We will start again this week with Mark 10:43-45, as the apostles were divided over which of them deserved the seats of honor and power in Jesus’ kingdom and arguing over which of them was the greatest, Jesus addressed them saying: “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be servant of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” The Son of Man came to serve.
Over the next three weeks we are going to remember and maybe for some, for the first time, talk about who we are as a church–why we are here in Burlington and what our part is, as one member of the Body of Christ.
Jesus is a King to be followed. He did not come to make subjects but to make disciples–He came not to conquer but to be followed, He did not come to take authority but to give to us the authority that He had been given. What other king told His followers that it would be better for them if He leave? What other King promised His followers that they would do greater things than He had done? What other king died for His enemies rather than putting His enemies to death? The Son of Man came to serve.
If this is true, that Jesus came to serve, then the only way to follow Jesus is to be a servant, the only way to honor Jesus is through servanthood, and the holy way to truly and rightly love Jesus is to serve Him. We are a church called to servanthood: called to come alongside, to join in, to help out, to carry the load, build the bridge, hold out hope, pray without ceasing; to give generously, love patiently and to never give up.
Jesus called the apostles, and I believe all of His followers to be servants of all. All is a big word–it’s daunting because we get tempted to make it generic, then we can define our service and those we serve in a way that makes us comfortable or fits our desires. But being a servant of all is not generic, it’s actually very specific. Jesus came to serve all of humanity by setting His attention on carefully and completely serving the Father. This morning as we, as a church, concentrate on our calling to servanthood, we must remember that first and foremost we serve Christ.