Mothers Day: Serve With Verve!

Totally unaware of what the cup was, his suffering and death on the cross, the answer was, “we can”.

Jesus agreed that they would both suffer; James went on to be the first of the disciples martyred and John suffered banishment to the Island of Patmos, and then reportedly returned to Ephesus where he lived out his days.

Jesus told them that they would indeed suffer, but the positioning in the Kingdom was not up to him, it was his Heavenly Fathers place to say and indeed the Father had prepared those places.

Now when the ten other disciples heard about this they were indignant, now there’s an interesting word what does indignant mean? Watch this, to be indignant means to be pained, angry, vexed. The New Zealandese we would say they were ‘cheesed off’ if not something just a tad stronger, that would depend on personality types, and they were ‘cheesed off’ because they all wanted those seats too. They all wanted to be Jesus right or left hand man.

Jesus sees this and of course this is a classic teaching moment. This is almost the same as when God was telling the people of Israel that if they want a king he will give them a king. Jesus words are “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.”

This is how the disciples thought it was going to be, they had it wrong and Jesus was putting them straight.

There is something that can be learnt in this and that as Christians we will find a lot in understanding this.

What did Jesus say next listen again “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.” Then Jesus uses these words; “not so with you.”

I bet there was a few ‘eh’s’ and ‘what’s’ muttered under twelve breaths. ‘Eh …what, what does he mean I can’t lord it over, what does he mean, no authority over them, he’s told me I’m going to have a throne?!’

“Whosoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave-just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and give his life as a ransom for many.”

Jesus is using the term ‘Son of Man’ to refer to himself, Jesus gave us the ultimate example of service and sacrifice, he ransomed ‘us’ from the grave he paid the price for ‘our’ sins. True greatness in Jesus kingdom comes through service to others.

James and John didn’t see it at the time, the rest of the disciples didn’t see it at the time. Jesus made the point as blunt as he could.

• You want to be great– serve.

• You want to be first – be a slave to others.

Jesus was telling the disciples this. All those blokes excepting Judas Iscariot gained the new first name of Saint. These men gained their sainthoods through sacrifice and service; all but one of them was killed because of that service, because they put others and God’s kingdom before self, and John who didn’t get killed suffered as well.