Doing His Duty
|
Series: “Living for Jesus”
Doug Dortch • April 22, 2018
Some years ago, executives at one of the nation’s largest Mainstream Protestant denominations (not Baptist) put together a committee to purge their liturgy and hymnal of all militaristic language and imagery. Quite a few of the old hymns and readings got cut out, such as “Onward Christian Soldiers.” As you can imagine, the committee caught a lot of flak for their decisions. Some of it was deserved, but some of it was not deserved. After all, none of us is above engaging in the same kind of theological “downsizing” from time to time. There are terms and concepts and images that we do away with when they no longer suit our fancy or serve our purposes. I’m thinking in particular of the word “duty” and all of the images and the concepts that are associated with it.
Think about it; do you hear people speak much about duty anymore? Not really. Yes, there’s a popular video game series, called “Call of Duty,” and there are shops in the airport that sell goods that are referred to as being “Duty Free.” You may hear someone speak of his or her “civic duty,” or doing their best to get out of “jury duty.” But for the most part duty has dropped out of our 21st century vocabularies.
Of course, at one time, people spoke with great fervor about duty. At one time, people understood that there are some things you do in life not because they bring you any special benefit. Instead, you do them because they’re the right thing to do. You do them because they’re your duty.
For example, in your house it’s probably somebody’s duty to take out the trash. It’s somebody’s duty to see after aging relatives. It’s somebody’s duty to serve one’s country. But when you pay attention, you realize that you don’t hear people discuss their life in those categories anymore. No, today, people are more motivated by what they get out of a dutiful course of action. “How much do I get for taking out the trash?” “What share of the inheritance will come my way if I participate in taking care of our aging relatives?” “What skill will I learn in the military, or what scholarship assistance can I expect if I sign up?” “Duty” for the sake of the labor itself is about as dead as the Latin verbs you had to learn back in high school days.
No, today we live in a world that is marked throughout with what we might call a “bookkeeper mentality.” When we do something, we expect something in return. When we take up a course of action, we anticipate compensation in one form or another. This is even true with respect to our faith. Even in our faith we expect something in return for our service for Jesus. “The more I do for Jesus, the more credits pile up on my side of the ledger and the more in hock Jesus is to me.”
And that is why a teaching like the one that is before us this morning is so hard for us to hear. Because every part of our existence, including our faith, is based on an economy of merit, when we hear a word like this one that elevates duty for the sake of duty, it does not compute. We cannot understand it. And so we end up disregarding it, and doing so to our disadvantage.
Look again at Jesus’ teaching. It falls in the section of Luke’s Gospel that deals with sin, faith, and duty, all of which are related in some way. Jesus has warned his disciples about not provoking others to sin, but instead working to lead them to a place of repentance and restoration through persistent forgiveness. Such a teaching leads Jesus’ disciples to request Jesus to ramp up their faith because they know that what faith they have isn’t nearly enough to show that sort of mercy. So, Jesus then assures them that God can take even the smallest measure of faith – what he calls “faith as small as a mustard seed” – and God can use it to accomplish remarkable results.
But then, because Jesus understands human nature all too well, and how remarkable results can create self-centered expectations, especially if we think that we had some sort of role in bringing those results about, Jesus tells this story, which is really a parable, of a harsh master who refuses to coddle his servant who’s just pulled double-duty, but instead demands that he gets dinner on the table before he sits down to eat, never thinking to give his servant a simple word of thanks. Then Jesus concludes his story by telling his disciples, “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’” (Lk. 17:10).
I told you this teaching was hard to understand. But it’s not impossible to understand, not when we make the decision to move beyond an economy of merit, where we expect to get what we deserve, to an economy of grace, where we are blown away by what we receive, which we could never have deserved.
Contrary to popular belief, this parable is not so much a picture of God’s nature as it is a picture that speaks to human motives. Confessing that we are “unworthy servants” doesn’t mean that God doesn’t value us or see as significant players who participate in the work of His Kingdom. It’s more about the spirit in which Jesus calls us to serve him in the course of our everyday activities so that we are better able to know how Jesus’ resurrection power and glory work in and through us. As “unworthy servants” we lay no claim upon Jesus. We can’t say, “Look at all I’ve done for you, Jesus. You owe me. I deserve better from you.” Instead, we choose to follow Jesus in order to advance his cause and his cause alone so that whatever comes to us as a result of our service is purely grace, and not anything we have merited.
Look again at how the parable begins: “Suppose one of you has a servant…” Where have we heard that construction before? Oh, yes; we’ve heard it in the parable of the Lost Sheep, the story where the shepherd leaves the 99 and goes to recover the one sheep that was lost. No shepherd in his right mind would do such a thing, but that’s precisely what Jesus does. He goes looking for the sheep that has wandered away. And here, Jesus is saying that he will do for us what earthly masters would never think of doing for their servants. He will thank us. He will invite us to fellowship with him. He will deem us worthy, but not because of who we are. He will bless us because of who he is – a gracious and merciful Savior who extends to us persistent grace and in the process increases our faith.
So, this morning, consider the work that Jesus has given you to do. Whether it involves something you do in the church or in the world, think about how you do it and think about your motivation for doing it. Are you doing it to make much of Jesus, or are you doing it to make much of you? Easter faith never pats itself on the back or pushes itself for its own sake. Easter faith instead finds joy in the work for nothing other than the sake of the work itself.
Reggie McNeal is a Southern Baptist church consultant and leadership specialist with Leadership Network, a Christian non-profit organization dedicated to helping church leaders have a greater impact for Christ in the world. In his book, The Present Future, McNeal tells of how he was sitting on a bench on a beach boardwalk late one afternoon, resting after a long walk. He had passed a woman several times who was in a green uniform pushing a broom. She came toward the bench he was sitting on all the while meticulously sweeping the sidewalk. Suddenly, she stopped to wipe her forehead and rest on her broom for just a moment. McNeal said that he felt compelled to call out to her: “You do a great job!” To which she replied with a smile, “Thank you!” And then she added something that gave witness to why the sidewalk behind her was spick and span. She said, “I just believe people want to walk on a clean sidewalk.”
McNeal said that he felt at that moment that he was in the presence of greatness and thus was humbled to be sitting close to someone who viewed her task with such significance. As she walked away to return to her sweeping, McNeal thought to himself: “I don’t know what this park is paying her, but whatever it is, it’s not enough. It’s not enough to match the joy and the fulfillment and the excellence she was bringing to her work” (The Present Future, p.98).
When we bring the same spirit to our work, even though we don’t anticipate it, we receive so much more than we could ever ask or imagine. What kind of spirit am I talking about? Well, one that might cause you to sing, “Am I a soldier of the cross, a follower of the Lamb? And shall I fear to own his cause, or blush to speak his name?” Or, “Onward, then, you people, join our happy throng. Blend with ours your voices in the triumph song.” Or, “Stand up; stand up for Jesus, you soldiers of the cross. From victory unto victory, his army shall he lead, till every foe is vanquished, and Christ is Lord indeed.”
I think you see now what I’m talking about. There is work to be done, and you and I are called to do it. But let’s not worry about what we might gain. Let’s not think about what we might accrue. Let’s just think of it instead as our duty.