"Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do say,
“We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done.”
Luke 17:10
ILast week over at Pomoco stadium the CNU football team came out and played some pretty sloppy football. By half time they had given up possession of the ball three times through fumbles and interceptions. After the third one, the fellow sitting beside me in the stands said ‘I’ll bet the coach has some tough words for these boys at half time.’ I suppose he did, because they came out and played a completely different second half, winning the game decidedly. Sometimes we need those tough words to get us back on track again. Well, it’s half time in Luke’s gospel today, and Jesus has some tough half-time words for his disciples. Here he challenges the team to a higher level of play than they have been doing.
Prior to this passage Jesus warns his disciples about doing two things: First don’t do or say anything to cause a ‘little one’ to stumble. A little one refers to a newly baptized convert to the faith. These people were the most vulnerable in the faith and Jesus here is very protective of them. He says ‘don’t do anything or say anything intentionally or unintentionally that would cause someone new to lose their faith. Jesus knows how easy it is for that to happen: they show up in church for the first time and you greet them with kind words like : ‘Hey, you’re sitting in my pew’. Or in the narthex after where everyone forms their comfortable huddles, and you see them standing alone in the corner and you don’t say anything to welcome them or include them. Our Lord has zero tolerance for that sort of behaviour. In fact he says it would be better for a millstone be tied around your neck and you be thrown into the sea than for you to do that. Too difficult? Hang on – we’re just getting started!
Next, Jesus says if someone sins against you and then repents and says ‘I’m sorry’ get this: you must forgive that person, not just once but as many as seven times a day! Forgiveness is not optional in the church, it’s mandatory. That’s hard to do, isn’t it? Some people say ‘I might forgive but I’m not going to forget!’ Some say ‘I can love the sinner but I hate the sin’ and they wear their injury like a crown. There is a kind of divine righteousness about being wronged by someone and being able to hold it over them. It feels good - ‘Oh, you really hurt me when you did that, oh I’ve forgiven you but I still feel the pain sometimes.’
Jesus says I don’t want my followers playing any of those games …if someone wrongs you and repents you forgive that person and move on. That’s the end of it. Now that’s over the top, don’t you think? Do you mean we have to show the same forgiveness that those Mennonites showed in Pennsylvania after that sick man murdered their children? Who can do that? The 12 disciples have trouble with this sort of forgiveness themselves and they say to Jesus ‘Increase our faith! Teachings this tough are going to require a spiritual booster. We don’t have what it takes. We can’t live up to this!’
And what does Jesus say? ‘If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea’ and it would obey you.’ This is not a reprimand for an absence of faith, instead it is an invitation to live out the full possibilities of the faith we already have. ‘You don’t need more faith! All you need is a tiny speck of faith to do everything I’ve commanded.’ Why is that? Because our faith lays hold of God…faith lays claim to the power of God in our lives and with God nothing is impossible. So Jesus dismisses the notion that we need more faith to live out these teachings. ‘You’ve already got everything you need to do this… ‘ so just do it! Too much for you? Hang on cause Jesus saves the toughest teaching to last!
Jesus tells a parable…and it not like most parables he tells. Most of the parables Jesus tells are like knuckleballs coming across the plate. When he first pitches them, they look like they’re coming straight across the plate but then at the last minute they curve inside.
A prodigal son goes off and squanders the family inheritance, shames the family name, and when times get rough he comes home…and his father runs out and welcomes him! See how that curves?
A Vineyard owner hires workers at five different times during the day…6am, 9am, 12 noon, 3 and 5 in the afternoon. At 6pm he calls them all in and pays them their wages. The guy who worked for an hour gets a day’s wages…and the guy who worked all day gets …a days’ wages! Kuckleballs.
We’ve come to expect them…so when Jesus throws a high, hard one straight across the plate, it kind of stuns us. We’re not expecting it. The parable goes like this: ‘You’re a householder who owns a slave. (obviously you’re of modest wealth because you only have one slave to do all your work) When your slave comes in from working in fields all day, you would think of saying : ‘Here, sit down, my dear slave, I’ve cooked you a lovely supper’. No, you command him to get to the kitchen and get supper ready, and only afterwards does he get to sit down and eat. And you don’t show a shred of gratitude … no Hallmark card, no box of chocolates on Slave Day. And he doesn’t expect it either – why? Because he’s just doing his job. So it is with you, says Jesus, ‘you are servants of the Lord. So don’t expect reward or glory for doing what is commanded of you. Instead say ‘We are worthless slaves; we done only what we ought to have done.’
This saying is especially tough isn’t it? It comes at us straight and fast and doesn’t curve like most of Jesus’parables. That’s because this parable isn’t depicting the way things are in the kingdom, but the way things are in the real world. Walk this parable through your office and you’ll see what I mean. Saying thank you is a pleasant social courtesy around the office, but it’s no substitute for your paycheck, nor does it make up for missed objectives. In the office it comes down to whether or not your doing your job. Sometimes we may feel like ‘tired slaves’ but still we get up on Monday morning and keep going hard all week…why? Because that’s what we’re hired to do. We live in this story.
So why does Jesus remind us of the real world? Because somehow when it comes to matters of discipleship we think it should be different!
We think that if the going gets rough in the faith department we should be able to opt out. Jesus is saying ‘Being a Christian is like being a good employee…there are times you have to do things when you’d just as soon pass, but you do it anyway because ‘it’s your job’. It’s the same with discipleship.
The disciples cry out ‘increase our faith’ but the truth of it is, the increase in faith comes after we do the difficult thing, not before. You aren’t getting along with your neighbour and you see him on the other side of the street one day. It’s not easy, but you cross over to the other side and make amends with him. And then you receive that increase in faith…then you know it will be easier to do something similar again sometime!
Faith is like learning to swim…if you want to learn to swim how do you do it? You can read as many books as you want about swimming, but until you get in the water… ! We slip into the water, let go of the side of the pool and flail our way to the other side…and that’s how you learn to swim! Faith is increased by getting in and going for it. If you wait until your faith is increased before you do something, hell will freeze over before you’ll ever do it!
When John Claypool started out in the ministry he was told by someone at his first church that not only was he their pastor, he was also chaplain of the local fire department. Not long afterwards there was a fire at the home of an elderly lady. One volunteer fireman dashed into the burning house and brought her out to safety. While being treated for burns at the hospital, the new chaplain came by to congratulate him on his courage. The fireman simply responded ‘I feel blessed to be asked to do this, because the highest compliment that a firefighter can receive is to be asked to do the most dangerous thing.’ Claypool reflected on that in a sermon. He said ‘Here, blessed means to be asked to do the most sacrificial task.’ Blessed means opportunity for duty. It’s true whether you are a firefighter or a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Now go out and do your job as followers of Jesus .
Amen