Sons and Heirs
Imagine a slave market, the block is occupied by a family, Father, Mother, two children - a boy and a girl. A noisy throng swirl around the base of the block, poking, prodding, examining. The children crowd in closer to their parents. The Auctioneer hits his gavel on the podium and the noise subsides, “What am I bid for this fine specimen?” he asks and the dividing of a family begins.
The Father is sold to be a galley slave, chained to the oar of a trader’s ship, the mother to be a cleaning woman in a fine house. The children are taken away together, their owner locking iron collars around their necks and attaching chains by which he leads them to his house.
How you may ask did a family come to be in this situation? They were not born slaves, once they were free, what went wrong? It is a common story, the couple, young, naive, wanting to have a good time, overly trusting, fell in with bad company, a fast crowd, who encouraged them to live beyond their means. They were deceived, betrayed and beguiled until they had built a vast debt that they could not repay. Then as their friends melted away the creditors moved in, seized the family and their belongings and sold it all to satisfy a small portion of the debt.
And now we will hear of the parents no longer, but let us follow the children as they are tugged behind their new owner. He leads them to his home, where they quickly learn he is a hard task master, difficult to please, severe in his punishments. They learn to serve well to avoid punishment and to anticipate as much as is possible his moods and to please him in every way. And occasionally late at night when no one can hear them they cry and remember the old days, but mostly they keep those memories locked up where they can’t hurt.
One day the master has a guest, and the boy, we’ll call him Charlie, trips and falls while serving him, spilling wine over the guests clothing. The master drags Charlie from the room and begins to beat him, to flog him mercilessly. Anna, for that is the girl’s name, walking through the snowy courtyard and sees her brother unconscious, bleeding in the snow, the master beating and kicking him. “No” she cries out and throws herself across her brother’s body. This enrages the master even more and he transfers his undivided attention to her. She thinks they are about to die, and she is glad of it.
And then the beating stops, she peers out from under her lashes, carefully not moving a muscle of her aching abused body. The guest is there, his hand covering the masters on the whip, stilling him, “let me have them” she hears him say, and offers a price she cannot believe, who would pay that much for two half dead slaves? The master takes the price and walks away, leaving the guest with his purchases and the falling snow.
The guest, the new master takes the children home, their wounds are tended, they are feed, clothed and given new collars, collars made of fine gold, decorated with small tablets of mother of pearl, each tablet etched with a pleasing design. And then they are allowed to sleep, to heal, while the new master watches over them. When they awake the new master asks them if they wish to stay, “if you do not” he says “I will make other arrangements for you.” They shrug, this seems a nice place, they have been better treated here than they have been in a very long time. “We will stay” they give assent. Now they are led to a spacious set of rooms and told that these are theirs, their private quarters and they are introduced to the rest of the new masters staff and shown their duties.
And so Charlie and Anna settle into a new life, they quickly learn that their new Master is kind man, a fair and gentle taskmaster. He expects the best they can do but He never asks for more than they are capable of. He provides for all their needs; clothes, food, blankets, there are no more hungry days, or nights spent shivering in the cold. They learn that if they have a problem they can take it to the Good Master, as they call him, to solve. In fact he wants, expects, them to do so, and always he will provide a solution, not always the one they expected but always a solution. Most importantly he never punishes, never condemns, yes consequences are meted out but they are the natural results of actions. When Anna burns the bread due to inattention she is expected to stay up as late as is required to make a new batch so that the household will have bread on the morrow, but she is not beaten. When Charlie breaks a vase in anger the Good Master talks to him, Charlie is left in no doubt that he has disappointed and saddened his saviour, but then the Good Master gives Charlie coins and sends him to scour the marketplace to find another vase to replace the one he destroyed.
Anna and Charlie grow to love the Good Master, and as their love grows so does their fear. They never talk about it but they see it in each other’s eyes, “What if we do something that causes the Good Master to sell us again?” So they work doubly hard, trying to anticipate the Good Master’s desires, to curb the things in themselves that could anger or disappoint him. Time passes and without realising it fear takes over their lives, they are no longer happy and carefree, rather they are worn, tired. Dark circles develop under Anna’s eyes, an expression of worry clouds her countenance, more and more often her attention wanders as she worries that her mistakes will displease the Good Master enough so that finally he will sell her to some other master. Charlie tries to control his temper but his insecurity makes him sensitive to the smallest slight on his work and he explodes in self defence. After a bout of anger he feels sick to his stomach, fear eating away at him, telling him he’ll never be good enough, that he deserves to go back to his first master, what is the point of staying with the Good Master? He, Charlie, can never be like him, the place he belongs is back with the master he resembles.
One day it arrives, they are called to the Good Master; they meet outside his study door, the fear in one set of eyes mirrored in the other. Each wants to blame their sibling, but in their heart of hearts each knows the fault is their own. Tentatively Charlie knocks on the door; it is opened immediately by the Good Master, his expression solemn, his demeanour sombre. He sits in his chair and indicates chairs for each of them but they can’t bring themselves to sit in his presence and stand heads bowed, silent, before him. Gravely he peruses them, he sees Anna’s tiredness, the despair in Charlie.
“My children, where have I gone wrong? I only wanted to make you happy and I can see I am failing.” Both children look up, directly at him at this amazing question.
“You have done nothing wrong” says Anna,
“It is us” says Charlie, “We’re not good enough, we try and try and try but we just can’t stop making mistakes.”
Anna is weeping “but we’re going to try harder,” she rushes to add. “Please don’t sell us back to the old master, please keep us, we promise to try harder.”
Now the Good Master is weeping too, he stands up and walking over to the children he embraces them. “Don’t you understand?” He asks, “I didn’t just buy you, I freed and adopted you, I will never sell you, never send you away. I love you.”
Charlie and Anna are speechless, not sure how to respond. The Good Master traces the pattern on the collar around Charlie’s neck with his finger. “This is not a collar of slavery; this is a legal collar that tells the world you are my heir.”
“Adopted?” Anna’s voice quivers, “We’re your children forever?”
He nods, “Unless you choose to leave me, I won’t stop you if you wish to go away.”
Charlie’s expression suggests this is the most ludicrous thing he has ever heard, “Where would we go?” he asks. “No one has ever loved us the way you do.”
“That means you’re our Father now...” Anna’s words trail off, eyes full of wonder she throws herself into the man’s arms. “I was your father from the moment I purchased you” he smiles, joyful.
“And you’ll never ever sell us.” The relief can be seen in the way each child holds their body, straighter, taller, relaxing.
“Never, no matter how many mistakes you make, you may always stay with me.”
“Papa! Father!” Charlie joins the glad embrace
Romans 8:15-17
For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.
