Just doing your job

 This week's verses are Luke 17:7-10:

“Would any one of you say to your slave who comes in from the field after plowing or shepherding sheep, ‘Come at once and sit down for a meal’? Won’t the master instead say to him, ‘Get my dinner ready, and make yourself ready to serve me while I eat and drink. Then you may eat and drink’? He won’t thank the slave because he did what he was told, will he? So you too, when you have done everything you were commanded to do, should say, ‘We are slaves undeserving of special praise; we have only done what was our duty.’”

  Last week we talked a bit about how the importance we place on others' opinions of us can cause us to become hypocrites. This week, Jesus tells us why we shouldn't be waiting for that praise from others.

As we all know, a slave is someone else's property. They and their time (and oftentimes their body as well) belong to their owner. It was a fact of life in Jesus' time, and he uses it as an example here. If you are triggered by the idea of slavery (but probably not so much that you would stop buying clothes and electronics manufactured by slaves in China, or food grown by them in California) you can mentally substitute the word "servant" instead. But "servant" doesn't carry the full implication of what Jesus is saying.

A slave belongs to someone else. They are property, the same as a cow or a television. They are not on the same level as the person who owns them. A slave isn't going to go on strike, or advocate for more humane work conditions, a better gender balance in the work force, or suggest a pay raise to cover the increased cost of living. They are trapped in a condition where their only option for a better life is to do what their owner asks of them. This is a completely foreign concept to us in the west.

A slave-owner in Jesus' time would also not think of the slaves as being on the same level. He or she is not going to organize team-building retreats, or sit down and have a round table with the slaves to find out what they think could be improved in their work conditions, or to find out their dreams and aspirations, or to listen to how tired they feel. To the slave owner, the slaves, no matter how beloved, exist to serve their owner.

So, it would be obvious to Jesus' audience that the scenario he is describing is completely ridiculous. Would kids tell the parents what to do? Is a baby going to feed his parents? Would people pull carts themselves while carrying their donkeys on their shoulders? It was a ridiculous reversal of how their world was organized.

But at the same time, the scenario Jesus describes is cruel! The poor slave has just spent the whole day in grueling labor, and would be justified in wanting to rest a bit. But the owner makes them wait another couple hours to rest and eat, just because he's hungry!

On the one hand, the master's needs are more important than the slave's because of the natural order they lived under. But on the other hand, if there was a time for compassion and compromise, this might have been it. And that's Jesus' point: even when things are hard, the slave still does his job. There are no prizes for "slave of the month." You do what you are asked, and then you can rest and have some self-care. The slave would never dream of saying "hey, haven't I been through enough? I deserve a break. You can order takeout if you're hungry. I'll be in the shower."

And that's the context in which Jesus calls us to humility. In the context of our religious lives, there is a temptation to nominate ourselves for a kind of "Christian of the month" award. We look at ourselves, and the money we give to charity, or the hours we spend in service, or the intensity with which we sing church songs in front of other Christians or alone, and we expect others to acknowledge and our labor. But that's not what it's for. And it's inappropriate to the kind of relationship we have with God.

Jesus has purchased us with his own blood, like slaves. In accepting his redemption, we accept his ownership. (That's not to say we didn't belong to God before that by virtue of his having made us. We just escaped into the world of sin and thought that made us free.) We're not on the same level as God, in the sense of being able to decide how the universe is to be run. He doesn't owe us soft work conditions or a good compensation package or praise and recognition. And neither does the church.

In being asked to live in a certain way as Christians, the balance of power is no different than the slaves being asked to work the fields and then prepare dinner. Even a grueling workload is not cause for special treatment. We are asked to do what our master wants, and we do it. End of story.

But what happens when we do expect that sugary praise, and to rise through a kind of hierarchy, and to be compensated? We end up like the Pharisees, who were trapped in the hypocrisy of doing things for show while rotting from within. While Jesus' analogy about slaves may seem cruel, it's actually for our benefit. If we take it to heart, it may be what saves us from a catastrophic loss of humility.

Is there a place in your Christian walk where you would say "no" to what God is asking of you? Is there a place where you feel you've earned the right to be recognized, and to relax and be served by your fellow Christians? How does your world view align with this parable Jesus has shared?