Theme: Achieving greatness God’s way
Text: Ex. 12:21-28; Matt. 20:20-28
The purpose for Christ’s coming to earth is contained in the statement, “The Son of man came to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many”. God, our Creator, who is to be worshipped, came to serve as an example for us to emulate. In fact, a servant attitude is one lesson Jesus taught His disciples over and over again. He taught them that it was only possible to have the mindset of a servant when they had a right view of themselves and a right view of others. His disciples, however, did not really understand this teaching. This was evident when two of His closest disciples, James and John, requested the best positions in the Kingdom after hearing what He said in Matt. 19:28. He said to them “Assuredly, I say unto you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” They did not really understand what was about to happen in Jerusalem. They probably believed that in Jerusalem He would overthrow the Roman government, make himself King, and rule the people as their King. They therefore wanted the 2nd and 3rd most important positions in this kingdom Jesus was going to establish. Today it would be like asking to be the Vice-President and the Speaker of parliament. What they were asking for was power, influence, and position. That was what they desired, and aspired for. James and John were not the only ones guilty of this. The only problem was that they voiced out their intentions. The other ten confirmed they thought the same way as James and John by their annoyance at this request. They were not annoyed because James and John wanted the best positions. They all wanted those positions. They were annoyed because James and John, by asking for it, wanted to be preferred before them. They wanted the same positions for themselves. They too, wanted the power and position that James and John had requested. In spite of all that Jesus had taught them the disciples were more concerned about themselves and their privileges than about their duties and responsibilities. They wanted the reward without the service, the benefits without the commitment and the blessings without the dedication. They were not prepared to follow the example of their leader who was prepared to serve and die on the cross. They were not prepared to follow the example of Christ by achieving greatness God’s way.
Jesus, who was getting ready to make the greatest sacrifice possible by giving up His life, used the opportunity to once more explain to them what it meant to be His disciple. As His disciples, they are not to see greatness the way the world sees it by desiring to occupy positions of honour but to see greatness as God sees it by serving. He reminded them that discipleship demands obedience and service. The world sees greatness in those who exercise power and authority but God sees greatness in those who serve. As Christians we should view greatness and power differently from the way the world views it. Some people believe that this means that a Christian should not want to achieve greatness. This is far from the truth, as Jesus does not condemn the wish to be great. What He condemns is the way some people achieve greatness. The Christian should achieve greatness but not the worldly way. The worldly way is through bribery and corruption, cheating, immorality, and the misuse of power. God’s way is through service. According to D. L. Moody “The measure of a man is not how many servants he has, but how many men he serves.”
The attitude of James and John is still evident in the Church today. Some preachers often view discipleship in terms of position and privilege. They do not preach to reach the people but preach to become famous and popular. They would preach what the people want to hear and if it is entertainment they want their way of preaching becomes entertaining. Their main concern is about attaining a high status in life. They forget the main purpose of their calling – to serve as the Master served. Refusing to serve others is a peculiar behaviour of crabs. We are all familiar with crabs and for many of us they are a delicacy to eat. But instead of just enjoying them as food if we were to study their behaviour we would see how easily we could identify with them. The ‘pull him down’ behaviour that is popular among us is a very good description of the way crabs behave. When live crabs in a pot are about to be cooked, one does not need to worry about putting a lid on the pot because the crabs would not climb out anyway. The reason is not that they do not have the ability to do so, they have. The reason is they cannot because they do not understand how. When one crab tries to climb out of the pot, another crab would prevent it from doing so by pulling it down and climbing over it. They end up pulling each other down and in the end none of them is able to escape. Things would have been completely different if they had helped each other. They could have helped one crab to get to the top and it could have helped the others get out by pulling them up by their claws. It would have been so easy for all of them to escape from the pot if they had understood what it means to serve. Do we know and understand what it means to serve? Service to Christ or suffering for Christ should not be because of the expected reward but because of our love for Christ. Are we achieving greatness God’s way by serving others? The greatest in the Church is the one who serves the most.
There are many places where Christians can serve to meet the needs of others. We could help meet the needs in the community by caring for the outcasts, caring for those in the leprosarium, caring for those in the psychiatric hospitals, caring for those in the prisons, and caring for those without homes and without food. We should not forget the needs of our brothers and sisters in the Church. It takes love to be able to meet the needs of others and Jesus showed the way by His great compassion for others that made serving them His way of life. He did not come to be served but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.
One of the greatest temptations leaders face is to become self important and remote from everyone else. The best way to overcome this temptation is through service and this must have been one of the reasons Jesus taught His disciples a great deal about serving. It was, however, quite evident at the last meal He ate with them before His death that they did not understand the meaning of servant hood. In New Testament times, the people ate the evening meal while reclining on a couch or cushions on the floor around a low table. Before settling down, however, everyone removed his sandals. Naturally it was not very pleasant for others if someone had dirty smelly feet. The guests may have taken a bath just before coming but then they had to walk along dusty and dirty roads in sandals. These roads were also full of people and animals and littered with garbage, refuse and animal waste. The feet would inevitably be dirty and smelling by the time they arrived at their destination even when the distance was very short. So the normal practice was for the host to have a servant or a slave at the door to wash the feet of each guest and dry them with a towel. It was a disagreeable job but it had to be done if the guests were to enjoy the meal and fellowship together. On this particular occasion of the Last Supper no servants were present. All the disciples knew that their feet were dirty and needed to be washed before the meal but not one of them was prepared to do this. They each felt too important to perform such a menial task. But without the washing of feet there was no way they were going to enjoy the meal and fellowship. After waiting for some time and seeing that no one made the effort to wash their feet, Jesus took off His outer garments, wrapped a towel around His waist, poured water into a basin and began to wash His disciples feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around Him. Jesus knew He had all power and authority, but He did not use His power to exercise control over his disciples. He instead got up and washed his disciples’ feet. Jesus’ disciples had gathered to enjoy a meal and fellowship with the Lord with defiled and dirty feet. But this situation actually prevented any meaningful fellowship. To enjoy fellowship with the Lord we need to be clean and the means is through serving each other.
We should see greatness the way God does and make serving a way of life. Jesus never wrote a book. He never led an army. He never travelled far from His home country. He was not rich. He was not powerful in the way the world views power. He died the death of a common criminal. Yet He was the greatest man who ever lived, because the welfare of others came before His own welfare. The world and our sinful nature would have us serve ourselves and neglect the welfare of others. But Jesus calls us to serve other people because it pleases God. Our service is first to please God by taking care of the needs of those around us. They might not even appreciate our service to them but our service will always be rewarded.
We cannot serve and please God with defiled lives. All of us are constantly being defiled as we walk through this world whether we like it or not. We will often hear things that defile us we shouldn’t hear and see things we shouldn’t see even without any intention on our part to do so. We, however, need to be honest with ourselves and admit it when we have been defiled. Without being cleansed from our daily defilement we cannot hope to serve the Lord effectively and enjoy our fellowship with Him. In the seventies when street children were being murdered in cold blood in Brazil a group of Christians from Europe were burdened to help and they went to Brazil to minister to them. After several months of ministry they realised that they were not making any impact at all on the lives of the street children. They held a prayer meeting and sought the face of the Lord asking why they were not making any impact although it was the Lord’s will to help the street children. As they prayed one of them began to cry and confess that he had an abandoned child back home whom he had completely neglected. The brothers and sisters encouraged him and helped to cleanse him from his defilement. With their help that led to real repentance he took steps to look after his abandoned child and from that day the ministry began to see what was to become a very great harvest of souls among the street children of Brazil. We can only enjoy our fellowship with the Lord and serve Him effectively when we are cleansed from all kinds of defilement. Let us admit our defilement and allow our brothers and sisters help in the cleansing so that through repentance we cam receive God’s forgiveness and cleansing.
Jesus’ entire life and ministry was devoted to serving others and this should have been important to His disciples and it should be important to us. Jesus’ death on the cross to save the world from sin was history’s ultimate act of servant hood. It was a service to mankind that could never be repaid. Today God is calling us to give our lives as servants in order to serve others as Jesus did. This is what ministry is all about. We are not called to be served rather we are called to serve. The Church does not only exist for its members but also for those who are not members as well. All Christians are called to think of the interests of others before their own interests and to the difficult task of putting the needs of others above their own needs. Jesus commands all believers to make disciples of all nations and to wash one another’s feet. Every believer must become a servant if Christ is to use him or her. We must bring unbelievers to the saving knowledge of Christ and help believers in the cleansing process from defilement. We can follow the example of Christ by ministering to a brother or sister who has become dirty or defiled by the world. If we are serious about washing one another’s feet, we become sensitive to the feelings of others and become concerned about their welfare. We stop being judgemental and become part of the solution to their problems. You do not stand up to wash feet and kneeling is a posture of humility and servant hood. Without this cleansing on a regular basis, we cannot enjoy God’s fellowship and power. Just as people in the first century had to wash their feet repeatedly even after taking a bath, so we also have to wash our spiritual feet after being saved if we are to enjoy God’s presence and blessings. We can wash the feet of our fellow Christians through encouragement and guidance in the Word. We can also serve those who are not Christians by demonstrating the love of Christ through our actions and allowing them see that Christians are indeed a peculiar people. To be a Christian is to be more concerned with giving than with getting, more concerned with sharing than with possessing. It is to see everything we do as our response to Christ as His servants. If you do not know Jesus Christ, the servant who died and performed the greatest act of service of all time, you can know him today. Jesus Christ shed His blood and died for you and me in order to pay the punishment for our sins. He did this so that we would not have to suffer for our sins. The best way to show our gratitude is to say thank you to Jesus Christ and accept Him as our Lord and Saviour, Amen!
