Unworthy Servants
Jesus tells an important story.
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’?
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’?
Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded?
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.’”
Luke 17:7-10 (ESV)
I think we all face a battle with attitude, which is another way of describing how we think of ourselves.
It is so easy to believe I add something special to my worth and that this then obligates God for favors.
In fact, often, our self-help gurus promote this idea as a way to motivate us to work hard and do more in order to rise above the masses and have a better lives.
But there is a serious downside to taking this advice.
I can begin to believe my works differentiate me from others — prove I am better and deserve special treatment.
This then sets me up for a fall — when my efforts, my loyalty, don’t seem to result in me achieving the things I believe life (meaning God) owes me.
I forget who I really am, a blessed beggar, a servant with no real cosmic rights.
The real truth of the matter is my life and the next one I have been saved to receive one day have never ever had anything to do with me. Having just accepted a free gift offered is no real accomplishment — nothing I can brag about. My life and salvation have always only been through God’s grace and nothing more. Full stop.
For me personally, this is my fall back answer when I am being spiritually encouraged by dark forces to envy anyone else’s life or covet their things.
I am the pot, not the potter.
But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?”
Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?