"It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready ..." (Luke 12:35-38)

"Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak." (Luke 12:35-38)

What does this parable mean?

This parable spoken by Jesus to his students relates to their relationship with the Supreme Being.

While most of us in the physical world are striving to be master - number one - the champion - the gold-medal Olympian - the owner of a successful business - the boss at work - or simply the boss of one's family (parent) - Jesus is speaking of assuming our natural roles as servants and caregivers.

Yes, each of us is a servant by nature. This is why we cannot control things. This is why even those who achieve some kind of success in the physical world cannot control that success, nor can they retain it. Whatever success is achieved here - whatever notoriety - vanishes quickly.

In other words, a person might be a star for a short period but soon other stars steal the limelight and the stardom vanishes as quickly as it came. Another person might be a big business success but soon the business goes under as people want to buy something else. 

Another person might feel they are in charge of their children but soon the children grow up and want to get away from home. Eventually, the children move away and oftentimes begin to boss the parent around. In some cases, it is the children who force the parent into a retirement home.

No matter what the accomplishment, everything - even our memory of it - is taken away. Accomplishments are gradually degraded until there is little or no remembrance - with the rare exceptions of a significant publicized act. 

Indeed, our recollection of our accomplishments will often fade with old age, irrespective of what others will forget our accomplishments. 

Regardless, at the time of death, everything is washed away. This is why Jesus speaks of being ready:

"It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak."

There is no question that we are not masters in this world. We have no real control, and no ownership - since we have to leave everything behind. Therefore we are not the masters or the bosses. We are not in charge. Rather, we are servants by nature.

Who will we serve?

For those of us living in the physical world chasing dreams of stardom or business success; or being a proud parent and grandparent, we end up becoming the servants of those we thought we'd be the bosses of. The star might think stardom will give them power over others but they later find the fans must be served. The business owner finds they must serve the stockholders and customers and even employees in order to keep the business going. And the parents find they must serve the children - from diaper service to taxi service.

Even dog owners - who get their dog with hopes of having an obedient personal servant and friend upon demand - find shortly after getting the dog they have become the dog's servant. They have to pick up the dog's poop, feed the dog, wash the dog, brush the dog - taking care of the dog's every need. Then they have to walk the dog. So who is walking who? Who is the servant and who is the master?

In other words, no matter how hard we try to be the boss - the master - we end up being the servant. Even if we focus on sensual pleasures - we find we must then serve those senses and those who control the sense objects.

So - who should we serve? Should we serve our fans? Our stockholders, customers, and employees? Our children? Our senses? Our dog?

Yes, we can serve any of these - but each of these masters will be cruel to us in the end. They will eventually leave us behind with no joy, no love, and no mercy.

It is not that they will do this necessarily on purpose. But it is simply part of nature's course. By nature, these relationships are all temporary because they are all based on the physical body. They are all dependent upon the body staying healthy and alive. As such, we are in the end attempting to be self-serving, but instead becoming servants of the illusory energy of the physical world - the illusion that makes us think we are these physical bodies and these things will make us happy.

These are illusions because none of it makes us happy. And even if there are fleeting glimpses of temporary joy within our family relationships, these also disappear quickly - if they aren't replaced by bickering, they will eventually disappear at the time of death.

Can they help us at the time of death?

At the time of death none of these physical relationships - fans, stockholders, customers, employees, kids, parents, dogs - will be able to help us. Yes, some might wait around our deathbed hoping for inheritance, but they will not protect us at the time of death. They will not be there for us as we leave this physical body and head to our next destination.

So who can we rely upon? Who can we love and serve who will be there for us - now and after our bodies die?

Jesus is teaching, through this parable and other statements, that our spiritual identity is eternal, and our eternal nature is to be the loving servant of the Supreme Being. This is why the Supreme Being created us. And this is why we are never satisfied with the temporary relationships of this physical world: Because we are looking for our eternal relationship with the Supreme Person.

Aren't we each looking for a soul mate?

This is also why people spend years looking for their soul mate. We look because we believe that he or she is "out there somewhere." We believe that there is a "special one" who will satisfy all our desires - and be the partner and companion we need to feel fulfilled.

And even when a person thinks they find such a soul mate - they soon find the person isn't quite what they were looking for. Often a person will realize - after looking for many years - that they aren't going to find much else among the people of this world so they "settle" for the person they are with. But they never really find that soul mate they were looking for.

This is because our real soul mate is not among the forms of the physical world. Our real soul mate is the Supreme Being. He is the Person we are looking for. He is the real Friend and Companion we have been looking for.

And He is the fair loving Master we have been looking to lovingly serve.

Yes, in this parable Jesus is speaking of a loving servant. Just consider the kind of servant who is "waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him." What kind of servant will wait for their master with such anticipation and enthusiasm?

And what kind of a servant would be ready, "even if he [the master] comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak"?

This is not the kind of servant most of us in the physical world think of - as servants in this world have mostly been the result of forced slavery of particular races or nationalities over the centuries.

Rather, Jesus is speaking of the kind of servant who enjoys a loving relationship with their master: An exchange of a loving relationship. This is the kind of service that we consider when a man chooses to do something for a woman - perhaps bring her flowers for example. This kind of service is not slavery. It is voluntary. It is based on love.

Can love ever be forced?

Certainly, if God wanted to force us to be His servants He could do that. But He doesn't. He gives each of us the free will to decide whether we want to serve the Supreme Being or serve ourselves. Because He wants our love. And love requires freedom.

Thus we find Jesus is speaking of a servant who willingly wants to please their master out of love. This was, in fact, Jesus' position with respect to God, as he admitted it directly:

"By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but Him who sent me." (John 5:30)

Is this not the position of a loving servant - someone who depends upon his master and seeks only to please his master - the Supreme Being?

Consider also this statement by Jesus:

"For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of Him who sent me." (John 6:38)

Is this not taking the position of servant with respect to the Supreme Being? One who does someone else's will is certainly taking on the position of loving servant to that person.

Jesus also wanted those around him - and each of us - to also lovingly serve the Supreme Being:

"For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” (Matt. 12:50)

Thus we find that Jesus, the founder of Christianity and its foremost teacher, considers himself God's loving servant. Where does that leave us?

We can follow in Jesus' footsteps and choose to become loving servants of the Supreme Being, by following Jesus' most important instruction:

“ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’” (Luke 10:27)

" From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded ..." (Luke 12:42-48)

"Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose the servant says to himself, 'My master is taking a long time in coming,' and he then begins to beat the other servants, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers. The servant who knows the master's will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." (Luke 12:42-48)

Is this about slavery?

Some may interpret this parable to be referring to himself or the Supreme Being as the master, but this is incorrect.

It must be understood that slavery - which was common in Jesus' day - is not the situation that exists between God and each of us. Rather, slavery as described here - with the master who would reward or beat his servants - is used as a metaphor, because slavery was the status quo during Jesus time. This is why Jesus is using this as an example: So his students could relate to what he is trying to teach them.

The notion that the master who beats his slaves represents God would completely contradict the central tenet of Jesus' teachings:

 ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’" (Luke 10:27)

How could a person love such a brutal master?

Rather, what Jesus is describing metaphorically in this parable is the time of death of the body, and the consequences that follow.

It is the time of death that will come when the servant - which represents each of us - least expects it. And it is the consequential nature of the physical world - which returns us the consequences of our activities - that is represented by whether the metaphorical master will reward or beat his servants.

Yes, this physical world has been programmed in such a way that our condition reflects our activities and our consciousness. We are born into these temporary physical bodies according to a combination of our consciousness and past activities.

It is sort of like buying a car: We will typically choose a car according to what we like to drive. But the car we end up with depends on how much money we have.

Are we made of matter?

The body is made of matter, but we are not. Each of us is made of spirit. We are the spirit that occupies this temporary physical body.

Once we are in the physical body we begin to identify with it. We think this body is me. Just as a person driving a sports car might begin to identify with the car - thinking of himself as sporty like the car. But the design of this world is that we are given the illusion that this physical body is me.

Once we begin to identify ourselves with this temporary physical body, we assume that by satisfying the physical body with sensual pleasures and possessions - or by promoting the name and reputation of this physical body - we will become happy. The problem is, because we are not these bodies, these things do not make us happy.

Nonetheless, this ability to seek and achieve sensual pleasures, material possessions, wealth and fame are symbolized in Jesus' parable as he says, "he [the master] will put him [the manager-servant] in charge of all his possessions."

As we seek to gain happiness within the physical world and these physical bodies, our goals become focused on success, wealth, fame, recognition, sensual pleasure and family.

A person who chases these self-centered dreams through our physical lifetimes may harm others in order to get what he wants. Whether this comes in the form of preventing others from getting their portion or actually going out of his way to hurt others in order to get what he wants, we find this world full of violence due to people striving for their self-centered goals at any cost.

This is being compared here by Jesus as the servant-manager put in charge of some of the master's possessions getting drunk and eating food he's not supposed to eat, and beating the other servants.

But the master - the time of death and the consequences that follow - will at come back at some point, when least expected by his servants.

What about the master who beats his servants?

The master is described here as returning and then either rewarding the servants who follow his wishes - including giving the manager-servant more responsibilities if he takes care of the others - or beating those servants who take advantage of the possessions, get drunk and beat other servants.

Again, the returning of the master represents the death of the physical body. And the rewarding or beating the servants according to their activities represents the law of consequences within the physical world, which returns to us the results of our activities in this lifetime or the next.

The activities of this lifetime all have consequences, according to the choices we make in life. Will we choose to harm others? Will we choose to ignore the fact that our activities harm others?

The consequences of activities that harm others in our chase for materialism are described as pretty tough: "He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers."

Again, this is not describing the Supreme Being. It is describing the design of the physical world and its consequential facilities.

Does God cut people to pieces?

Some might say that since God created and programmed the physical world then it is ultimately He who is metaphorically cutting people to pieces. It is He who is metaphorically beating the servants. This is simply not true.

This notion is the same as blaming the Supreme Being for the sufferings of this world.

Just think of this rationally: What would a parent do if their teenage child started beating people up and hurting people. Would they let that teenager continue to harm others - say the teenager put a few people in the hospital, to the point where the police arrested the teenager. Should the parent just bail the teenager out of jail and then let him go back to beating people up?

Certainly not. Because the parent doesn't want other people to be harmed, the good parent would probably let the legal system do its job and punish the teenager according to the rules of the legal system - which is designed to help protect others from violent people like the teenager.

But does this mean that the parent is responsible for the punishment of the teenager? Certainly not. The parent still loves the teenager and wants the best for them.

But as the teenager will hopefully learn, the teenager is responsible for his own actions. It is the teenager that decided to beat up some people. So it is the teenager who will have to suffer the consequences.

Now let's say that the teenager is put into prison for two years for his violent activity. As we find in most prisons, the teenager is then met with other prisoners who are also very violent. As a result, the imprisoned teenager will likely be beaten up by his fellow inmates.

Was the beating up of the teenager in prison the parent's fault? Is the parent to be blamed? Certainly not. Once again, the teenager knew that prisons were violent. And the teenager knew he could go to prison if he hurt someone badly. But he did it anyway. So who is to blame? The teenager.

But one might argue that since the Supreme Being set up the consequence system of the physical world then ultimately He is responsible for the consequential pain and suffering of this world - right?

Again, no. It is each of us individually and all of us collectively who cause the sufferings in this world. It is our choices and activities that ultimately produce the pains and suffering of the physical body.

And it is each of us who wanted to leave the Supreme Being. It is each of us who wanted to be free of Him and become free to act out our desires without His interference.

So He merely created a dimension whereby we could do this: Whereby we could act out our self-centered desires freely without His interference.

What if there were no consequences?

What if the Supreme Being created the physical world in such a way that nothing we did had any consequences? A world where we could do what we wanted to while harming others in order to do it - without any consequences?

Would the world be fair, or just?

Who, then, would choose who could act in this way without any consequences, and who would be hurt by that person acting without consequence? Would such a situation be fair to those who are harmed by the person who hurts others in order to achieve their goals without consequence?

How could that be fair? Let's say that one person is given the physical world and all its trappings and they proceed to become king and then whip and imprison anyone who doesn't obey their command. Is this fair to those who are whipped and imprisoned that such a person could do those things without consequence?

Certainly not. In other words, the only way to set up a system that is fair to everyone at the same time is to design the system with consequences that reflect the activities of each person equally. As such, the only fair system would be one that effectively punished the king mentioned above as example - by returning to him the consequences of the suffering he inflicted upon others.

In such a way, each of us receives precisely what we have doled out in the past. This notion was specifically taught by Jesus and his students, paraphrased with "as you sow, so shall you reap."

This is the law of the physical world. It is a simple law, which is fair both to those who may not harm others as it is to those who do harm others.

But the only way this law of the physical world can be truly seen is to understand our identity and the fact that each of us has lived in prior physical bodies, and will live in a successive physical body should we not choose to return home to the spiritual realm at the end of this lifetime.

Is reincarnation real?

Many will jump to a misleading notion of reincarnation after reading this - thinking that our physical body will become another physical body. But the factual event - better described as the transmigration of the spirit - is based upon the fact that each of us is not this physical body. We are each spirit-persons, who are temporarily occupying a physical body.

As such, this physical body will die within a few decades, and each of us will leave this physical body. Where will we go?

Most sects teach that we will either go to heaven or go to hell. There are some that also speculate there is some kind of purgatory state in between.

But one must ask - where is this place called hell? Most describe it as "below."  Is it underground then? Certainly, we have probed the depths of the earth and no one has found such a place under the earth.

What about hell?

Furthermore, most of these doctrines insist we will go to heaven or hell (or purgatory) with our gross physical body. How can that happen when the physical body decomposes after the time of death? Or what happens should our body be cremated? Many today opt for cremation, which means their physical body is turned into a jar of ashes. So what goes to hell or heaven if the body becomes a jar of ashes?

These points all illustrate that it is the spirit-person who leaves the physical body at the time of death and goes to the next destination. It is the spirit-person who ultimately will ascend home to the spiritual world or will descend into hell.

But where again is hell? Hell is - quite simply - another physical body within the physical world of consequences. The only way one can practically and scientifically accept the existence of hell is to accept the transmigration of the spirit-person.

Yes, as hell is described in scripture, hell is always the result of consequential behavior. One doesn't go to hell for doing nothing wrong. This means that hell is made up of future consequences of things done during our current lifetimes.

And that means 'going to hell' literally means suffering consequences of behavior that harms others. Suffering consequences necessitates taking on another physical body. The spirit-person must take on a physical body in order to suffer the consequences of harm done to someone else's physical body previously.

This is precisely why there is suffering in the physical world. The sufferings of this physical world - including war, starvation, violent crime, and other forms of suffering - are all taking place as consequences of our prior activities. These consequences are being represented in Jesus' parable as being either rewarded or beaten.

This would be comparable to the analogy described above - of the teenager being sent to jail where other prisoners are violent. Transmigrating to another physical body and being born into a suffering situation is comparable to a person being sent to prison because of their violent activities, and having to face that same violence among fellow inmates.

Such is the nature of the consequential physical world. The consequences of some of our activities come back to us in this lifetime, and the consequences of others come back in successive lifetimes.

But Jesus also reveals another important feature of the consequential nature of the physical world: It is based upon awareness. A person who is more aware that what he or she is doing will experience the consequence more fully. Jesus describes this in his parable:

"But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows."

The point is whether we are aware of the effects of our activities. Let's say a person is driving a car and runs someone over and kills them. Were they aware they were going to run someone over? If they were not aware, the driver might be given a charge of vehicular manslaughter, with a fairly light sentence.

But say the driver was trying to kill a certain person and followed them and then ran them over with the car and killed them. Would such a person be charged with the lighter crime and sentence? No. The person would be charged with murder in the first degree and sentenced to life or execution.

Why? Because they were aware that their actions would result in the death of the person.

This is also why a person who drives drunk and accidentally runs someone over will be given a more severe sentence than someone who isn't drunk and accidentally runs someone over. Because it is common knowledge that drinking reduces control over driving, the drunk driver is held more responsible: They knew they could hurt someone when they drove drunk.

Isn't this about fairness?

This is the nature of the fairness set up in the design of the physical world's consequential system, as Jesus clarifies. A person who is aware that their actions are hurting another will receive greater consequences for the suffering they produced than a person who is not aware of the suffering they will produce.

As such, the human form of life is known as the lifetime of awareness and thus comes with greater consequence.

This means, as Jesus is warning, our human lifetime is a lifetime of consequence, and this creates a master of sorts - which returns to us the results of our prior activities in the form of a future lifetime. This also means that since we are subjected to this system, we are its servants of sorts.

However, we must also see the situation from a more broad view, as we consider the loving nature of the Supreme Being:

The fact is, we are not these physical bodies. They are vehicles we are temporarily driving around - much as a person drives a car around.

This means the sufferings of the physical world only take place upon the physical body - not our eternal spiritual spirit-person. This would be comparable to a car being scratched or dented. The car is dented or scratched, not the driver.

But the relationship we have with the suffering of our body depends upon how much we identify with it.

For example, one person can get all worked up about their car being scratched, while another person doesn't care. The person who doesn't care doesn't identify with the car, while the person who is panicking about a scratch is identifying themselves with the car.

We might better put this into another comparison: When a person plays a computer game, they will sit down at the computer and first choose an icon or avatar to enter the game with - just as we will enter the physical world and take on a physical body. This icon or avatar then goes through the video game and gets involved in fights or whatever. The icon might even get blown up in one of the fights, even though the person is still sitting in the chair in front of the computer.

While the person playing the computer game might be emotionally affected by his icon getting blown up in the game, the person sitting at the computer is not blown up. The person sitting at the computer can decide to log out of the game and get up and walk away from the computer with no physical damage. They might have learned something from the game, yes. But even though the icon in the game might be smashed, the computer game player is physically unaffected.

In the same way, our spirit-person remains structurally unaffected by the events of the physical world. We can certainly learn from these events and grow spiritually - hopefully.

This is the wonderful nature of the Supreme Being. He gives us a virtual world with which to play out our dreams, and receive the consequences as a result in order to learn important lessons - relating to love and fairness.

But just as we wake up from a dream we get involved in, we can wake up from our identification of the physical body. We can, in other words, choose to "log off."

Should we choose to 'log off' of the physical world and not chase after the temporary dreams of the physical world - and instead work to re-develop our innate loving service relationship with the Supreme Being (Jesus' primary teaching) - we can, after the death of this body, return to the spiritual realm and leave behind the consequential sufferings of the physical world.

Yes, it is our choice. We can choose at any time to make a change. This is the loving, merciful nature of the Supreme Being: Regardless of how selfish and awful we have been, He still wants us back should we want to come back. He still wants us to return to His loving arms, but only if we choose to.

All we have to do is make that choice. Because love requires freedom of choice.