Just Doing My Job
The Rev. Dr. John Judson
October 3, 2010
Katie had never seen anything like it. About 9 years ago my wife Cindy, my daughter Katie and I traveled to Manila, the capitol of the Philippines where I was interviewing for the pastorate of a large protestant church. While we were there we had lunch with members of the search committee who had a daughter Katie’s age. While Katie and the young woman were up in the young woman’s bedroom, the girl asked Katie if she wanted something to drink. Sure, said Katie, and began to get up from her chair to go get something. Don’t get up, the girl said, watch this. With that she got her cell phone and called downstairs to the maid and told her to bring up some cokes. Katie was amazed. So here is my first question, how many of you would like to be able to do that? Pick up the phone and have your drink delivered? Pretty cool huh! Well let me tell you the rest of the story. When the maid arrived Katie began to thank her for bringing the coke. The girl whom Katie was visiting, stopped her and said, no we don’t thank her. She is just doing her job. So now how cool do you think it is? How many of us would like that job of serving without ever being thanked? Not one many of us would volunteer for.
Which is why we may want to wonder about the disciples because that is exactly what Jesus is asking them to do…to volunteer for a difficult job where they might never be thanked and in the end where they would have to say, I was just doing my job. The story opens with Jesus talking about how difficult it is going to be to follow him. His disciples will be tempted to go astray and to lead people astray. They will have to forgive people not just once but seventy times seven times. In other words following Jesus will not always be easy. We might think then that Jesus would offer them some encouraging words. But instead he tells this strange story of a servant who not only has to serve outside in the fields but then when that is complete has to come inside and serve. Then, even with all of that serving the servant is supposed to say, no thanks are needed. I was just doing my job. Now I don’t know about you but that does not seem like a lot of incentive to be a servant. In fact it might seem discouraging. So what is Jesus driving at with the, it’s just my job, stuff?
The answer I want to offer you this morning is that he is helping them understand the way of the servant, which was his job and their job. What is the way of the servant? It is the job outlined by the prophet Isaiah. The way of the servant was to make God-honoring choices, to be willing to be hurt for so doing and then to forgive those who do the hurting. I realize this sounds thankless, and it is thankless. It is thankless because it is a job for which there will be no applause, no bigger contract, no reality TV show, no product endorsements and no thanks. But it is ultimately the only way in which the world and the lives of people in it are transformed. Only through the way of the servant will the creation be released, renewed and restored. It is a thankless job with an amazing result. And as Jesus was trying to tell his followers, it is the job that they have been assigned as well. They are to be those who live God honoring lives, are to be willing to be hurt for so doing and then are to forgive those who hurt them. They are to be servants.
Being servants is also the job which is offered to us. And I as I said before it is a job which more often than not comes without any thanks or visible rewards. In fact evolutionary biologist often argue that to chose the way of the servant is to violate our evolutionary prime directive of doing that which only benefits us. In essence it makes no sense. Yet if we are to look at the larger picture…the one painted by Christ on the cross…we will see that while we may not benefit in the moment, we will positively impact the world in which we live. And so here is my challenge for this week…to ask ourselves this question, “Am I willing to live the servant way and in the end, simply say of that life, I was just doing my job.”
