the boy. He could hardly wait for the pie to cool. Blueberry was his favorite! He could see the plump berries oozing through a slit in the crust, and his mouth watered in anticipation.
As he sunk his fork into the flaky crust, however, he found...mostly moss!
"If it feels good, do it." Or as the old poem says, "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may."
But there is another Biblical philosophy. And Jesus speaks of it in chapter 12 of Luke which is "Be prepared like servants who await their master’s return,” as if in some tomorrow something is of such ultimate importance that everything in this life is geared to this.
1. W. Sebothoma, Luke 12:35-38: A reading by a black South African, NEOTESTAMENTICA 22 (1988), pg. 326
