The Stories Jesus Told #10 - The Servant in the Field
Message Description
Senior Pastor Dr. Kurt Bjorklund continues the "Stories Jesus Told" message series teaching out of the gospel of Luke sharing the parable of the servant in the field and what it means to be a servant of God.
Message Transcript
A couple of weeks ago, I was having one of those weeks where it didn't feel like I had enough time to get all the stuff done that I needed to get done. I'm sure you've had these weeks and probably a lot of weeks are this way, but sometimes I really can't get to everything. And so, I was just running hard. No matter what I did, it felt like I had more things to do.
In the midst of it, my grass started to get a little long. And so, I went out and I cut the grass. And after I cut the grass, I did what I do sometimes, which is I weed whacked, edged, and I did it nice. Do you know the difference? Like sometimes you do your grass. It's like, I'm in, I'm out. And other times you take your time. You're meticulous. This was meticulous. My neighbors may not think so, but I thought so.
When I got done, I went into the house, and I don't know what I was expecting, but what I wanted was, wow, you crushed the lawn today. Thank you. And what I got was nothing. Now, to be perfectly fair, I know my wife also has had weeks like that where she can't get to everything, and she would love a “did you notice” and gets nothing. I know this goes both directions, but it didn't stop me in that moment from thinking nobody cares that I work so hard on the lawn, and it's just going to grow next week and need to be done again.
So, today we are looking at one of the stories Jesus told, a parable, in Luke 17, verses seven through ten. And this is a story that chances are, if you've read it, you probably haven't heard a message on it. In fact, we're at the end of looking at all of the parables Jesus told. We did one series a few years ago and a series this time. There's a reason this is at the end because this is not an easy story in terms of understanding, even though it's fairly straightforward. It's not really comfortable because the big point seems to be that you can serve, but don't get all entitled about how you should be celebrated, even though you've served.
That's not the easiest Father's Day message, although it's kind of appropriate in some ways because if you're a dad, if you're a mom, you know what it is to give and to serve and to feel unappreciated. In fact, if you have a kid, especially a young child, what happens is you have this moment of this is awesome, we have a child, and then your whole life starts to revolve around the child. When they cry, you have to get up and deal with it. I mean, you don't have to, but we have Department of Children's Services for letting them cry too long. Then when they get a little older, it's like they have the schedule and you become an Uber driver, and you just take them wherever they need to go, whenever they need to go. And your life starts to feel like it's just one big have to.
Now, that doesn't mean it's not filled with joy. It doesn't mean it's not good. But there is a sense in which you have some moments, whether it's the lawn moment, whether it's I was on my third Uber drive of the day and I was just want somebody to say thank you. And you feel like, does anybody notice? Does anybody care?
Now, this passage talks about a servant in the field. And the first hurdle that we kind of need to get over is this idea of the servant. In fact, the original language uses the word slave, and we're a little uncomfortable with that in our culture and for good reason because of the American history of slavery. Most modern translations of the New Testament translate the word doulos, which is slave in the original language as servant. And the reason they do this is it's a little less confusing.
Some would argue that servanthood in the New Testament, slavery in New Testament times, wasn't what it is in America. It certainly wasn't racially driven, but it was economically driven. People who were economically disadvantaged would end up becoming slaves in the culture. And so, this is the image that's used. And I said this last week, but one of the images that we often use in our culture to speak about people who are followers of Jesus is the image of a Christian. But the word Christian is only used in the New Testament three times. The word slave is used over 120 times. And then there are other compound versions of the word that are used even more. In other words, this is a much stronger metaphor for the relationship of a person to God, the slave metaphor, then the metaphor of a Christian. And that isn't really something that is always comfortable.
Murray Harris has written an excellent book on the metaphor of a Slave of Christ. And if you struggle with the image that's being used, I would recommend the book. Murray Harris says this about the issue. He says, “In the first century A.D., the doulos word group would have generally evoked feelings of repugnance in the hearts of free persons and in the vast majority of slaves.
And here's his point. He's saying in a lot of interpretations of the New Testament, people have tried to take this idea of slavery, and whether it's the translation or the culturalization of it, tried to make it feel a little better. Now, certainly the American church in some ways was complicit in slavery in our country's history and in other ways was at the cutting edge of really seeing slavery eradicated in our culture. And the reason I say it's both is because there were some churches that said slavery is something that is from God, and they used Scripture to support it. And other people said slavery is something that is clearly inhumane, and it isn't from God. They used Scripture to argue that it should be eradicated.
Now, without going into all of the history and backstory, what Murray Harris argues, and again, he goes into some of that and it's worth reading, but what he says is that by the time of the New Testament metaphor, even though the word was repugnant, the way it's used in the New Testament is entirely positive. I'm cutting to the end of the book. So if you're not a book person, I'm giving you the whole essence of the book right here.
He says, “In the New Testament, a slave means humble submission to the Person of Christ. In the New Testament, a slave means unquestioning obedience to the Master's will. And in the New Testament, a slave means an exclusive preoccupation with pleasing Christ.” So, what he's done is gone through all of these instances and tried to say, here's what this is about. And then he says this, and this is his definition. “A slave is someone whose person and service belong wholly to another.” So that is what it means to be a slave of Jesus Christ.
Now, you may say, okay, this is still a little bit of a troubling image, even if I don't bring my cultural kind of understanding into it and I say the New Testament was positive, I'm not sure I like it. The idea of of being a slave of Christ. Here's part of what this communicates. Verse nine says this. “Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do...” So, twice the NIV translates this told to do. It's a word that means prescribed, commanded. There's some things that God commands, and being a slave, being a servant, means that you say I will do what God commands.
Then there's this idea of obligation. At the end of verse ten, “... ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’” And so, he says here there is an obligation, there are commands and slave laws, do what they're commanded.
Now, I try often on Mother's Day, Father's Day, not to make the entire message about mothers or fathers, because I know that there are some who aren’t in a place where they’re mothers are fathers, and maybe that's hard. Or they had painful relationships with their mothers and fathers. But just for a moment, let me just point something out about being a parent, a mother or a father.
In Genesis chapter one, verse 28, we get what's known as the creation mandate. It says, be fruitful and multiply and have dominion over the earth. And what's happened in our day and age is a lot of people talk a lot about what they call the creation mandate, have dominion, meaning be stewards of creation. So, they'll say that it is a mandate from God, the creator, that we care for creation, that that's something everyone should be concerned about.
But rarely do we talk about the procreation part of the mandate that says be fruitful and multiply. And here's my point. If you as a dad, as a mom, have kids and you are contributing to the stewardship of our world, you are fulfilling part of the command that God has given. In other words, it's a good thing when you say we're going to bring kids into this world and raise them.
In fact, in a world where we're starting to see the decline in some countries of population growth, we are already seeing what happens when a culture doesn't value bringing kids up and having kids as a culture. And so, that's part of God's this is what I want you to do. But whether it's as a parent or as a spouse, as a child to a parent, whether it's as somebody in our relationship to God, when we hear this idea of being a slave, it is metaphor that God uses, and there's a couple of different reactions we can have to it. And I’d just like to talk about this with you for a few moments.
The first is simply to resist it, to say, I don't like the idea of being a slave to anybody. I want to be wholly free. My choices are my own. I should never have to choose to submit myself to somebody else, certainly not a God. And for some of you, this sounds terrible. This would even be the reason that you say, I'm not sure I want to be a Christ follower. I want to be free. I want to do what I want to do when and how I want to do it. The last thing I want is to have a God telling me what to do in my life.
And even some of us who probably have come to have personal faith in Jesus Christ have some moments where probably if we're honest with ourselves, we say, I want salvation, but I don't want a master. I want eternity, but I don't want God telling me what should be true in my life here and now. Now what's also true is that in the Bible, no one image conveys the totality of our relationship with God. There's another image that's used. It's one that we often like better. It's the image of a shepherd and sheep of God caring for his people.
I saw an article recently. There was an incident that happened in 2005 in Turkey, where 1500 sheep plunged over a cliff. And so, what happened evidently was one sheep jumped off, then another, and 450 sheep died. Some were rescued because when they jumped, they fell on the other sheep, and they were okay. But when it got investigated, what happened was that they found that the shepherds had gone to breakfast. They'd just been like our sheep are fine, we're going to breakfast. And so, one sheep jumped off, then another, and 1500 went off.
Now, you may say, okay, so how is that a comforting image of God and us? And it's a fair question because in a way, it's also offensive because sheep need a shepherd. But the reason that I say this is an important counter image to the image of slave and a master is because this is where you get the clarity that says God is not asking you to submit to him in a capricious way, but he's asking you to submit because he actually knows what's best. This is why you can sing God has good plans. I know He has good plans for me. Or there's the deep, deep love of God. Because when anxiety free or a moment of saying does this make sense hits us, we can say, I know that God is good even if this path doesn't seem right.
And the truth that Paul picks up on in using this slave language is that you will be a slave to something. He talks about slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness. And his image by saying this is that sooner or later, if you are a slave to sin, you will become dominated by something that isn't good for you or you become a slave to righteousness. One of the reasons that you and I would want to follow Jesus Christ is because we say he's actually good, and he wants good in our lives. And what makes the most sense is to say his way, even if it doesn't make sense to me, is the best way.
Maybe a way to think about this is I mentioned mowing my lawn. Imagine if I took my edger and my weed whacker and I said, I know it says that I should change the oil every now and then and I should do these things, but I want to be free. I don't like all these standards and rules. Well, what happens? Well, for one season, nothing. Maybe even a second year, nothing. But by the third year, if I don't do some of the prescribed maintenance, what happens is, sooner or later, I don't have the freedom of those tools anymore, the freedom to use them. And that is what happens when we say, I'm free. And so, freedom isn't necessarily what we think it is. It's not the draw that we want it to be because the maker of the weed-whacker, God, the maker of us, knows and says this is what is best if you do it this way.
I was driving the other day. I was on a road with hills and curves, which means I was driving in Pittsburgh, and so you don't have a chance to pass often. And so, you're kind of trapped behind whoever's in front of you. I was driving, and this person slowed way down and came to a stop. I was immediately frustrated and was kind of like, what are you doing? And then when I pulled up, when they kind of inched ahead, I saw that there were about three different deer standing on the side of the road, and I recognized that they had actually slowed me down in a way that probably kept me from driving too fast into this potential deer.
And that's what happens often when we say, I trust God with my life in a different area than I might want to. So, there's this tendency to say, I want to resist maybe this image because I don't like the idea. But there's another tendency and this is to resent it. And by resent it, I don't mean resenting the image, but resenting the implication. And this is my desire, your desire to be celebrated, to basically say I am worth being celebrated what I've done.
Again, I just want you to see here when he says, “Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’” We have this tendency to say, well, if I've done what I was supposed to do, what I ought to do, what I was commanded to do, then we have this little sense of entitlement that says, I want people to recognize me. I want God to recognize me. I want to be praised. And what he's actually saying here is that if you're a servant, if you're a slave, then you aren't served. And if you're a servant, then you won't always be thanked or praised.
But there's a little hint here about the fact that it doesn't just end there. When it says this, “Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’?” And when he says after that you may eat and drink, we don't know entirely what Jesus had in mind. But if you read Revelation, do you know how Revelation ends? It ends with a supper, a wedding feast with the bride and the followers of Jesus at this wedding feast.
And I think this is probably Jesus giving a little a little hint of saying you may feel as if you're forgotten today. You may feel as if what you've rendered as service is unappreciated, unrecognized, and unrewarded. But there will come a day when you will eat, it will be celebrated, and it will be seen. But not only that, the servant here says, I am an unworthy slave, an unworthy servant. And there's another time that this word is used for unworthy servant, this phrase. It's in Matthew 25:30. And this is when Jesus was separating the sheep and goats in his story. And he says, you're an unworthy servant, as if to say you've done poorly and now you don't share in my inheritance. And here it is the servant that uses the phrase, and he says we've done everything we should do.
So, one is from the master saying, you didn't do what you were supposed to do. And one is from the servant saying, we've done everything we're supposed to do. Both called unworthy. Now what does that mean? I think it means at least this, and that is there are two ways that we can kind of miss God. One is by saying, I'm going to do just what I want to do, and I don't care. The other is by doing what we're supposed to do, but doing it with a heart that says, I still want to be praised in some way. And when he says, I'm an unworthy servant, part of what he's saying here is he's recognizing ultimately his need for a savior. He's saying, I know that I have not earned my way.
And here's where this image is. Maybe, again, a little confusing because a slave implies doing everything that we're supposed to do, but ultimately our standing with God isn't because of what we have done or failed to do, but it's because of what Jesus has done. We get our standing, our status from Jesus, not from what we do. And so, to say we're unworthy is to embrace the reality of our need. Humility in the message of Jesus Christ means that we don't demand that we are recognized, we're not full of self-promotion, and we fully recognize our need of God.
I was thinking about this. Those of you who are part of the Wexford campus, you know that in July our campus becomes KidsFest here. That means a ton of kids, a lot of activity, a great time, and it's really intense on the facility and on our Operations Team. And so, a year or two ago, during the summer, there was one day I was walking across part of the campus and one of the trash cans was overflowing. I had one of those moments where I was like, I should call somebody to take care of that. And then I thought, why would I do that? Just empty the trash. So, I grabbed the bag, and I started to take it. I know where the dumpster is, so I'm like, I'm going to carry this out to the dumpster. Then I had this thought, I hope somebody sees me. I mean, how jacked up is that? That even when I want to do something that's kind of good, like, not really like, how hard is it to walk some trash out? I'm like, I want people to see me and say, he's our senior pastor, and he carries trash out. Do you know what that is? That is the servant or the slave in this passage who doesn't say, I'm an unworthy servant, but says I want to be recognized.
And this really pushes us to the other response. And that is to embrace this metaphor, this this role of saying, I am a slave of Jesus Christ. And again, you may be here and saying, well, this is part of my challenge, part of why I'm not sure I want to be a follower of Jesus. I don't want to be a Christian if this is what it involves. But again, all I want to say to you is that real freedom is found in aligning your life with the Creator, with the Good Shepherd. It's not found in doing whatever you want. And if you're a follower of Jesus, I just want to say to you, obligation is good, commands are good. Being a slave, a servant of Christ is good. You may not always be appreciated. You may not always feel like it's worth it. But whatever you say, say God, I'm offering this. A service to you is something that God can use in your life in ways that you may not even fully understand or appreciate.
If you're a dad or mom who's here today, chances are you have a lot of moments where you feel like your life isn't your own, you simply are doing what is commanded or what you ought to do, and it feels like a thankless task. The truth of the matter is, getting a hallmark created holiday once a year isn't enough to fill the deficit of that. And so, if it isn't internally motivated to say, I'm offering my service to God and this is part of how I do it, what will happen is you will grow to resent the life that you're living. And so, entitlement is something that keeps us from joyful service. And what we want instead is to say because of who God is, what he's done, what He's done for me, I am nothing but an unworthy servant. But that is the best place to be because when you are able to live in that space, then you're able to freely offer yourself.
I don't mean that there's never a time to have a conversation with a spouse that says, hey, I could have you carry a little more weight here or a conversation with your kids that says, I could ask you to carry a little more weight here. But what I'm saying is this, and that is when you live in a place where you say, I am offering myself to God in the day to day trenches of your life, your family, and in terms of of how you serve in the broader context of the church, you won't always be thanked here and now. It won't always feel like it's rewarded here and now. But there is a sense in which your very acts will one day be rewarded at the supper, where you will be able to say God has given me an invitation, and now my service has felt like something that was worth it in every way.
Let's pray together. God, I don't know all of the situations, obviously, that are represented here today, the hard places of following you that some of us are in, where it feels like maybe just week after week, year after year, it's been the same kind of hard journey. But God, I pray you would use this text in Luke 17 just to remind us that when we've done what we should do, that that simple refrain I'm still unworthy isn’t a self-defeating statement, but a liberating statement, one that gives us hope and joy about how you have called us to serve you. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen. Thanks for being here. Have a great day.