We are unworthy servants
Luke 17:1-20
Key Verse 17:10
“So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”
In last week’s passage, chapter 16, we learned about the Pharisees: they were religious leaders and influential figures, but they were also corrupt. They loved money and human honor more than they loved God. They ignored those in need and twisted the law of Moses for their own benefit. They didn’t listen to Moses and the Prophets and lived with self-righteousness. Jesus teaches us that this is not the way of a true leader. We are not to be like the Pharisees, filled with pride and greed. Their leadership wasn’t about serving others; it was about serving themselves. Jesus warns that those who live this way will face eternal judgments, just like the rich man in the parable who ignored the suffering of others and only cared about his own comfort. We must reject the example of the Pharisees. But what kind of leaders does Jesus want us to be? He gives us the perfect example through His own life. Jesus didn’t come to be served, but to serve (Matthew 20:28). He washed the feet of His disciples, forgave those who sinned against Him, and showed compassion to the outcast and the sinner. He didn’t seek recognition, or praise; He sought to love and serve others, even to the point of death on a cross. Therefore, Jesus wants us to grow into leaders who are just like Him, then how? Today, Jesus teaches us that we must overcome two harmful emotions: bitterness (Part 2) and pride (Part 3). At the same time, we must bear spiritual fruits in our hearts such as forgiveness (Part 2) and humility (Part 3). May God bless each of us to grow into spiritual leaders like Jesus Christ through today’s passage.
Part 1, one of these little ones to stumble.
Let’s read verse 1, Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. The original Greek word for “things that cause people to stumble” is “skandalon.” It means a trap or a stumbling block or a snare. It implies being tempted and caught by the devil. We are all wick to temptation as long as we live in these mortal bodies. But Jesus teaches us that we should not give into temptation, get caught by Satan, or cause others to fall into sin, especially those who are young in their faith. He shows us how serious it is to lead “little ones” into sin.
Look at verse 2, let’s read together : “It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.” A millstone was used in grinding grain and weighed hundreds of pounds. It’s obvious that someone with a millstone tied around their neck would sink to the bottom of the sea and drown. This kind of punishment was actually used by some ancient nations like the Greeks and Romans. They used this as a way to punish people for serious crimes. It was a very scary form of punishment because Greek and Roman people believed that if someone died at sea, their soul wouldn’t be able to reach the heaven. They thought that these souls would just float around on the water forever, like water ghosts.
For the Pharisees and most Jews, who believed in the resurrection, this type of death was even scarier. They worried that if the body couldn’t be found and properly buried, it might affect the person’s chance of resurrection. So, drowning in this way was considered one of the most terrible ways to die. Jesus emphasizes that it’s better for someone to die with a severe punishment than to cause His little ones to sin. Why was Jesus so serious in giving this warning? Who are the little ones? We can see the ‘little ones’ among our CBF children, as well as those who are poor, the crippled, and those whose faith is weak (Romans 14:1). These people need special care and guidance. At last Rutgers Student Involvement Fair, I saw many freshmen on the street. Our freshmen are like the ‘little ones’ on campus because they are easily tempted by the wild culture of college life. Some freshmen arrive at Rutgers full of excitement, only to quickly find themselves drawn into wild partying, excessive drinking, and even drug use. In contrast, some freshmen struggle to adjust to college life and may become outcasts, feeling isolated and disconnected. Similarly, young believers are also ‘little ones.’ They may not yet know how to live by faith or follow the way of righteousness. As a result, they easily fall into the temptation of sin, experience doubt or fear about the future, and become lonely and unstable. These young people and new Christians need to be understood, protected, and nurtured by good mentors or shepherds.
Jesus takes the protection of these ‘little ones’ very seriously and desires for His disciples to grow as spiritual leaders and good shepherds for them.
So, Jesus gives them essential lessons for personal growth in verses 3-10. Firstly, Jesus teaches us how to overcome two toxic emotions: bitterness and pride. Secondly, He shows us how to embrace two godly characteristics: forgiveness and humility. I’ve divided this into two parts:
Part 2 will focus on overcoming bitterness and becoming a mindful shepherd (verses 3-6).
Part 3 will focus on overcoming pride and becoming an unworthy servant (verses 7-10).
Part 2, Bitterness and Mindful Shepherd.
Let’s look at verse 3: 3 So watch yourselves. “If your brother or sister[a] sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them Jesus is warning us to watch ourselves when fellow Christians sin against you. How do you react when a brother or sister hurts you deeply? Let’s look at how two of Jesus’ disciples reacted in Luke 9:51-56. As Jesus was heading to Jerusalem, He sent messengers ahead to a Samaritan village. However, the villagers rejected Jesus because He was on His way to Jerusalem. In response, what did James and John ask Jesus? They said, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” But Jesus turned and rebuked them. Then He and His disciples simply went to another village. It’s easy for us to react like James and John. We often want to respond “eye for eye, tooth for tooth.” If you punch me, I’ll give you an uppercut in return. This is our natural, human response—when we are hurt, our instinct is to strike back much harder. But if we react like James and John, we both risk destruction, spiritually and emotionally. As spiritual leaders and shepherds, we must be mindful of our actions, especially when young believers sin against us. Look at verse 3 again, “So watch yourselves. If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them” It’s not easy to carry our wounded hearts, but Jesus challenges us to help young believers by rebuking them with God’s heart. But how should we rebuke them?
Let’s read 2 Timothy 3:16-17: ‘All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.’ Indeed, a servant of God must be equipped with the Word of God and rebuke sinners based on Scripture, not on our emotions or personal opinions. I confess that I used to rebuke young believer by my anger and bitterness. May the Lord help me to repent my toxic emotions. By using God’s Word, we help our fellow Christians, especially young believers, to repent of their sins and turn back to God. For those who have sinned in lust, you can rebuke them with John 8:11: ‘No one, sir,’ she said. ‘Then neither do I condemn you,’ Jesus declared. ‘Go now and leave your life of sin.’ For those who are proud, you can rebuke them with 1 Peter 5:5: ‘God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.’ For those who are lazy, you can rebuke them with Proverbs 6:6: ‘Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!’ I thank God for blessing our diligent Bible study, which helps sinners repent. I pray that we may study and memorize Bible verses so we can provide the right direction and rebuke them to repent.
Let’s look at verse 4, let read together: “Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.” How many times are we to forgive them in a day? Yes, seven times. 24 hours divide 7 is equal to almost 3 hours. That means someone could sin against you about every three hours and then come back with repentance. So, if someone comes and slabs your right cheek at 7:00 a.m. in the morning. and says, “I repent,” we must forgive them. If the same thing happens at 10:00 a.m., we must forgive them again. If it happens again at noon, 2:00 p.m., 4:00 p.m., 6:00 p.m., and 8:00 p.m.10 p.m, we are called to forgive them every time. This may seem like an overwhelming demand, perhaps your face is sore and nose is bleeding after seven slaps—but Jesus asks of us to forgive them.
How did the apostles respond?
Look at verse 5, 5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” Because forgiving someone seven times in a single day seems impossible for them. Forgiving someone once or twice, maybe even three times, is already challenging, but beyond that, it feels almost impossible for us. When someone hurts you again and again, it causes extreme stress and can make you feel overwhelmed, even if they come back asking for forgiveness each time. You might feel like saying “Don’t come back again, just leave me alone” Why do we feel like this? It’s because bitterness begins to take root in our hearts, growing deeper the more we are hurt. This emotion has killed our joy, stolen our peace, and drained our spiritual life!
In verse 6, Jesus describes our toxic emotion with the mulberry tree. Let’s read verse 6, 6 He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you. Then, how does our bitterness relate to the mulberry tree? Let’s take a look at some pictures to understand it. Did you know that the mulberry tree has roots that can cause a lot of damage? Its roots grow far and deep, spreading quickly and taking over the soil around them. These roots can cause problems for anything planted nearby, especially buildings. Although the roots don’t go through the foundation of a building, they mess up the soil so much that the foundation can bend or crack. Just like the mulberry tree’s strong roots can cause damage to anything nearby, bitterness can take root in our hearts and cause problems in our lives and relationships around us. Hebrews 12:15 warns us about bitterness: “Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many.” Bitterness is like the poisonous root the Bible says. When someone hurts you, the pain doesn’t go away. It remains in your mind. If you hold onto it, bitterness can start to grow in your heart. Over time, it spreads—just like the mulberry tree’s roots—and affects everything around you. It damages your relationships, your peace, and even your connection with God.
Bitterness spreads like a disease into every part of society and social media. Even in our families, it can take root when forgiveness is absent. Relationships between parents and children, siblings, or even spouses can be damaged by bitterness, making it hard to restore love and trust.
A few years ago, my family had a conflict with other missionary family because my younger son got into a fight with their son. As the Korean proverb says, ‘Children’s fights turn into adults’ fights.’ After that argument over our children, the tension between us remained, and it negatively affected the church members as well. Nevertheless, I didn’t make any effort to reconcile with them because of the anger and bitterness I was holding in my heart. But one day, they left our church and moved to another city. However, every Christmas, I would see them again when we attended the New York UBF Christmas worship service. Jesus rebukes my bitterness through today’s passage, urging me to repent before the Lord. May God help me to repent and restore my relationship with my brother and sister in Christ.
Then, how do we solve our root of bitterness? Let’s read verse 6. “He replied, ‘If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.’” Jesus used the example of a mustard seed to describe faith. A mustard seed is one of the tiniest seeds in the world, yet it contains life. When planted in the ground, it grows and reaches up toward the sky. Jesus is telling us that the size of our faith isn’t as important as whether our faith is alive or not. If our faith is alive, even if it’s small, it will grow within us and enable us to do what seems impossible.
You don’t need to have great faith to move your sight from those who hurt you to Jesus Christ on the cross—just a small amount of faith is enough to move our eyes from our pain to our Savior.
Hebrew 12:2 encourages us that “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” When we look to Jesus with even our small faith, we find the One who forgives us again and again. We can bring all our bitterness, pain, and struggles to Him at the cross. As we do this, our mustard seed faith starts to grow. Over time, it can become like a great tree—strong enough to help us forgive, even more than 7 times in a day. We need to practice shifting our focus from the source of our bitterness to Jesus on the cross by faith.
For example, in the book of Genesis, Joseph shifted his focus from his brothers to God almighty.
He was betrayed by his brothers and sold into slavery, bitterness could have taken root in his heart. However, he was looking at God from brothers’ sin with his small faith. Instead of seeking revenge, Joseph grew up as spiritual leader for his family and shepherded them. Even after their father Jacob died and his brothers feared Joseph’s wrath, he said, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good… the saving of many lives” (Gen 50:20-21). Joseph uprooted his bitterness and forgave his brothers in a miraculous way. I pray that Joseph’s testimony becomes our testimony as well while we are looking at Jesus on the cross. “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good” Therefore, let us say to the root of bitterness in our hearts, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea,” and it will obey.
Jesus calls us to be spiritual leaders and shepherds in this generation. Shepherding is God’s blessing and also one of the hardest jobs—it’s an ongoing process of rebuking and forgiving the little ones who sin against us over and over again. For this, we need to have mustard seed faith, not only for young believers but also for ourselves. May God bless us to grow in our faith so that we can serve many people as mindful shepherds, just as Jesus did.
Part 3, Pride and Unworthy servant
In part 2, we learned that as leaders, we should overcome our toxic emotion of bitterness through mustard seed faith. Jesus continues to teach His disciples to develop God’s character through a short parable in verses 7-10. Let’s take a look at the parable. There was a servant who plowed and looked after the sheep all day long. He really worked hard overtime. He was very faithful, loyal, wise and successful. Yet he would never expect his master to say, “Come along now and sit down to eat,” but rather, “Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink” (8). He would not expect thanks from his master or a bonus. He would simply say, “I am an unworthy servant, I have only done my duty.” In telling this parable, Jesus teaches His disciples the attitude they should have after completing their mission. At such a time, it is tempting to seek people’s recognition and to expect to be served by others. It is so easy to see our own small contribution to God’s work and become proud and self-righteous. If we are not recognized, we feel a sense of loss, become sorrowful and discouraged. This makes us useless, and we stop growing.
How can we overcome this tendency? Jesus wants us to learn the attitude of the unworthy servant. Actually, this servant was very useful. But he did not think of himself highly; rather, he always saw himself in relation to his master. He knew who his master was, kept his identity as his master’s servant. This is the way of overcoming our pride and self-righteousness. When we do God’s work, we shouldn’t seek praise or recognition for ourselves. Instead, we should humbly serve, knowing that it is our duty and privilege to serve the Lord. In the parable, the servant worked tirelessly all day, plowing, shepherding, and even cooking for his master. His tasks seemed endless, continuing until either he or his master passed away. Similarly, God gives us daily tasks that sometimes feel never-ending. We often suffer under the weight of these responsibilities in our mortal bodies.
But here’s the good news: Look at verse 10: “So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do.” There is hope in this verse. A day will come when our duty is complete, when our shepherding is finished, and our work in this world is over. All the tears, struggles, and hardships we’ve endured while serving the ‘little ones’ will finally come to an end. Just as Jesus declared on the cross, ‘It is finished,’ we too will one day make the same declaration. “It is finished”
On that day, when we stand before Jesus in the kingdom of God, what will we say? we will humbly say, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.” Yes, this will be our testimony to our Lord Jesus in our heavenly home. Thank God for giving us a divine mission in our lives. May God bless each of us to carry out our duty in campus mission as faithful and useful servants. God will reward us with the crown of victory and welcome us into His eternal kingdom to be with Jesus Christ forever.
Conclusion. The Pharisees, who were supposed to be God’s servants, had fallen into greed, selfishness, and pride. They lost their sense of true servanthood and godly characteristics. Instead of serving others, they sought recognition and praised themselves. Because of this, they became stumbling blocks, causing the little ones to sin. But Jesus had a different vision for His disciples. He wanted them to become new leaders—humble and mindful shepherds for the “little ones”.
May God bless each of us to finish our duty faithfully and stand before His throne one day with humble hearts, saying, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.”