Luke 17:5-10

Luke 17:5-10 contain two themes for disciples of Jesus, who are to have faith in verses 5-6 and who are to live as servants in verses 7-10.

The parable Jesus then tells is not one of our favorites. It includes no heroic figure like the Good Samaritan. It does not tug at our heartstrings like the Prodigal Son. Nobody is shut out of paradise as happens in the Rich Man and Lazarus story. There is none of the drama of the Ten Maidens account. No, this parable is more prosaic; it has to do with "your servant" (NIV) who labors long hours in the field and then is expected to fix dinner for his master after that before having any food himself.

In verses 5-6, the apostles want Jesus to increase their faith. They apparently think their faith is too small to make a difference, so they ask Jesus to enlarge it. Yet, Jesus is not buying. Jesus understands the significance of small steps, so he says to them, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you” (Luke 17:5-6).

In other words, Jesus does not buy into their complaint that they need more faith in order to live a faithful life of discipleship. Moreover, he is not selling the notion that he is the one who can wave a wand and simply give them more faith, or the faith they think they need.

Have you ever seen a mustard seed? Probably not. It is hard to see — each one is about one-twentieth of an inch. That is very, very small. At the very least, what Jesus is doing here is to underscore the notion that faith does not have to be huge to have an impact. It does not have to make the news to make a difference.

The amount of faith is not important, but the kind of faith, that is, genuine.  It implies the faith of the disciples is not even as big as a mustard seed.  However, Luke also suggests that the fundamental attitude of the disciple should be, "grant us more faith."

What we need to do — what the church needs to do — is to seed-size our faith.

We do not need to super-size our faith. We need to seed-size it. The reason is simple. Seed-sized faith is powerful.

The point is that it is not faith as quantity that matters. The disciple does not need faith the size of an acorn or a potato. If genuine faith is present or visible, it will have the power to achieve its intended purpose.

Luke 17:7-10 is a parable involving the unprofitable servant.

Verses 7-9 focus on the master while the application of verse 10 focuses on the attitude of the servant. Verse 10 reflects the Christian ideal of being one who serves, where the job of the slave is to serve. Making the seating and service at a meal an occasion for instruction about seeking to serve rather than to be served is a favorite theme in Luke.

Jesus opens the parable by casting his apostles in the role of masters: “Who among you would say to your slave ….” Granted, the master envisioned by the parable does not own a vast estate, but rather is of much more modest means since he apparently owns but a single slave who therefore must perform both agricultural and household duties. (Might this scale also reflect the apostles’ desire to “increase” their standing and power?) The focal point in this part of the parable, as in the preceding saying about mustard-seed-sized faith, is the power to enact what one says. Even though the slave has both plowed and tended the sheep, the master’s command is enough to send the slave into preparations for the master’s own meal. Nor ought one to commend the slave for fulfilling this command than the mulberry tree, for both simply respond to the power of the master’s command. The point is, first, that the disciple, having done all he or she can, ultimately depends upon grace, and, second, that there is no room for boasting.  The performance of duty does not entitle one to a reward.  The servant of God must not have the attitude of laying a claim on a reward from God.  However, 12:35-37 makes it clear that disciples will be rewarded.

Verses 7-10, while distinct, builds on the previous interchange by showing the apostles what the nature of faith is: A faithful witness is one who obediently carries out the will of the master without the expectation of praise. The scene depicts a small farmer who has but one servant. This servant, a jack-of-all-trades, does the plowing, the planting and tending of sheep. The servant also, when the day is done, sets a table for his master and prepares the meal. How astonishing it would be if the master, setting aside both tradition and necessity, called to his servant and invited him to dine with him. Beyond the obvious problem of who would prepare the meal, such an invitation would be neither expected nor appropriate to the calling of the servant himself.  Nor should anyone praise the servant for working not only in the fields but also in the kitchen. Indeed, it is his vocation. Jesus presses his point home: "So you also." The disciple who serves his Lord ought not to assume that he has done a great service. The proper response is simply to say, "We have done only what we ought to have done!" (v. 10). Such a disciple who ministers in such a manner still recognizes his worthlessness (v. 10). That is, no servant of God can truly serve in a way that satisfies the full demands of a righteous God and, in any event, can never boast of one's worth. A servant of God is one to whom no favor is owed. A person who can take his place in the kingdom as such a servant is one whose faith has become visible and "seedy." One can plant the mulberry tree in the sea; it is the least the servant of God can do.

If the parable ended there, then it would commend the apostles’ desire for “increased faith” so that they could move up to (at least) a mustard-seed-sized/owner-of-a-single-slave-level of faith and exercise their authority to accomplish their own (or perhaps, hopefully, God’s) will. However, Jesus suddenly and unexpectedly shifts the point of view in the parable. The apostles are not masters who need to increase their faith/authority; rather, they are “worthless slaves” who “have done only what [they] ought to have done” (17:10). The apostles need not so much faith that they can do miraculous feats like transplanting trees in the sea (which would be of dubious importance), but instead even small, almost “worthless” amounts of faith that will lead them to faithfully remain in relationship with God as servants of the divine will.

At first glance, this is a harsh statement. What would be the harm if the master rewarded the slave for doing nothing other than faithfully carrying out his obligations?  It is thus likely that the emphasis on fulfilling the stipulations of the law in the teaching of the Pharisees and the “lawyers” ( = experts in religious law) and the corresponding status that such observance apparently brought looms in the background of Jesus’ teaching here about slaves and masters. Rather than bringing any special reward, doing one’s duty (i.e., obeying God’s law) is merely what one would expect of people.

By relating the saying about mustard-seed-sized faith to the parable of the dutiful slave, Luke emphasizes that the apostles’ need is not for more faith, but a redirected faith oriented toward faithful service to God rather than grand exploits. This understanding of Jesus’ ministry and their own share in it will be crucial as they continue “on the way to Jerusalem” (17:11) and all that awaits them there.