The last two mornings I have been reflecting on some interesting and potentially confusing verses from Luke. These verses are often quoted separately, as if they don't relate thematically, and that is often how I read them. However, as I sat and reflected on them yesterday, I started to see something new (to me). Here are the verses - Luke 17:3-10 NIV:
[3] "So watch yourselves.
“If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. [4] Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying 'I repent,' you must forgive them.”
[5] The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
[6] He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you.
[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.' ”
Often these verses are quoted or discussed separately, but at least in my reading today, I am looking at them all together, as they are grouped together. I am not a student of Greek, so I can't tell if they are just a bunch of stories, or lines from Jesus that Luke put together, or if they are the flow of one continuous thought and conversation of Jesus, as it appears in the text.
If they are one flow of thought, then the theme of all of these verses is set by verses 3 and 4 and the topic is faith as it relates to forgiveness. The apostles realize they need more faith to forgive their brothers and sisters as often as Jesus describes (7 times). Jesus responds that even little faith can cause a mulberry tree to be uprooted and planted in the sea - but He is speaking about faith for forgiveness.
If my conjecture is correct, then Jesus continues on speaking about servants out working in the field, doing the work assigned to them. He describes this as something that is expected of us, something that is part of our duty. He is saying in this example that forgiveness isn't something we should receive special recognition for, but that it is part of our work, part of our assignment, if you will.
So pulling this all together. Think of the field as your life. Think of the work in that field, pulling out things that shouldn't be growing, weeding, protecting the crop and ground for maximum fruitfulness in your life. Think of sin against you (verse 3) as seed of things that shouldn't be growing in your life. Think of the Mulberry tree as an offense (sin) against you that puts down roots and grows fast like a weed, but instead of impacting only a small area, it can grow quickly from bush into a tree and shade off a whole section of the field. Normal weeds can be pulled out by hand, a mulberry tree, if allowed to grow for even a little while, becomes an enormous task to clear, compared to weeds.
As a real life example, my daughter just had to do this very thing, cut down a mulberry tree. She had no idea it had started out as a fast growing bush on the fence-line of the house she is living in. To her eyes it was a tree and it was causing her neighbor's garden to be too shaded and her crops were failing. She had to cut down the tree and it was no small chore., especially on a hot summer day.
As an alternative, speaking of the analogy of the mulberry tree, Jesus says with just a little faith we can cause this fast growing tree to be uprooted and cast into the sea. It appears to me that He is talking about deep rooted offense in our lives that need to be cleared out, and with faith it is possible.
The issue for many of us, is that we think the clearing of mulberry trees (deep offenses) is either something we don't want to do, holding onto it like it has value to us, or too much work!! An important question to us is why do we hold onto grudges and offenses?? I think that we think there is value in revenge or vengeance, or hatred and feel some sort of self-satisfaction in remembering all the things people have done to us. Could it be that these grudges and offenses are actually choking out our ability to bear good fruit?? I think that light of the fruitfulness God desires in our lives, the mulberry (deep rooted offense) is worthless and even harmful. Holding onto it, is like holding onto a worthless collection of old dirty newspapers, and allowing the collection to take over your whole house and garage. Spiritually speaking, we should have cleared that mulberry tree (offense) out of our field (life) as soon as we noticed it growing, when it was not even a sapling.
The good news is that faith allows us to remove this thing from our lives, with relative ease, casting it into the sea (an allusion to casting it out of our life and out of our remembrance), like the Lord does with our sins. Faith is required because it is from the Lord that we come to understand forgiveness, and understand how He will take care of us. We don't need to carry around these offenses so that we can enact revenge or vengeance ! We don't need to be burdened with these things, but can rather release them to the Lord, who forgives us, and asks us to forgive others as well. I am reminded of two sets of verses first where Jesus calls us to forgive those that have sinned against us, and second where He tells us to release our burdens to Him. Here are the verses
The first set of verses is from when Jesus teaches us to pray - Luke 11:2-4 NIV:
[2] He said to them, “When you pray, say:
“ 'Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.
[3] Give us each day our daily bread.
[4] Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And lead us not into temptation. ' ”
And the second set of verses is a familiar set of verses from Matthew 11:28-30 NIV:
[28] “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
[29] Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
[30] For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Going back to the original reflection verses this morning, forgiveness is apparently a normal part of our Christian walk, and something we need to be about every day. We must learn to forgive others, and doing so quickly keeps the offenses from growing large in our life. Forgiving quickly reduces our burdens, ad allows us to take on Jesus' yoke.
Forgiveness, ultimately is about relationship care and restoration, and relationships are the foundation of the Kingdom! We are called to love God (relationship) and love one another (relationship). Jesus points us to the verses above to help us understand the need for forgiveness and the regularity of that need. This isn't a once a year, clean your field (life) type invitation, but rather a daily part of our normal life. We are sons and daughters of the Father and forgiveness is one of the ways we reflect or represent Him to our world, and to each other.
Ultimately our forgiveness is for our own health and benefit. The Lord forgives all our sins, and all the sins of those that have sinned against us. Our forgiveness isn't required or necessary for the other person's salvation, and interestingly that is what the Greek word which was translated unworthy (verse 10 above, as in unworthy servants) means. The Greek dictionary I use gives this definition of achreios, as a negative of chre (which means necessary), or in other words not necessary. Our forgiveness isn't necessary for the other persons forgiveness, but it is important, even critical for our own fruitfulness and freedom!
Wow, that is a whole bunch more than I expected when I first sat down to reflect on these verses!
So today, I am encouraged to look at my life and see if there are any areas of unforgiveness or deep rooted offense. I am encouraged to put my faith in Jesus, to trust His words, to trust His love, to speak forgiveness to any and all. My desire is to have a fruitful life, and I realize that this work of forgiveness allows me to walk unburdened and free, attaining the maximum fruitfulness as the Son's light shines on me!
Amen Lord, increase my faith!
No comments:
Post a Comment