To understand the gospel passage today we need to understand the verses that come just before it! St. Luke’s account of the “Jesus story” has Jesus, in effect, warning the shepherds, the leaders, the church officials (of a distant time) not to be a cause for anyone to abandon the Christian quest! As disciples journey toward Jesus they will be subject to bad example, disedification and scandal - but Jesus very explicitly condemns any church official who is the facilitator of such bad example, disedification and scandal. It is better if a millstone was tied around his neck and he was cast into the sea! Disciples can be as helpless as small children in the face of the mighty force of a person in authority leading them into error and sin!
The apostles know then the importance of carrying out their offices with dignity and respect for all involved - indeed with great love, compassion and mercy: therefore, they ask Jesus to help them “increase their faith.” They know that they need a deepening of their relationship with Jesus (and his Father) in order to do what he asks of them.
In answering them Jesus tells a story and says: “what would you say to your servant (thus establishing clearly the fact that anything the apostles had to give, was first given to them, to be given to others) who had just come in [from doing his job out in the fields]? Would you not continue to treat him as a servant - until the time of service is ended (which will be at the end of time)? Jesus says that this needs to be the case - and that it would seem appropriate for the servant (the apostles) to be grateful for the opportunity to be of service to the Lord, to do what they were told to do - and not to expect preferential treatment, but to say out loud that they were but “unprofitable servants’ doing just what they were obliged to do!
Does this mean that Jesus is not appreciative of their willingness to be his apostles - to be in training to lead the flock of disciples until he comes again? By no means! Jesus is very much appreciative and he constantly rewards those who follow him and his way with countless blessings and helps and aids along the way! But the point of this passage today is that everything, absolutely everything comes from God (the Father’s) sheer graciousness!!! ALL IS GIFT! ALL IS GRACE! ALL IS LOVE! Of ourselves - whether we are an apostle, a disciple, a father, a mother, an office worker, a housewife, a student, a laborer, a politician - we have and are nothing - of ourselves!
An increase of faith means an increase in the appreciation of this very notion: WE HAVE AND ARE NOTHING - OF OURSELVES!
By means of faith we know that the unjust - those who live as though everything is about them - everything is about grabbing as much as you can out of life - everything is about me and me alone - have no integrity and in the end they shall not live, for ever. But the just one - who has heard the voice of the Lord speaking about this matter - and who hardens not his/her heart - will live because his/her life is rooted in giving, in grace, in love - his/her life is rooted in God!
Jesus, in the same gospel passage, tells the apostles, the disciples and all of us that even the tiniest bit of this real, God-rooted, self-denying faith can be the catalyst for some amazing things happening in the practice of loving service. Just as, with a tiny bit of faith - as tiny as a mustard seed - a mulberry tree with an enormous root system can be uprooted instantaneously and transplanted into water, into the sea, so can quite unexpected things happen when our life of giving is fueled by true faith in God’s power and love!
God has given us the Spirit of power and love and self-control, as St. Paul tells us today, so that we can not only bear the hardships of the gospel - the gospel that asks us to be nothing so that we can gain everything; to be humble so that we can be raised up on high for ever one day in the Kingdom; to be servants so that we can become friends; but also that we can find great joy, abounding hope, deep peace which comes from proving our love for God whom we cannot see, by loving our neighbors, wom we can see - not only the people who live in our neighborhood - but all people, everywhere - from the heart!
We pray that the Lord will increase our faith today - so that what we celebrate here makes perfect sense - and so that we can take the fruits of our celebration into our everyday world!
Increase our faith, Lord; increase our faith!
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