Duty and the Christian Life 7 Suppose one of you has a servant ploughing 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. Quick survey What do you think is the main idea in this passage? A) Grace B) The Kingdom of Heaven C) Duty D) Don t know Duty to me is a strange idea, bringing to mind the attitudes of a previous generation, brought up in a Christian culture which placed great importance on doing one s duty. I tend to associate the idea of duty with 19 th century attitudes, particularly 19 th century English Christianity in which everyone went to church on a Sunday, gave to the poor and did every other good deed out of a sense of duty? There is one thing, Emma, which a man can always do if he chooses, and that is his duty; not by manoeuvring and finessing, but by vigour and resolution. - Mr. Knightley Jane Austen, Emma Duty makes me think of Gilbert and Sullivan who wrote plays about doing one s duty. Even their most famous play The Pirates of Penzance is actually called The Pirates of Penzance, or The Slave of Duty We find the concept of duty associated with moral teaching of sorts which calls us to do what we know is right, what is sometimes called our duty, even when it is tough. It is the Boy Scout version of morality which calls people to do their best at all times. In fact, the Pledge of Boy Scouts says On my honour, I will do my best To do my duty To God and my country This passage seems to be calling me to do my duty. So I have to admit I m a bit uncomfortable with this part of the Bible. But not only is it talking about duty, it is also talking about slavery. And the
relationship between the slave and the master here is not one of sympathy or compassion, but one of regimented duty and expectation. You do not invite your slave to have dinner with you, you expect them to do their duty without expectation of thanks or gratitude, or special treatment. Their day consists of doing their master s bidding, and once they have done everything asked of them, only then may they eat and drink. What a harsh picture of the dutiful life no reward, no expectation of gratitude, just doing their duty. The message of religion, however, is that duty does come with a reward. You do the right thing, you go to heaven, you enter paradise, you reach Nirvana. The dutiful life may be difficult, but at least we can find comfort in the promise that if we do our duty, God will reward us. There are many parts of the Bible, both in the Old testament and the New Testament which can be read and interpreted to be supportive of this idea do good and God will reward you Leviticus 26:3-5 3 If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, 4 I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit. 5 Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land. The problem with deriving this equation from the Old Testament is that what we have here is a very specific messages to God s people - that God is in the business of overturning the curses in Genesis through which humanity experiences conflict with one another and with the earth itself. This passage describes the Promised Land, a land which would be bountiful and safe. In fact, the Promised land is a foretaste of the new heavens and the new earth, it is a sign of the goodness that God is in the process of establishing across the whole earth, a place which is being prepared for God s people who remain in relationship with Him, listening and responding to His word. In the same way, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus promises that the good deeds done in private will lead to rewards from God. This reward is not money or wealth, however. It is the promise of being a part of God s kingdom for ever, being in relationship with the one true God which may, in fact, result in persecution and hardship this side of heaven. So the question that we need to ask is, should we seek and claim the promise that obedience brings blessing? Certainly there have been those who have suggested such a course of action both inside and outside Christianity. God will begin to prosper you, because money always follows righteousness Benny Hinn
Mohammed writes in the Qu ran And whosoever fears Allah and keeps his duty to Him, He will make a way for him to get out (from every difficulty).and He will provide him from (sources) he never could imagine. الكريم القرآن / Quran The Surah 65:2 But this parable suggests that it is this very attitude which Jesus is warning his listeners about. We cannot claim such blessings because we have done our duty. We cannot manipulate God through our actions, or make demands of God in this way. Yet Jesus knew the hearts of those he was talking to. The Pharisees had received blessings, titles, power and privilege which they understood to be the blessing of God, the anointing of God which they had earnt through their righteousness. But not only the Pharisees. Even the disciples argued amongst themselves about who would receive the place of highest honour at his right side in heaven. As human beings, we are quick to claim what we think is rightfully ours. You see this all the time when people feel like they have missed out on something that was theirs when a lottery win is not shared equally, or when the council chooses to provide services to one area of the community and not to us. We are very quick to stand up for our own rights and claim that we deserve some part of the prize, that we pay our taxes and we should get the same services as those people on the other side of Frenchs Forest or wherever it might be. And if we have lived a life of serving God, then surely we have a right to the blessings of God. What Jesus suggests in this parable couldn t be more different. We are unworthy servants: we have only done our duty. We do not expect anything from God, even though we might live a righteous life (which, in general we don t). While I find it difficult to relate to the idea of a slave serving their master in the way described in this parable, I need to remember that we are the slaves and God is the master. We can only say before God You don t owe me anything The arrogance to think that God might owe us something is so incredible when we say it out loud that we would be ashamed to own it. And yet, so much of the time, our actions, our prayers, our behaviours reflect this very attitude. It may sound something like this. God, you do owe me something. I have lived a good life. I have made sacrifices for you. Last year I gave away 10% of all of what I own and you pay me back with cancer? You pay me back with a sick child? All these years I have been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. And in this last statement we hear the voice of the second son from the parable of the Prodigal Son
The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, Look! All these years I ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf. Luke 15: 28 30 Our problem is, once again, that we do not understand grace. Grace that is, unmerited favour, whereby one individual shows favour to someone else even when they don t deserve it. Grace is the idea that we struggle with because we are so used to thinking the way that our world thinks good people get good things and that is how the world should be. The world loves karma, but grace, grace is that powerful idea that overturns the values of this world. It upholds the weak rather than the strong, the unrighteous rather than the righteous, those who are humble rather than those who are proud. Time and time again, the stories that Jesus tells challenge us because they talk about grace. They talk about how we do not earn our way into the Kingdom. We do not find ourselves in God s kingdom because we have passed any test of righteousness, but rather experience God s grace. And it is the idea of Grace which subverts the religious thinking of his day. The Pharisees believed that they had earnt their place at the top of the religious hierarchy. They had demonstrated their righteousness through the observance of even the smallest of laws, providing an example for other people to follow. They took on the equation above that doing your duty led to rewards. Grace overturns this entirely. We may have done what is required of us, but this does not entitle us to God s favour. God s favour cannot be bought by ticking off certain requirements. God does not check his list to see who has been naughty and nice. He welcomes us in despite our naughtiness. So how is that we can enjoy God s favour? Put simply, it is not by anything we do, but by God doing something in response to our act of repentance which comes from a place of brokenness and humility. In Psalm 51, David cries out to God for mercy. Wash away my iniquities. Cleanse me and I will be clean. He does not make an argument based on his own merits, but comes before God in humility and a spirit of contrition. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. 17 My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.
In Micah 6: 8 what does the Lord require of his people? He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. The Pharisees believed that they were entitled to God s blessing. But entitlement has no place in the Kingdom of God. In fact, the Kingdom of God is characterised by the opposite of entitlement - humility. We are called to be humble before God, knowing that God s goodness and mercy are far greater than our sin and brokenness. Acting out of duty, hoping to secure God s favour, is a pointless and fruitless exercise. Duty alone doing what we have to do, is not the way of the kingdom. Instead, God invites us to live under grace. This life will look very different to the life of duty. It is not dictated by what we have to do, but rather by what we want to do as we seek to become people whose character reflects the character of Jesus. CS Lewis describes it in the following way. A perfect man would never act from a sense of duty; he d always want the right thing more than the wrong one. Duty is only a substitute for love (of God and of other people) like a crutch which is a substitute for a leg. Most of us need the crutch at times; but of course it is idiotic to use the crutch when our own legs (our own loves, tastes, habits etc.) can do the journey on their own. This is what characterises the Christian life love rather than duty. We cannot earn God s favour, we cannot do deals with God. Instead, we are invited to become people who reflect the character of God, who are His image bearers in this world, eager to do what is right, having the same heart and mind as Jesus. But we won t become people who reflect the image of God overnight. We need to come before God with humble hearts, calling on him, seeking the power of the Holy Spirit to bring about this change in our lives so that we might become the people God originally intended us to be people who love from a place of humility rather than people of duty who claim their right to be blessed by God.