serving as the King's servant

““See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.” Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something. And he said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.” Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” They said to him, “We are able.” He said to them, “You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.” And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”” (Matt 20:18-28 ESV)

There are few of Christ’s recorded words that challenge and expose me as much as these.

“Servant” stems from the Greek “diakonos”, which means one who executes the commands of another, referring to the servant of a king. From this word we get “minister” and “ministry”.

I have come to realize in my 24 years of carrying the label “Christian”, that serving the King for the King’s sake is easier said than done. It takes deep honesty, great faith in eternity and enduring rewards, humility that comes through time and trials, and above all, high affection for God and men.

As soon as “serving” becomes a cerebral matter, serving turns to self. As soon as I aim at serving others deliberately, I get more offended by how much others take advantage of me, or how they neglect my needs.

So I would have to say that the fulfillment of Matthew 20 verses 25 to 28 takes ongoing relationship, honesty and closeness to Jesus, first and foremost.

This kind of God-love in sacrifice takes more than mental decisions of the natural order. It takes more than a firm resolution not to be unkind or selfish again. It takes the power of the Spirit activated through a living dynamic between God and creature. It takes warm prayers. It takes Word and Spirit quickened within a man through meditation, repentance, petition.

So even reading this doesn’t help, except for the awareness to repent.

Maybe it would be appropriate to note the opposite of servant-heartedness. It is not “nothingness”. There is no third way. It is as divided as soul and spirit, life and death, eternal and temporal.  When I am not serving the King in sacrifice to my fellow man, I am serving the king of self in sacrifice to earthly gains.

• I can serve a system to receive the rewards of a system

• I can serve man to be noticed and endorsed by man

• I can serve my wife to gain her sexual favor

• I can serve society’s norms so I am blessed, and not punished, by society

• I can serve as a believer to feel better about myself

• I can serve the poor to feel superior to those who don’t

• I can serve the people in the pulpit to create a spiritual career for myself

• I can serve through giving my money but only to feel justified in spending the rest of it how I like

• I can serve others publicly but serve myself privately (my private prayers are the give-away)

• I can more for my rewards than for the glory of God

In serving others as the love of Christ grows within me, what are some of the signs of this kind of Kingdom service?

• That I can serve when there is no recognition

• That I can be quick to forgive, and not tell others how I have had to forgive them

• That I can always give my best, even after the novelty has worn off

• That I can serve in small and hidden ways, not merely in the big and dramatic ways

• That I can be consistent in encouragement and meekness

• That I can speak the truth in love, not with flattery or guile

• That I can easily allow others to overtake and surpass me

• That I can get out of the way when my service is done

• That I can entrust my rewards to God, and not keep reminding others of what I am owed

• That I can smile while serving

Imagine what revival we would have in church if the majority of believers lived this way! Imagine what power the church would have in heaven! Imagine what credibility we would have with the world!

Not all that is being called “revival” is revival, without the hallmark of sacrificial and selfless service of others. I am astounded at how red-hot people can appear in public worship and how unfriendly and cold those same people can be in public and private ministry and conversation.

No, successful church is something far different to the prevailing western mindsets of success. Too often, it is now equated with the “raw power” of God, and the complementary crowds that accompany such electricity. Many tongues-speaking Christians have habitual sins, and surely many who don’t speak in tongues are holy.

1 Corinthians 13:1-4 (the futility of service without love) and Matthew 7:12-23 (the futility of Christian hypocrisy) hold an unambiguous warning for seekers of raw power…. the fruit of Christian faith is love born out in meekness and sacrificial living. Or my faith is useless, as James warns.

I believe in the power of the Holy Ghost. But I believe firstly in His sanctifying work internally, before His supercharging work externally. I believe that spiritual ministers should have Paul’s aim, “to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.” (Rom 15:16).

This is a time for the letters of 1 Corinthians and James to be read again, and diligently. Who is more successful, the gifted leader of a mega-church, with his private sins and self-awareness; or the mother of 4 with a part-time nursing job, ungifted in prophecy or imagination, but raising her children and loving others as she meets them?

My conclusion is – it is time to “fix our eyes on Jesus” again. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross. He was filled with the joy of the hope of seeing many come into paradise because of how He lived and died. In refusing to wear a crown, Jesus instead wrapped a towel around His waist and washed His disciples’ feet. While enjoying equality with the Father, He emptied Himself and “took on the nature of a servant”.

With my Master being such a servant, dare I elevate myself in this life?

Blessings
Nick