While reading in Luke 17 this morning I came across a passage about servitude that stopped me with confusion. Starting in verse 7, Jesus asks his disciples, (I’m paraphrasing here) If you are a master and have a servant who spends his day working in the field, when he comes in from the field, would you say, “Sit down and eat, then fix my dinner”? No you would say, “Get cleaned up, fix my dinner then you may eat as well.” Would you thank the servant for doing as he is told? I think not. Likewise, when you have done all that is commanded of you, you will say, “We are unworthy servants: we have done only our duty.”
Up to this point Jesus has been teaching on repentance and faith, then this tale about servitude pops up. What’s that all about?
In studying this out, it becomes clear to me that it is made more difficult to understand by the fact that in the culture I live in, not only has slavery been abolished, but the thought of it has become repugnant to us. Let me put this in a modernized context that we may better understand it: employment.
If you take a job with an employer, you are submitting yourself to the authority of that employer. This is sort of like slavery except you almost always have the option of walking away if things don’t go to your liking and the employer never has the right to beat you if you perform poorly. But other than that, it’s pretty much the same.
Your boss gives you a job to do and supervises how you do it. Your performance of that job will directly determine your worth to that employer.
Let’s say you and a co-worker work in the office of a company that sells something. The boss gives you a task to do and you complete it at your own pace, and do only what is required. If your boss asks you to produce a special report, you work it in, but it may take a week to complete it. Your co-worker, Stella, is asked to produce a sales report, in addition to her regular daily duties, and manages to get the report done in a couple of days and she includes a sales projection for the next period based on the sales of the past three periods.
When the time for raises or promotions comes around, if these are examples of your typical performance and Stella’s typical performance, all other things being equal, who is going to get the raise or promotion?
Followers of Jesus are servants of God. When we serve Him by complying with only the baseline requirements and dragging our feet, we are unworthy of more duties in God’s kingdom. When we serve Him with enthusiasm and are willing to go beyond the basic requirements, we will be rewarded with a “promotion” in His Kingdom. “He who is faithful with a little will be faithful with much” (Luke 16:10 para).
Our performance is related to our faith. If we have only a little faith in what God has said we feel little obligation to be a good servant employee. We trust more in our own understanding and will than we do God’s. Oh, we say we believe, but do we trust? Do we serve with distinction, of just shuffle along doing as little as we can get by with?
There will be an awards ceremony in Heaven. Jesus will hand out crowns to those who have served with distinction. Wouldn’t you like to be awarded honor by Jesus? Do your best in all things and look for ways to give or do a little more than the minimum requirement.
