March 17, 2013 - Unworthy Servants

Today I’d like us to consider a hard passage; Luke 17:1-10. Take your time with it. If you can make the time, read it and re-read it several times throughout the day, and let it really hit you. It’s not easy to hear. It really challenges us to examine ourselves.

Jesus is speaking to His disciples here and He’s laying out some pretty strong stuff. He confronts them about not causing others to stumble; about forgiving even if the person does the same thing repeatedly – notice at this point the disciples interrupt Jesus to say, “Lord, increase our faith!” Then Jesus exhorts them about their faith! And finally – and most importantly for us today – He checks them on their attitude about their work in the kingdom.

In our human nature we tend to want to defend ourselves don’t we? Like, “But I do this good thing…” or “You never met________ (that person who always manages to get under our skin)…” or maybe, “I give this much to my church or charity…!” Is this what we signed up for? Did Jesus say, “Come, follow me and I will make you…unworthy servants?” Is He really asking this hard thing of me?

Well, yes. He is asking this hard thing of us. It is the very thing He asked of Himself and freely gave as He gave up all that He had to show us the way. Even more than that – He imparts to us the very nature that He asks us to adopt! So that human nature that would want to make excuses for why we can’t, can die in Christ, so that we can live in Christ with His very nature empowering us to live out that very life of service that He asks from us!

I know; that’s a lot to take in. But what it really says is, we can begin to say: “I went on this mission trip…it was only my duty;” “I gave this much to church…it was only my duty;” “I visited the sick and shut in…it was only my duty;” “I forgave that one who hurt me so deeply…” you get the point. Not as a way to degrade what we do, but as a personal check in our spirits for the humility that understands there is nothing we can do that Christ has not first demonstrated for us and gone before us to lay the path with His very life.

We can get so full of ourselves! Passages like this just help keep us grounded. Let this word do its work in you today in whatever way God desires as we all develop the servant mind of Christ.

…. Cheryl Keafer