Have you ever noticed how people are out for themselves? We are by nature, purely ego driven and self centered. That is how the world is. It is all about the customer. The customer is always right, or have it your way. There are ipads, and iphones; everything is ‘me’, ‘I’. There is nothing wrong with those things per se, but it serves as an illustration that there is very little thought given to others in the world. It is always about me. Yet, Jesus’ command is to live differently. His command is to live right side up in an upside down world.
What would happen if we saw a woman getting assaulted in the parking lot at Walmart? What would happen if we heard of physical abuse in a family? What would happen if we sat up and took notice of people around us? We tend to be quick to help the third world countries who are starving, or in need of shelter, and that is good. I personally think we help those other countries because all we have to do is make a donation, or drop supplies off, and go back home. But what about our neighbor down the street whose car just broke down for the tenth time? Or the child whose mother is sick with cancer? Do we reach out? Again, Jesus’ command is absolutely different.
Matthew 20:24-28 says:
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.”
A little background on this passage is appropriate. Back up to verses 20-23. The mother of the sons of Zebedee, which were James and John, wanted her sons to be able to be to sit on either side of Jesus when He went into His kingdom. This was asked most likely in light of 19:28: And Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Interestingly, even though she was the one who asked this of Jesus, there seems to be an indication that James and John had put her up to it, considering Jesus shifts His focus to them, when He says, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?” And they answer in the affirmative. The term ‘cup’ was used in the Old Testament as a metaphor for suffering. He thus promises them that they too shall drink of His cup. His promise, while it may not include death, did include pain, suffering, and hardship.
The other disciples seemed to take this with the weight of a lead balloon. In fact, they were literally, ‘very displeased.’ Yet, Jesus pulled them aside and basically gave them a reality check. Who sat beside who is not the point, instead:
First, He called them to be servants. The term ‘servant’ in the Greek is diakonos, were we get the term deacon. This is one who executes the commands of another; it could be a servant to the king; a deacon in the church, or even a waiter of a table. Indeed Isaiah commands us in 1:17: Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow. Simply, He was telling them they should be putting others before themselves. We need to be putting others’ needs before our own. Why is that? Because we are all the same: we are all depraved, sinful creatures who are in desperate need of Savior. Who are we to serve? God first and foremost. After all, in Deuteronomy 10:12-13: Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with call your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the Lord’s commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good? Also, the text explicitly says to serve each other. The greatest among us will be our slave. Essentially, we are called to serve. We go out in the name of Jesus, witnessing, serving, ministering, helping, providing for people. That is not the culture we live in. We are called to go against the grain of our culture and live according to the commands of Christ, and in this context that is to be a servant.
Along the same lines of being a servant, there is an implication that title and prestige are really not all that important. Here, power and control are called into check. He says, “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.” Why does He say this? What is wrong with exercising a little bit of prestige, or being proud of a title? Well, basically, He says that is not the point. In fact, a couple of chapters later, Jesus is in the process of denouncing the Pharisees because they refuse to live what they teach. He, in a similar manner as our passage, says in Matthew 23:8-12: “But do not be called Rabbi; for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers. Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. Do not be called leaders; for One is your Leader, that is, Christ. But the greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.” So then, if power, prestige, control, title are all NOT the point, then what is? Serving others for the glory of God. As this passage in Matthew 23 says, He is our Teacher, our Father, our Leader. We are all in service to Him, not ourselves. That being said, we are to recognize our service to Him, and as He has commanded, our service to each other. Paul recognized this and echoed Jesus’ sentiment when he said in Philippians 2:3-4, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.” For Paul, this exhortation leads right into the character of Christ that we are commanded to emulate. For he goes on to say in verses 5-8: “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” In contrast to the Pharisees we saw illustrated for us in Matthew, Jesus practiced what he preached. In so doing, He commands us today to the same. Paul in the Philippians passage, goes on to say because of His obedience, God exalted Him. Again, this echoes what Jesus said in contrast to the Pharisees, and we see this element in our passage here in Matthew. In all, it really does not matter what man says about us, how they think about us, or what they want to believe about us. At the end of the day, we are all servants of Christ, even unto death if need be. But, by being servants of Christ, we are servants to each other.
Second, being a servant requires sacrifice. In service to God and consequently, service to each other requires sacrifice. This was alluded to just above in the Philippians passage, “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” We are to be Jesus to dead, hurting world. By doing so, we are to humble ourselves as Paul is exhorting us to do. A willingness to be humble requires great sacrifice. But not only are we to be humbled, but we are to be willing to take what we believe into fatal account if need be. Jesus humbled Himself to the point of death, and so should we. Jesus alludes to this in our main passage in Matthew 20: 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.” Whoever is to be first or great, must first be a slave. This does not mean we should be total push-overs. Jesus became indignant when His Father’s temple was being misused. When Christian values are on the line in the public square, we as a church, should be the first to take a stand. But, among the family of God, we should be willing to sacrifice for each other.
Paul was familiar with the sacrifice of servanthood. He introduces himself as a ‘bond-servant’ in most of his letters, which in the Greek (doulos) is more literally translated as ‘slave’ (cf. Romans 1:1; Philippians 1:1; Colossians 1:7; Philemon 1). We read Paul’s solemn words in Philippians 2:17, 18: But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all. You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me (cf. 2 Timothy 4:6). Even so, he urges them to rejoice in the same way. He wants them to share his joy. Indeed, in Philippians 4:4, Paul says Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! What a concept. Here, Paul is writing from a Roman prison, shackled and chained to a guard. Yet he tells them to be joyful, and to share his joy. Why does he have joy? Because he is being poured out, sacrificed and given away for his Lord. In Philippians 3:7Paul says, But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
Sacrifice is hard. Sacrifice for others in Jesus’ name is difficult. It may not carry to the point of imprisonment, but it is worth it to see one, just ONE come to faith in Christ. 2 Corinthians 1:2-7: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort. When we reach out in Jesus’ name, it is worth it. We are called to be servants, we are called to be His servants, and to reach out in His grace and mercy. Who knows? If we are willing to reach out in the love of God, the Holy Spirit may draw that person to Himself. On the other side, if we reach out to a fellow brother or sister in the Lord, it is for their comfort and encouragement. This is about sacrificial servanthood. Yet, to a deeper level, there is a sense of checking our own motivations. The implication lies in this passage: But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer… Jesus came as a ransom for many. He reached out with His life. He died to set our souls free, so we should freely give the gift of ourselves away in Jesus’ name.
So what?
We are called to be servants. We are called to go against the grain of the culture, to love and reach out and serve our fellow man. All the while, we must be giving thanks and glory to the Father. We live as Jesus live, and develop our attitudes in accordance with His will. We serve others as we seek to serve Him. We are part of the family of God under the Lordship of Christ; we are brothers and sisters in Him if we bow the knee to the Lord of Hosts. We must reach out. We must be willing to sacrifice ourselves for His service.
Because we are brothers in sisters in the family of God, we should not consider ourselves higher or better than the other. We see this in our Matthew 20 passage and we saw this as well in Matthew 23. Romans 12:3-9 says: For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness. Either way, we are not consider ourselves more highly than another, whatever our gift may be, because we are all under the Lordship of Christ. As a final illustration, Paul says more explicitly in Galatians 3:26-29: For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.
May we serve each other in the grace and love of Christ Jesus.
The Abiding Life 