7 “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? 8 Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? 9 Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 10 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.’” – Luke 17:7-10
When we think about worship, most often what we imagine is a place where we have gathered together, heard the word proclaimed, sung songs, and shared in times of prayer. A few more dedicated would also consider the any time spent reading/studying the bible to be worship as well. And I like to believe that some even would consider singing along to that praise CD in the car worship, which I agree. Truth is worship takes all kinds of different forms. However, the form of worship that Jesus speaks of most, in my opinion, is the worship that comes in the form of service.
In fact, one of the Hebrew words that is often translated worship, can also mean serve, work, labor, toil. Jesus was want we know call a servant leader. He was a leader, one of the greatest leaders we know, but not in the sense of worldly leadership. Jesus was a servant, yet he was followed by many, and many more wanted to work for him. Jesus is our Lord, and those who follow him today, are striving to learn from the humility of love, service and care Jesus has implanted in us by his grace.
In Luke 17, Jesus is talking to his disciples about stumbling. Within the context of a few verse he teaches them about sin, forgiveness in faith, and about the duty everyone has to both forgive and to serve. At the end of this little lesson he tells them the above parable.
Now, the disciples, from what we know, were not men who would have been prestigious enough to have servants, aside from possible Levi (the tax collector). Most of the time, we associate Jesus followers with the poor and the outcast. However, many of Jesus followers could have been servants. They would have understood Jesus reference from having to work under such conditions. Yet, what Jesus teaches is something that we perhaps should really pay attention to in our current generation. Jesus tells these disciples that a servant is someone who does for others; not for thanks, not for reward, not for recognition, but because she/he is a servant. A servant simply does what is asked, what is expected, what is pleasing to the one they serve.
Many of us may not think of that as sounding appealing, or we may think it beneath us, because we all like to be recognized, we all like to hear the “thank you,” we want someone to appreciate what we have done. Yet, the humility that comes from true servanthood understands that we are recognized, if not by human eyes and hearts, but by God, who will one day say to us, “well done good and faithful servant, come in and rest.” When we get to that point in our faith, what we find is the more we can do for others, the closer to God we feel, we find that worship is more about serving out of love for God and neighbor, that it ever was about gathering and singing.
I know we look forwards to the gathering and singing part, and we will work towards that, but in the meantime, perhaps as we are able, we think of those whom God places in front of us to serve, so that we might worship Him in our service to others.
Grace & Peace,
Sam