Our Role in Life: Luke 17:1-10

As we continue our walk through Jesus’ life and ministry, we come to a passage where Luke’s gospel describes Jesus challenging His audience, as well as a very specific group of people who was most certainly represented within those who were listening to Him.

Within this passage, we also discover Jesus connecting three different ideas that are usually dealt with individually. These three ideas are forgiveness, hostility, and faith. I’ll be the first to say that hostility and forgiveness are sometimes linked together. However, rarely if ever do I hear people talk about linking hostility and faith, and only slightly more common are the ideas of forgiveness and faith.

As I think about these ideas, it is interesting in my mind that each of these ideas lives within a different dimension of life. When looking at the idea of hostility, or specifically how others treat or mistreat us, this idea lives and blends the physical world with our social and emotional worlds. Looking at the idea of forgiveness helps us blend the social and emotional worlds with our spiritual world. And last, but certainly not least by any measure, the idea of faith lives primarily in the spiritual world, but for faith to be valuable, it much reach back into the physical world and affect how we physically live out our lives.

While each of these three ideas are different, they are all connected, and Jesus seems to touch on this truth in the passage we are focusing on in this podcast episode.

Our passage for this episode comes from the gospel of Luke, chapter 17, and we will read it using the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 1, Luke tells us that:

¹ Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. ² It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. ³ So watch yourselves.

“If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. ⁴ Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.”

⁵ The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”

⁶ He replied, “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.

⁷ “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’? ⁸ 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’? ⁹ Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? ¹⁰ 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.’”

Looking at the broad outline from what we just read, our passage opens by talking about things that will come that will cause us to stumble, and it warns us not to be a source of stumbling to someone else.

This leads nicely into the topic of forgiveness, and how we should respond with forgiveness when those who have hurt us repent, regardless of the number of times they sin against us. That in itself it a major challenge.

In part of my mind, I imagine some of the disciples being a little uncomfortable with this blanket idea of always forgiving, and they want to redirect the discussion by shifting it over to talking about faith – which is a much safer, more pleasant topic than forgiveness. Another part of my mind imagines other disciples hearing Jesus’ words and saying to themselves, “It would take way more faith than I have right now to be that forgiving. I wonder how to increase my faith.”

Whichever way my imagination takes me, we come to the question of faith, and Jesus’ response is fascinating. On one hand, Jesus minimizes faith’s significance, talking about how almost none of it is needed – only the size of a mustard seed, which is one of the smallest seeds visible to the naked eye. On another hand, Jesus takes the idea of faith, and makes it limitless, because His example takes the smallest fraction of an ounce and gives it amazing power.

However, within Jesus’ response we find a challenging question: How does one measure faith?

While we can literally see the size of a mustard seed, even if it is small, how can we “see” the size of someone else’s faith?

If faith was a solid, tangible object, it would be easy to measure. If faith was a liquid, it might be a little harder to measure, but still very doable. However, it is as though faith is most similar to an invisible, gaseous substance making it one of the hardest things in life to measure. We could make the comparison to faith being similar to the wind, which is only really measured by what it moves.

Just like the wind, only by seeing what faith moves can we truly know how strong it is.

Jesus then transitions away from faith and back into relationships. However, instead of looking at hostile relationships specifically, like what happens when someone is trying to cause you to stumble, Jesus focuses on the relational dynamic of a master and servant relationship. I will note here that some translations use the word slave here instead of servant, and while slaves are distinctly different from servants by definition, for the purposes of our discussion, either word fits well. Either direction we choose to translate the original language, the point is clear: we work for someone else, and as their servants/slaves, we should place them above us – regardless of how they treat or mistreat us.

In our modern culture, with the workday separated from non-work time, we don’t get a clear picture of this idea like those in the first century may have. In my own mind, the closest modern equivalent to this idea can be seen in a parent-child dynamic.

Being a parent is a 24/7 role, and unless the child is taught to do so, not many thanks are given from the child to the parent – especially during the first year or two of life. However, by most measures of success, parents who are succeeding in their role of parent do so by strategically placing their child’s needs ahead of themselves and they serve their child. At the most basic level, providing food, shelter, and stability to a child is serving the child because on their own, an infant or toddler would be unable to provide any of these things for themselves.

In a similar way, we can view our relationship with God within a parent-child framework. While most human parent-child relationships leave much to be desired, picturing God as a loving parent who does not have the faults of our human parents brings much more good than harm. God loves each of us, and even though culture has tried to turn God into a villain, the Bible draws our attention onto God’s love even in the midst of sin, pain, and death.

However, Jesus concludes our passage by challenging us to serve God simply because God is God and because of who He is. We have been invited to be adopted into God’s family, and while this is a powerful metaphor, we shouldn’t forget that before we became sons and daughters of God, we are called to be His servants.

Being a part of God’s family means that we have a part to play, and like a servant who willingly and cheerfully does what He is told to do, when we play our part, it should be satisfying in itself, with no thanks necessary. If God, as our Master, chooses to thank us or give us more responsibility, then these are His choices, not ours.

All parts of this passage do have one central theme: we are called and challenged to be humble and place others’ needs ahead of our own. We achieve this goal when we avoid being a stumbling block to others; when we choose to forgive, regardless of how often history repeats itself; when we focus our faith in a powerful way; and when we choose to serve because of who God, our Master, is in relation to who we are as servants.

Jesus has called and challenged us to place others ahead of ourselves, and to look to God for the strength to press forward with Him.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally place God first in your life. Choose to see God as our Master and understand our role as voluntary servants to God. Humbly submit to God and let Him lead and guide you along the path He has created and called you to walk.

Also continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn just what God is like. Through the pages of the Bible, discover just how much God loves you and what He was willing to do for us to redeem us from sin.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or walk away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!