The Parable of the Master and Servant #40

The Parable of the Master and Servant is a brief story Jesus told about a servant who comes in from the field and is expected to prepare his master’s supper before eating himself. It appears only in the Gospel of Luke (17:7-10), and it makes the point that disciples who do what they are told have done no more than their duty and cannot claim credit from God.

The Parable

Jesus asks which of his hearers, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, would say to him when he comes in from the field, “Come at once and recline at table.” He asks whether the master would not say instead, “Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink” (Luke 17:8). He asks whether the master thanks the servant because he did what was commanded. The application follows: “So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do” (Luke 17:10).

Context

The parable answers the apostles’ request, “Increase our faith,” and Jesus’s reply that faith the size of a mustard seed could uproot a mulberry tree (Luke 17:5-6). It teaches that faith and service are not tools for demanding rewards but part of ordinary obedience.

The word for servant here is doulos, which is often translated slave, since a household servant belonged to the master and owed him a full day’s work in field and house. The story assumes a normal expectation in ancient society that a master does not thank his slave for doing his job. Jesus’s hearers would have recognized the arrangement at once. The English word “unworthy” translates a Greek word (achreios) that can mean “unprofitable” or “without claim,” as in older translations.

Meaning

The parable rebukes any sense of spiritual entitlement. A disciple’s obedience does not put God in debt. Many Protestant readers see in it a support for salvation by grace and not by works, with even good works being what a servant owes. Catholic and Orthodox teaching also stresses that human merit depends on God’s grace, so the parable is read as consistent with the teaching that any reward is a gift and not a wage.

The parable does not present God as a harsh master. Luke elsewhere shows a master who serves his faithful servants at his return, dressing himself to wait on them (Luke 12:35-37). The two pictures sit side by side. Servants have no claim on the master, but the master is generous beyond what they deserve.

The passage is also a corrective to the temptation to feel superior after a great act of obedience. It pairs naturally with the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, which warns against pride, and it invites disciples to serve with humility and without anxiety about recognition.