Jesus Has a Bad Day
I know we are not supposed to disagree with Jesus, so I won't. But this parable that I want to wrestle with is really not my favorite of his body of work. It is from Luke 17, and it goes like this: “Suppose one of you has a servant who comes in from plowing the field or tending the sheep. Would you take his coat, set the table, and say, ‘Sit down and eat’? Wouldn’t you be more likely to say, ‘Prepare dinner; change your clothes and wait table for me until I’ve finished my coffee; then go to the kitchen and have your supper’? Does the servant get special thanks for doing what’s expected of him? It’s the same with you. When you’ve done everything expected of you, be matter-of-fact and say, ‘The work is done. What we were told to do, we did.’”
I am not a fan of thinking about all the ways we have mistreated people by placing them in roles of slaves and servants. I'm a big fan of a world in which we all understand that "we are all bozos on the bus" - to quote my friend Dale Ryan. But Jesus did not use this parable to talk about inequality, he used it to show us the reality of the work set before us.
In Dr. Willimon's book Accidental Preacher, he makes it abundantly clear that much of what we think of as sacred calling is not glamorous. Nor should it be! I love this guy because he speaks what so many are afraid to say. In Kate Bowler's podcast Everything Happens she interviews Dr. Willimon (September 22, 2020 episode 23: Will Willimon: Your Work is a Calling). I am going to poorly paraphrase him so PLEASE go listen to the entire podcast! But here goes...
Dr. Willimon says, basically, that the deceit of modern life is believing that we can strip the roles from individuals for the sake of individuality. He continues to make his case by declaring that there is no YOU without the roles, assignments and relationships in your life.
In Jesus' parable, the servant knows his role and he fulfills it. Full stop end of sentence. This is so very unattractive to a culture who has hyped individuality and freedom to the detriment, I fear, of community care and service for service's sake. Tomorrow, I'll continue to unpack this, but for today - please do not skip the opportunity to ponder what this terrible, awful parable teaches.
