Christians are Children
What does a Christian look like? In your head, try to visualize what a Christian looks like, not their physical traits but their disposition and demeanor. In a world full of images, what looks most like a Christian?
According to Jesus, a Chrisitan looks like a child. He says, “Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it” (Lk. 18:17). And, “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 18:3).
When Jesus wanted to illustrate what the citizens of his kingdom look like, he held up the image of a child. Not a strong leader. Not a wealthy businessman. Not a hard-working mom. Not a highly educated and well-connected young adult. Not an energetic teenager. A child. Jesus says true Christians look like children.
Why is this the image he grabs to illustrate his followers? Think about a young child, or even an infant (Lk. 18:15). What characterizes them? Needy. Weak. Small. Powerless. A young child lives with a posture of receiving, not giving. They have their eyes up and hands open. Eyes up because the world is so much bigger than them. Hands open because they have so much need.
Children illustrate the disposition and demeanor of someone who truly knows Jesus. Another way to say this is to say that a child best illustrates the life of faith. Christians are faith-full people. They know their need and weakness and dependence on God for mercy, and trust him to grant it. A Christian looks like a child because a child illustrates the life of faith.
What Faith Looks Like
The child-like disposition of faith that all true Christians have is seen in many ways. In our text today, Luke 17:1-10, Jesus shows us several of them. He’s speaking to his disciples (v. 1) while the Pharisees listen (16:14).
In chapter 16, Jesus talked about the child-like disposition disciples have toward wealth and possessions. The inbreaking of the kingdom of God through Jesus makes his followers wise and strategic with their resources and gives them eyes to see the needs in front of them. Their heart is changed and their hands are opened. They know everything they have belongs to God and that they deserve nothing from God, so they live with gratitude and generosity.
Then in chapter 17, Jesus turns his attention to several other aspects of the spiritual formation of his disciples. He doesn’t want them to become like the Pharisees who disregard the “little ones,” are unmoved by the plight of sinners, and are unforgiving.
A disciple, rather, carries a disposition of forgiveness, faithfulness, and freedom to serve. This is Jesus’ way of further filling out the picture of what true faith looks like. It’s not a picture of strength and power and entitlement. It’s a picture of someone who’s willing to obey God because they know they’re not God and who knows they deserve nothing from God.
Forgiveness
Let’s look first at verses 1-4 and see that true faith forgives. Jesus makes it clear that a life a faith is not a life without sin, or temptations to sin. He doesn’t remove his followers to some utopia where they never struggle, stumble, or sin. Jesus’ half-brother James says, “We all stumble in many ways” (3:2), and then later commands us to “confess our sins to one another” (5:16). This command wouldn’t be necessary if we didn’t have sin we need to confess.
Jesus doesn’t even remove his followers to a world where they won’t be tempted to sin. “Temptations to sin are sure to come” (Lk. 17:1). The world, our hearts, and the devil will provide us many opportunities to choose self over Christ.
Sometimes the temptations come through people who identify as Jesus’ disciples. This is why Paul warns the elders in Ephesus about fierce wolves who’ll come into the church to draw disciples away (Acts 20:29-30).
In verse 2, Jesus says it’s better to be drowned in the ocean than cause one of his children to sin or stumble. This warning reminds his disciples of the seriousness of being a “stumbling block” to another believer. He’s saying that his “kids” are responsible for their behavior (cf. Rom. 14:13, 1 Cor. 8:9-13). Woe to those who bring temptation to Jesus’ people!
The “little ones” (v. 2) aren’t specifically identified, but in the context of the last several chapters of Luke, it’d be people like Lazarus, the prodigal son, the tax collectors and sinners, the poor and cripple and lame and blind (14:13), the man with dropsy (14:1-6), and the disabled woman (13:11-16). The “little ones” are the weak who understand their weakness. They’re the insignificant ones in the world’s eyes. Jesus makes it clear that it’s the weak and small and insignificant, the so-called “little ones,” who’re significant to God (18:15-17).
Jesus’ words here mean that sin and temptation will be part of the life of faith. We will be tempted, we will sin, we will be sinned against, and fellow believers around us will sin. To this last point Jesus turns in verses 3-4.
In the parable of the two sons, the younger son is welcomed home by the Father after he did lots of sinning, and the Father showers him with extravagant grace. Because of this, some may think that sin isn’t that big a deal, or that sin can be ignored or swept under the rug. But these verses say this isn’t the case.
Jesus says plainly in verse 3 that if a “brother,” that is, a fellow believer, sins, that we should confront and correct them. Jesus says we go to them and rebuke them. We don’t go to others. We go to them. This isn’t our tendency. Rather, we tend to go to others to talk about someone’s sin. It’s far easier and more gratifying to talk behind someone’s back about their sin rather than talk to them face to face. But, as one writer says, “The community of disciples is not to be a community of snipers.”
When someone comes to you with someone else’s sin, your first and primary response should be, “I do not want to talk to you about this. You need to talk with them.” Words can do irreparable damage. Even if they aren’t true, once they’re out there, they can’t be taken back. They’re left to create suspicion and doubt where there should be none.
Jesus says that his people help each other fight sin, face to face, with grace. He says that his people not only confront sin, but also forgive sin (vv. 3b-4). Forgiveness of sin is a basic calling in the Christian life. As Paul says, “Bear with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive” (Col. 3:13). As we confront sin we do so with an awareness that we’re also sinners. We come to our brother or sister with humility because we know we’re just as guilty before God as they are. So we come with grace. We come with unconditional forgiveness.
Faithfulness
Next, in verses 5-6, Jesus says his disciples are marked by faith. The disciples’ request for an increased faith seems to come out of the blue. But it makes sense when you realize how hard what Jesus just talked about is. The call to not be a stumbling block, to confront sin, and to forgive are difficult things to do and therefore call for a greater faith.
In verse 6, Jesus reminds them that it’s not the quantity of their faith that matters but the power of God. “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed…” He’s saying that it’s not the quantity of faith but the object of faith that matters.
A “mulberry tree” had an extensive and deep root system. Uprooting one was a daunting and basically hopeless task. And planting it in the sea is just as hopeless and indeed impossible.
Jesus is saying that their issue isn’t the strength of their faith because that’s not what can uproot mulberry trees or plant them in the ocean, so to speak. Only God can do that. Jesus is saying that even the smallest faith can work wonders because it’s not the strength of our faith but the strength of our God that matters. So we must not worry about the size of our faith but should rather be inspired to trust God’s power and grace.
By talking about uprooting mulberry trees and planting them in the ocean, Jesus isn’t saying that his disciples can do sensational wonders. The marvels that Jesus has in mind are more mundane. As I said, not causing brothers to stumble and confronting and forgiving sin again and again are the marvels Jesus has in mind. One writer says it like this, “Faith is not a form of magic that enables us to control nature or to get God to do our bidding. Faith is a response to God’s initiative that trusts that we are empowered to do what God requires. If we wait until we can say we have enough faith to do what Jesus asks, we will probably never do anything.”
A follower of Jesus is faith-full, full of faith, believing that God will help them do what he asks them to do, even when it feels huge and scary and impossible. Like a child, Christians believe that their Father in heaven is good and wise and knows best, and they gladly take him at his word.
Freedom to Serve
And then in verses 7-10, Jesus says that his followers freely serve their Master, expecting nothing in return. In this parable, Jesus says that no servant or slave would come in from the field and be released from his duties around the house.
The point here is simple: the servant, not the master, is the one under obligation. Jesus is making a point about his disciple’s responsibilities as God’s servants. He’s saying that they don’t put God in their debt by performing their responsibilities.
The parable torpedoed the expectations in the ancient world about serving the gods. Those who worshipped the Greco-Roman gods assumed that worshipping them and following their rules meant they’d receive some benefit in return. And if they didn’t, they’d move to a more accommodating god. The gods were expected to reciprocate with gifts for being served by the worshipper.
Jesus is saying that this is not the way it works with the one true God. He’s saying that those who serve the true God don’t do so in a patron-client relationship kind of way, where God the patron is expected to bless us his clients when we serve him. Rather, we’re to do what we’re supposed to do, expecting nothing in return.
We don’t act like the older brother and say, “Look, I’ve served you all these years, where’s my reward!” (15:29) Jesus’ response to that mindset is, “So what?” Our service to God does not put God in debt to us.
No matter how much work we do as God’s servants, God the master is never indebted to us. “Who has given a gift to (God) that he might be repaid?” (Rom. 11:35) We will always be his debtor and will never be able to repay the debt we owe. And we’re not meant to repay it because we’re meant to be dependent on grace.
God doesn’t “thank” us because that would mean he needed something we gave him (v. 9). God never says “thank you” to us because he doesn’t owe us anything. Rather, he’s the one always giving us more than we deserve, and we’re the ones who owe him thanks. After we’ve done all we should do, God owes us no thanks.
Rather, after we’ve done all we’re supposed to do, we’re just as much debtors to his grace as we were before. Notice that Jesus calls them “unworthy servants” after they did all they were supposed to do (v. 10). John Piper points out that this is a great encouragement to our faith “because it means that God is just as free to bless us before we get our act together as he is after.”
In other words, since we’re unworthy before we obey God and after we obey God, it’s only grace that prompts God to help us. We’re unworthy period, whether we do everything right or not. So any help we get from God is only because of grace. We don’t earn or deserve it. We only trust him to give it.
A Master Who Serves
Jesus’ parable challenges the idea of religion that says God’s purpose is to serve us. It corrects a religious mindset that’s obsessed with self and minimizes God’s glory.
Jesus says that his followers aren’t entitled and shouldn’t think God owes them anything. They know that God owes no one anything. If he did, grace wouldn’t be grace. It’d be payment or reward, not gift. Like children, Jesus’ followers come to God with empty hands and humble hearts.
Jesus’ followers understand that they’re the ones who owe God a massive debt that they can never repay. The interest alone is enough to kill them. They know that their sin debt suffocates their souls.
But they also understand that the Master went to the bank to pay the servants’ debt at great cost to himself. They understand that the Master paid all they owed on the cross. And this understanding empowers them to deal with sin and forgive sin and believe God for help and to live with gratitude and humility and a rock-solid commitment to do their duty before God in all their callings.
When the servants understand that the Master came to serve them, they’ll do whatever he asks and expect nothing in return. Like children, they serve freely and joyfully out of love. This kind of life is a picture of true faith.