The context for this exhortation toward unassuming, obligatory service is Jesus’ command to forgive – even the same person seven times in the same day. Because I am forgiven so much and so often, withholding forgiveness or presuming that my forgiving is a big deal is laughable. When I forgive it’s no great shakes – I’m only fulfilling my most basic obligation as a forgiven sinner.

There is a danger in misapplying this verse however, by thinking that God is pleased with service that flows out from a mere fulfillment of duty.

Truly, I have a duty to obey the Lord’s commands. Satisfying His standards is to be expected. My failure to fulfill His requirements is entirely blameworthy. Fulfilling the obligations of a slave, answering fully to all the master’s orders, is but the fitting response of any servant. But, this does not mean that God is satisfied with my mere fulfillment of duty. Such a disinterested obedience is unbecoming a Christian. I believe this passage speaks to everyone – Christian or not. When a non-Christian rebels, rejecting their status as creatures in God’s universe, they are guilty of derivation of duty. If they should obey a command, they have nothing to boast about since obedience is our humblest duty.

Yet, for the Christian disinterested service is not an option. Meditating on the nature of the master in this parable helps me drive home how mere upholding of duties is offensive to God. I rerun this parable inserting three different masters.

Master one: the scoundrel. There are many masters who gain their position through dishonorable, even deceitful means. And such a master, who has no regard for honor and integrity in his dealings – would be even more contemptuous of his slaves. Nevertheless, the slaves of a scoundrel are still slaves – they’ve been bought and so it is their duty to serve their wicked master. Yet they might do so, fully satisfying their duty, with no internal respect and with little regard for the master himself.

Master two: the honorable master. Now I consider an honorable master, one who gained his wealth by working hard. He treats others with proper regard and provides his servants with appropriate accommodation and fair treatment. Such servants must also perform their duties, it is their obligation. Yet I can imagine such slaves being more wholehearted in their service. They might genuinely respect their master, and even strive to do their jobs with distinction.

Master three: the good master. Consider a very wealthy master who uses his wealth to relive those in distress. His occupation is to feed and clothe widows and orphans. His extensive good works are evident to all in his household. He is renowned for altruism and generosity. He consistently gives himself to meeting the needs others. And this master did not buy his slaves off the market. No, he traveled far and wide to find the sorriest, most mistreated and oppressed slaves – belonging to the harshest, most wicked masters. He purchased them for outrageous terms. Having redeemed them from oppressive masters, at high price, he brings them into his home where they serve him by joining in his occupation of blessing others in distress.

What of the mere duty of these slaves? Yes, they are slaves whose duties are just as obligatory as any other. But could such a slave serve such a master with a dispassionate, disinterested duty? Never!

As a Christian, I must fulfill my duty – and not wait for a prize every time I do. Yet I may never merely fulfill my duty as though that is all that is required. My duties must be fulfilled – but they must be fulfilled like a servant of the good master – who being so good, serving Him can hardly be called service at all. No, more like astounding privilege and honor.

Dear Lord – grant me an enthusiasm for serving you that is fitting for one called to so great a master. Forgive me when my attitude and motivation is so much less than it ought to be for one redeemed, rescued and brought into your great kingdom. Set my eyes on the payment you made – demonstrated on the cross, that I might no longer live for myself but for Him who died for me and rose again – joyfully, happily, and thankfully. Amen.

What? Shall the Redeemer be redeemed by a couple of pigeons? Such irony! Jesus, who would redeem us by His own blood, was, if such a thing were possible, redeemed according to the Law of Moses with a couple of birds. Not even a proper lamb, but rather the poor man’s provision of two pigeons. Little did Joseph and Mary know that this baby they were redeeming with inexpensive birds was Himself the perfect Lamb of God. As the necks of these birds were nipped, and their blood ran down upon the altar, so too this child’s blood would run, for the Lord was providing Himself a Lamb for the offering.

It was both proper and required by the Law of Moses to offer these two birds. Required though it was, the author of Hebrews reminds us that the blood of animals was never effective in itself. The spilling of such blood merely foreshadowed the blood of the one and only Lamb which takes away the sins of the world.

On the one hand, these two birds were perhaps the most unnecessary, and ineffectual sacrifices ever made. For what sacrifice can be made for the perfect son of God? And how shall God’s perfect and eternal high priest be redeemed from the Lord’s service? If ever a firstborn was sanctified to the Lord, Jesus was fully and entirely the Lord’s. Offering or no offering, Jesus was set apart for the Lord.

Yet on the other hand, these two birds where perhaps the greatest, most honored sacrifices ever made. For if every animal sacrifice was intended to point to God’s one and only true sacrifice, how much more directly can such appointed sacrifices point to Jesus than these two birds did with their blood? How fitting too, that such an honored sacrifice as these should take the form of the humble, substitute, poor man’s offering. As the King of kings came into the world within a meager stable, so His “redemption” was to be a meager sacrifice.

O my soul – do not think highly of the sacrifices you are called to make as you follow Christ. Are such sacrifices any more than a couple of pigeons to the Lord? Are they any more impressive to God? Do not think that the living sacrifices of your life have any more merit before the Lord than the sacrifice of these two birds. The Lamb Himself has been offered for you, what will your two birds add? Yet, in as much as a small, humble, insignificant and ineffectual sacrifice of two pigeons can point so clearly and directly to the one true Lamb of God, let your sacrifices point to Jesus. The blood of pigeons cannot redeem the Son of Man but they can testify of Him. So too, let the humble sacrifices of your life testify to the one glorious and all powerful sacrifice of God’s own Lamb. Amen.

Psalms 110:3

When Jesus comes to rule the earth, when his strong scepter stretches forth from Zion, His people will volunteer freely and willingly to serve Him. We will volunteer freely, without being pressed into service. We will not volunteer under compulsion, nothing else will compete for our attention or draw us away from serving the Lord our king. We will not serve out of self-disciplined determination. Rather, our motivation will be full and free, like the sun shining forth at dawn, like dew that saturates the ground. We will sign up for duty – not for pay, or to gain some other desire we think might result from serving. We will volunteer freely, willingly, gladly!

We will volunteer freely, in the day of His power. We are called to serve Him today in the same way. We will volunteer freely and gladly then, and we should volunteer freely and gladly now. We shall do it then perfectly, we do it now imperfectly. The freedom of my service to God ebbs and flows. My whole hearted, free, and glad service of the Lord is not perfect like it will be in the day of His power.

The difference is in my view of His power. Now, my view is by faith, not by sight; I see as through a mirror dimly. Then I shall see by sight and thus the freedom of my volunteering will be as pure and unalterable as my view of His power will be. Now I must walk by faith, I must fight the fight of faith. As I make progress in this battle, the freedom of my service, that is, the willingness that comes from my true desire and pleasure in serving Him, grows stronger. As I retreat, the freedom of my service dries up and I either stop serving, or I serve, as it were, under compulsion and with grumbling.

The difference then, between the kind of volunteering that comes from a free and genuine desire to gladly serve, and one that is done out of compulsion, is the degree of clarity and directness of view, of the glory of God and the power of Christ my king.

Therefore I pray, O Lord, open my eyes. Let me see your glory. Grant me a stronger faith. Grant me victory in my daily battles for faith that I might see your power and volunteer with the freedom that comes from truly wanting you, and desiring to serve you freely. Be careful, O my soul, for it is the enemies of the Lord that serve him with feigned obedience (Psalm 66: 3). So fight the fight of faith and volunteer freely, serving the Lord with gladness.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.