Week 3 May 2025, Devotion Part 1

Will any one of you, who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep, say to him when he has come in from the field, “Come at once and sit down at table?” Will he not rather say to him, “Prepare supper for me, and gird yourself and serve me…”?  Luke 17:7-8

“The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’” That is the curious context of this unsettling text. The assault on modern sensibilities continues, “So you also, when you have done all that is commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’” Where do labor reform and social justice weigh in?

 “Increase our faith!” Jesus actually eases into the subject on a seemingly reasonable note. “If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed…,” He intones, and we want to interrupt and smugly say that we get it. But Jesus presses on with His more confounding take on the mustard seed, “…you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be rooted up, and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” That sounds as unnatural as the super-servant scenario. Could it mean that Jesus is drawing attention to His own heroic faith and the capacity for obedience it would ultimately call forth in His followers?  Part 1 of 2

Comment:  It has long been my practice to “break my fast” right after getting up and dressed to go downstairs.  My metabolism demands I eat, lest headache with nausea creep up on me. Then comes my “quiet time with the Lord,” reading devotionals, diving into the related Scriptures, and concluding with unhurried prayer time.  Any busy day ahead tempts me to compromise.  Take today’s text that strongly hints I should just gloss over it, rather than let it “sink in” enough to sink my plans  Enter the voice of the Holy Spirit, who knows me better than I know myself, having wired me a certain way by now.  I’m referring to the process of sanctification that transforms each Christ-follower from “one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor. 3:18), resulting in the freedom of “unveiled faces.”  So, I’m reading Luke 17 in all of its complexity on the 28th day of the month, and suddenly I’m eager to read Job 28, a favorite chapter that resonates with every keen spelunker.  Our family often combined camping trips with visits to caves, where the kids learned to pride themselves in distinguishing between stalactites and stalagmites.  Let me now invite every single one of eager readers to discover Job 28 for two excellent reasons.  First, it’s an amazing literary masterpiece that deviates completely from the familiar story of Satan’s role in it.  Secondly, it coaches the Bible student on how to “dig in” in order to “dig out” the hidden treasure God wants us to find and invest.  “Increase our faith,”  the apostles had pleaded.  I’ve come to absolutely love how Luke, the “beloved physician,” doctors chapter 17 to make it a heart-healthy and exciting eye-opener.  Do consider the punch line in Job 28:28, “And he said to man, behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.”