9. Service in Luke
We find Jesus serving and urging his followers to serve throughout the four gospels, of course, but this aspect of his ministry is nowhere clearer than in Luke. The third gospel tells us more about serving than any other gospel (using the NIV as an example, we find Luke mentions service as many times as all the other gospels combined). Luke also contains some important passages about service that are not found in the other gospel accounts, or are much more detailed.
For example, all three Synoptic Gospels give us a key story about how servants must conduct themselves as they wait for their Lord's return. In Mark this is only a few verses (Mark 13:34–37), and while Matthew gives a fuller version (Matthew 24:42–51), Luke has the most complete account (Luke 12:35–48). Consider the first few verses of what Luke records:
Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak … You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. (Luke 12:35–40) Here, while the other accounts record little more than Jesus' injunction to "watch," Luke shows that Jesus stressed both being prepared and diligently exercising the roles the servants were given – as well as Jesus' words showing the connection between the master being served and the service the master returns to the servant. Luke also more clearly shows the responsibility of service that is placed on the servant. In another passage he records Jesus saying:
Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, "Come along now and sit down to eat"? Won't he rather say, "Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink"? Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 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." (Luke 17:7–10) In this case, Luke's words show us that service requires a proper attitude toward the One we serve, toward ourselves ("We are [his] unworthy servants"), and toward service itself ("we have only done our duty"). Luke also gives us something else to meditate upon – the difference between serving and service. It is one thing to serve when we want and as we want – but the words Luke records remind us true service is given even when it is not convenient or enjoyable for us: that true service is an ongoing responsibility of dedication for the follower of Jesus.
Later in his gospel, Luke reminds us that this is the way of Christ himself when he tells us Jesus said: "For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves" (Luke 22:27).
Luke not only has this and other unique material regarding the necessary dedication of true service, but – lest we burn ourselves out through unrelenting work – he reminds us that the Son of God inspires us to serve, but he is not a harsh taskmaster. Luke does this by way of his unique account of how Jesus gently reprimanded the overly busy Martha by telling her that we should be willing to stop when it is appropriate, just as much as we should be willing to serve (Luke 10:38–42).
So, while Luke does have a great deal to say about service, it is not so much as an ongoing theme of his gospel, but rather in unique and detailed passages that can well repay our study and thought – verses that emphasize more than any of the other gospels a living, working, connection between God, ourselves, and others.
PART FOUR: THE THEMES