Servanthood
Part 2
The Reluctant Servant
There are several types of servanthood at which we could look. We will begin by looking at the reluctant servant. The reluctant servant is self serving, uncommitted to the cause and thinks he is the face of the cause. He will render a minimal service if he can’t get out of serving completely. He is a hypocrite, pretending to serve faithfully but secretly is burying his talents, and will end up giving his master a bad reputation by his unwillingness to serve. He will also serve to receive something like food, shelter, and protection. He is someone who will at best lay his life down, not to be a servant but to be a hero.
Another term for the reluctant servant is slave. A slave is one who serves, not because he believes in the cause, not because his heart is to serve; but because he has no other recourse of action. He feels forced to serve under a penalty either specified or presumed.
A reluctant servant is one who is hoping that someone else will be called to do the job. The story of Jonah is not about a guy who gets swallowed by a whale, it is about a reluctant servant of God who rebelled against his calling and a whale was sent to intervene. A reluctant servant is really a rebellious servant. Though not everyone will be as rebellious as Jonah and run away from their calling, they will in fact be working out of a rebellious spirit. They will be loathe to work outside of their perceived gifting. A servant who is reluctant to serve is one who will say or feel that someone else is more qualified than they for the calling to the point that it hinders the actual calling that was placed on their life. Sometimes our self focus hinders the true calling that God has placed on our lives because we have become so mentally dysfunctional that we think we are expected to work out of our own strength.
Moses was a reluctant servant as well as Gideon, Saul, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Jonah, Elijah and Ananias. Jesus told a parable about two sons who were asked to serve their father and the one appeared willing but was not and the other appeared unwilling , yet he repented of his unwillingness and went to do his father’s bidding.
Ezekiel was so reluctant that though God’s hand was heavy on him for a period of time, he tried to squelch the calling. God was patient and kept reiterating the calling He had placed on Ezekiel’s life. Isaiah was concerned with the length of his calling. “How long must I do this”?
A reluctant servant may become a mechanically obedient servant. A mechanically obedient servant is one who obeys only because he fears what will happen if he doesn’t obey. He will have no joy in the task before him, but will resent his calling and look for ways to run from it.
He may actually be looking for ways to mutiny against his master, because he resents his master’s authority.
I do not mean to say that just because we give a pause before throwing ourselves into a calling that you are in the wrong. We do need to know where the calling is coming from and verify that it is God giving us the calling. Many of the great preachers, prophets, and teachers at one point hesitated.
The great Scottish Preacher John Knox on receiving the call of God shut himself up in his room for a month weeping, but when God got through to him he came to the point where he prayed that God would give him all of Scotland else he would die. God enabled him to preach and Scotland saw a great revival.
So, where do we find ourselves? The reluctant servant is really no servant, but an individual with a slave’s heart.
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