Today's passage: Luke 17
Today's focus: vs. 6-10
Author: Alan Chu
It is totally understandable that we would like to emphasize our role as Children of God. However, when Jesus prepared his disciples to carry out the mission, He taught them “…when you may have done all the things having been commanded you, say Servants unworthy are we that which we were bound to do…” (v. 10). It is quite a troublesome teaching, and I can think of at least two questions: (1) Why is God so harsh? Even doing ALL, He is still not satisfied. (2) Are we valuable (or unworthy) to God? Why did He teach us be considered ourselves as UNWORTHY servants? I herewith will share some thoughts of these two questions.
All Means All – I first think maybe Jesus was pointing out that the disciples were not perfect and did not listen and follow everything that Jesus taught them. Based on what we read on the Bible, it seems to be very true. No one, including the disciples and we, are perfect. So Jesus was just pointing out the fact that no one can listen and do all things that He commanded. But here no matter what translation or even the original version, it means all/every or πᾶς (in Greek). Therefore, unless we add some more interpretations to the Bible, it does means that all commanded things were done. Instead of trying to rationalize the teaching, it is much more appropriate to listen to what Jesus is teaching and accept that all means all here!
Are we Unworthy? – If ALL means all, it is more challenging to answer the second question. We will normally think that if someone has done all, he/she should be at least considered as worthy. But now Jesus teaches us that we should say unworthy Servants and we only did what we were bound to do. “Unworthy” or ἀχρεῖος (in Greek) only appears twice in Bible. Another place is on Matthew 25:30, in which Jesus said that the servant who hid the talent in the ground was unworthy and was cast out into the darkness. In other words, unworthy really means unworthy!
In order to understand it, we need to read the context more carefully. Jesus has been teaching his disciples about their ATTITUDE on serving, but not on how God look at them. On 17:1, Jesus said that it is impossible for stumbling blocks not to come, and taught the disciples that they should always forgive when ones repent (v.4). Also, just tiny faith can accomplish a lot (v.6). Apparently if the disciples have already accomplished a lot based on faith, God is not treating them as unworthy servants. (If they are unworthy servants, how come God still allow them to accomplish a lot!) But Jesus is teaching the disciplines the appropriate attitude, like what He was doing just immediately before this teaching, i.e., forgiveness and faithfulness.
Jesus knew his disciples well and he knew me well too. He knew that I may have “overvalued” myself and become self-centered. Here Jesus reminded me that I should value myself as an unworthy servant to God, someone that should be cast out by Him. But with God’s mercy, He allows me to have the tiny faith to accomplish His tasks. I pray that if I could have done all, (of course a big “if”), I will say Servant unworthy am I that these are all just I was bound to do.
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