Luke 17 Devotional
by Pastor Lawrence Bowlin

In his story of the unworthy servants in vv.7-10, Jesus directly addresses the growing pride amongst his disciples who are continually arguing about who will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Using the example of a master’s servant is especially appropriate since two of the most prominent disciples jockeying for first place are James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who came from a family with money who had hired servants. So Jesus uses this analogy to humble his disciples and to help them reorient their lives from that of comparison and competition to honest, faithful service unto the King of Grace.

Jesus says to them “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 table’? 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?” Clearly any reward for a servant of Christ will not be given until one’s labor is finished, so to expect some great reward now runs counter to the will of our Lord who still has work for us to do here on earth. As Jesus himself said of his own service unto his Father, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work,” this is to be the attitude and expectation of any servant of God.

Then second, in v.9, Jesus asks, “Does the master thank the servant because he did what was commanded?” The obvious answer is no; therefore, Jesus says in v.10, “So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.” Contrary to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church on work of supererogation or works that are above and beyond what God requires, this passage shows that there are no such things. Since the Lord requires us to love him with all our heart, mind, soul and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves, we cannot love God any more than is required and we certainly have not loved our neighbor even half as much as we love ourselves. Therefore, we should never expect God to be indebted to us in any way since we continually owe him and our neighbors love. We will never be servants who are worthy of God’s thanks based upon our own merits since we cannot even meet God’s standard for love and service. That is why even on our best days we still should say that we are unworthy servants, for even then we are only seeking to do what God already requires. We’re not giving him anything that he doesn’t already demand.

But if we compare this story to the parable of the talents, we see a similar expression used by the Lord himself in reference to the one who has buried his talents. The Lord calls such a man an unworthy or worthless servant. For the one who has pride thinking he deserves more than God gives truly is worthless, whereas the one who is humble knowing he deserves far less than he receives has the truth. Martin Luther once put this sobering truth in perspective saying this: “We sleep half our lives; we give God a tenth of our time; and yet we think that with our good works we can merit heaven. What have I been doing today? I have talked for two hours. I have been at meals three hours. I have been idle four hours. Ah! Enter not into judgment with thy servant, O Lord!” This last sentence comes directly from Psalm 143:2 where the psalmist pleads with God not to judge him “for no one living is righteous before you.”

That seems to be one of the easiest ways to distinguish a person who has never understood the gospel. The unbeliever actually has the gall to ask for God to judge him based upon his works whereas those who know their sin and know the mercy of the Lord ask for grace and trust only in the name of Christ, for they know that all their righteous deeds are like a polluted garment and that there is absolutely nothing they can boast about except for their sin.

But contrary to what some might think in regards to this simple understanding of the gospel, God’s grace does not make his servants lazy or listless in their service unto the king, rather it makes them work all the more, for he who has been forgiven much loves much, and he who has been given much wants to invest what he has been given in order that he might be given even more talents, more work and more opportunities to serve his master.