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Luyken was a Dutch engraver who lived in the second half of the 17th century and produced a prodigious amount of religious engravings for Protestant books. Today’s Gospel is illustrated by Jan Luyken as it appears in the Bowyer Bible. But Jesus does call him “blessed” for “doing” his master’s will. The servant does not strictly have a right to be praised for doing his job: that he fulfills his master’s instructions is what he is supposed to do. But with it comes responsibility: “Much will be required of the one entrusted with much” (Luke 12:48). He trusts us because he offers us a relationship: sonship in the Son. Just as the servants in Jesus’ parable, God has entrusted enormous responsibilities to us as human beings. And we blur that line when we refuse new human guests at the banquet of life in the name of “the earth.” Just last June, lawyers lost a case in the New York State Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, trying to claim habeas corpus rights for the Bronx Zoo’s elephant. We blur it when we put human beings and non-human species on the same level. We blur it when we pretend that the human person is just another part of the “ecosystem” (and one with an inordinately heavy carbon footprint at that). To blur that distinction is to dishonor God’s creation and to do violence to man.īut we do blur it.
![thief in the night youtube thief in the night youtube](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Zsx6bX6bDNc/maxresdefault.jpg)
Sure, some people might sprinkle a little holy water on them and dress them up in religious language, but the fundamental truth of human dominion is that there is a qualitative difference between the human person and the rest of the material creation. Basic Genesis truths - the male/female differentiation as divinely willed, human fertility as God’s first blessing, dominion over the world - are being replaced by what are honestly pagan approaches to these questions. Man is a steward, not a master.īut we are losing the notion of human dominion today.
![thief in the night youtube thief in the night youtube](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/-ANSKhr9CBY/maxresdefault.jpg)
![thief in the night youtube thief in the night youtube](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/nmBm8N_AVi0/maxresdefault.jpg)
Human dominion does not mean human abuse. God gave man the very atoms of the world, which he could use responsibly to “keep the lights on for you” or irresponsibly to annihilate humanity. Getting from tree to table is why God gave man a brain: to be creative in using the things of the world for his good. God gave man trees but man might need a table and a chair. God also gave the newly created human person dominion over the world. Who knows how long they’ve been together? There is some measure of trust. You might say, “that’s a pretty trusting master.” You might even think he’s a bit too trusting, a tad naïve, maybe even a bit of a sucker.īut this master and these servants have something of a relationship. One can even imagine that trusting master putting some money in each servant’s hand just in case, and to see what he does with it - though that’s another parable. In one sense, they should feel like what their master has left them with is their own, not to abuse but to use, to use wisely. Those servants should keep thieves away and be honest themselves about what’s been put in their charge. They are to keep the house in order, see that his assets are safe and his resources used responsibly. A master has gone away on a journey, leaving his servants in charge of his property. Motel 6 used to end its commercials with the line, “We’ll leave the light on for you.” Tom Bodett’s folksy phrase evoked a feeling of home: when you’re tired, you’ve been driving a long time, your eyes are bleary and maybe it’s raining, it makes you feel good to see a light in the distance that marks home … at least for the night.