ULDAH MINISTRY

No,69　　July. 2001

【GOD, OUR REWARD】

　　Jesus said to his disciples: "Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea, with a millstone tied round his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. So watch yourselves. "If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, 'I repent,' forgive him." The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" 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. "Suppose one of you had a servant ploughing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, 'Come along now and sit down to eat'? Would he not rather say, 'Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink'? Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 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 17:1~10

This passage is one of those that provoke many lines of thought concerning 'faith', in which Jesus taught that the faith required to live up to His standard was not so extraordinarily large but 'as small as a mustard seed'. What does it really mean? How can we interpret Jesus' answer to His disciples' reaction: 'Increase our faith!', to His teaching of unlimited forgiveness? Jesus seems to have simply meant that where there was faith, whether small or large, miracles and healings would be seen. In His ministry to the needy, Jesus repeatedly encouraged the healed or the benefited, saying, 'Your faith had healed you. Go in peace.' On the other hand, there are many examples of cases where there was lack of faith, e.g. Jesus performed less miracles in His own home town Nazareth, Jesus' disciples' turmoil in the time of the raging storm, their failure in deliverance of the little child afflicted by an evil spirit, and the worrying men who always set their hearts on what they might eat or drink.

Paul, in his Epistles, often mentioned three essential elements: Faith, Love and Hope, by which a Christian's work, labour and endurance would be produced or prompted. Paul considered that a Christian's faith was something that accompanied all those who became imitators of Christ and of their predecessors including Paul himself, despite severe suffering, and also something that should become known by others around them. When the gospel comes in to one's heart not simply with words but with power of the Holy Spirit and deep conviction, one becomes a changed person who foremost would seek after and serve the living and true God alone by completely turning from idols. Eventually, faith in the Lord Jesus should spread everywhere and thus, in a faith community there was not supposed to be a person who caused others to sin. Nevertheless, Jesus predicted the existence of such people among brothers and sisters in the Lord, saying, 'Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come.' In other words, He implied that people might inevitably stumble by things such as temptations, addictions, indulgence and idols in this fallen world but it should not be people that cause others to stumble. It was Jesus' followers' responsibility to always be alerted not to cause other weak believers to sin. At the same time they were to be watchful of other believers' state so that they would be prevented from sinning and be kept on the right track. Furthermore, they were to be patient in their dealings with the weaker brothers and sisters, who repeatedly sinned but who soon after repented. Obviously, this would have been impossible for the disciples themselves to achieve, but for their faith in the power of the Holy Spirit working through them.
Indeed, forgiveness was a work of the Spirit and not a result of man's effort or labour. This is apparent from Jesus' teaching about forgiveness. When His disciples once asked Him to teach them how to pray, He taught them, '… Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.' (Luke 11:2~4), followed by the parable of "the Friend at Midnight". Through the parable Jesus taught that if the wicked knew how to give good gifts, food and materials to his children to satisfy their physical needs, how much more would the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit for His children to be able to exercise forgiveness. In other words, as God's children can receive physical food as an answers to their prayer concerning daily bread, so the help of the Spirit, who is the best gift from the Father is a must for them to be able to daily forgive others who sin against them and to be protected from falling into temptation. Thus Jesus encouraged His disciples persistently pray as an action of faith so that their prayers would be answered and God's work would be effectively done through them.
However, Jesus, knowing that there was a danger of the disciples to feel proud of their 'work produced by faith', successively told another parable of 'the Humble Servant' here in the passage, in which God's absolute lordship and man's total subjectivity to Him were emphasised. In this parable Jesus sets a situation where a small-holder had only one servant to serve him in the house as well as on the farm or field. The servant was expected to do everything for the master from morning till night. Accordingly, doing what was required was not deserving the master's complements at all. He was simply fulfilling his duty and thus doing nothing creditworthy. If what Jesus taught here in the parable is applied to His disciples' attitude as the Lord's servant, it would mean that they are not doing anything particularly praiseworthy but are in fact only doing their duty. They could not boast of their work because they simply did what they were paid to do, accordingly, they should rather say, 'We are unworthy servants'; we have only done our duty.' To put it another way, the disciples are not expected at all to claim credit for their work for the Lord, i.e., 'work produced by faith,' whether it is a wonder, healing, forgiveness or any kind of labour, because they are just a servant of the Lord chosen and sent by their master, i.e., the Lord, to participate in doing the Father's will. However, at the same time, paradoxically they knew that the Lord would without exception reward His faithful servants with abundance far beyond imagination, just out of His grace.
Jesus' teaching here appears to contain one of the most important biblical principles concerning human relations. As He started a course of teachings by referring to the disgusting person who became a stumbling block to others, Jesus clearly presupposed the complexity of human relations in this world. If human life is inevitably to run such a course and if following Jesus' teachings are applied to our daily situations, what is changeable in order to improve our relationship with others would be said to lie in each individual's perception of matters. This can be analised in the following way. Broken or strained relationship tend to arise when one's expectation of others has been betrayed or not fully satisfied. This suggests to us that if we learn how not to expect anything from others in response to our good deeds and attitude, we will be able to perceive the situation completely differently than before. On the one hand, if we receive unexpected appreciation and positive response for our actions, we could give thanks to the Lord. However, even if we do not get back any response, we could still perceive it as a foregone result positively, without feeling disappointed or harmed any longer.
It is not necessarily an easy thing to always relate positively and effectively to others so as to maintain good relationship. Rather, it might actually be impossible to make it by human's effort. Indeed, we can only find some clues about how to make it, in our relationship with Jesus Christ, or in other words, in faith in Jesus Christ. Selwyn Hughes points out: 'The Christian movement began in a relationship: "He appointed twelve … that they might be with him." For the disciples, the very first part of their calling was to "be with Him" -in relationship. The first thing we Christians must focus on is not trying hard to do good or be good- it is being "with Him".' What was required for Jesus' followers was to have a personal relationship with Him and through this, they learned how much they had first been loved by God. Those who acknowledge how much they are loved by God through the relationship with the Lord come to find themselves neither wanting anything from others nor demanding others to satisfy their needs and desires by manipulation. Faith in the Lord leads us to realise that all the resources to satisfy ourselves are from the Father but not from others in every area of our lives and also to know that our needs and desires are already fully met by God. Then, for the first time we might be able to live up to Jesus' standard shown in the parable, as His humble servant. Selwyn Hughes, focusing on human's core problem -hunger for love- sums up this important life principle in the following way: 'The more willing we are to face and feel our disappointment, the more clearly we can see how we manipulate others to give us what our souls ache for -the love we should be seeking from God- and the more readily we will turn from self-protection to trusting God to meet the deep needs of our inner being. Only then will we engage in true ministry to others.' ('Relations' CWR)

Whenever we confront difficult relations with others, this parable is a good reminder that we ourselves should watch that we won't be stumblers, or say anything that may cause others to sin, and that we do not deserve credit for our deeds. Apostle Paul was the one who had acted upon the Word of God, calling himself a 'slave of Christ,' that is, as one who is under obligation to the Lord, who bought followers with His precious blood shed on the cross once and for all, and he stressed that no-one could boast of his devoted work.

In the Old Testament, there are many examples which warn of man's covetousness and greed. One of the examples that especially dealt with the believer's corruption is the account of Elisha's servant Gehazi, who fell into temptation of lust for money and material things and tragically ended leprous. Despite serving the godly prophet Elisha for years he was such a servant that never learnt from his master and that remained the same unchanged, immature believer. One day, when Elisha had healed the Syrian leper, Naaman, a turning point came for Gehazi, when his real motives of ministry were exposed. Naaman, believing that he could bargain with God and that he could pay for his cure, offered Elisha rewards in exchange for his spiritual and physical salvation. The man of God, Elisha did not accept anything despite Naaman's urges and eventually Naaman left with all the gifts that he had prepared for Elisha. Gehazi, however, prevailed by the power of covetousness to get what the Lord had not given him, ran after the couch on which Naaman was returning home with all his silver and gifts. Naaman was simply pleased that he could still do something for Elisha, whereas Gehazi pretended to be Elisha's urgent messenger just to fill his covetousness. He had now turned to be a liar to justify his wrongly motivated deed, his dirty business. After he successfully got more than what he required from Naaman, Gehazi hid them at home and up-lifted, returned to his master's place. Elisha the prophet of God, who was gifted to expose the secrets of men's hearts, did not overlook his concoction and confronted him: 'Wasn't I with you in the spirit, Gehazi, when you …?' Although Gehazi evasively attempted to defend himself with further lies, he faced God's judgment, which was pronounced by the prophet. Naaman's leprosy came upon him now and his descendants for ever. The account does not tell us whether or not Gehazi later found healing as Naaman was miraculously cured.
Would not this account warn us Christians of a danger that we might be tempted to 'look back after putting our hands to the plough,' that is, to slip headlong into worldliness after fully receiving the knowledge of the truth and experiencing God's blessings, goodness and mercy? What happened to Gehazi, the apostate was exactly what the author of the Epistle of Hebrews warned Christians: 'If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testing of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," and again, "the LORD will judge his people." It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.' (Hebrews 10:26~31) The account warns us of the dangerous nature of sin that what has started minor at first increase in scale and ends up occupying the whole heart.
There is also a passage in Jeremiah where the nature of sin is depicted: 'They make ready their tongue like a bow to shoot lies; it is not by truth that they triumph in the land. They go from one sin to another; they do not acknowledge me." Declares the LORD. "Beware of your friends; do not trust your brothers. For every brother is a deceiver, and every friend a slanderer. Friend deceives friend, and no-one speaks the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they weary themselves with sinning. You live in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me." Declares the LORD.' (Jeremiah 9:3~6) As Jeremiah depicted, man's sin eventually progresses from 'not acknowledging God' to a total 'refusal of acknowledging God', so once our heart is gripped by covetousness and lust for worldly things, it would not take long before even the elect falling into corruption. Unless we really acknowledge that the Lord alone is our satisfactory provider and in fact, that to just be in a loving relationship with Him is our reward, we cannot escape from this trap.
The parable of Jesus quoted in the beginning and the account of Gehazi are pointing to the same significant point that only when we acknowledge the Lord as our only reward and resources like Elisha and Paul had witnessed, we Christians can be a real faithful servant of the Lord.