The Watchful House Sitter is based on Luke 12: 35-38
Two Parables
This is an example of a parable that still exists in its two different forms. The version in Luke ends with the master rewarding his slaves by serving them a meal. But there’s another version in Mark (Mark 13: 32-37) which concentrates on the doorkeeper.
The most common explanation is that – in a world where ‘social media’ consisted of sending an expensive letter – Jesus varied his standard parables to make slightly different points. So Mark picked the version emphasising the loyal doorkeeper, watching through the night. Luke chose the version where the slaves working overtime being rewarded with their own party.
Slaves or Servants
I’ve referred to ‘slaves’. In translations such as the NIV, the word used (‘doulos’) has been translated as servant. That’s the translators doing their own little bit of retelling; the word for a paid servant is usually ‘diakonos’. ‘Slave’, with its painful history, has become ‘servant’, which has very few negative connotations.
Retelling Mark?
Householders still go away. Rich people still have servants. Do these two parables need further retelling?
The version found in Mark probably doesn’t, especially if you’re using a ‘servant’ translation. Rich house, lots of servants – in my urban area, most people won’t identify with the householder. But that’s okay, because Jesus didn’t intend his listeners to identify with the householder; he wanted them to identify with the doorkeeper.
A big house with lots of servants is still part of pop culture. We might not know anyone who works as a servant, but we’ve probably seen actors playing servants on screen. We do still have doorkeepers (though we might call them the concierge). It’s familiar enough that the version in Mark could be told to people who don’t know anything about the bible, simply by replacing ‘It’s like’ with ‘Imagine’.
Retelling Luke
Most listeners will easily get the notion of the staff waiting up late for their employer to come home. In Luke’s version of the parable, what might need retelling is the role reversal at the end. Status can still be important today, but one of the things that has changed is the formerly rigid gap between householder and servant. So, how shocking is the idea of a modern householder deciding to cook and serve a meal to their employees?
In my environment, this wouldn’t be a shocking idea, especially if it was a long-established household staff. We’d get that the householder saying ‘this time, I’m cooking breakfast for you‘ is a special occasion, a reward for work well done. But we wouldn’t get the utterly shocking role reversal; that the end of the parable turns the everyday world upside down.
Luke 17: 7-10 shows the normal practice of the period. The reality, in Jesus’ time, was that everyone would insist the slaves served them the meal, even if the slaves had just put in a long, hard day’s work. There was, however, one time in the year when Jews in Galilee and Judea might see owners serving their slaves – the Saturnalia.
Saturnalia
This was a festival in honour of the Roman god Saturn and it was usually held between 17th and 23rd December. Obviously, an observant Jew such as Jesus wouldn’t join in, but he might well have noticed two features of the festival. Firstly, a role reversal banquet was a big thing – the slaves ate first and sometimes their masters served them. Secondly, those observing the festival would wear the same sort of clothes (including something called a ‘freedman’s cap’). For the duration of the festival, all Romans looked as if they had the same status.
The image that Jesus gives us, however, isn’t the image of a riotous festival. The image is of a world where the masters ‘see’ their slaves and reward them for their hard work. They reward them in a way that suggests equality.
Party Time!
In this parable, the image we get is a world where people are still expected to do their jobs. Status, however, is different. The parable starts in the normal world, where the householder gets to go to the party and the slaves get to stay up late working. The householder comes back; the slaves are still alert and ready. Then it turns away from the normal world. Instead of a brief ‘well done’, the householder effectively continues the party – with the slaves the guests of honour, serving them himself. Status has been reversed.
Are We All Equal?
If we particularly wanted to bring out the ‘we are all equal’ part of the parable, what sort of jobs would we pick? I tried to emphasise the shocking generosity, by having the householder offer the house-sitter the use of the house for their wedding party. But there are other possibilities – do a banker and their refuse collector have equal status? Can we imagine a banker serving a refuse collector a slap-up meal, because they’re so impressed with their ‘go above and beyond’ approach to their job? That sort of image might give a modern audience the flavour of the original parable’s ‘world turned upside down’.
Be Ready
This parable is placed almost in the middle of Luke’s Gospel. It’s also immediately followed by another parable on the same theme, with a metaphor thrown in for good value. It’s clear that this message of Jesus is particularly important to Luke – be ready for delays.
Be ready for the unexpected.
Previous Parable: The Friend at Midnight: Luke 11: 5-8
Next Parable: The Sourdough Starter: Matthew 13: 33
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