This is a copy of the LAST talk I gave at the 10.00 am service at Saint Mary Magdalen, Billericay on Wednesday 15 November 2023. The Bible Reading was Luke 17:1-1-0.

Introduction

The key to our passage this morning is a four-letter word which may well make some of you feel uncomfortable, indeed, the story Jesus told in this passage doesn’t fit well with the culture of 21C Britain. However, it isn’t included in the scripture by accident.

So, what is this offending word? It’s at the very end of the reading in vs10. The word is DUTY, a concept Jesus explains in another of His servant stories – this time by bringing out the mutual expectations of master and servant.

The problem is that most of us these days have little understanding of the master / servant mindset, so let me take you back a hundred years or so to the goings on of the Bellamy Household.  Can you remember it? It’s best known as Upstairs Downstairs?

It was an immensely popular TV series running from 1971-1975 (five seasons and 68 episodes) which chronicled the life of the Edwardian era and the first world war from the perspective of the servant’s quarters below stairs in a London town house – a group who, under the eagle eye of the butler Hudson (Gordon Jackson) were kept firmly in their place. That was the way things were and no one in Edwardian England would have batted an eyelid at the strict regime within the Bellamy Household – one simply accepted one’s place in society.

The story Jesus told from vs7 would, similarly, have immediately made sense to Jesus’ listeners – the context was familiar to all living in the farming community of Israel 2000 years ago. It’s the end of a busy day, a servant comes home after labouring in the fields. Jesus asks a rhetorical question which may even have raised a laugh amongst the disciples ‘Does the landowner immediately offer him food and rest?’

Of course, not – he naturally expects the servant to prepare and serve food for him before letting him go off to get his own meal. That’s how things were then. Today, of course, it simply wouldn’t happen that way: The Department for Work and Pensions limits hours of work and Health and Safety legislation would kick in.

The servant would be called an Agricultural Technician and probably wouldn’t have the food hygiene certificate necessary for preparation of meals, then if the landowner demanded this sort of commitment, the worker would invoke the local grievance procedure for workplace bullying and the landowner would find himself in front of an employment tribunal.

But in Jesus’ day the expectation was clear – it was simply the duty of a servant to fulfil his master’s requirements whether it seems fair to us or not.

The inference is obvious, the disciples were the servant and God the master, but remember this doesn’t give us the whole picture of the relationship between the believer and his Saviour – Jesus is just using a story to make a point and indeed a very important point.

So, let’s look at the duties which Jesus expects the disciples (and us) to fulfil. They centre around the importance of recognising sin and the way to deal with it – key issues for living the Christian life. I have three points this morning: 1) We have a duty to care for weaker Christians; 2) We have a duty of care for each other; 3) We have a duty of care for ourselves.

  1. We have a duty to care for weaker Christians vs1-2

By helping them avoid the damaging effects of sin – especially to those who are young in faith. He warns us that temptation is inevitable – we live in a fallen world where much that is doubtful seems so attractive.

A wise pastor noted that temptation usually boils down to one of three issues – money, sex or power, and lives can so easily be derailed when we allow any of the basic Christian principles to be compromised, that is avoiding materialism, fidelity in marriage and humility – so often we equate sin with criminal activity and become insensitive to the ungodly behaviour in our own lives which set a bad example to others who may be far less capable of coping and in due course may stumble and fall.

This could be from our business life, or the way we deal with relational issues, but here is no compromise from Jesus.

He warns with a most graphic illustration that ‘It would be better in the final judgement to have endured a most horrible death than to cause someone else to stumble.’ Our example to others is that important.

Christianity is not a religion of rules and regulations – indeed we have tremendous freedom – but with that freedom comes the responsibility to use it correctly, as Paul wrote to the Galatians (5:13) …. you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 

  1. We have a duty of care for each other vs3

By being prepared to confront sinful behaviour. It often takes courage to challenge to do this; it also takes humility to do it as well. The object must always be the restoration of the offending party not any desire for vindication on our part. Jesus gives superb guidance on how to go about this in Matthew 18. When there’s a problem, first you approach the other party on a 1 2 1 basis, if they respond so much the better; if not, take a friend along and try again, if that also fails, then and only then, involve the church leadership. I spoke about this a few weeks ago so I’m not going to repeat myself! This all may seem other person centred, surely …

  1. We have a duty of care for ourselves

We do but Jesus picks up not on work / life balance or physical fitness – important as those things seem to be in today’s world, instead He picks up on one of the consequences of sinful behaviour – the hurt and bad feeling it causes. The issue is forgiveness, the key to restoration and healing of strained relationships. How? By intentionally forgiving others, by accepting true repentance at face value even when the offence is repeated. – which is of course extremely difficult when you’re the wounded party.

That doesn’t mean that you should go on meekly being a doormat – abusive husbands for example are often full of remorse but short on repentance. True repentance means a willingness to take the steps needed for lasting change, to put things right and keep them that way. Remorse is grief about the mess you’ve caused.  There has to be an underlying change of heart.  Having said that if we harbour unforgiveness it damages us, it undermines our faith and changes our character for the worse.

There are no two ways about it – basically unforgiveness is sin, it causes problems in the workplace, it divides families, and it divides fellowships. Jesus knows what it is like to be wounded by those to whom He had done no harm – if you are harbouring any resentment and unforgiveness it needs dealing with – will you bring it back to the Lord?

If you need to work through this RT Kendall has written an excellent book ‘Total Forgiveness’ that I have found very helpful.

The disciples however were dismayed – you can almost feel their discomfort in v4 as Jesus spoke. Forgiving the same person over and over again is impossible. It’s simply too hard. Recognising His authority, they ask for a supernatural injection of faith to be able to do it. How often do we make the same mistake, we find an issue in our Christian life difficult to cope with and ask God for the quick fix.

However, Jesus doesn’t sympathise. He doesn’t agree with the disciples, He doesn’t compromise by saying something like ‘Yes chaps I understand – just do your best anyway’. He simply reminds them in the most graphic way that they already have all the resource they need. Contrasting a tiny seed with a huge tree in v5 He reminds them that with God a little faith will move seemingly impossible obstacles. Their job is to do what is expected and let God do the rest. To underscore this, He tells them this story of the landowner and the hard-working servant simply doing his duty.

And that is precisely what He calls us too today. What the story leaves out however is that in real life the bigger picture is that the landowner did go and serve the servant because our Lord Jesus, mighty God, came to this world and identified Himself totally with His people – as Paul puts it in

Philippians 2: Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. He calls us to follow Him.

COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER: The text contained in this sermon is solely owned by its author, Revd Paul A. Carr. The reproduction, or distribution of this message, or any portion of it, should include the author’s name.