Tuesday in the 32nd Week of Ordinary Time, November 14, 2023

Luke 17, 7-10

Jesus said to the Apostles: “Who among you would say to your servant who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here immediately and take your place at table’? Would he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for me to eat. Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink. You may eat and drink when I am finished’? Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded? So should it be with you. When you have done all you have been commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.’ ”

English translations of the Scriptures tend to translate the Greek δουλος [dúlos] as “servant”, which is wholly incorrect.  Likewise, the Greek παίς [pīs], which means “boy” is translated as “servant”, as in the story of the Lord’s healing of the centurion’s “servant”.  But δουλος means “slave”, not servant, and, in the context of the Gospel story, παίς means a “young man slave”.  Probably the reason for the use of “servant” rather than the correct term “slave” has to do with the evolving of language.  The Latin word for a male slave is servus.  This word passed into the French, becoming servant by the Middle Ages.  It thus passed into English, though by the 1500-1600’s the more familiar modern meaning developed.  It was at this time that the Scriptures were being translated into English and the word “servant”, understood by older meaning, was used by the translators, who had a preference for older words and older forms of words.  When the Scriptures were revised or retranslated into modern English, δουλος should have been translated as “slave”, but mostly the use of “servant” continued.  This is unfortunate because this makes it harder to understand the meaning, say, of the Scripture passage used for today’s Gospel Reading, and, in general, permits us to think of the world in which Jesus lived as not much different from our own when in fact it was very different.  A world in which slavery is legal and promoted and in which large sections of the population of a kingdom are slaves is a very different world from one where slavery is nearly universally outlawed.  To understand the world of the the first century A.D. we have to understand slavery.

“Who among you would say to your servant who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, etc.”. Correctly: Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing, etc.”  “Come here immediately and take your place at table.”  The slave ate in a back room or outside but never in the presence of his master and never at the master’s table.  Slaves had no rights and no consideration was given to them.  They were little better in the eyes of their masters than trained oxen or donkeys.  The Lord’s question serves rhetorically as if to mock the very possibility that there could be any consideration for a slave.  That is, the Lord speaks this way in order to make the larger point; he does not condone slavery here but acknowledges its existence and uses it as a way to talk about a human’s position in regards to Almighty God.   “Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded?”  That is, Is the master grateful to that servant?  No, of course not.  A man might be grateful to a paid servant for going above and beyond the terms of service, but the slave does not warrant this.  Jesus says, “So should it be with you.”  This is a little shocking if we think about it.  We are used to be thanked, being rewarded, for the least word or action.  The idea that we should go without thanks from God for performing some good act sounds hard and unfair.  But we should consider our position before him.  But “what do you have that you have not received, and if you have received, why do you glory as if you had not received it?” (1 Corinthians 4, 7).  There is nothing we can earn from God for all things come from him.  Everything we have is a gift freely given.

The Lord tells us that we should admit, “We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.”  “Unprofitable”, “useless”, “unworthy”.  There is nothing we can do to make God greater or happier than he is.  He gives us the privilege of glorifying him in the eyes of others by our good works and our faith, and this is for our — ultimately eternal — good.  This realization helps us to appreciate more deeply what the Lord Jesus does for us, dying for us worthless slaves out of his love for us.  His love for us is absurd, ridiculous, even more so than if we fell in love with an amoeba.  And seeing this insane love we learn to love him without limits.  Let us not brood on our unworthiness but on the unspeakable love of the Son of God who puts us before his own self.