devotional post #1,986

Luke 12:45-48

Luk 12:45 But if that slave should say to himself, ‘My master is delayed in returning,’ and he begins to beat the other slaves, both men and women, and to eat, drink, and get drunk,
Luk 12:46 then the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not foresee, and will cut him in two, and assign him a place with the unfaithful.
Luk 12:47 That servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or do what his master asked will receive a severe beating.
Luk 12:48 But the one who did not know his master’s will and did things worthy of punishment will receive a light beating. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required, and from the one who has been entrusted with much, even more will be asked.

the other slaves

In her book about the marginalised referred to in the Bible, Marianne Bjelland Kartzow comments on the commentators of this text: “It is striking that commentaries on Luke have nothing to say about the beaten male and female slaves mentioned in verse 45, as if these slaves, or servants as they are often called in modern translations, had no relevance” (Destabilizing the Margins: An Intersectional Approach to Early Christian Memory, 33).

Marianne Bjelland Kartzow’s observation is painfully accurate. It is striking how often commentators glide past the beaten male and female slaves in Jesus’ parable, as though their suffering were merely background scenery rather than the moral center of the story. But Jesus does not treat them as irrelevant. He places them at the heart of the warning.

The whole force of the parable rests on this truth: how the steward treats the other servants reveals whether he truly belongs to the master.

The steward who abuses, neglects, or exploits those under his care shows that he has no real allegiance to the master at all. His violence exposes his heart. His selfishness unmasks his hypocrisy. And Jesus makes it clear that the master’s return will not be gentle for those who used their authority to harm the vulnerable.

This is not a side point. It is the point.

Those of us who follow Christ are entrusted with His people. We are responsible to nurture, protect, strengthen, and honor those He has placed in our care—whether that care is formal leadership, informal influence, or simply the shared responsibility of belonging to the same body. We can proclaim readiness for Christ’s return, we can speak confidently about our theology, we can claim loyalty to Him—but if our treatment of fellow believers contradicts His heart, then His return will expose us.

Knowing the Master’s will is a privilege. But in Jesus’ teaching, privilege always comes paired with responsibility. The more clearly we understand His heart, the more accountable we are for how we treat His people. And the ones most easily overlooked—the ones on the margins, the ones without power, the ones who can be harmed without public consequence—are precisely the ones Jesus places at the center of His warning.

LORD, show us how to care for those You have placed in our charge.