The Joy of Christian Duty: A Parable on Servanthood
by James Lincoln on February 26, 2006
"He who wants to be great must be the servant of all." (Mtt. 20:26)
At times Jesus says things that are counter-intuitive and even shocking. When you first read our parable you think, "Did Jesus really say that?" What kind of heartless boss wouldn't even thank his employee for making dinner for him after he had just put in a hard day's work? How insensitive could this guy be and why would Jesus use such an illustration to teach us about how to live? I just love Jesus for the way He is forever saying things that make you sit up and take notice and ask questions.
This parable is an "In your face" kind of parable. I don't want to squirm out of it and take away its edge. Jesus is teaching about the Christian lifestyle.
Fundamentally, Jesus is saying that His followers are not to be the kind of people who either give offence or take offence. It's easy for us to lead others into sin by our own inconsistencies. When Paul says that we should avoid even the appearance of evil that means that even though our faith is enormously personal it's never a private thing. But we value our privacy and we don't like being watched, at least not too carefully. Jesus teaches us that Christianity changes all that. It does matter what people see. Of course He doesn't want us to be overly concerned about what people think about us but He does calls us to live before others in ways that are good and bear witness to His grace. Jesus calls His followers to assume that burden.
Not only are we not supposed to give offence we're also not to take offence. He says that if those who offend us repent - if they are sincere in their repentance - no matter how often they offend you we are to forgive them (v.3). In other words Jesus says, "Look, I want you to be a forgiving and reconciled people with no bitterness, no rancor or unrighteous anger." Once you become a Christian you're no longer your own; you don't have the right to nurse grudges and incubate offences. You don't have the right to say that your life is your own business and who cares what others think.
The disciples' response is interesting. They're not naive people. They know how difficult relationships can be. They know how difficult it is to mend fences. So they say (v.5) "OK, if that's true then you're going to have to increase our faith, because as it stands right now we don't believe this is realistic." I love these guys and the candor of the Bible. They just say it like it is. "Come on Jesus. What planet are you on? People don't get along! We don't have enough faith for that."
However, assuming the burden of both not causing offence and forgiving those who offend us is a core piece of our discipleship. Jesus taught, Matt 5:23-24
"Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
Can you imagine a minister today saying, "Hey, now before you give your offering, make sure that you are at peace (as far as it depends on you) with your brother and do this before you give."
The disciples' response is this, "Unless You increase our faith there's no way we can do this." It was at that moment that Jesus gave the parable about the servant's duty. Notice that He doesn't give them a parable about forgiveness. He gives them a parable about their unconditional duty to the Master. It's not a matter of huge amounts of faith. It's often a matter of belief in a simple and short proposition that Jesus is your LORD and Master.
Look, an ounce of faith in the right thing can accomplish things that seem impossible, like getting a large tree to uproot and plant itself in the sea. You don't need a lot of faith. What you need is to believe Jesus enough to obey Him. The appeal to our lack of faith can be legitimate. However, it can also be an excuse to escape what Jesus says to do. In other words you can attempt to avoid the commandment on the grounds that you don't have enough faith or strength for that commandment. Jesus says, "Wait a minute, you know that I am the Lord. How much faith does it take for you to simply obey me?" And this is where Jesus leads them with his parable.
A Disciple: Christ's Servant
The parable teaches us that a Christian is a servant. He serves the LORD. His life is no longer his own. Obedience to him is not an optional thing. He's saying, "If you are Mine, this is how you live." Yes, your life is much more than being a servant but it is never less than being a servant. It doesn't say everything about you as a Christian but it's definitely and irreducibly true that a Christian is the servant of the LORD. OK, what does this mean?
It means, 'You have a duty'. Now, this isn't popular today. Even some Christians teach that duty is an inferior motivation for the Christian life. Yet it's difficult to reconcile that with Jesus' lesson here. What does the parable say about a servant? He says that a servant is someone who does his or her duty. A servant is someone who has settled that God owes her nothing. This is a slave in Jesus' parable not an employee. Attempts to modernize this will cause us to miss the point.
He says,
(7) "A farmer owns a small farm with one servant or one farm hand. The servant goes out and works all day. When he returns does the farmer say, "Oh take your shoes off and put your feet up and let me get you a glass of iced tea?" No. He says, "You've got more work to do." Clean yourself up and make my meal first and then you can eat." And when it's all done the servant doesn't expect anything from the master. Rather, the servant should say, "I'm just doing what I ought to do. I'm an unworthy servant who is only doing his duty."
This servant is someone who says to his master, "You owe me nothing." Why?
Indentured Slaves
Now, the kind of slavery Jesus is referring to here isn't the same as the slavery in our American history. American slavery was based on race not debt. In American slavery the master owned the slave; he owned his person and had complete power over him and could do whatever he wanted with him. There was no way out.
Here, I think Jesus is talking about an indentured servant. An indentured servant was someone who had fallen into debt. In those days bankruptcy wasn't an option. So, If the debt was beyond your ability to pay you were still obligated to pay it or you could go into the service of your creditor until your debt was paid off. The creditor owned your labor not your person. If I remember correctly something like 70% of the population of the Roman world were slaves.
Now, this form of slavery had a good side to it because the creditor didn't have to bring you in. He could have just thrown you in prison.
In our parable the servant owes the master a debt that he cannot pay and so he has no illusions that the creditor owes him anything or all kinds of thanks. The master had the right to throw him in prison.
Now, Jesus isn't speaking against common courtesy. He's not advocating that we be rude people. Kindness is the fruit of the Spirit. He's not saying that we shouldn't say "Please" and "Thank you" to those who serve. The goal of the story is to show the condition that is between God and us. A Christian is someone who understands that God owes you nothing. We are in so much debt that He doesn't owe us thanks. God created you and therefore you owe your existence to Him. He keeps you together. He keeps those electrons orbiting around the nucleus of every atom in your body. He keeps the earth orbiting so perfectly around the sun that it stays far enough away so that it doesn't get burned up and yet He keeps it close enough to the sun so that it doesn't freeze! God does this. Look, nobody knows what gravity is. The Bible says that God holds all things together by the power of His word. We owe Him everything. You couldn't get up today and move, breath or walk around without Him.
And yet, we often act as if He owes us. We can expect and even demand from Him a good life which is, of course, cosmically inappropriate. He owes us nothing except to throw us into debtors' prison. A Christian is someone who has figured that out. That's why Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." Or blessed are those who recognize this situation! Jesus said to the church at Laodicea,
"You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich." (Rev 3:17-18)
When Jesus called our sin a debt He was telling us that sin is not merely the violation of a standard. It's also failing to give to God what is His due. That makes all of us debtors before God. I wonder how often we get angry with God because our life isn't going the way we think it should go.
Last Saturday night, I went to bed really early so that I could get a good night's rest and be refreshed, full of life and be at my best for Sunday morning. You know what happened? I just laid there hour after hour praying and using every trick I could think of to go to sleep. Finally at 4:30AM I fell asleep and the alarm went off at 5AM. I was really upset about this. And deep down I was mad at God. Aren't I entitled to have things go my way? Of course not! I'm not the master, God is! And if He doesn't give you what you want that means that that thing wasn't good for you and that it wouldn't make you more like Jesus. There's an assumption underneath our anger. And that assumption is that God owes you a life that you think is best.
Now is there any evidence that this is true? Where's the evidence that God owes you a great life on your terms? And if you pull that assumption out of the equation and put in its place that you owe God and that you're so deep in debt to Him that you could never repay it in 1,000 life times then you wouldn't be nearly as angry as you might be otherwise. A servant understands that God owes him nothing.
Second, a servant obeys unconditionally and without qualification. Jesus said at the end of the parable (10) "So, you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, 'We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.'" We have only done our duty.
The Lepers
Now, the next event recorded is about ten lepers who show us what our service to Christ should look like. They stood at a distance, raised their voices at Jesus and said, "Jesus, Master have mercy on us." That's another way of asking Jesus to heal them. Look carefully at what Jesus did. Notice, that instead of healing them what did He do? He gave them an order to be obeyed.
Remember that leprosy was not just an untreatable physical disease it was also a social disease. Lepers were legally declared social outcasts. They lived under a restraining order to stay away from others, their towns and homes. So they didn't get close to Jesus. Instead they yelled. And they cried out to Jesus to be merciful and do something for them. But instead of healing them He gave them a commandment. And that commandment was to go and show themselves to the priests.
As the community health officers of the day the priests had the power to declare someone a leper or they could declare them clean and remove the restraining order. Again, Jesus doesn't heal them. He says, "Go and show yourselves to the Priests."
But, they're leprous! They can't show themselves to the priest! They have to stay at a distance. It's like telling a blind man, "Drive me home." He's ordering them to do something they are legally bound not to do. But somehow they hear hope in His command. And they went anyway. They obeyed. And along the way they were healed.
What if the lepers had said, "You know what? We'll obey when you heal us." Beloved, a servant obeys; He does everything He's told. If you only obey after you get your way or after God does what you want you're not obeying. If you obey only when you see that it's going to help you or make sense to you then in reality you are not obeying at all. Instead you're negotiating. If there are any conditions to your obedience its not obedience it's consulting.
There is a little booklet called, My Heart: Christ's Home. In it, the author says that if you say, "Lord this is your house but there is one or two rooms that are off base to You." then you haven't yet made your heart His Home. If your heart is Christ's home but you tell Him where He can go and can't go then you are acting like you are the owner and not Christ. If you can bring forth conditions or your obedience then you're not obeying. You haven't yet relinquished your will. You're not yet a servant. God's not a consultant or a co-pilot or a partner. He is LORD and MASTER of all.
Did you notice that the strength came in the doing? So, beloved, forgive others, keep your promises and exercise sexual self-control. You say, "I don't feel strong enough." But the strength came to them as they obeyed and honored Jesus as Master and saw themselves as His servants. They didn't wait until they understood or felt better. They obeyed Him implicitly. We owe Him everything...He owes us nothing.
A Joyful Duty
Look at how one of the lepers who was healed did his duty. (15) One of the lepers who had been healed turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, fell on his face at Jesus' feet and gave Him thanks. He assumes the position of an indentured servant. But the debt he owes is a debt of love. Jesus set him free physically, socially and legally. Try to image someone who perhaps had not been touched by a loved one for years. Imagine the unspeakable joy when he got his first hug from his wife and children.
To become a Christian servant is to see that Christ has paid the debt. He is not serving Jesus out of the hope that He might and not in the hope that He might love him and might accept him. Instead, He praised God and gave Him thanks out of a grateful joy that He already has loved him. That's why the hymn goes, "O to Grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be, Let Thy grace now like a fetter bind my wondering heart to Thee." The grace that binds me to God, is my duty (a fetter) but now it means more than duty. John Newton wrote,
"Our pleasure and our duty though opposite before - since we have seen His beauty - are joined apart no more." When you have seen the beauty of His grace they're joined apart no more. Newton's verse continues, "to see the law by Christ fulfilled to hear His pardoning voice, transforms the slave into a child and duty into a choice."
The leper shows us that we're never less than servants but he also shows us that we are so much more! In Christ we are children and heirs! But we are children who throw themselves down at His feet and say, "Master, command us." or "Your wish is my command." That's what people in love say.
Three Young Men Who Served God
There's a wonderful story about obedience in the book of Daniel. The king Nebuchadnezzar gave orders to have everyone bow before his image. Imagine thousands and thousands of people all falling with their faces to the ground. But standing alone in the front row were these three young men. What a sight that must have been. Nebuchadnezzar was furious and told them that he was going to throw them in the fire if they didn't obey him. They answered him this way,
"O Nebuchadnezzar...our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and He will deliver us out of your hand. O king. BUT IF NOT ...we're not going to serve your gods that you have made."(Dan. 3)
This is how to deal with a test. "Our God can and will but if not...we still won't bow down." That's treating God as God. To not hope for a miracle or ask for a miracle is not acknowledging the power of God. On the other hand, to demand a miracle is to not treat God as a sovereign God. They say, "God can and will but if not we're not going to serve you or your image O king."
"BUT IF NOT..."
During the Second World War, in 1941 when the British and French troops were backed up against the English Channel in Dunkirk they were about to be wiped out by superior German forces steamrolling across France. They sent a telegram to the high command. Their question was "Should we stand and fight or surrender?" The British high command sent a telegram back. It only contained three words. The three words were these, "BUT IF NOT" They knew their Bibles and so they knew the answer. Their commanders were saying, "Maybe we will be able to deliver you BUT IF NOT you will not surrender. There was a miracle. The English who lived on the coast heard about it and so everyone who owned a fishing boat or a dingy went across the English channel and in four days they evacuated 300,000 English and French troops. They saved them for another day.
Daniels friends said, "We will obey God whether or not He saves us." And so Nebuchadnezzar throws them in the furnace. Then he goes to look and he was amazed because as he looked he not only saw the three young men walking around he saw a fourth. And the fourth one looked to him like the Son of God.
Beloved, Jesus Christ stood in front of a furnace and said, "Lord God, don't let this cup of wrath that belongs to sinners fall on me....BUT IF NOT, I'll go into that furnace for you and for them. If you see Jesus saying BUT IF NOT for you, then you'll be able to say, BUT IF NOT to Him. If you see Him going into the great furnace of death and hell for you, He will walk into your little furnace with you too. He really will. He's good like that.
Jesus went into the furnace for us out of obedience. Jesus became a leper so that you and I could be healed. Return, to Him and throw yourself down at His feet and say "Make me more of a servant than ever."