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THE THINGS WE WISH JESUS NEVER SAID: WHAT NO THANKS? – A Sermon in Dialogue
by Nancy S. Cushman & David Wasson
Luke 17: 7-10
October 30, 2016
SETTING THE CONTEXT
Nancy: Jesus has been pushing his disciples pretty hard in the chapters leading up to our reading,ever since the end of Luke 9 when Jesus turns and "sets his face to go to Jerusalem".Jesus has been taking his time, but also moving, quite intentionally, into the hands of those who will kill him. He commissions 70 disciples, spars with a lawyer who wants to know who his neighbor really is, he teaches the disciples to pray.He has harsh words for the Pharisees and religious leaders, for the rich, for those who hold power, and then he tells his disciples not to be anxious, not to worry, which at this point, may have seemed a bit impossible with all they had been hearing.Jesus then tells them they can't serve God and wealth, and thatin the kingdom to come the roles of this earth will be reversed, tables turned upside down.
Jesus turns to the disciples, leaning in close. Things will get hard, he says, but don't mess it up. It would be better for a big stone to be hung around your neck and you dropped into the sea than for you to stumble. On top of all of this, he then commands his disciples that If someone sins, no matter what they do, no matter how often they repent, you have to turn back to them, and YOU HAVE to forgive them. The disciples were obviously concerned about being able to meet these instructions because their response was “Give us more faith!” (Luke 17:5) Jesus responded to their anxiety with 2 parables one many of us are very familiar with the parable of the mustard seed and the less familiar parable we’re about to read. Jesus said, “If you had faith (and the original language implies “and you do”) the size of a mustard seed you could do miraculous things. Then he follows up with this parable.
Read Luke 17: 7-10
THE SERMON
David: From that perspective, the disciples must have been completely exhausted! I am a little anxious just thinking of all Jesus asked of his disciples in these chapters. This kind of discipleship is demanding. It is painful.I mean, I get that we don't get into this thing entirely for the rewards; but secretly, deep down, we kind of hope for some kind of reward. For something. Right?
Nancy: And there are places where Jesus, Paul and others talk about the rewards of following Jesus. One verse I quote a lot is Jesus saying, “I came that you may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10) In this parable, God sounds like an ungrateful slave driver. And I’m asking myself, “why did I pick this passage?”
David: At first glance, that is definitely what turns us off from this parable. I’ve probably taught on this particular parable as little as you. I know that sometimes we teachers are guilty of finding and using the more universally embraced parts of what Jesus taught, and circumventing the trickier, more challenging teachings. This one though, this one takes a little more contextual understanding for us to really dive into it. In a vacuum, this looks like Jesus is making the comparison of God as a brutal slave owner, but we are over 2,000 years removed from the words he spoke and the crowd he spoke it to. I think it’s important to make sure our understanding of the certain words that Jesus invoked make in historically and culturally accurate for the time they were used.
Nancy: Yes, and one of the really important concepts to understand is about servanthood in Jesus’ day. The term translated in the parable as servant literally means slave. Slavery in Jesus’ day was different from what we know from our country’s history of slavery. Many families in the first century including some relatively poor families had slaves. The poorest people would send their children into slavery so they would be fed.[i] Some slaves were well educated and served as tutors. They could marry, accumulate wealth, and run a business. Slaves could buy their freedom, (that’s where the idea of being redeemed originated.) One Roman philosopher notes that slaves could usually be set free within 7 years and normally by age 30.[ii] I’m not saying it was wonderful to be a slave, but it was different than the slavery of our history. So when Jesus used the image of a master and servant or slave, it would have been something all the disciples understood. And he starts the parable having them (and us) look through the eyes of the master. In all likelihood that may have been the role most of them would have naturally related to, as far as we know none of the 12 disciples were slaves.
David: Jesus asks them if they would feel in debt to a slave--treat him/her exceedingly well for doing exactly what they are supposed to do.Just a moment ago Jesus was uprooting the social order, but now he is keeping it in place to make a rather pragmatic point. "Guys," he says to them, "you wouldn't invite your slave right in and have him sit down, at your table, would you?" He is being absurd/exaggerating to make his point. ‘Are you really going to thank a slave for doing exactly what he was supposed to do?’ So in the same way, you, disciples, when you have used the faith that you have, as little as it may be, you can be satisfied.Jesus is asking his disciples to reconsider the role of faith; to stop considering it as an element of transaction (your faith = better life with God), and see faith as the journey towards replicating Jesus.
Nancy: So what if Jesus is reframing the question. It’s not about how much faith it takes but what is faith for? What if the parable is pointing us to a faith in Christ that mirrors the faith of Christ?[iii] When I asked myself this question the thought that came to mind was Philippians 2:6-11, “Though he was in the form of God, he did not consider being equal with God something to exploit. But he emptied himself by taking the form of a slave
and by becoming like human beings. When he found himself in the form of a human, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
When you read Paul’s letters, he saw himself in this image as a slave/servant of Christ. He opens some of his letters with “From Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus” (Romans 1:1)
David: So perhaps the "answer" then, that Jesus presents, is not to ask for an "increase" in anything--not even faith. As Father Robert Capon put it, "When it comes to faith, they don't have to be winners."The gospel is not at all connected with spiritual success.
Capon goes on to say:
“It is not as if we have a faith meter in our chests, and that our progress toward salvation consists in cranking it up over a lifetime from cold to lukewarm to toasty to red hot. We cannot be saved by our faith reading any more than by our morality reading or our spirituality reading. All of those recipes for self-improvement amount to nothing more than salvation by works...”[iv]
Jesus strikes at the idea of reward.We don't get rewarded for good behavior--not evenspiritualgood behavior.The whole idea of "reward" is, itself, ascandal, a word Jesus uses at the beginning of this chapter we are reflecting on today.We don't get paid back for being nice, or even good.Our virtue does not obligate God in any way.
Jesus is saying this to his worn-out disciples, “You all are just doing your job--no more, no less. And even if you screw that up, which you undoubtedly will, I'll keep on accepting you and accepting you and accepting you--totally and completely, every single day--just as I accept all the "little ones," and all the lost.
Nancy: OK, so I have to confess sometimes I whine about the demands of being a disciple of Jesus. Usually I whine just to God and myself, although sometimes my husband has to listen to me. I see this parable as reminding me to take off my high-achieving perfectionist hat and just be obedient. To trust that God will help me do and be what God wants me to be. It is so easy, at least for me, to break out the faith meter, I am so used working for a reward, a grade, a compliment, a Pokéman in my Pokédex. It’s hard to stay out of the mode. Yeah, following Christ is demanding, it does require things like forgiving over and over again. It may be hard, it may seem impossible, but that’s not the point, the point is to serve God always and everywhere and as Jesus makes so clear that means serving others. I happen to think the reward is in serving the master, but it doesn’t always feel that way. And it also reminds me that there is no “I’ve done my share” or “I’ve done my part, now I can stop being a disciple for a while” just like a servant/slave doesn’t get to check out when they don’t feel like doing something. We are called to serve God in all times and in all ways. Oddly enough, this parable encourages me to be persistent in living for Christ and living like Christ.
David: Can I break out a little John Wesley, right here? I mean, you always do.
Nancy: Bring it on, brother!
David: Ok, so he said this about this parable; "Happy is he who judges himself an unprofitable servant: miserable is he whom God pronounces such. But though we are unprofitable to him, our serving him is not unprofitable to us. For he is pleased to give by his grace a value to our good works, which in consequence of his promise entitles us to an eternal reward.[v]
So, Wesley argues that what you are talking about is the healthy approach to this text. Our persistent faith is the reward, because the gift of God was already given to us, and though we really can do no more good for God than what God has already done, we are the ones who receive blessings from each corner of the life of faith, both in this life, and the life to come.
Nancy: Hmm, this parable is not quite as bad as I thought. It does show something I’ve always believed. There are difficult sayings and stories in the Bible, those are the ones you have to wrestle with like Jacob wrestled with the Lord to get a blessing.
David: I’m going to resist closing this out with a bad wrestling pun. But, I do want to close with this; many of us in here are worn thin. Things have occurred or are happening in our lives right now that have us at out wits end - sleepless nights, poor concentration, emotionally drained. There are many of us in this room today who hear our calls to action in the multitude of ministries that we have, and you think to yourself “I wish I could, but I just don’t have anything left in me to give right now.” You are experiencing the exhaustion that the disciples experienced. You see what is around you, and you feel as though you don’t have enough to push any further.
For those of us in that spot in life right now, I say this; God knows where you are. God is not asking more of you to prove yourself, God is only asking that you do not give up. Don’t give up on your life, or on the church. Don’t give up on following Jesus. The grace of God that has come before you were even born, continues on today, and will exsist long after all of us have ended this life’s story. May you, like the disciples, find that the faith you have is sufficient, and may you not lose hope, because God is still with you and for you.
Amen.
[i] Bruce Malina & Richard L. Rohrbaugh, Social-Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992,), p. 378.
[ii] Daniel B. Wallace. “Some Initial Reflections on Slavery in the New Testament.” Bible.org, https://bible.org/article/some-initial-reflections-slavery-new-testament.
[iii] Margit Ernst-Habib. “Luke 17:5-10 Theological Perspective” Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary Year C Vol. 4. David L. Bartlett & Barbara Brown Taylor, general eds. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010) p. 142.
[iv] Robert Farrar Capon, Kingdom, Grace, Judgment: Paradox, Outrage, and Vindication in the Parables ... p. 32.1.
[v] John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament, p. 25.