Punishment for a Believer's Intentional and Unintentional Sins.

But suppose the servant says to himself, 'My master is taking a long time in coming,' and he then begins to beat the menservants and maidservants 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. That servant who knows his master's will and does not get ready or does not do what his 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: 45-48

A multitude of people were listening to Christ tell a parable of a master who is away for his own wedding and in his absence, he places his servant in charge. The servant is warned to keep watch and be ready ("keep your lamps burning"), because his master will unexpectedly return from the wedding banquet and knock at his door. Then he will enter and judge the servant's performance as keeper of the household. Jesus is telling His disciples that faithful servants will be ready for the return of their master by their obedience.

This parable is obviously the Second Coming of Christ and the Judgment, because He says to those listening, 

You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him....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. I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 

Those are the rewards of the faithful servants. 

Next, Jesus says the words cited in the first passage at the top. This warns His followers about the eternal judgment of the unfaithful, wicked servant who thinks his master is delaying his return, so he starts a drunken party and beats the other servants. That wicked manager will be given this judgment:

He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers. 

That is very graphic language. The place of the unbelievers is usually thought of as hell. So the wicked servant will be torn apart and we can assume cast into hell.

Notice that Christ distinguishes unfaithful servants  from the unbeliever. Their end will be the same, but He doesn't call them unbelievers, He calls them servants. In judgment, the unfaithful servants will be given the same eternal punishment as the unbeliever. 

Now, scholars differ on how to interpret the next passage. 

That servant who knows his master's will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. 

Is Christ speaking of the same unfaithful servant here who is cut in half? Or is this another servant?  

If this is the same servant, he is both cut into many pieces and beaten with many blows. That is awkward. Why would Christ punish them with cutting them up and also blows? Sounds as if this is a different servant. This one was aware of what he was supposed to do, but failed to do it. He may not have been beating other servants, but did not obey his master. So this second servant who fails to obey his master will be severely punished at his eternal judgment. 

A third servant's judgment is brought up. This one is different in that he wasn't aware of what he was supposed to do. He wasn't being deliberately disobedient.

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

The culpability seems to decrease the severity of punishment, but it does not totally excuse him. Perhaps there was some negligence on the part of the servant for not inquiring about his duties. 

Jesus is judging His servants on a sliding scale of obedience with those servants who willfully, flagrantly disobey given the worst punishment. Those who did not know the instructions are still given punishment but only light blows. 

Protestant theology would interpret Jesus' parable as saying that all three of these servants are faithless and their verdict is eternal punishment, but of differing degrees. Most Protestant theology gives the ignorant servant no hope of heaven only mercy in everlasting damnation.  

There is no mainstream Protestant church that would allow for a punishment of the servant's disobedience and then an entering into heaven. 

However, the text could naturally be interpreted to mean that the first wicked servant was sent to hell while the other two were sent for a temporary punishment that would be over. It would have an end and then what? 

Seventh-day Adventists would respond, "annihilation." But that is an interpretation most Christians reject. That is a additional punishment that would create injustice. After all, the person unaware of having sinned would be mildly punished and an additional payment for their crimes of obliteration would follow. That adds too much to the text.

Catholics have what I consider the best and most loving interpretation of this passage because we believe Christ taught purgatory. I will not go into the other scriptural references Catholics use to back up the theology of Purgatory. We will concentrate on this parable. 

Christ is clear here, sins that are not repented of will be punished. Even those who are God's servants. No one gets a "get out of punishment free" card when he sins. We must repent. Then Christ mercifully applies the atonement to the servant and he is cleansed of all unrighteousness. 

This is true of both intentional and unintentional sins. Even sins a believer is not aware of will be punished. However, the verdict for the uninformed who sins is not damnation. Jesus tells us that their punishment is light and temporal, and then a  servant of God will enter heaven. 

Praise God that there is another way. Purgatory. If one has lived this life as God's servant but has failed Him in some respects-- perhaps having been disobedient or lazy--but one's works have not shown utter hatred for God by dismissing Him and hurting His other servants, one may end up in purgatory and not hell. That person's faith will save them but as St. Paul wrote, "as through fire." (1 Cor. 3: 5)

If anyone read these passages as a Protestant, the best a unfaithful or ignorant servant can hope for is degrees of suffering in hell. Jesus provided another way to cleanse a believer of all unrighteousness and to make him clean and spotless as His Bride. Purgatory will make  the believer able to stand in front of a Holy God. 

Can the text be interpreted another way than Catholic, of course. But I have yet to come across a Protestant interpretation of this passage that works with other passages of scripture or the character of Christ. 

I am so thankful for the mercy of Purgatory. 

The Tragic Misunderstanding

General Stone was a very heroic man who had served his country and his family. His son John, from early on, seemed to be everything his father was not: utterly narcissistic, self-destructive and self-absorbed. John's lifestyle for years was drunkenness followed by drug binges until at a fairly young age he found himself with complete liver failure and in need of blood transfusions.

Faced with death, John felt he needed to repair his relationship with the general. His father not only forgave his son, but gave him his own perfect liver and his blood which saved his son's life. Of course, the gift killed General Stone. John was utterly thankful for his father's sacrifice of the gift of his own life.

His heartbroken mother told John that his father loved him and didn't condemn him but that he should go and do not drink and take drugs any more.

This irritated John. Why was mom always trying to interfere with his relationship with His dad? He showed his mother the legal medical form in which his dad signed over his liver and blood to his son.

"I am the legal recipient of my dad's gift. Look." He held out the paper to his mother for her perusal, "There is no judgment on me, no strings attached, no expectation of personal growth or change in behavior. Dad knew what I did and gave me his liver and blood unconditionally."

Mother looked worried. To her, it seemed he was being rather cavalier about her husband's life and supreme sacrifice for him and his sins. 

"But John! That gift wasn't carte blanche to continue living a life of drunkenness and drug use!" 

"Any attempt on my part," began John confidently, "to now merit dad's gift by some type of good behavior would, in fact, annul his unmerited, free gift! Dad would be furious if I now tried to earn his gift back. Dad doesn't want me to pay him back! That would make his gift a vulgarity—like it would be my 'salary' for my actions from here on out."

For a few second the woman looked at her son in shock, unable to speak.

"Uh…b…but," she finally stuttered, "but if you just go out and waste this precious gift? Is that why dad gave you his own life? So that you could go on taking drugs and living in continual drunkenness?"

"Did I say that? Did you hear those words come out of my mouth? Who said I was going to waste it? You misrepresenting what I am saying! I am just saying that dad's gift never in any way implied that I was supposed to get better and stop drinking or doing drugs."

The mother's expression did not change. 

"Dad knew I needed this liver to survive. Yes, I lived badly, but come on! There was zero reason for him to give it to anyone living a healthy life. So therefore it is because I was wicked that he gave it to me! 

"But don't you want to at least try and be better? For dad?"

"Try?" John huffed with exasperation, "Are you saying, mother, that I must merit my father's gift? You really don't get it." He sighed with impatience and began again with more control, "Dad wouldn't want me to try and live better. It should come easily now and it would make to no benefit it I worked to now prove I am worthy of the gift. If I work to be good now, then I am trying to pay off my dad for his gift. I already have dad's liver. His heroism is in me and that is enough to make me a hero no matter what I do."

Now the mother was utterly confused. "But what kind of son are you that you would neglect so great a salvation from your father!"

"How dare you suggest that my father wants me to work at being righteous on my own without him!"

"Of course not! You have your dad's blood flowing through you and me to help you? Why would you suggest you are on your own?Where does love fit in all of this, son? Don't you love your father even more now and aren't you more thankful to him for his gift?"

"Of course!" Now John was thinking his mother was just stupid. "But dad's gift was written in forensic, academic language rather than  love. This was a legal agreement between dad and me and truly mother, it is best if you stay out. I had a personal relationship with dad and I knew him as well…. no, obviously even better than you. I 'got' dad. Evidently, you didn't."

"What's the difference if the contract was one of love or legal? This is your dad! And he expected that you would grow up and change your life if he gave his life for you!"

"I am not saying I am going out and drinking and doing drugs anymore. I probably won't. But it won't be because dad gave me a gift expecting it," John shrugged.

Mrs. Stone took a deep breath. "I am speaking practically and you are speaking subtle theoretical differences in his meaning. Both roads end up in exactly the same place? You not ruining your life. Why did you put me through all this psycho-babble!"

"It is not psycho-babble, mom. If you think I was supposed to earn his liver and blood by my behavior….then you didn't know my dad. In fact I don't think you were ever even married to dad. I will have nothing more to do with you for you are saying false things about my father. In fact I think you are a whore—a whore of Babylon."

Mrs. Stone was stunned by that verbal blow.

John, in general, cleaned up his life and no longer took drugs or drank heavily. But he never forgave nor reconciled with his mother. He felt that even though he did sober up, he would never, ever allow into his thoughts that he had struggled to do it. He could never trust his mother, in fact, he claimed to have exposed her as a fake because her attitude about behaving. Works and good behavior to merit Dad's gift was her thing.

And of course, that was never the mother's intent. 

IT SHALL BE CHARGED AGAINST THIS GENERATION

I am including the full context of Luke 11: 49-51, which is the topic of this post:

Now when He had spoken, a Pharisee asked Him to have lunch with him; and He went in, and reclined at the table. When the Pharisee saw it, he was surprised that He had not first ceremonially washed before the meal. But the Lord said to him, "Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter; but inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness. You foolish ones, did not He who made the outside make the inside also? But give that which is within as charity, and then all things are clean for you. But woe to you Pharisees! For you pay tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb, and yet disregard justice and the love of God; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the chief seats in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the market places. Woe to you! For you are like concealed tombs, and the people who walk overthem are unaware of it." One of the lawyers said to Him in reply, "Teacher, when You say this, You insult us too." But He said, "Woe to you lawyers as well! For you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and it was your fathers who killed them. So you are witnesses and approve the deeds of your fathers; because it was they who killed them, and you build their tombs. For this reason also the wisdom of God said, 'I will send to them prophets

and apostles, and some of them they will kill and some they will persecute, so that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God; yes, I tell you, it shall be charged against this generation.' Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering." When He left there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile and to question Him closely on many subjects, plotting against Him to catch Him in something He might say.

What hit me this morning as I read those words was a great big question mark. Why would God, who said that a son should not be punished for the sins of his father, say such a thing? God would not contradict Himself, so there must be something here I am not seeing. Israel's Pharisees, scribes and lawyers must be culpable themselves, in some way, of the death of the prophets since the beginning of mankind. And Abel's murder occurred millennia before the nation of Israel! How is this possible that Christ could charge the entire generation of Israelites with the slaughter of the prophets that began in Genesis and culminated with the death of Zechariah more than five hundred years before?

And also notice that the entire generation is blamed, not just the leadership. The Lord is giving judgement on a corporate crime. When Jerusalem was sacked (in that generation) Christ's judgment was enforced. 

Wow. Gives one pause. 

My thoughts are going in this direction, but I am surely open to being wrong. I think it is possible that in the beginning, Israel was less culpable for her idolatry. For she had been a slave among the heathens for four hundred years. As the centuries past, despite being sent prophet after prophet warning Israel to repent and turn from her sin, their corporate hearts became calloused and finally hardened against God. It was a slow rot and with willful stubbornness, Israel ignored the Torah and the warnings. Their generation had become utterly indifferent and unresponsive to the call of God. Love of self had replaced love of God or their fellow man. 

The demons who enticed Cain to kill Abel, were growing stronger with each generation that accepted them. Those same demons enticed the murders of all the prophets that God sent. And those sons of Satan were present and accepted by many of Israel. When Christ appeared, it was made clear who corporate Israel had chosen and it was not God. Thus this made Israel fully liable because they could see and understand their history. Notice that our Lord specifically said they had built the tombs of the prophets to honor them--so they understood that the prophets were martyred. Yet they refused to stop the martyrdom. 

Conclusion
So, I was reminded this morning that corporate judgment does happen. Be careful what group to whom you give your loyalty. And that the sins of that group can literally pile up over generations. Be repentant as a group! Change your ways and be righteous as a people of God.

We today who have not just the history of Israel's rejection of the prophets but the history of Christ and His Church before us, Christians today will be even more culpable of wrong for we see so clearly what it is and how much it cost to destroy sin. As it is recorded in Hebrews 2:3, "How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?"