Our Servant

Imagine sending your son or daughter out into the world with the realization that in a short time, you would no longer be able to guide them and help them. You only have time to give them one last bit of advice. What would you tell them? What is perhaps the most important thing that you want them to know, understand, and carry with them forever?

Jesus found himself in a similar situation. He was with his disciples finishing the Last Supper, and in a short time, he would be going to the Garden of Olives where he would be arrested. What was his last teaching? What was perhaps the most important point that Jesus wanted his disciples to know and understand before he was put to death?

“So Jesus got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him” (John 13:3–5 NLT).

“After washing their feet, he put on his robe again and sat down and asked, Do you understand what I was doing? You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord ‘and you are right, because that is what I am. And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet.  I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you” (John 13:12–15 NLT).

What Jesus is telling us is a “game changer;” this turns everything that the world says upside down. This is so important that this teaching is contained in all four Gospels. “Jesus told them, In this world the kings and great men lord it over their people, yet they are called ‘friends of the people.’ But among you it will be different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant. Who is more important, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves? The one who sits at the table, of course. BUT NOT HERE! For I am among you as one who serves” (Luke 22:25–30 NLT). 

Jesus came as “one who serves.” He did not come to be served but to serve. Jesus didn’t come to lecture, condemn, or to give us a whole new set of rules, regulations, or things we must do. He came to serve us by taking away our sin problem, by telling us to “cast all our cares” on him, by setting us free (he who the Son sets free is free indeed) from bondage, depression, lack, sickness, and disease.

The world tells us that the most important person is the one on top, the one with the most authority, the best position, the most money, the one with the most possessions. Jesus says, “BUT NOT HERE.”

If we examine what Jesus did when he walked on this earth, it is clear that he came “as one who serves,” even to the point of giving his life and every drop of blood for us. My brothers and sisters in Christ, this is something that we each need to meditate on, think about, and truly understand. Once one understands this message, it changes everything that the world teaches.

A slave is at the bottom of the social ladder, as a slave is owned by someone, and has basically no rights. It is interesting that in both Mark 10:41–45 and Matthew 20:24–29, the word “slave” is used in relating this message. “And whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:44–45 and Matthew 20:27–28 NLT).

WOW, Jesus came to serve you, me, and everyone else! He took the lowest position so we could have the highest position!