Ken finally talked his wife Sue into going to a baseball game with him. He was a baseball fanatic; she thought the whole thing was stupid and boring. For nine innings, Ken observed every detail of the game, while Sue scrolled through Facebook on her phone and looked up only occasionally. Finally, it was the last inning, the home team was ahead 4-3, but the other team was threatening. Bases were loaded, there were two outs, and the league leader in home runs was at the plate. He hits the first pitch deep into left-centerfield. It looks like a home run, or at least a double that would score three runs. But the left-fielder, after a long run, makes a leaping back-handed catch, crashes into the fence, falls to the ground, and then jumps up, the ball snug in his glove to end the game. The crowd went wild, Ken was jumping up and down, hugging the man next to him, cheering like a madman. He turns to his wife, still sitting down, and says excitedly, “Did you see that catch?! What a great catch! I can’t believe he caught that!” Sue, not impressed and not excited, looked up and said, “I don’t know as much about baseball as you, Ken, but isn’t that what he is supposed to do—catch the ball? Isn’t that what he is there for? What’s the big deal?”
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Luke 17:7-10 — (Jesus said), “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Will 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.’”
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Do you ever feel like you are not appreciated? No one knows how much you are doing and all your work is just taken for granted. Others might even be taking advantage of you. Day after day, you do more than your share, and no one ever gives you any credit for anything. That is, until something goes wrong; then, you hear all about it. Sometimes, all we want is a little recognition or even a word of thanks; and when it never comes, we might get resentful and bitter. This can happen on the job, at home, at church, or anywhere else people work together.
It happened even among Jesus’ twelve disciples. They hinted to Jesus one time that since they had left everything for him, he really ought to have something special in mind for them. Perhaps this is what Jesus was thinking about when he told them this little parable in Luke 17.
Jesus begins by saying, “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep.” You will want to remember that there were not any unions for servants in those days to ensure that all employees had certain rights and privileges. Servants served at the whim of their masters. They did what they were told, when they were told, with no questions asked. Masters were not required to say ‘please’ or ‘thank you’ or ‘are you tired’ or anything of the sort. Servants were there to serve, 24/7.
There is no indication that any of the disciples had servants. This is clearly a hypothetical situation for them, but the disciples did know how the system worked. So Jesus asked them to ‘suppose’ they had a servant who had just put in a long day in the hot sun plowing, and he comes in tired and thirsty and hungry. Would the master say to that servant, “Come on in, son, you look tired; sit down and rest a while”? Of course not. That would never happen. It was just expected that when the servant came in, he would first have to make a meal for his master and the rest of the family, serve it, wait on table, clear the table, and do the dishes. Then, after all that was done, and if the master had no other jobs for him, only then could he go to his room, have something to eat, and rest. And then, Jesus says, after all that, will that faithful servant even get a thank you? Jesus doesn’t even wait for an answer, because everyone knew that there would be not one word of thanks. That was the servant’s duty. That is what he was there for. That was what was expected of him every day.
When the garbage man empties my trash cans every week, I do not run out to thank him. When the snow plow clears the street ahead of my house after a blizzard, I do not run out to express my appreciation. That’s what they are there for. That is their duty. In the same way, masters did not feel the need to thank their servants.
Until now, this is just a cute little sermon illustration by Jesus. But then comes the punchline when Jesus applies it to them (and to us) saying, “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.’”
What does that mean? This must be understood in the context of another one of Jesus sayings. In Matthew 25:40 Jesus was saying how his people would feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for the sick, and all that; and then he said, “Whatever you do for the least of these my children, you do it for me.” Included in that is what mothers do for their children, what spouses do for each other, what employees do on the job, what church members do in the church, and when the garbage man picks up your trash. Jesus said we should serve one another, and that as we serve each other, we are serving Him. And in all of that, according to Jesus, we are only doing our duty. So when we are all done, we should not demand we get a little credit, we should not expect a word of thanks, and we should not wonder why there is no ‘hip-hip hurrah’ or ‘for he’s a jolly good fellow.’ We have only done our duty. (continued…)
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