Last night in our Gospel Lesson we heard Christ tell the parable of the servants who, when they are done serving, are not wracked with this over-whelming sense of being owed a thanks from their master (cf. Lk. 17:5-10).
Jesus is offering this parable in response to the apostles’ plea that he “increase their faith.” The kind of faith that following Jesus requires is the kind that empowers folks to forgive without limit, and not to lead little ones astray (cf. Lk. 17:1-4). This, not the prospect of supernatural wonders, is what the apostles find simply incredible.
To their request Jesus gives what I call a “broken parable” —a parable that begins with reference to the way things are right now and then, by implication, suggests that if this is true of things in a broken system how much better are your fortunes in God’s jovial kingdom (e.g. the parable of the persistent widow in Lk. 18:1-8).
So the parable shows the way in which faith works: servants serve not with expectation to be liberated from their service but because that is what they are called to do; they don’t get to say “wait, when do I get to be served?” This is the normal way things are. And, the logic goes, if this is the way things are under normal human masters how much better are the circumstances of Christians who serve the Good Master who in fact does come home and serve his servants at Table (cf. Lk. 12:35-38).
Faith, in this case, is increased by the diligent reliance on the goodness of God who is our Good Lord and Master. As I serve Him, by serving in the stations to which He has called me to serve others, I grow in faith as with each passing moment I put to death the ungodly self-pitying sin in me and am conformed to the Image of Christ who is the servant of all (Mk. 9:35; Phil. 3:10; Rom. 8:13, 29; 2 Cor. 3:18; Eph. 4:11-15).
But what about complaining? Not all our lots are easy that Christ calls us to. Sometimes we are in places of suffering, and even sometime into extreme suffering —of the “unto death” sort. What then? Are we allowed to groan in those positions? How is the call to “not grumble” different than the biblical genre of complaint? …Yunno, like how Job or David or the people of Israel in Egypt cry-out and complain to the Lord their God —are we allowed to do that?
Yes. Raising a cry and plaintive pleas up to the Lord, confessing your weaknesses to your brother or sister in Christ, being real about your hard days and difficult conditions and seekng to better them —all of these are fine. What is forbidden is the grumbling, reviling, pseudo-martyrdom of the self-important servant who believes themselves, usually on the basis of their service, far superior to that same service to which God has called them. Often, especially in Anglo-American Evangelicalism it takes the form of a mock-regality, a glorious image of the self quietly superior to those around them who simply say things like “They’ll never understand…” “I mustn’t complain…” “Look I don’t want to burden you but…” and “…but please, I’m just venting…. it’s my cross to bear…”
Be very careful of your complaints. Be very aware when they stop rising to God and begin to accuse your brothers and sisters. As Chesterton once noted:
“People who complain are just jolly human Chrisitan nuisances; I don’t mind them. But people who complain that they never complain are the devil. They are really the devil; isn’t that swagger of stoicism the whole point of the Byronic cult of Satan…”
In other words, grumbling is what happens when your complaints cease to rise to heaven, like incense or the prayers of Job, and instead fall like lightning on the world around you, like the devil who grew too heavy with self-importance and was cast from the heavens.