Haus Jakob

Once upon a time, there were three serfs herding their master’s reindeer upon the tundra. The winter was cold. The three serfs shivered in the freezing air. An angel of Lord appeared to the trio and said: “Sons of Adam, behold. The Lord our God has heard your prayers and seen your miseries. Whatever you shall seek, so shall He grant.”

The first serf said to the angel: “Cursed be the day when I was born. To be a serf, there was never one day in my life when I could have enough food to stay my hunger. Please my Lord, let me never be starved again!” And the angel said: “Go therefore to the east, where God has prepared for you a forest, with fruits hung on trees and beasts to be your easy preys.”

So the first serf went to the east and found the forest, where a variety of fruits grew on trees all year long. Herds of deer and boar paced around, which he could hunt easily. The first serf made wine from the fruits and butchered a large boar. He ate and drank and soon fell asleep. As the first serf was asleep, ravening wolves were drawn to the forest by the animals within. They found the serf sleeping, and tore him apart.

The second serf said: “O Lord most merciful, cursed be the land where I was born. Winters here are both long and cold. Let me never be in this cold again!” “Very well,” said the angel. “South from here where the air is warm, you shall find a new master who will treat you well.”

And the second serf packed up and left for the southern land. In the land without snow, he found a wealthy landowner as his new master. The landowner treated the serf like his own son and let him marry his own daughter. One day, bandits were drawn by the wealth of this landowner. They came by night and murdered every single man and woman in their sleep, including the serf, his wife and their children.

And the angel asked the third serf: “What do you seek?” The third serf answered: “O Lord almighty, You are the greatest. May your name alone be praised forever and ever. How I am longing for Your Countenance and to stay among the faithful, but my heathen master gives me no place to worship. For each prayer I say, he gives me lashes.” The angel said to him: “Your master I shall strike. From this land you shall flee, across the ocean of sand and waves of rock, upon the banks of the West Sea. There you will be your own master, and no man your master shall be.”

Soon after, there came a herald summoning all the serfs, for their master was now dead. Hearing this, the third serf fled the land and travelled to the west. The angel went in front of him as a guide. When other serfs saw him, they asked him: “Where are you going? Aren’t we supposed to go back to our master and follow him in death?” The third serf said to them: “Our master has died his own death. I have no more master now. I am a freeman!” The serfs who heard this admired him and also fled with him.

Their group grew larger and larger. Guided by the angel, they walked across an expansive desert, which looked like an ocean of sand, where the sun scorched their hair. They also crossed countless mountain ranges, which looked like waves formed by rocks, where the frost bit their skins. Finally, they arrived at the meadows by the West Sea. The third serf—now a freeman—said to his followers: “God has set us free. We must now live for Him. Let us build a nation for God, where He can be worshipped freely and daily.”

When the pope heard this, His Holiness was happy and appointed a bishop to crown the freeman king of the new nation. The freeman asked the bishop: “Why do I deserve this crown, whereas the other two serfs have now died as serfs?” “Alas my child,” the bishop answered him. “You are given what you ask. When you ask for fleeting happiness, so fleeting your happiness shall be.”

Analysis

The Tale of Three Serfs is a story about three Christian men in a society generally hostile to Christianity. They had no freedom to practice their Faith, and their Christian identities had placed them in a lowly hierarchy in that society. When God (represented by the angel) offered them help, none of them asked for something which was intrinsically evil, so God gave each of them a positive response. However, the fate of the first two serfs differed widely from that of the third.

Essentially, the first two serfs did not seek to alter their social status, namely the serfdom. They sought to alleviate the harsh conditions within the extent of serfdom, but the third serf sought freedom, the contrary to serfdom, and not merely physical and psychological freedom, but also moral freedom, the freedom to worship and to practice his Faith, which would ultimately allow him to fulfil the purpose of a human being. For that freedom, he embarked on an epic and bitter journey and eventually received his reward.

It is also noteworthy that the second and third serfs, by recognising the mercy and omnipotence of God, were given much more than what they asked. The second serf asked for a warmer place to live but was also given a family. The third serf was given the kingship together with a departure from serfdom. As the bishop remarked at the end, God is always generous in vouchsafing us what we ask of Him, but what makes differences depend on (1) how well we know and recognise His mercy and omnipotence, (2) what we ask for, and (3) how we utilise the gifts from God.