Luke 17: 1 - 10

Luke 17: 1 - 10

In these verses we find four aspects of the life of a disciple. The first two are opposite sides of the same coin. First we live in a fallen and broken world, there will always be occasions for sin and temptations to go wrong. But as disciples we must do our all, and be guided by the Holy Spirit and the Word, to see to it that we are not the source of that temptation. But, second, on the other side of that coin when we are the victims of sin and of evil we must be expressive of forgiveness. When evil enters the world by means of one of our brothers and his sin wounds us we have to have a kind of complete forgiveness. Seven is the number of completion. This is not a countdown to when we can withhold our forgiveness but rather to forgive completely and wholly. That is the way God forgives us.

The prevailing teaching in Jesus's day was to forgive up to three times. The saying of Jesus was difficult and the disciples felt that they needed more faith to accomplish this kind of forgiveness. We see here the third aspect of a disciple's life . Jesus offers up a polite rebuke. You need not have a lot of faith to forgive, but you do need a real and genuine faith. It is the alloy of doubt, selfishness and lack of faith that prevents forgiveness. Rather than seeking more faith, what we need is a real or a pure face. The words of Jesus are not an invitation for disciples to become conjurers and magicians going around doing shows by moving mulberry trees into the sea. But rather the smallest amount of authentic faith is enough faith to live out lives that are not the source of temptation but are lives that offer grace filled forgiveness.

Finally we must never even assume that we can run up a favorable score with God because we have lives of holiness, forgiveness, and faith. The final parable is a remembrance of humility. We must never forget that the minimum standard for a creature is to do exactly and all that its creator requires. If we live from birth to death and absolute perfection we would have only achieved a sort of minimum expectation and certainly would not have placed God in our debt. The lives we live must never make us think that we have earned anything. So here is a simple outline of the disciple’s life.

“Lord help me to live in personal holiness, gracious forgiveness, genuine faith, and serving humbly. AMEN”