when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.’  (Luke 17:10)

Jesus, through the unusual device of a parable based on rhetorical questions, seems to be challenging the stubborn thinking of his close disciples, and it is easy to see how the same attitude prevails in all who would follow Christ.

For it is easy to fall into the mistaken notion that in keeping the commandments, say the Great Commission, evangelising the Gospel and discipling those evangelised, a person adds to God’s purpose.  Put another way, the faithful disciples thinks that they are necessary for God to achieve his goals and without them God is at a loss.

Jesus tells his disciples what they should say of themselves, ‘we are unprofitable servants’. 

The Greek adjective translated ‘unprofitable’ is one that is difficult to adequately render into English; ἀχρεῖος achreios means lacking usefulness, in effect ‘useless’, but this sounds pejorative; nor it is judgmental as alternative translations ‘unworthy’ or ‘worthless’ imply; neither is intended.  Jesus is merely saying that the actions of the disciples gain no profit for God’s economy.   How could it be otherwise?  Because the inverse would be to say that God’s purpose can be thwarted by human agency and that would call into question His omnipotence.

The teaching uses the analogy of the servant who spends the day cultivating the soil and tending sheep, both are easy metaphors employed by Jesus.  In the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:3-9) the soil is the human heart and the seed the Gospel, while Peter is commanded ‘tend my sheep’, meaning attend to and serve the Christ’s church.

For all in faith of Jesus Christ have tasks given them – the apostle Paul summarises this for the faithful in Ephesus:

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. (Ephesian 2:10)

Thus good works are required and service commanded.  In fact, all may become easier to understand if ‘servant’ is substituted with ‘slave’.  For what Jesus actually says the disciples should call themselves is douloi achreioi, ‘unprofitable slave’, and while today the word ‘slave’ has particular connotations, here it simply renders accurately the relationship.  The disciple is wholly God’s and entirely His disposal, informed as to his tasks, but not consulted (John 15:15); that is the deal, unpalatable as this might sound.

None of this contradicts Jesus’ promise to reward those who obey him; he says for his disciples ‘to lay up treasures in heaven’ (Matthew 6:20) and once more Paul, helps the faithful (this time in Corinth) to grasp this promise.  Calling them God’s fellow workers who build upon the foundation of Jesus, he says:

Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.  (1 Corinthians 3:12-15)

Moreover, Paul clearly distinguishes between saving faith and reward or loss.  And this distinction may be at the root of the parable of the ‘Unprofitable Servant’ also, for Jesus disciples when confronted with their obligations have exclaimed ‘increase our faith’ (Luke 17:5) to which comes the reply:

If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. (Ibid 17:6)

In other words, Jesus makes it clear the amount of faith is not at issue.  To do the work of God will mean they are aligned with his purpose, and they will see the impossible achieved, even the overcoming of deep-rooted evil (resistance to God).

In the parable, Jesus says of the master of unprofitable slave:

Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not! (Ibid 17:9)

So, Jesus, teaches that the disciples should not expect to be thanked, because not only this is what you were created for, but for what you were saved, so get on and do as I tell you!  It is so easy for any to be confused, especially in pursuance of this miracles occur; it is so easy attribute the miracle to the disciples’ gifts, talents or faithfulness; that some how the quality of the disciple enabled God will and that by human agency, all came to pass.  The is no reason to thank any disciple because they added nothing.  What God intends happens.  However, if any do as commanded, then there is reward, not because it is earned, let alone deserved, simply recognised.  This is grace, and with all matters concerning grace – it is a hard teaching.