Parables of Jesus: The Servant and Master
Nov 7, 2021 2021-11-07 Ben Hoyer Luke 17:7-10Continuing the series on the parables of Luke, this sermon examines Luke 17:7-10, the parable of the unworthy (or unprofitable) servant, exploring how doing one's duty before God earns no special claim, since the servant is simply doing what was commanded.
Read transcript
Auto-generated from the audio — may contain errors.
We're looking at these parables in Luke because Ken Bailey's helping us do that in this book, The Poet, or Through Peasant Eyes, where we're learning about the cultural context of these parables. And he's going through the parables just in Luke and just in one section. And this one, I don't know if you can see all the bookmarks I got in here, but this is a tricky one for us this morning, so bear with me here. But it's in Luke chapter 17.
If you want to look there with me, that would be great. And one of the things we've been talking about, we got started on this because, you know, the scriptures have all these different types of writing in them. They have the prophetic writing, they have historic writing, they have prophetic writing, then they have the gospels, these biographies, and then they have the epistles, these letters in the New Testament, written to churches addressing specific questions. And I was thinking that if I were allowed to pick just one type of writing in the scriptures
to have perfect clarity on, I think it would be the parables. Mostly just because I think the parables are like amazing occurrences. It seems like Jesus just makes up these stories on the spot. Sometimes people are asking questions. And sometimes they're not even asking questions and he makes up these stories. And then they like continue to teach us stuff for so long. I think it's amazing. And so then because I was thinking about that, I found this book that I had bought years ago
and never read that I thought maybe it would be a good idea to read. And so since I'm reading it, I thought I'd do double time and share what I'm learning with you guys. That's how we got on the parables. And we've been working through these parables in Luke and we're in Luke chapter 17. And the parable is just three verses. Luke chapter 17 verses 7 to 10. And well, the first thing to know is like usually when we're reading a text and we want to think about what it means.
The first thing we would do is look at the stuff before it and the stuff after it. And Ken tells me, yes, normally that's what you do in this situation. That's not helpful because Luke is just throwing together a bunch of little teachings that are if you want to understand the parable for what it means in its context that it was delivered. We're going to have to look a couple of different places. So I'm going to go zoom right in normally. I want to do this. Beverly, we're going to go right to verse 7 to 10 in chapter 17.
And he says, will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field come at once and recline at the table? This is like a rhetorical question. There's not there's only one answer here. So this is asked in a way where everyone that's hearing it knows the answer.
It's obvious. Of course not. Right. He says, will any of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he comes in from the field come at once and recline at the table? Of course not. You wouldn't do that. He said. Of course not. Come at once and to the table. Will he not rather say to him, hey, dude, prepare supper and dress properly and serve me while I eat.
And after then you can eat and drink. So this servant is working in the field also working in the house doing double time. So it's very common in first century Israel for people to have servants. And even people middle class would have servants like you don't have to be wealthy in order to have servants in first century Israel. It's like a way where the poor will give out their kids to be servants.
So they have a place to live and food to eat. So the fact that this servant is doing double time show is would be normal, but also put the master in a particular class, which is kind of interesting. But the point is just to note that it's not cruel for the master to ask the guy who's been or the person who's been working in the fields or hurting the sheep to also then come and prepare the table. That's not that's just like normal behavior.
Of course you'd come to do it. And probably dinner is happening like at four in the afternoon. So it's not like we're asking this person to work long into the night unreasonable hours. So the thing to know first culturally is this is very reasonable scope of work to expect a servant to do in your house. Take care of the field and then when it's dinner time come in and prepare the meal and then once I'm done, please eat what you need to eat. Right.
And so will any of you who has a servant plowing or keeping cheap safe to him when he has come in from the field, come at once and recline at my table? No, of course you wouldn't. Will he not rather say to him prepare supper for me and dress and serve me while I eat and drink and afterwards then you can eat and drink? Yeah. That's what you'd say. Right. And does he then thank the servant because he did what was commanded. This is where it starts to get a little bit uncomfortable.
Does he thank the servant because he did what he commanded? And he doesn't even like he doesn't even wait for a response there. Jesus when he's telling this parable and asking this question because it's so obvious the answer. Does he thank his servant because he did what was commanded? Obviously the answer is no. Verse 10. So you also when you have done all that you were commanded.
Say we are unworthy servants. We have only done what is what was our duty. It's a little bit of a rough translation. Ken tells us the unworthy servants. It's the better translation would would be closer to like we are not owed anything. The idea is trying to really clearly communicate that the servant for doing their job the master is not indebted to them does not owe them anything.
So how's that? I mean I feel like this is kind of a tough one like just a little peek behind my thinking whenever we go through a text and are using this time on Sunday morning to think through text together. I feel like my job is to remind you all of the narrative that we're living in and your place in it and that that always comes to a gospel punchline.
This is hard to find the gospel punchline in like James. Okay. And actually what happens here sometimes can can Bailey points to it. What happens here when people read this sometimes is they go to the idea that the servant has security. And meaningful work and loyalty to the master.
And that that is the trade off for being the servant and doing the job when I first started to think down that line immediately I thought of all the ways this metaphor in the New Testament has been just exploited and abused by church and. Culture right for for pastoral leaders to say I'm the master in this story and everybody do what I think needs to be done for actual slaveholders to say you were welcome for being my slaves.
Right. And so take care of me. This passage has been kind of abused and affected and exploited a lot and it gets kind of sick. But in the end it's like this is as equally attributable to Jesus as anything else in the scriptures meaning we can't really get to a position where we believe Jesus said anything and say he didn't say. This Jesus did say this.
He did give us this story and he said we ought to use this story as a metaphor for our understanding of our place in the world and of our relationship to the guy. One of the things we're going to do today is like talk to some of the middle schoolers who have been working through the small cataclysm especially the section on.
On communion. But in Luther's cataclysm where he wrote this thing around the time of the Reformation to educate people in churches and people in Christian homes around the 10 commandment the apostles creed and the Lord's prayer whenever he's explaining especially the 10 commandments. He talks about how we should fear and love God in such a way that. Years ago when West was little and I started praying for him before he went to bed I started asking in the prayer that he would fear God and love his parents and then that prayer I used for early to and one of them at one point said why do you ask us that we should fear God why should we be afraid of God.
And the notion the metaphor that came up in my mind was not master servant but was the pool in our backyard. When we bought the house that we're in right now Ellie Megan reminded me was just a baby the other day she was like six months old. And it had this pool in the backyard that was not in good shape it didn't have a pool deck around it yet the guy had put it in.
And we got a pool deck around it when we first moved in. And then we started looking at the fences that you're supposed to put around pools when you have little ones you know. Have you ever priced one of those out. I mean we were like man put a couple more locks on the back door and we'll just wait until they learn how to swim to let them go out in the backyard. Yeah. And so when they were little we wanted them to be afraid of the pool.
Because because the pool could kill them. The pool to a little kid is a dangerous place. Lots of bad things the pool has capacity to boost us to little kids we wanted them to be afraid of the pool. Actually respect its capacity and ability. I said I remember telling kids they maybe they don't remember that this is what I mean when I say you should be your God.
That God has this deep capacity to do so. I was looking at this is a fun place to go look with me to Job if you can find it. Hold your finger and the Job is like if you're typing on the phone it's just J.R.B. But if you're looking in a paper copy of the scriptures it's just before the songs.
And you know what's going on in Job maybe don't I'll remind you. Job is like a good dude minding his own business in the world. And God is proud of Job and you get this like viewpoint of the enemy and God talking about Job. And so the enemy of humanity tells God hey Job is a good dude just because you've given him good things.
Let me take all the good things away and Job won't be a good guy anymore. So the whole story is about God allowing bad things to happen in God's prerogative and power to Job. And Job's responding to it. And finally towards the end Job gets increasingly mad at God saying how could you do this to me. I've been on your side this whole time. Why would you take all these things from me?
Why would you allow this opportunity? And God is silent for like you know 38 chapters. And then like chapter 38 chapter 39 chapter 40 chapter 41 God talks back to Job and tells him what's up right. And we can't read it all because it's too long but I'm going to read some of it because some of it's amazing.
God says to Job then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said who is this who darkens my counsel by words without knowledge. Dress for action like a man and I'll question you and make it known to you make it known to me. Where were you God says when I laid the foundation of the earth. Tell me if you have understanding who determined its measurements surely you know or who stretched out the line upon it and what were its bases sunk or who laid its cornerstone when the moorings started saying together and all the sons of God shouted for joy
or who stuck the sea in with doors when it burst out of the womb. When I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors and said thus far shall you come and no farther and here shall your poured waves be sprayed. Have you commanded the morning since your days began and caused the dawn to know its place that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth and the wicked shaken out of it. It is changed like clay under the seal and the horses stand out like a garment from the wicked their light is withheld and upheld the broken arms.
I mean he goes on he's like have you entered the store houses of the snow or have you seen the store houses of the hail which I have reserved for the time of trouble for the day of battle and war. Who has clefted channel for the torrents of the rain and the way for the thunderbolt to bring rain on land where no man is on the desert in which there is no man to satisfy the waste. I mean look at this one. Has the rain a father or who has begotten the drops of dew from whose womb did the ice come forth and who has given birth to the frost of heaven.
I mean can you lift up the clouds that a flood of waters may cover you can you send forth light means that they may go and say to you how we are. Who has put wisdom in the inward parts or given understanding to the mind. Do you know when the mountain get goats give birth of that. Do you observe the padding of the does. Can you number the months that they feel and do you know the time when they give birth when they crouch and bring forth their offspring or delivered of their young.
I love this poem if you were to go but through and read it in its entirety. You would realize that God is telling Joe thousands of years ago that somewhere on a mountain somewhere there are goats giving birth and I've been watching them and and and and and prepare them for the moment. That there is just enough rain in the closed water cycle of the universe and I keep track of it and make sure that it works. That there was a beginning when the oceans came out and I know where the springs of the ocean are and I walk amongst them.
He's saying that there are he talks more about and cattle on these hills over here. Leviathan swimming down in these places over here and God tells Job I'm aware and controlling all of it all at one time. And then he says in chapter 40 right of verse two. So a fault finder contend with the Almighty. He who argues with God let him answer it.
I love that. So a fault finder contend with the Almighty. Jesus talks about a servant having done good day's work and coming in with a sense of entitlement as though they were his sheep and his crops. As though he figured out how to get them there and he knows where they'll go.
As if the food is his to begin with or the table belongs to him. Jesus talks about a servant who comes in from a regular day's work and has a sense of entitlement as though the master doesn't know what he's doing. Jesus says, hey, you are people. Not the God.
When I started to think about it, I realized that this little contention between Job and God is of course the same problem that the first ones had. Remember where God said, hey, let me imagine the entirety of your being and call it forth out of the nothing.
We kind of summon the original life-giving breath and deposit it in your lungs. Welcome to the world. First one. I've created it for you. Gardens and rivers, plants and animals, sea and sky for you. Here you go. You be people. I'll be God. And of course the first one say, here's a thing. This place looks nice. We feel like you're holding out on us.
That you don't have our best interest at heart. And so we would like to be in charge here. This is the fatal flaw humanity repeats over and over and over again. It's why a parable like this would be so offensive to us that someone might tell us we have a master. Because we'd like to be our own. Thank you very much.
Of course, when the first ones take the position of master and start to try and call the shots, they can't handle the weight of the responsibility immediately. They weren't made for that. They were made to have a God answer all the hard questions about their worth, about their value, about their future and their security. About their opportunity to love and their capacity to receive love. About the worth of their work in the world.
Humanity was made to have a God who answers that question for us. Who tells us we are love. Who gives meaning to our work. Who communicates to us in a way we can believe that we have the capacity to love and create in the world. Humanity was made to have a God who answers all the hard questions so that with the hard questions answered, we live well. We tried to communicate it to the first ones and we couldn't get it. This little narrative with Job and it comes in again with parables.
It's why Penn points out that we're almost there. In Romans chapter one, Paul starts out his first letter. Paul, the servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised before. Paul, over and over through Romans and several of his epistles, uses this language of people as servants for the God.
We hear that language and it rolls off as those servants don't have a master. But Paul seems very content to say that I do have a master. Who answers the hard questions? That's the bounds for my living. Jesus is just telling us to remember our place. Penn also tells us that Luke is, that this parable I told you, he said we shouldn't interpret it in light of its immediate context, the stories around it, but that we should interpret it in light of another master servant text parable in Luke, which is in Luke chapter 12.
Jesus tells another parable about masters and servants in the gospel of Luke. He says, they dressed for action and keep your lamps burning. He's telling people, be ready and do your job. We, Wes and some friends and I went backpacking a couple weeks ago and news flash, when you're not around electricity, it gets very dark.
I mean, difficult lead art, right? And if you're out in the countryside before the moon comes up, if you get caught without your lamps ready, you're not going to be able to light the lamps because you can't take it out. You can't see anything. Jesus is saying, stay dressed for action, be ready, don't back down or quit early, and then keep your lamps burning and be ready, like people who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding face, meaning do the things you're supposed to do, so that they may open the door to him when he comes and knocks.
We're blessed are the servants whom the master finds awake when it comes, ready to do their job. Blessed are the servants who are doing the things they're supposed to be doing. Truly, I say to you, Jesus said, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at the table, and he will come and serve them. He comes in the second watch for the third, and he finds them awake, blessed are those servants.
The reason we're okay being servants to a master is because the God of creation in life, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the God of Christ in the church is the master that you want. The reason Paul is so content to say, I'm a servant of Jesus Christ, I'm a slave to Jesus Christ, because he knows if I'm not a slave to Jesus Christ, I'm a slave to somebody else, and worst case I'll be a slave to myself, and what do I know?
Who set the bounds of the ocean and who knows when the goats are giving them calls for clouds? I'd rather be a slave to him, and this master is good. One of my favorite stories is in John when Jesus pulls them together for that last meal, and John writes, having loved them up to that point, he now loves them to the end, he takes off his garment and washes their feet.
Look, it can be hard to ever have your whims constraint. It can be frustrating and difficult to ever suggest that your prerogative would have bounds, that your passions would have proper categories to run inside of.
It can be hard to say, I am not my own master in the world, but I live according to the prerogative of another. Especially in today's space where we are, where we're living on the allowances that are more than $2 a week, we could do whatever we want. It can be hard to live with the reality, in fact, no. I choose to be a servant of Jesus Christ, a good master. It can be hard.
The story of the gospel is, it is worth that hardship. It just is. Once you learn, I mean, it's fun to watch, we don't have to worry about extra locks on the back door for the pool anymore. Because they know how to respect the pool. Now they get to swim. When they approach it appropriately, they get to enjoy it.
This is what Jesus is saying. Don't forget, approach the God appropriately, and then live. I pray we will be people who remember who God is, so that we know who we are and get to live well. Let's say that prayer together. Hey, Lord, thank you for the gift of the caribels and your son, Jesus Christ, to teach us humility and reality, Lord, to know our place.
Set bounds for us that are clear, that we might live inside of them and live. In Jesus' name we pray.