UNWORTHY SERVANTS

 “Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’?  Would he not rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’?  Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do?  So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”  Luke 17:7-10

          I recently stumbled across this parable and have no memory of ever seeing it before.  Obviously, I must have, since I have read Luke many times and even taught a class on it in Senior High Sunday School, but apparently this particular passage never registered with me until now.  I suspect I know why it didn’t register.  On the surface it isn’t a warm and fuzzy parable.  As a matter of fact, it seems pretty cold!  I’m sure it made me uncomfortable, so I hurried on to more pleasant verses.  This time, however, it leapt off the page and gave me a valuable missing piece to the puzzle of grace.

 I grew up in a church that taught plenty of action/consequence and very little grace.  My church’s idea of grace was that God would give me the ability to earn my salvation, so, if I failed to earn my salvation, it wasn’t God’s fault.  In previous blogs I have written about my joyous discovery that Christianity was not about action/consequence – If I do this then God will do that - but about death/resurrection – I was dead in my transgressions and sins and God, in his mercy, made me alive with Christ. (See Ephesians 2:1-9).  For me it was very good news that not only was it going to be hard for me to earn my salvation, it was impossible, even with help, because I was dead! And while I was dead, Christ fulfilled all the requirements for me and then paid the penalty for my sins, so that when he was resurrected, I was resurrected with him!

I reveled in the fact that there was nothing more I could do to add to what Christ had already done for me.  I reveled in it, that is, until I ran into verses that sounded like there was something more I was supposed to do to add to what Christ had done for me, like good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (See Ephesians 2:10); then, I would get nervous and uncomfortable.  And there are enough verses that talk about the good things Christians are supposed to do, and the bad things Christians are not supposed to do, that I would frequently find myself nervous and uncomfortable.  Then I would go back and reread the passages of scripture that clearly taught the finished work of Christ on my behalf, and I would feel the relief wash over me again.

I have struggled desperately to understand the part that my behavior plays in my relationship with God.  I understood that my works could never be good enough to save me; but, could my lack of good works, or my bad deeds somehow “lose” me?  Even those who believe in eternal security have a loophole that says if the person goes off the deep end they were never saved to begin with. 

I have frequently used the illustration that salvation is like a teacher giving you an A in the class on the first day, no strings attached; and then offering to help you learn the material at your own pace, with no fear of failure. The A represents salvation.  It is a gift, with no strings attached; and then God tailor makes a learning plan for each one of us, according to our individual needs. 

But that learning plan presupposes that I will learn, and by “learn” I mean become more like Jesus; but what if I don’t?  What if I look at myself after all these years of being a Christian and I still seem very much the same as I always have, with maybe a little more knowledge and understanding, but not much transformation?  How much transformation is enough? How little transformation is too little? Is there really no fear of failure? Or is the A actually conditional after all?

This parable in Luke sheds some light on those questions for me.  There is a difference between having the A and being worthy of the A.  No matter how quickly or slowly I learn the material after I receive the A; I will not be able to add to the A.  If I work extremely hard and excel at the material, I cannot raise the grade to an A+.  If I’m a dunce and can’t seem to grasp a thing, I cannot lower my grade to a B, much less an F.  I cannot become more worthy of my grade, or more unworthy of my grade, primarily because no one is worthy of the grade, or ever could be.  Earning or deserving has been completely removed from the equation.  That is the entire point.  So, any work I do is not for credit, it is simply my duty.  No thanks needs to be given to me, and when I find myself expecting a pat on the back from God, I am reminded of my true condition – unworthy. 

I don’t know about you, but I find that to be a tremendous relief! Christ alone is worthy, so I do not have to be!  And what about the works which were prepared in advance for me to do? God knows what kind of a learner I am, and he created them just for me; but, whether they are great tasks or small tasks, and whether I perform them magnificently or falteringly, they earn me no credit or demerit in his eyes, since I have already been credited with perfection! Because of that, I can stand securely in this state of grace and say with a smile, “I am an unworthy servant and have only done my duty.”