Servanthood Defined

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Mark 10:43b-45: But whoever would be great among must be your servant and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.

What is servanthood? What does it mean to serve? Does it mean that some person benefits from what I do for them? Partially. Society today adds, "And you'll feel better for the service." It seems that we serve in order to feel good about ourselves. We serve so that we feel better. 

Have we lost the fuller focus of service and servanthood? You may feel good that you provided help for someone else. You may even derive some joy from helping someone get back on their feet. However, that is not the reason that we serve. Service is about the joy the person who we served has from what we do. Is it okay to "feel good" for doing good for someone else? Yes it is. It's a benefit of serving, for sure. That's not WHY we serve.

We serve because Jesus first served us. We help people because Jesus gave His life in order to save us from our sins. We serve for the good that our service gives for the other person. It is never about us. It is always about the one who is being helped.

The final part of servanthood that needs to be defined is, self sacrifice. We have Jesus as the ultimate example. Jesus served to the point of death. For Jesus, it was all about the sacrifice. Jesus' "joy" was giving His all for the sake of the people. His body was broken and His blood was shed to bring life to broken and bleeding sinners, to heal the wounds of sin by His sacrifice. We are healed of sin, death, and the influence of Satan by means of His wounds. Jesus sacrificed it all so that we will live in order to serve. 

So, we serve and give our all, all that we can for other people, because Jesus served us by giving up of His life. God, thank You for Jesus' service to us, Amen.