May 22, 2026

The Three Servants

There once was a great and good king who had three ser­vants. The first ser­vant was blind and could only com­mu­ni­cate ver­bal­ly. The next ser­vant was mute and could only com­mu­ni­cate through writ­ing. The last ser­vant was deaf and had a se­vere stut­ter. These ser­vants were all in­ti­mate­ly ac­quaint­ed with the mind and heart of their mas­ter, hav­ing served him faith­ful­ly for many years.

Hear­ing that sev­er­al of his sons were tak­en cap­tive while man­ag­ing his af­fairs in a for­eign land, the King made plans to wage war against his en­e­my and res­cue them from their slav­ery. On a cer­tain date in the fu­ture the King and the lead­ers of his army would in­vade the coun­try to re­deem them. The King, to en­cour­age his cap­tive chil­dren, sent his three mes­sen­gers into the land to an­nounce his im­mi­nent ar­rival.

Af­ter en­ter­ing the na­tion’s cap­i­tal city where the King’s sons were held, each ser­vant be­gan to spread the news of their his ar­rival. The blind ser­vant called out in the city square, where the wealthy of that na­tion gath­ered. The mute ser­vant had the news print­ed on signs and pam­phlets and dis­trib­uted them in the area where the mid­dle class lived. The deaf ser­vant went to the poor and though he had much dif­fi­cul­ty due to his stut­ter, he nonethe­less com­mu­ni­cat­ed the King’s whole plan of res­cue. Each ser­vant, in his own way, was faith­ful to their King’s com­mand, and in due course his cap­tive sons were brought to safe­ty un­harmed.

Whose mes­sage was de­liv­ered in the hos­tile na­tion?