THE DISCIPLE’S DUTY
Luke 17:1-10 NET.
1 Jesus said to his disciples, “Stumbling blocks are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! 2 It would be better for him to have a millstone tied around his neck and be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. 3 Watch yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him.4 Even if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times returns to you saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” 5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” 6 So the Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this black mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled out by the roots and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. 7 “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’? 8 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’? 9 He won’t thank the slave because he did what he was told, will he? 10 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.'”
Jesus is with a group of his disciples in today’s text. It includes the smaller group of his twelve apostles (mentioned in verse 5). There is no mention of a larger crowd of onlookers. There is no mention of the Pharisees or any other group of opponents. This is an opportunity for Jesus to zero in on those who are genuinely his disciples and to give them marching orders. He’s outlining how these disciples should live. He’s telling them what their duties are if they are going to live under his rule while they wait for his second coming.
That makes today’s text ideal for us as we try to reboot and start our new year out right. We need marching orders, too. We must reflect on how we lived in the past and determine what changes we can make to live like Jesus wants us to. In our hearts, we all want to do that. We get frustrated with ourselves because we have done things that we regret and failed to do things we wanted to do. So, let’s take the words of Jesus in today’s passage as marching orders from our King as we begin this new year.
First, do no harm (1-4).
The first command that appears is for us to watch ourselves (in verse 3). Verse 1 explains what we are to watch for. It says that stumbling blocks are going to come. A stumbling block gets in people’s way and trips them, causing them to fall. Stumbling blocks are not attacks from the outside. They are not going to come from the government. They are not going to come from proponents of another religion. Stumbling blocks are dangerous because they are right here among us. Stumbling blocks will come in every Christian church, school, and home.
The purpose of the stumbling block is to damage the faith of Christians. It is to cause the little ones to stumble. They may be literally little ones – that is, young Christians. Or they may be Christians who are still new to their faith and inexperienced. But stumbling happens when another Christian says something or does something that causes the little one to stop believing and leave the church.
Jesus is telling his disciples that their first responsibility now that they are part of his church is to protect the others they fellowship with. We all know that every true believer has gifts that reproduce their faith in others. Jesus is telling us in today’s text that we also can destroy the faith of others. We need to know that. We must know our capability to do great good and great harm.
Hippocrates, the Greek father of medicine, required the doctors that he trained to pronounce a vow that we now call the Hippocratic oath. The oath was simple: “First, do no harm.” That seems to be what Jesus tells his disciples in today’s text. He tells them that they have the potential to be a blessing in other people’s lives or to destroy them. He tells them to bless and not curse, to help and heal, not disrupt, and devour.
Jesus says it would be better for a believer to have a millstone tied around his neck and be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of the little ones to sin. He’s not saying this is the punishment for being a stumbling stone. He’s saying that if you are tempted to make other people stumble, it would be better to have yourself drowned before you even get the chance. That is how important it is that we believers watch out for this problem.
Jesus cares about you, and he cares about the Christian brother or sister next to you. He commands us to protect them. Their faith is fragile, and we can damage it without being careful. We can damage them by something we say. A false doctrine coming out of our mouths – a lousy attitude reflected in a Facebook post – people are watching and listening. We can damage them even if we don’t intend to. They are watching our actions, too. Revenge, pride, lust, greed, superstition – any of these sins reflected in our actions can ripple out toward others and cause a tsunami.
But there is one specific act that Jesus highlights in today’s passage. It is the one thing that can cause more stumbling than any other thing in the Christian community. We need to be extra cautious about this thing. It is the lack of forgiveness. Jesus says If our brother sins, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him. Even if he sins against us seven times a day and seven times returns to us saying, ‘I repent,’ we must forgive him. What Jesus is talking about her is a disruption in a relationship.
We constantly fail Jesus in this matter. Our default activity if someone disappoints us is to break ties with him. We even do it as groups. Churches split. Denominations split. All of Christendom has been divided into a myriad of factions and faiths. This is precisely what Jesus warned us about. We tend to divide rather than unite. Even when we unite, it is in contrast to those with whom we have chosen to divide. We are Protestant, not Catholic. We are Evangelical, not liberal, fundamentalist, or modernist. Maybe some of that history could not have been avoided. But the result is that we display a divided church. A split church harms.
This morning, Jesus’ command for us is, “First, do no harm.” Whatever we say in this life, let it be to build other Christians up, not to tear them down. Whatever we do, let it be an example of authentic Christianity, not the ways of the world. The world is watching – we know. They are watching to see if we are what we say we are. But the church is watching, too. It is a church that is vulnerable. It can be harmed.
Second, trust God’s grace (5-6).
I mentioned that Jesus was speaking to a group of disciples, and the group included the twelve whom he had appointed as apostles. In verse 5, the apostles speak up for the first time. They give Jesus a request. In the context of this passage, it sounds like Luke has taken this part of the conversation from another incident. Many commentators treat verses 5-6 as if they are separate paragraphs.
I don’t think it is necessary to do that. The apostles had just been challenged not to harm the church. I’m sure it occurred to them that they would need some tremendous supernatural, miraculous power to keep them from botching things in the church. With that in mind, it sounds perfectly natural to ask for solid faith.
Jesus could have done that. He could have zapped the apostles with a robust and powerful faith that forever prevented them from making ministry mistakes. But notice how he replied to them. He told them that their faith did not need to be any stronger. He had already called them people of little faith. But here, he told them their little faith was all they needed. They had mustard seed faith, which is all the faith you need. With that tiny faith, they could uproot a mulberry tree. The mulberry tree has big, black, solid roots and is almost impossible to transplant. What Jesus is telling his apostles here is – Don’t worry, you’ve got what it takes.
Everyone in Christian leadership struggles with what the apostles are dealing with here. The needs are significant, and the potential for failure and harm is immense. We all know about prominent church leaders who failed so publicly that it brought disgrace to them and shame to their churches. And that is the tip of the iceberg. For every leader who fails, countless followers are so damaged that their lives are never the same again. This problem is genuine. That is why we should pay close attention to what Jesus tells the apostles. The solution is not another miracle. The faith God gave you when you accepted Christ is enough.
People who have significant responsibilities do not need immense power to succeed. They need the ability to trust in their already given power. They need to learn to trust God’s grace. That big, stubborn mulberry tree does not match your little mustard seed faith. God has already given you solid faith to handle all your responsibilities. You have to trust him and do what he told you.
What is valid for the apostles and their leadership is true for every Christ disciple. You have challenges at work, with your family, in your community. You have political challenges, health issues, mental and psychological problems. You have financial problems. The list goes on and on. When you think about them, you are tempted to despair. Jesus does not deny that the problems exist. He isn’t telling you to pretend that they are not there. He is telling you that they are not a problem to him. He can get you through this. Tomorrow, there will be another set of problems, and he can get you through them, too.
We have already looked at Jesus’ command about prayer – that we should ask and it will be given to us, seek and we will find, knock and the door will be opened. The apostles had just requested for faith to keep them from being stumbling blocks. Jesus’ answer, in this case, was that they had already been given a faith strong enough for this challenge.
There will be times when all of us face challenges that we will feel inadequate to meet. We will fall on our faces and ask Jesus to increase our faith to meet those challenges. Sometimes he will do that. But sometimes, he will remind us that the grace we have been given is sufficient. We need to trust that grace.
Third, serve humbly (7-10).
In the third section of today’s passage, Jesus is still talking to his apostles. He understands that those in leadership in his church are prone to a particular sin, which can cause many to stumble. That sin is pride. One of the major emphases in the Gospel of Luke is the contrast between how Christians should live and how the Pharisees lived. The Pharisees were proud of their external obedience, prosperity, and prominence.
The apostles had just begged Jesus to give them a strong faith. Jesus had reassured them that they had a faith strong enough already. But he knew what was going on in their minds. He wanted them to trust in God’s grace in their ministries. But he did not want them to become arrogant enough to think they were a higher class of disciples.
That was why Jesus introduced this little parable into the conversation. He started talking about the apostles and their slaves. The apostles did not own any slaves, and Jesus knew that. But, still, Jesus told them that when their slaves came home for dinner, the twelve apostles would not stop what they were doing and make dinner for their slaves!
Why did Jesus say such a thing? Was he endorsing slavery? Nope. Was he promising that the apostles would become so prosperous and powerful that they would each have slaves to do their manual labor? We know that did not happen.
No, the last verse of today’s passage is the key to what Jesus is saying. It says that when the apostles have done everything they were commanded, they should say, “We are slaves undeserving of special praise; we have only done what was our duty.”
The Pharisees believed that a strong faith produced prosperity and prominence. The apostles had just been assured that their faith was strong enough for their challenges. It was not too much of a stretch for the apostles to think that if they kept winning, they would eventually become great people. They would be tempted to allow the yeast of the Pharisees to enter their lives.
Jesus had to teach them how to resist that temptation. Again, Jesus could have zapped the apostles with a supernatural power to resist pride. Instead, he reminded them of their actual status in God’s kingdom. In the kingdom of God, there are no super saints. There is no hierarchy. Even the twelve apostles themselves are merely slaves to the Master.
Disciples must help others, not harm them. We must trust God’s grace for every need and serve humbly our one master. May we do so.
For further study:
Carroll, John T. Luke: A Commentary, 2012. pp. 340-342.
Ellis, E E. The Gospel of Luke. Grand Rapids, Mich: Eerdmans, 1981. pp. 207-209.
Evans, Craig A. Luke. Peabody (Mass.: Hendrickson, 1990. pp. 253-255.
Foster, Lewis. Luke. Cincinnati, Ohio: Standard Pub, 1986. pp. 217-219.
Geldenhuys, Norval. Commentary on the Gospel of Luke. Grand Rapids, Mich: Eerdmans, 1960. pp. 431-434.
Gooding, David W. According to Luke: A New Exposition of the Third Gospel, 1988. pp. 278-280.
Green, Joel B., and Michael C. McKeever. Luke-acts and New Testament Historiography. Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Books, 1994. pp. 610-615.
McCarren, Paul J. A Simple Guide to Luke. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2013. pp. 105-106.
Ringe Sharon H. Luke. 1st ed. Westminster John Knox Press 1995. pp. 218-219.
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