When I was very young I dreamed about
being a cowboy – not a real one, but one like Roy Rodgers, who no
one under fifty remembers anymore. He was very skilled with a rope
and could lasso a criminal who was riding away on a fast horse. His
gun skills were even greater, since he could shoot a gun out of an
outlaw's hand without actually hurting the crook. When he went after
the bad guys, in the end he would bring them back, singlehandedly,
unharmed but bound and harmless. As time went on I shifted my
allegiances to Superman. Oh, to fly, to have super strength – and
x-ray vision as well. And all the time using my powers for good.
But in my imagination there was
another kind of hero as well – the saint who could work miracles.
I knew in my heart that I couldn't be another Roy Rodgers or
Superman, but it seemed that I could be a saint, someone who could
harness the very power of God to do good – and of course the
stories of the saints abound with miracles. If I could just be holy
enough … if I only knew the right prayers … And even at my age,
there are still times when I meet someone with cancer or someone with
Alzheimer's disease and wish that I had the kind of faith that would
let me lay my hands on that person and cure him.
I think that's the kind of faith the
apostles were asking for today. Jesus had demonstrated his ability
to effect a miraculous cure, to cast out demons, to even raise the
dead. The apostles even got a taste of that when they were sent out
by Jesus to all the villages and towns to announce the good news.
And just before this gospel reading. Jesus has been telling them that
they have to learn to forgive “seventy times seven” and that if
one of them scandalized a little one it would be better for that
person to have a millstone tied around his neck and be thrown into
the sea. He told them that if they wanted to be great, they had to
become servants of each other. If the apostles wanted to follow
Jesus and become real disciples, it seemed an impossible task – and
it seemed as though this required more faith.
In my reading of the gospel story, I
think Jesus was saying, “Do you think faith is something that I can
increase or decrease? Do you think that if you had faith the size of
a mustard seed you could tell this tree to go plant itself in the sea
and it would?” And then Jesus goes on to the story of the
worthless servants or unworthy slaves or useless slaves – all
different ways of translating the Greek words in which the gospel was
written. In any event, we are sort of shocked by this phrase and
even by the whole story – the slave who comes in from working all
day is expected to continue working until all his work is done. It
would be ridiculous to expect his owner to wait on him. And assuming
the slave did everything how could he be worthless, or useless? One
of the commentaries I read said that the Greek word used here means
something like “Not owed anything”. But it's still shocking.
Our problem is that we don't see
slavery the way Jesus and his disciples did. In that time, a lot of
the population were “slaves”. They were “owned” by a master
until they worked off a debt; or they might have been captured in a
war and given to wealthy landowners who had the muscle to keep them
under control; or they might be people who had sold themselves into
slavery because that way they could be guaranteed food and shelter.
And we meet all of these kinds of slaves in scripture. People did
not have the kind of image of slavery that we have today. It was
part of life, and Paul calls himself a “slave for Christ” and
John says that “although Jesus was divine, he took on the form of a
slave”.
One thing about slaves in that time –
there was a general understanding that the master took care of his
slaves – remember the story of the prodigal son? There the son
remembers that his father's slaves have abundant bread to eat.
So I hear Jesus telling his disciples,
and that's you and I, that first of all, what they are asking of him
no one can give; real faith depends on doing what you are supposed to
do, day after day, year after year. If you say, “I've done all I
am supposed to do” that's a false statement; as long as you are
alive there is more to do. But on the other hand, Jesus is saying
that you are like a slave in the household of a master; you have a
place, you belong, you are secure. You don't have to earn your place
and you won't be thrown out.
We don't like to see ourselves as
slaves, especially as worthless or useless slaves. We don't like the
idea that if we only had enough faith, life wouldn't be such a
struggle, and that God could make things a lot easier if we could
work miracles, if we could easily forgive, if we could avoid making
mistakes as we raise our children or try to run our businesses and
our households.
But we have been made members of our
Father's household; we are adopted brothers and sisters of His Son,
who became a slave for us; and the faith we are talking about is not
a power that makes us into perfect or powerful human beings. Real
faith is not power, it's not agreeing with certain truths, it's not
the same as believing in God. Real faith is trusting that God has
our real interests at heart, that He wants the best for us, that
regardless of the circumstances, he will look after us and do
everything in his power to take the slaves we are and raise us up to
be His sons and daughters in the life to come.
And that is what makes our lives not
only tolerable but joyful.
