This parable follows directly on the disciples' request, "Increase our faith,"1 and on the saying about a mustard seed of faith that Jesus gave them in answer. Having spoken of what faith can do, He turns immediately to guard against the pride that can grow up around it. A man might exercise great faith, render great service, and still have no claim on God because of it. The parable that follows makes the point by an ordinary picture of a household with a single servant.
"But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat? And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink? Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do."2
A Servant Whose Day Does Not End in the Field
The scene assumes a small household with one servant who does the work of several. He plows or tends the cattle through the day and comes in from the field only to take up a second set of duties, preparing and serving the evening meal before he sits down to his own. In a household of that size, a single servant commonly carried the farm work, the cooking, and the personal attendance on the master together, and the working day ran from morning until well after dark. Nothing in the parable suggests this arrangement was unusual or unjust by the standards of the time. It was simply how such a household worked.
The first question, whether any master will say to a returning servant, "Go and sit down to meat," expects the answer no from anyone hearing it. No master invites a servant just come from the field to recline and eat before his own needs are met. The second question, whether the master will instead say, "Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink," expects the opposite answer, yes, and everyone listening would have agreed at once, because that is exactly how such a household ran. The servant's work does not conclude when he leaves the field. It continues until the master has been served, and only then does his own meal follow, after a full day of labor already spent.
No Thanks for What Was Commanded
"Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not." The question is put a third time, and again the expected answer is no. "The things that were commanded him" names ordinary duty, not an exceptional act of devotion beyond what the position required. A master of that time was not expected to thank a servant for meeting the basic expectations of the position, whatever gratitude he might show for something beyond them. The servant had simply done what a servant does.
Jesus draws the lesson directly from the picture. Obedience carried out in full does not put God in the servant's debt. A man cannot render service to God and then present the account as though something were now owed him in return. Paul asks the same question from a different angle: "For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?"3 Everything the servant has to offer, including the strength and opportunity to serve, was already a gift before the service began.
We Are Unprofitable Servants
"So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do." The word Jesus gives His disciples to say is not a confession of failure. He has just described complete obedience, "all those things which are commanded you," and even at that point the servant has no ground for a claim. The word rendered "unprofitable" describes a servant who has not added anything beyond what was already owed. The most faithful obedience does not do God a favor. It meets a debt that was there from the beginning.
This is a picture of duty rather than of contract. In the world Jesus and His hearers inhabited, both Jewish and Roman thought recognized an obligation fulfilled because it was owed, not because payment was expected for it. The servant plows, tends the cattle, and prepares the meal because that is what the relationship requires, and the relationship does not run the other direction. A creature owes his Creator obedience by the plain fact of being a creature, before any question of reward enters the picture at all. The psalmist asks the question in the same spirit: "What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me?"4 and finds no answer that discharges the debt, only an answer that continues to serve within it.
Debtors, Not Creditors
Paul states the same relationship in its fullest form: "Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen."5 No one gives to God first, in a way that places God under obligation to repay. Everything a man has to give was already received from the hand he is now asked to serve. Isaiah goes further still, naming the actual condition of the righteousness a man might otherwise be tempted to offer as payment: "we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags."6 Even the best that could be laid on the table falls short of the currency the debt would require, which forecloses any thought of the creature becoming the Creator's creditor.
The confession Jesus places in His disciples' mouths clears away any thought that service purchases standing. A man serves because he is a servant, and the service, however faithful, does not change what he is owed or what he owes. What follows from that confession is not despair but a settled honesty: gratitude replaces the expectation of applause, because gratitude, unlike a claim for payment, actually corresponds to the position a servant occupies before his master.
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