7 Tίς δὲ ἐξ ὑμῶν δοῦλον ἔχων ἀροτριῶντα ἢ ποιμαίνοντα, ὃς εἰσελθόντι ἐκ τοῦ ἀγροῦ ἐρεῖ εὐθέως, Παρελθὼν ἀνάπεσε-
7 “Which one of you, having a servant plowing the field or feeding sheep, when he comes in from the field, immediately says, ‘Come, sit down to table’?
8 ἀλλ’ οὐχὶ ἐρεῖ αὐτῷ, Ἑτοίμασον τί δειπνήσω, καὶ περιζωσάμενος διακόνει μοι, ἕως φάγω καὶ πίω- καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα φάγεσαι καὶ πίεσαι σύ;
8 Won’t tell him, rather: Prepare something, I will dine and when you have put on your apron, serve me until I have eaten and drunk and after that you will eat and drink, you?
9 Μὴ χάριν ἔχει τῷ δούλῳ ἐκείνῳ ὅτι ἐποίησεν τὰ διαταχθέντα; [οὐ δοκῶ.]
9 He does not have [to return] the favor to this servant because he did what he was commanded. [I do not esteem]
10 Οὕτως καὶ ὑμεῖς, ὅταν ποιήσητε πάντα τὰ διαταχθέντα ὑμῖν, λέγετε ὅτι Δοῦλοι ἀχρεῖοί ἐσμεν- ὅτι ὃ ὀφείλομεν ποιῆσαι πεποιήκαμεν.
10 In the same way, you too, when you have done all that you were commanded say, “We are useless servants (ἀχρεῖοί of whom there is no need), for we have done what we were commanded to do.”
These words of Jesus may seem harsh to us, but that’s because he’s trying with all his might to tear us away from this mercantile mentality by which we always put ourselves in the role of servants and not sons or friends. And that’s to make sure that after our work we’ll get our reward. But God doesn’t need servants, which is why Jesus says they’re useless to God. Whatever he wants, he does, he says and it is. What he wants is to lead us to the happiness of sons, of friends, who share the Father’s will and rejoice in it, who welcome his gift in full gratuity and are all the happier for it. “All that is mine is yours” (Luke 15:31) says the father to the son. It’s when we doubt God’s benevolence and the gratuitousness of his love, that we need to reassure ourselves with what we can earn and acquire for ourselves. That’s when we take on the role of servants, to force God to give us what we assume he doesn’t want to give us. We then follow the tempter who tells us: “you will be like gods”, as if God didn’t want to share his own life with us, as if he were withholding a privilege from us (Genesis 3:1-24 The Fault). It’s this suspicion about the divine benevolence that gives rise to our merchant, slave mentality: we think we must or can buy what, on the contrary, is offered to us as a gift: the spirit of God, the Holy Spirit.