“What action best identifies a Christian in our world?” This is a loaded question I presented to a high school group of students several months ago. No one spoke up at first, then someone piped, “Being nice to other people?” “No,” I told her. “It is service.” Christians, I believe, are identified by their lives of service to other people. This is, after all, what Jesus says in John 13.34-35”’A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” (v.34) The love Jesus speaks of is not a love of emotion and feeling, but a love of action, a love whose greatest expression is that of sacrifice. Jesus continues in verse 35, “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” Sacrificial love serves as one of the distinguishing trademarks of Christ’s followers, and this sacrificial love lies at the heart of what it means to be a servant. Service, however, in the sense that the Christian faith understands it, needs to be redefined and explored.
One of the greatest-known texts in the gospels regarding servanthood is Matthew 20.20-28. In this text, James and John’s mother asks Jesus for the privilege of having her sons sitting at Jesus’ right and left hand when he establishes his kingdom (v.20-21). James and John probably wooed their mother into presenting their request, because in that culture, older women carried much more authority than men—especially young men!—when it came to sensitive matters. This request is rooted in the common Messianic expectation that the Messiah (whom James and John’s family understood, correctly, to be Jesus) would raise up an army, lead a war against the evil, oppressive empires and destroy them, reinstate the Temple and the true worship of YHWH, and rule over the world through his prized people, the Jews. James and John are asking, in effect, for joint ruling positions when Jesus comes into political, judicial power. Jesus’ response in verses 22-23 uses metaphors for suffering borrowed from the Old Testament, pointing out that being at his right and left hand will demand suffering. James and John still press their request, most likely giving little thought to what Jesus was saying (perhaps their greed for the position of rulership blinds them to what the position will actually entails, and they still do not understand how Jesus must suffer and die). When they continue pressing for this privilege of being on Jesus’ right and left hand, Jesus tells them that they will indeed suffer, but it is his Father—not him—who will, in His sovereignty, choose who will sit at Jesus’ right and left hand. When the other disciples hear of James and John’s request, they become furious; after all, James and John went behind their backs in a jostle for power (v.24). Jesus embraces this opportunity to give a discourse on what it means to be great (James and John, in asking for ruling positions in Jesus’ eternal kingdom, were pleading for greatness). Jesus’ discourse on true greatness rests on the principle that greatness, leadership, and rule are defined by service unto others—not be exercising power over people, as the Gentile rulers did (the Gentile rulers were often called “tyrants” in the Jewish literature of Jesus’ day). Jesus then gives himself as an example of this principle: his mission was rooted in service to others, culminating in a sacrificial death (which the disciples did not expect!], and the words Jesus uses are rich in allusion to Isaiah 52.13-53.12, the infamous “Suffering Servant” text.
Jesus set out the parameters of greatness—service unto others—and then he displayed it in his own life. He identified himself with the Suffering Servant whom Isaiah prophesied about, and the gospel of Matthew identifies him with YHWH’s chosen servant from Isaiah 42.1-4 (see Matt 12.18-20). Jesus fleshed-out his identity as a servant of God in his everyday life; for example, he sacrificed his time and energy for those to whom he was ministering, oftentimes becoming utterly exhausted in service to them. Another great example is when one of his disciples was prepared to wash the dust off the feet of the other disciples and Jesus, Jesus—YHWH as a human—took up the basin and towel and washed the feet of the disciples (John 13.15). He taught on the character of the servant, and lived this out, too, in daily life. He taught that the character of a servant involves being poor in spirit (Matt 5.3), gentile (5.5), merciful (5.7), and being a pursuer of peace (5.9). He taught on the radical nature of true servanthood: loving our enemies and praying for them (5.39-44), and then he showed this love for his enemies during his arrest, trial, torture and crucifixion, even praying that his Father would forgive them for their crimes. He taught on the greatest act of service to another: giving up oneself for someone else (sacrifice) (see John 15.13)… and then he embodied this sacrificial service by giving up his life in the most extreme and ultimate way for the sake of those who were alienated from his Father. The Apostle Paul, in examining the life of Jesus, understands that Jesus embraced humility as a servant (Phil 2.7-8), and thus we see that humility serves as the backbone of Christian service.
Being faced with the teachings and life of Christ, the Messiah, our Master, we must ask, “What does it mean, then, to be a servant unto God? What does it mean to be a servant unto all?” Servanthood can be defined this way: “Subordinating the interests and desires of the self for the interests and desires of another.” In service to God, we are to subordinate our own interests and desires (oftentimes being the interests and desires of our sinful natures) for the interests of God, i.e. the interests of the Spirit (this servitude is the greatest act of worship; see Romans 12.1). Being a servant unto others—which Jesus calls us to be—is subordinating our own interests and desires for the interests and desires of others, especially when it comes to those who are our Christian brethren (John 13.34). Service is integral to the mission of a Christian. The mission of the Christian is the mission of Christ: to advance the
“But how do we embrace servitude unto God and unto others in our daily lives?” We must understand that serving is not meant to be an act undertaken every now-and-then, but a lifestyle that saturates us and identifies us in a world that is self-centered and indifferent unto God and others. This way of life finds itself fleshed-out more in the mundane, routine, daily humdrum of life. As the heart of service is sacrifice, when it comes to serving others we are to sacrifice time, energy, money, and even our own desires or best-interests for the welfare of others. In all honesty, I struggle to live servitude as a lifestyle, and writing this essay has brought, along with illumination, conviction. While I currently do serve God and others in teaching a high school Sunday School class where we touch base on the main doctrines of the scriptures, I understand that there is much more room for me to expand my life of service. “How can I serve others in class? How can I serve others at work? How can I serve my friends in the dorm? How can I serve my family at home? How can I serve those whom I run into at Shell Gas, at Kroger’s, at Taco Bell?” I must open my eyes and pray that God will show me how I can truly love others—with a heart and action of service.
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