Unworthy Servants

 Luke 17:7-10

 7 “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’? 8 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’? 9 Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? 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.’”

When I visited Pakistan, we talked with a Muslim who had been assigned to protect us. When we thanked him for his service he said, in humility, that it was his duty. It wasn’t in the sense that he had to do it because we were Christians and he didn’t really want to do it, but he saw his job in the government as his duty to Allah. When questioned about it, it was clear that he saw this as the expected attitude for all of life as a good Muslim.

That impressed me but it also saddened me because he didn’t know the joy of serving the Lord that we have. I thought of:

Matt 25:21

His master said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.”

How do I reconcile the differences between these passages? When I read Luke 17:7-10 I see that it applies to our attitude which should be more like the Muslim than assuming that we are doing just fine and are worthy of the Lord’s “Well done.” Luke didn’t record Jesus’ words in context with anything else. This was a snippet of one of His teachings so I can’t explain it away by looking at what came before or after.

Jesus tells me that if I love Him, I will obey what He commands (John 14:15). When have I ever been a servant that completely obeyed our Lord? Never. And I won’t until that day I am presented before Him and then He says, “Well done.” Between now and then, I need to be humble and when I have obeyed, I should say I am an unworthy servant and have at best only done my duty.

Yet, thank you, Jesus, I can look forward to the day when I will be rewarded. And then, the glory will go to Jesus because I know that I am only there, holy and blameless in God’s sight, because of Jesus, not because of my own worthiness.