Today’s Scripture: Luke 17:10

“We are unworthy servants.”

God often blesses those who, in our opinion, seem most unworthy. We see this demonstrated forcefully in Jesus’ words in Luke 4:25-27: “But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”

Luke then recorded, “When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath” (verse 28). Why were these Jews so enraged that they wanted to kill Jesus (verse 29)? The widow of Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian were despised Gentiles—and therefore unworthy, in the Jews’ opinion. How could God bless those Gentile dogs instead of more deserving Jews?

God blessed those two Gentiles while passing right by his own chosen people. Were the widow and Naaman more “deserving” than anyone in Israel? Not at all. Naaman, by his anger and haughtiness, was very undeserving. God often blesses people who seem unworthy to us. But that’s what grace is all about, because we’re all unworthy.

We rejoice in God’s generosity as long as it’s directed toward us or our family or friends. But how do we feel when God blesses someone we view as undeserving? Are we envious? Do we feel, as did the workers in the parable of Matthew 20, that we “have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat” (verse 12), yet someone else has been blessed more than we have?

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