Luke 17:7 “Will any one of you who has a servant(a) plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? 8 Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? 9 Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? 10 So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy(b) servants; we have only done what was our duty.’”
One of the most important things I’ve learned in the last year was to pay attention to those “little” letters as I study, particularly when they’re red and relate to the resource Jesus relied on. For instance because of that one little (a) this parable would begin: “Will any of you who has a bondservant bound to their service without wages, plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table?” There’s tension in this parable and it’s about expectations. It’s Interesting to note it isn’t God who uses the word “unworthy” — lacking merit or value, — in verse 10. It’s the servants who identify themselves that way. I wonder about that.
That little letter (b) cross referenced several places in the Old Testament. That’s where I discovered Jesus probably began there too. “-Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself. Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are in the right, or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless? -The God who equipped me with strength [has] made my way blameless. -If you are righteous, what do you give to him? Or what does he receive from your hand?”(b)
We have a lot of Biblical evidence of our worth to God(c) so there is definitely something more to ponder in this parable. The man “who has a slave” rightfully expects a dutiful response from the servant but his reputation will not be changed whether the servant acts in a profitable way toward him or not. The servant is made blameless not by his service but because the owner has taken responsibility for the command’s he’s given the servant to obey by simply doing his duty. The servant must come to the awareness his only expectation of worth is completing his duty to the master. “We are always debtors to grace before we have done anything and after we have done our duty.”(d)
(a) Bondservant: a person bound to service without wages
(b) Job 22:2-3, Psalm 18:32 & Job 35:7 copied in this sequence
(c) Our Worth to God
(d) John Piper
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