Not to Be Served but to Serve

One of the favorite things to do is listen to children talk about what they want to be when they grow up. “I want to be a teacher!” “I want to be a nurse!” “I want to be a preacher!” “I want to be a professional ball player!” “I want to be a garbage man!” (Yes, I have heard that) I have heard lots of aspirations from the children I have been around. I have seen in their games the imitation of future vocations, and it is a beautiful thing, something we should not take for granted, the fact that our children even dream of a future. But there is one thing I have never heard a child say they aspire to be or even mimic in their play, and that is, “I want to be a servant.”

We should not expect that, the image of a servant being one who serves, one who is not their own master, and sort of lives to do the bidding of another, and yet……In our text, Jesus gives the closest thing to a person's mission statement that I can find in the Bible, and he said this: “I came not to be served but to serve….” The Lord of Glory, creator of all that we see, worthy of all glory and adoration, comes not with the trappings of royalty, but with a towel, at the lowest place, washing our dirty feet. 

Yeah, Jesus sort of turns the values of the world, the things we value the most, on its head and further declares that the way to gut-wrenching joy is not through power and control but through being a servant, through serving the most. Is this even possible? If so, how do we even wrap our imagination around this? Well, this Sunday, I invite you to wrestle with this with me. Interested? Believe me, I get it if you are not, this is too radical, perhaps too costly, and a bridge too far. But if the one we claim to follow says this is the way, we'd best listen up. 

Hope to see you this Sunday!