Slavery
What images are conjured up in your mind when you hear the word slave?
What feelings does it evoke?
It’s restrictive word isn’t it?
If you’re enslaved your right to choose is taken away.
I imagine someone spending a lifetime working on a cotton plantation 300 years ago in the deep American South.
But the story of slavery goes even farther back than North America.
It goes back to when the Romans ruled the world, the same world that Jesus and his disciples found themselves in.
So it’s not surprising that Jesus uses the image of a slave when he speaks.
He is simply using a contemporary image that the people can connect with.
The story goes that the disciples want more faith; they want more trust.
In response Jesus describes a scenario that everyone seems on board with at least initially.
The slave comes in from working the field or herding sheep.
The disciples are presented with two options.
One, invite the slave to sit down and eat.
Well this is out of the question.
That’s not what a slave does.
Ok then option two is you tell the slave to prepare supper for you.
Now that’s better.
The slave doing what a slave is supposed to do.
Everything is right with the world.
And do you thank the slave?
Of course not.
The slave is just doing what a slave is supposed to do.
OK then Jesus says.
So you as slaves should also do what you’re told and not expect recognition of any kind.
End of story.
The story of the slave is a story that everyone agrees with initially but once it’s flipped and they’re the slaves it suddenly get’s a lot more uncomfortable.
It’s easy to be in charge, the owner, the one in control.
Not so easy to be the slave, no will, being told what to do with no thanks.
Really who wants to be a slave?
We long to be in control, todirect the action of others for our own benefit.
We don’t want anyone telling us what to do.
We will make our own decisions thank you very much Jesus.
Perhaps our reaction to being a slave is why human trafficking strikes such a cord with us.
The modern day sex slave trade is big international news.
To our own shame North American appetites drive much of the demand.
For the customer it’s a way to use sex to enslave someone to your will rather than a way to love and care for them.
For the trafficker it’s a way to use someone for their own financial benefit with no consideration for the person themselves.
They are property to do what you will with them.
What would it be like to consider yourself a piece of property like these slaves?
Well your owner decides what to do with you.
You have no autonomy but rely completely on someone else to guide your actions.
You exist for the purpose of pleasing your owner or whoever your owner wants you to please.
You exist to serve.
Its no wonder slavery is such a horrible word for us.
It denies the basic individual human rights that we value here in Canada.
In a lot of ways this was no different in the Rome of Jesus time.
People were enslaved for the benefit of owners and even society at large.
Slavery was an important form of compulsory labour used to build the great Roman creations like the coliseum and the aqueducts.
Slavery was the right to use another man at pleasure and a slave was therefor considered the owners property like a cow or a house.
But in Rome the life of a slave was also different in many ways compared to our contemporary understanding.
Slaves had certain rights.
While they themselves were property they could also own property even other slaves.
Education was encouraged because it enhanced the value of a slave.
They could even anticipate being freed by the time they were 30 years old.
Of course all of these things were great but they were dependent on one key thing.
Who was their master?
Whoever was the slave owner made a huge difference in how your life played out.
If you had a cruel and abusive master who enjoyed using you solely for his own interest then life could be horrible as we see in the extreme circumstances of contemporary sex slaves.
On the other hand if your master was kind and loving you could expect many freedoms and benefits that people who weren’t slaves could not even dream of.
The master makes all the difference when you’re talking about slavery.
So who is your master?
Who are you enslaved to?
Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you aren’t enslaved
We are all slaves to something whether it’s a crack pipe, our jobs, the pursuit of things or the pleasure of controlling others.
No one is immune to slavery.
The only difference is who you’re enslaved to.
If your master has its own interests at the forefront then life is slowly drained out of you.
But if your master has your best interest in mind, if your masters intention is to love and nurture you then life flourishes.
So when the disciples ask for more faith they’re asking for deeper trust in Jesus, the one they follow, the one they’re slaves to.
Yes it’s harsh to think that we are slaves of Christ.
But in the end if you had to choose a master, is Jesus not the one master truly worth serving?
Slavery to Christ is after all not the slavery as we see it in our world.
This is no human trafficking situation where God wants to use us and then cast us aside.
It’s a master slave relationship like no other.
The trust the disciples ask for is a trust in their master Jesus.
In other words they’re saying Jesus give us complete trust because we simply can’t conjure it up ourselves.
They’ve been hurt, lied to, used and in turn have done the same to others.
Teach us to trust in you, the one who wants only good for us.
How do you learn to trust again?
How is God teaching you that being a slave to Christ is the most freeing thing you can ever experience?
We want to do it all ourselves but there is no shame in being a slave to the creator of all things.
The apostle Paul puts it this way: But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.
We are slaves of Christ, entrusted into his care in baptism, entrusted into the care of God the Father and surrounded lovingly by the Holy Spirit.
Our God is the trust worthiest master we could ever ask for.
And so we beg; Lord, increase our faith.
Amen.
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