Luke 17:5-10

Pentecost 17 | October 2, 2022 | Luke 17:5-10 (with references to 1-4) | Pastor Evan McClanahan |

Our short reading from Luke 17 this morning really contains two different teachings. A reading that also included the first four verses of chapter 17 would contain three teachings. Sometimes, the Gospel authors record a story or parable about Jesus in great detail. But sometimes, the teachings of Jesus are gathered as collections of pithy statements. This is one such collection.

So, if one tried to find a unified theme to tie them all together, one would have a hard time. The first four verses deal with the reality of sin and the penalty for leading someone into sin. The next few verses speak of the faith needed to forgive the sins of others. And the final verses speak to the reality of our being servants of God and our call to duty.

Perhaps if there is one theme that is common in all of these verses, it is freedom. And that’s a good thing because freedom is one of our favorite topics. We love little more than being told that we have it, that we were born for it, that it is a God-given right. Many a time I have argued that because we are made in God’s image, we can rightly defend political and economic freedom for ourselves.

The only problem is that this text is not about our freedom, but our lack of it. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Yes, we can make a strong case for the freedom of the human person, situated in civilization among a collection of believers and unbelievers alike. But everything Jesus says in Luke 17 is “in-house.” It is for those who follow Jesus. It is directed to his disciples. He is setting the standards and he is not merely making suggestions.

His first command does not quite make it into our reading, but it is probably familiar to you. If your brother sins and repents, forgive him seven times. (Elsewhere Jesus says to Peter to forgive seventy-seven times!) The disciples immediately recognize just how difficult this will be, so they ask Jesus for more faith. Faith, indeed, is what they will need to forgive so many times. In a world defined only by power and/or money – which I would argue the non-Christian world is – this notion of forgiving so often is beyond radical. The disciples rightly perceive it as impossible.

And they are not wrong. On our own, forgiveness like this would be impossible. Sometimes, perhaps all the time, forgiveness requires supernatural intervention. And Jesus admits as much. The allusion to the mulberry tree is that such a tree was known to have very deep roots. For it to be uprooted and moved to the sea would have been unimaginable. And that is the point. The kind of life to which the disciple is called is unimaginable without the Spirit of God.

That is why church is not a time of self-empowerment, but Spiritual succor. Church is when we come battered and bruised, convinced that we just can’t or don’t want to do this anymore. And in Word and Sacrament a powerful and loving God comes to us and says, “Yes you can.” With even a little faith, trees can be uprooted, and you can forgive as you have been forgiven.

No, the disciples of Christ do not come into the possession of telepathy. This is not about the movement of distant, foreign objects. No, that is actually quite easy compared to this kind of forgiveness. This is about putting Christ first in such a radical way that even your rightful hurts, your justified grudges, vanish when compared to the glory and mercy of God. That is even more of a miracle that a tree being planted into the sea.

But Jesus isn’t done speaking about our loss of freedom. Jesus tells a parable about a servant who, after a very long and hard and hot day of plowing and shepherding, is told to come inside and serve the master dinner. Jesus puts his hearers in the place of the master, using rhetoric to illustrate how silly it would be to have a servant and invite him to recline while you still have every right to be served.

So, no the servant’s work is not yet done, even if he has been working in the field for you all day. He, even in the evening, indeed, until the very end of the day, must work for the master. And even after all of that honorable hard work, the servant should not expect a “Thank you” from his master. Rather, he will merely receive his food and drink having done his duty.

Well, if the Babylon Bee parody videos about Millennials applying for jobs are accurate at all, we are, as a culture, very far from this description of doing one’s duty. In this video, the applicant intends to roll into work at 10 am, have a gourmet coffee bar and other perks at her disposal, leave early after doing about 2 hours of work, and get paid in abundance for the favor she provided.

Indeed, our culture is all about conferred value, not expected duty. Merely by existing, we believe we are owed the good life. And that is why we are foolish, as Christians, to think that without a radical humility taking hold of these entitled generations, they will want to have anything to do with a man who describes your life as one of service and duty. While our bodies may mature into an adult form, our souls can remain infantile forever. It is children who rebel against well-meaning parents with chants of “I don’t want to!” Or “You can’t make me!” If we dare say such things to God, then we are only proving that while we be grow taller or rounder, we remain petulant children.

Indeed, one of the things most often observed about Queen Elizabeth II was her understanding at a young age that her life would be about duty. While she didn’t labor in fields, she did labor under the constant scrutiny of her country and, she believed, God. It was almost like when she was buried, the commentators understood that what had also died was that sense of duty, too. For even though we cherish it from afar, we don’t have the will anymore to live up to that standard. It is not said, but it seems to be assumed, that her own children and some of her grandchildren – not to mention in-laws – do not share her sense of duty. She was a token of a past era, an era we want back in the abstract, but we aren’t willing to work hard enough to bring it back.

Yes, the only group of people who even may still possess this sense of duty to our monarchial God are Christians. Heck, it is right there in the first commandments of each table of the Law! The first commandment is to have no other Gods. The fourth commandment is to honor father and mother. So, I hate to be the bearer of bad news – but do I, really?! – but we are people of duty in a sea of entitlement.

Well, with all of that said, surely those words will have scared off even the most hopeful unbeliever, peering into our door to see what the Christians are up to. “Duty?! No thanks. Maybe next time!” And yet, this collection of Jesus’ pithy teachings ought to be set in the context of the whole story of Jesus. For Jesus himself served the Father as a willing Son, doing his duty which surely did not benefit Him, but you.

Yes, you are the recipient by faith through grace of our Lord’s perfect life and death on a cross. You are indeed an unworthy slave, but one who nonetheless can claim God’s grace and mercy for yourself through faith in Christ. You will not be saved by your duty, but by the duty perfectly performed by Jesus Christ, the duty of a sinless life and a sacrificial death. This is the master to whom we will come home to, late in the days of our life, having willfully and joyfully done our duty…a master who himself did not shy from dying for you that you might life forever, from becoming sin that you might be sinless, and from being hated by the world that you might live now in hope. If such a master is not worthy of our joyful duty, who is? Amen.

First Lutheran, Houston

Pastor Evan McClanahan