This Gospel sticks out thanks to Jesus talking about all the beatings going on. If a servant is beating the manservants or maidservants when the master comes home, then the servant is going to get a beating of their own. It’s noted that if the servant makes a mistake by not doing the master’s will, but doesn’t know the master’s will in the first place, they get only a light beating even though they deserve a severe beating. Because the one who knows the master’s will and then doesn’t do it, they’re going to get a severe beating.
Who do you think is more likely to know the master’s will? Someone who goes to church and listens to the Bible, and listens to the priests talk about God’s will, or the person who has never been to church in the first place, and thinks that our idea of God is this person in the sky with a whip ready to blast anyone who gets out of line? They don’t know God at all, much less his will. But we probably have a better idea of God’s will. I guess that puts us at risk of a severe beating.
Now, you might have noticed that priests almost never talk like this. And I’m pretty sure it has to do with the private conversations they have with people who struggle mightily in their relationship with God. Who is God? Can God really be trusted to be just and fair?
Some people have learned that life isn’t fair. Seriously, if someone grew up in an abusive home where you had no idea when it was going to be a bad day, you’d live in constant fear. That’s a real danger with this Gospel reading.
The problem comes when someone learns that they can’t trust the people that they should be able to trust. Some kids find out that Mom or Dad are not trustworthy, when they know instinctively that they should be the ones that they can trust if anyone can be trusted.
You might be one of these people, and if that’s the case, my heart breaks for you. You listen to this Gospel and wonder if God is someone who is going to bring pain into your life.
If this doesn’t describe you, then I suspect you interact with others where this is their reality. They did grow up not trusting. For some people, the only way to prevent more pain is to make sure people stay far away. Those people who have this verbal barbed wire wrapped all around them. You talk with them, you’re going to get poked.
How do you help someone like this? Well, this Gospel gives a clue. It talks about the proper way to handle your authority. When do you have authority?
When you go to the store and you ask someone for help. That person is your servant, and they are there to help you. For that moment, in a sense, you are their master. Surprisingly, many people choose to figuratively beat the servant by making cutting remarks to them. You have a chance every time you interact with someone helping you at a store to show them kindness.
I know one lady that spent several weeks in the hospital before giving birth, and it was a painful ordeal. But she was especially devout in her faith and would offer up the pain inflicted by the nurses as they cared for her health. She heard the nurses arguing one day about whose turn it was to help her, because they all wanted her as their patient. She made their job easier and more pleasant by not fussing at them for the pain they inflicted.
The nurses were her servants, and she had authority. By showing the nurses kindness, they were able to experience the love that God gave her the grace to share.
God has trusted you with a great deal, because you have authority in so many situations. Each of those interactions that you have, even if it’s with the person working the McDonald’s drive-through window, you have a chance to demonstrate that some people can be trusted. Some people can be loving, and it might be an important piece of the puzzle that eventually shows them the truth about God, and that could help them slowly change their mind about God.
In Luke chapter 12, in the story of the servant who beats the others while the master is away, Jesus is talking about what a person does with authority. The beating language is severe. It is also easy to hear as a threat if the first authority you knew was not safe. God is not the parent who hurt you. The reading is about the person who already has power and uses it to hurt the people under them.
If you grew up not knowing which day would be a bad day, start by separating the two masters. The parent who could not be trusted. The God this Gospel is actually talking about. Write that as two sentences. My parent was not safe. This reading is not telling me that God is that parent. You do not have to feel the second sentence yet. You do have to stop letting the first house interpret every hard line.
If you are the one with the barbed wire, that distance may still be protecting you. Do not take it down for a person who is still unsafe. Leave. Call 988 or local emergency services if you are in danger now. Kindness is not the assignment while someone is hurting you.
If you are the one at the counter, or the window, or the bedside, you have the authority for that moment. Do not use it to make a cutting remark. One plain kindness is the practice. The lady in the hospital did not fuss at the nurses for pain they inflicted while caring for her. That is not a reason to accept abuse. It is a reason not to become the servant who beats the others. Some people are still deciding whether anyone with power can be trusted. Your errand is one piece of that evidence.
This is a pastoral reflection, not clinical care and not a substitute for it. If you or someone you love is in immediate danger, call 988 or local emergency services.Drawn from a homily first preached in 2018.