King, Yet Servant Of All
Prayer:
The year was 1871, H. M. Stanley went to Africa to find the missionary David Livingstone. He spent several months with Livingstone's, carefully observing him. Livingstone didn't speak to Stanley directly about spiritual matters. And Stanley was amazed by Livingstone's patient compassion for the Africans.
He could not understand how Livingstone could have such love for these pagans. Livingstone spent himself in the untiring service of those he loved for Christ's sake. Stanley wrote in his journal,
When I saw that unwearied patience, that unflagging zeal, and those enlightened sons of Africa, I became a Christian at his side, though he never spoke to me one word. A steady devotion to untiring service is not a prospect that naturally appeals to most of us in these days.
We want to be served. If we do something for others, we do not like it if someone else gets the credit. But those of us who call ourselves Christians should not be in any doubt about the nature of the man we claim to follow. We follow a man more powerful than all the politicians and potentates the world rolled into one.
For by him [that is, Christ] all things were created: things in heaven and on earth visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Jesus is a man with inconceivable power and glory, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And yet this is the King who rode into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday on the back of a donkey. This is the King who says of himself, at the end of this passage in Mark 10:45: For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Let us take a look at Mark 10: 35-37
Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. "Teacher," they said, "we want you to do for us whatever we ask." "What do you want me to do for you?" he asked. They replied, "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory."
What is going on in this passage? James and John wanted to be at the top of the pile. For all their fine words, they were reluctant to serve. They are not alone in that. We have the same tendency in us. What is it that gets in the way of our wanting to serve wholeheartedly? The context of this incident can help us to identify some of the weaknesses that Satan can exploit.
Shortly before this incident, Jesus had a chat with a rich young man. Like many of us, this young man claimed to want eternal life. But he didn't really mean what he said. Jesus saw into his heart. He saw that there was an obstacle holding him back from wholehearted service of God.
What was this obstacle? It was his possessions. It was eating away at his heart like a cancer. So he went in to see Jesus Mark 10:21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
Do not be under any illusions. Wholehearted service of Christ costs us money. If we measure our lifestyles by shopping, then following Christ will damage our lifestyle.
Are we ready for that? Or is our love of the good life that money buys like an icy wind that freezes our hearts and destroys our usefulness to Christ? When this particular prosperous young man heard Jesus, Mark says, "[his] face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth."
But there are more obstacles in the way of wholehearted service. As well as possessions, there is resentment. Resentment of others who seem to get a better deal from God than we do. It seems so unfair isn't it. An unspoken calculation creeps into our minds: "What is the point of years of slaving away doing thankless tasks and taking on responsibilities that no-one else wants? What's in it for me? You are not alone!
Prodigal story: "Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!"
"Why bother?" we say to ourselves. Resentment paralyses our service. Resentment damages our usefulness. God is no person's debtor, and his generosity is overwhelming. But the implication of that is clear. Following Christ may require us in some way to leave behind the things we truly love most.
Another obstacle to wholehearted service. We want to raise ourselves in the pecking order. This desire manifests itself in different ways. If we are the pushy kind, we can jump our way to the front of the queue, as James and John attempted to do. And the result is a spirit of service gives way to backbiting, bickering and bitterness. Status-seeking can damage our usefulness.
The response that Jesus made to the request of James and John is in Mk. 38 - 39 "You don't know what you are asking," Jesus said. "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?"
"We can," they answered. Jesus said to them, "You will drink the cup I drink…"
Jesus warns them that they do not know what they are letting themselves in for. The cup that Jesus was going to drink was the cup the prophets had spoken about - the cup of terrible suffering and death for a world alienated from God.
The fact is that uncompromising service brings us close to Christ. And that is both cost and reward. From a worldly point of view it is a deeply dangerous place to be. But from the perspective of eternity there is nowhere more secure.
God always out-gives us. He has already given us everything in Christ. The more we give, the more we will discover his generosity. When we give our lives to Jesus for him to use as he wants, we need not fear losing out. So there is a simple challenge to us all: Will we answer the call to serve the King, yet a servant?
Jesus says to us: "Can you drink the cup I drink?" What is your answer? What are you doing with your life? For whose benefit are we living it? Can we count the cost and still say to Jesus "I will drink it"? None of us has the strength to go it alone. None of us can do without the power of the Spirit at work within us. But the Lord does not ask us to go alone. He is with us. (Reaction from other clergy: I'm serving two congregations)
Jesus called them together and said, "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you…" In other words, reject worldly values that have no place in the church or in the heart of the Christian.
"Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Make Christ and his self-sacrifice the role model of our life. Live for the sake of others. Live to the glory of God. Those who have the heart of a servant, God will use effectively in his service. There is plenty of unemployment and there is plenty of unproductive work in the world. But no-one is unemployed and no-one is unproductive in the Kingdom of God. God is still waiting for a willing heart.
A Christian is a person who is not his / her own; he/ she is the servant of God, and therefore ought to be wholly devoted to God. It can come as no surprise that this is the man whose motto was:
Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.
That is the bold, adventurous servant spirit that the Lord looks for in us. We may be asked to stay and serve, or go and serve. Either way, we must not let that adventurous spirit be cramped and crowded out of our lives. We are called to give ourselves in uncompromising service of the King, yet a servant. Do that, and we will be able to look forward to the day when Christ says to us:
Well done, good and faithful servant. Lord, teach us to be generous with our lives; teach us to serve you as you deserve; to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest to labour and not to seek reward, save that of knowing that we do our will.
Amen.
Rev. Samuel King-Kabu
October 19, 2003