THE ATTITUDE OF AN UNWORTHY SERVANT

Luke 17:1-10

Key Verse: 17:10

"So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servings; we have only done our duty."

             Today we are going to study the first part of Luke 17. In this passage Jesus tells us about the basic attitude as bible teachers and spiritual leaders.  May God bless our bible study with his Holy Spirit.

I. Faith that forgives other's sin (1-6)

             Look at verse 1a. It reads, "Jesus said to his disciples…" This verse indicates that Jesus gave this word to his disciples. Jesus called his disciples as shepherds and Bible teachers. They were future spiritual leaders. Like the twelve disciples, we are also called to serve campus young students in our time.

             Look at verse 1b. Jesus said, "Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come."  Here Jesus' warns us of our human weakness while serving our sheep. As shepherds, we love our bible students dearly and we'd like to be perfect in helping them but Jesus said, "Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come." This means that we are bound to commit sin and to make mistakes in serving our sheep even though we work hard not to. Sometimes we hurt others unintentionally with our careless words. Sometimes we make our sheep stumble because of our sins and spiritual immaturity. Then we feel like giving up our lives as shepherds. Still, we cannot make excuses for causing our Bible students to sin.  Jesus warns us in verse 2 by saying, "It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these littler ones to sin."  In Jesus' time, a millstone was used as a tool to grind wheat and barley and it was big with 45 cm of diameter and 8 cm of thickness. For sure, no one would be able to swim with a heavy millstone tied around his neck and survive. Jesus says this because he loves his sheep so much that he gave up his life on the cross in order to save them from their sin.

             Look at verse 3. "So watch yourselves. 'If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him." Jesus wants us to serve our sheep with love and tender care. However, this does not mean that we should not care for our brothers when they sin. In verse 3, Jesus says, "So watch yourselves. 'If your brother sins, rebuke him…" Jesus commands us to rebuke our brothers when they sin because without being rebuked, the person may continue to repeat his sin and die spiritually. Rebuking others' sins seems to be one of hardest thing to do. In our society, people are afraid of hurting others' feelings so they don't like to rebuke others. Some Christian leaders even think that it is not a good idea to rebuke others' sins. Many Christians like such word like "The God of love and compassion" but they don't like such words like "the God of righteousness and condemnation." But our God is the God of love and he is the God of righteousness, too. Therefore, Jesus wants us to serve our brothers through rebuking if necessary. We cannot rebuke others unless we truly love the person. Also we ourselves need to be spiritually awakened in order to be able to rebuke others. In the Bible, Joseph is called a shadow of Jesus Christ because of his Jesus' like character; he was full of love and compassion and humbleness of Jesus. Still, he helped others through rebuking when he saw their sins. Especially, he helped his brothers through rebuking. He was sold as a slave to Egyptians by his brothers and he met his brothers when he became the Prime Minister of Egyptian kingdom. He knew his brothers could not used by God as the Patriarchs of Israel until they repented their sin of plotting to kill him and selling him to the Egyptians. So he decided to help them out through rebuke. It was a heart-breaking period of time for him, but he somehow accomplished his mission of helping his brothers to repent of their sin. Our God loves each of us dearly. So he rebukes us when he sees us doing wrong in our sin. In Revelation 3:19a, Jesus said, "Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline."

             Then what should we do when our brothers repents their sins? In verse 3b, Jesus says, "…and if repents, forgive him." Jesus says that we must forgive our brothers when they repent.  Look at verse 4. Jesus also said, "If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, 'I repent,' forgive him." Jesus urges us to forgive others' sins up to three times a day if he they repent. Wow! It seems impossible to obey Jesus' command. Even forgiving a person once a day sounds too difficult to do. In history, there have been so many heroes and heroines who did many great things. They were known as conquerors. But they could not overcome themselves because they were not able to forgive their adversaries. Instead, they were full of revenge. But Jesus wants us to forgive our brothers even seven times a day. According Matthew 18:22, Jesus told his disciples to forgive seven times of seventy, 490 times. It means that Jesus asked them to forgive their brothers endlessly.

             Why then should we forgive our brothers this way? It is because God forgave our sins first. In Matthew 18:23-35, there is Jesus' parable of the unmerciful servant.  In the parable, there was a servant who owed 10,000 talents to his king. 10,000 talents is in Canadian currency, about 9 billion dollars. However, as the servant pleaded to the king for mercy saying that he was not capable of repaying the debt even if he would sell his property and even all his family member, the king had compassion on them and cancelled all his debt at once. But on the way back to his home, this servant, found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. A hundred denarii are in Canadian dollar, about 1500 dollars. It was almost nothing compared 9 billion worth of his debt to his master. But this merciless servant grabbed the man and began to choke him saying, "Pay back what you owe me!" Then the king who had found this out became so angry and put him into the prison. This parable tells us how we usually treat others and how often we forget what God has done in our lives through Jesus Christ. In Matthew 18:35, Jesus said, "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."  We must remember that once we were like the servant who owed 10,000 talents to the king because of our sins.  As we know well, sin is not a light matter. Sin is a terrible thing for the wage is no other than death. And in order to set us free from our sin, our Lord Jesus shed his precious blood on the cross as God's Paschal Lamb. On the cross, Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing (Lk 23:L34a).  Therefore, Jesus says, "… "If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. 4If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, 'I repent,' forgive him" (3b,4).

             How did his disciples respond? They were startled by Jesus' teaching because they were not ready to forgive others' sins. Look at verse 5. They said in unison, " Increase our faith!" The disciples were familiar with Moses' law, "eye for eye, tooth for tooth..." But they were not familiar with forgiving their brothers even seven times a day. The disciples thought that they needed a great faith, like a mountain-moving faith, in order to do so. But Jesus answered that faith is not a matter of quantity but of quality. Look at verse 6. He said, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you. "  They say that the roots of a mulberry tree are deeply rooted that it was so hard to pull it out. Also, planting it in the sea was humanly impossible. But Jesus said that if they had a mustard seed like faith, they could do so.  Here mustard seed faith stands for a person's faith that is small, yet pure and whole faith.  It is like the faith of a child, which Jesus commands in the gospel. To forgive other's sin was so difficult thing for his disciples to do like being uprooting a mulberry tree and planting it in the sea. But this human impossible thing could be done whey they had faith in God.

II. the attitude of an unworthy servant (7-10)

             Look at verses 7-10. In these verses, Jesus teaches us the attitude of unworthy servant.  It is important for us to work hard to serve God and his work. However, it much more important for us to have a right attitude as God's servant after working hard.  Look at verse 7. This is Jesus' another parable. In this parable, there was a servant who worked hard all day long in the field. They worked from 8:00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m., form sunrise till sunset. As we know well, working at field is not an easy task. However, the master of this servant only played relaxed himself sitting on the sofa reading books and watching T.V. and surfing the Internet all day long while he was working hard. It seems proper for the master to say utter some good words of compliments to his servant. But that was not the case. In his parable, Jesus asked them which master would do like that. Instead, the master would say to the servant, "Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you many eat and drink (8). It was because he was the master's servant. In ancient times, the human status of a servant and that of a mater were so different that no servant felt strange even if he did not get recognition and word of compliments from his master even after hard working.

             Then why did Jesus tell this parable to his disciples? Jesus did so in order to teach them the attitude of an unworthy servant.  Look at verse 10. Jesus said, "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.' "  Here from Jesus, we learn that we must have a right attitude, the attitude of an unworthy servant after serving the work of God. As human beings with many faults and many iniquities, it is easy for us to become self-conceited and self-righteous after working very hard. However, when we have this kind of attitude, we cannot grow spiritually anymore. Rather, we  having no joy or happiness in our hearts. Therefore, Jesus teaches us the attitude of unworthy servant in today's passage. May God grow each of us as a servant of God, who can God's work with the attitude of an unworthy servant. In his great mercy and grace, has called us as his disciples and servants of God. The worldly servants work hard and complain a lot after finishing their work. But as children of God, we must thank and praise God  having a great learning mind even after doing a great work of God. Then God will fill our hearts with heavenly joy. In the Bible, there are many of God's people who served God's mission with the attitude of unworthy servant. King David was one of them and Apostle Paul was one of them, just to name some.

Paul suffered much in order to serve God's mission. Paul, in his life time had 4 times of world mission journey and he pioneering so many churches. If he were an ordinary worldly man, he would have complained a lot saying, "God, why have you made me like this?" Or he could have easily become conceited. But Paul never became proud or self-righteous. It was because he remembered the marvelous grace of Jesus as an unworthy servant. In 1 Corinthians 15:9-10, he said,  "For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me."

Our Lord Jesus also served God's mission as an unworthy servant. Originally Jesus was God. But he renounced his honor and glory and came to the world as a servant having the attitude of unworthy servant. This Jesus said in Mark 10:45, "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."

 May God grow us in the humble servantship of our Lord Jesus.