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In Luke chapter 17 the people of the Kingdom find themselves in a war against sin. We find ourselves
facing offence and even offending time after time. we are told that the consequence of offence is so severe that it would be better for a millstone to be put on our necks and then be cast into the sea than for "the little ones" Gods children who are His disciples to be offended. It is for this grave consequence that the people of Gods Kingdom are motivated to forgive each other as many times as a brother will come to you and repent. The people of the Kingdom are people of mercy,especially to their brothers.Jesus clear teaching is that we we are to forgive as many times as a brother will repent to us.This is not an option, it isn't a if you'd like to, it is a command from the King of the people of God to his disciples.
We then see the apostles response to Jesus about forgiving their brothers time after time. They say to Jesus please increase our faith!! Jesus then answers that if they had the faith of a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree,"be pulled up from the roots and be planted in the sea!!!! and it would obey you. There is no doubt that this is one of the most difficult sayings of Jesus in all scripture. So lets see then what Jesus is saying. Firstly we see that it is said to the apostles, in a response to increase their faith because of the difficulty they had with Jesus telling them to forgive their brother indefnitely when he repents of his offence. So then this is the context, so then what does it mean? Maybe it will help if we first show what it does not mean. The most common interpretations are made "apart" from its context that we have already layed out. This is called prooftexting. Prooftexting is where a scripture is given a meaning apart from context. Firstly this isn't an issue of having enough faith, for Jesus says if you have faith the size of a mustard seed. So Jesus is actually saying you don't need your faith increased, rather what you need to do is exercise your faith. This is not faith in faith but faith in God. So I then conclude that the saying is a parable and is not a literalism. The saying makes the point that what they think is impossible about forgiving your brother indefnitely is indeed possible by exercising even their tiny amount of faith in God. It is not about being a superman and creating your own reality by manipulating your faith. Jesus then carries on making the point that it is indeed possible to do the will of God, but that in doing the will of God, we are to have the attidude of being Gods servants. Ready to do Gods will without thanks and profiting by it. He uses the illustration of a farm labourer, who when he is finished his duty returns to the masters house. When he returns he isn't thanked, but is instead put to work again, to prepare the masters meal.The master tells the servant when you have finished making my meal you can then sit down and eat and drink. Jesus applies this to the apostles by saying to them "So likewise when you "have done all those things that you have been commanded" say we are unprofitable servants we have done what was our duty to do. This is the application which describes the attitude of the people of the Kingdom toward God and doing His will. All to often we fall into a subtle attitude that if we keep Gods commands he will thank us and reward us because we have done His will. We do not not say we are unprofitable servants, but instead we have the attitude that surely we must profit from having done Gods will. We do know that in the age to come of Gods Kingdom that we will be blessed and be prosperous beyond our wildest dreams.Also we know that God does bless those who seek to do His will in obeying His commandments. But we cannot demand these benefits of blessing. So the context of Luke 17 to this pointis we are obeying God and not asking God for reward, because it is our duty as His servants to resist sin and to be like our master in forgiving those who offend . If we exercise faith in God, this forgiving of multiple offences from our brothers will not be impossible, but indeed possible, For God gives us power over sin when we believe in Jesus. After this Jesus carried on toward Jerusalem,passing through Samaria and Galillee. Here he enter into a village and there were ten leperswho stood far off from Jesus. They shouted to Jesus, master have mercy on us. Jesus response to them is quite remarkable. All he says to them is go show yourself to the Priests. The fact that they obeyed and went to show themselves to the Priests shows they had faith in Jesus, otherwise they would not have obeyed. They obeyed without first seeing that they were healed. Rather as they obeyed and went to the Priests they were cleansed. Then one who saw he was cleansed, returned to Jesus and at the top of his voice glorified God and fell on His face at Jesus feet,giving Him thanks!!!! Jesus response is were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found to give glory to God except this foreigner? So Jesus sent him on his way, saying "your faith has made you well. It becomes clear that this great miracle of healing ten lepers is not about if they have faith or not, as all ten believed and were healed.If they did not believe they wouldn't have gone to the Priests. Indeed it is about giving thanks and glorifying God. Again it relates to what went before this miraculous event in Luke. It is rather about the servants of God giving thanks and praise to God for His goodness and grace, than God giving thanks to His servants for doing His will |
