Jesus is Servant -or- Loving the People You're Stuck With

 Preparing for Easter

What is a servant? 
Is it the person bringing your food to you at a restaurant?
Is it that aide in the nursing home you are visiting?
Join with me today as we take the Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How? journey to our answers.

To start off, lets take a look at the scriptures to gather the proper inspiration. 

For many years now, I have referenced the 2nd chapter of Max Lucado's book Just Like Jesus borrowing from his inspiration as he covers the topic "Loving the People You're Stuck With". In approaching John chapter 13, we see Jesus taking on the role of the lowest of the low. A servant who washes the feet of the guests gathered around the table. Lucado does much here to bring us down to the level of that lowest servant. Being a servant means taking on those mundane, everyday chores and issues that maybe we would like to avoid. Max would approach the most common of American occurrences - the purchase of a new pet. Maybe you've been there. You're child has driven you crazy for that new puppy. You been looking and planning. Finally you find that precious ball of fur that is truly yours. And you bring it home. Those first few days and weeks seem incredible. What could be better than puppy kisses and the feel of soft hair rubbing up on you? Its a great time seeing those little legs zooming around the house. There is nothing better than those opening moments as the little one gets settled into their new surroundings. At some point though there is going to be that moment when you don’t want to get up that morning. That space when getting up to feed the same hairy little face every morning is enough. Oh, everything is fine when they are little. Maybe it's that first month or so. Then the day comes. Do I have to get up today? And then the words... Hey, you said you were going to take care of him/her so you better get up and do it. Such it is with life. We find ourselves in a servant role instead an exciting/fun role like we thought it was going to be. And, it is a hard pill to swallow. To make up ones mind to push ahead and meet the needs of others and forget about our own. 

Today we are going to push into that territory and look at Jesus in the role of Servant. It's vastly different than being a King. And, Jesus takes it on willingly. We are going to do the work of exegesis today. We are going to ask a variety of questions. Ones that start with Who? When? Where? Why? and How? It's the kind of work you do when your trying to pull truth out of the scripture in front of you and put together a message. I'm inviting you to do it with me this morning. Together we'll see where God is leading us in this subject of servanthood. You might have different questions rolling through your head and in the course of the sermon today I am going to invite you to voice some of those questions. We might steer in a slightly different direction as we go through the sermon but i feel as if the course and destination will be the same. It should be interesting. Be thinking as we go through the message this morning. Go back and read John 13.1-17 again and let those Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How? questions come rolling out in the open. 

Who? If being a servant or serving others is our central focus as we walk through John 13, then...
Who is doing the serving in this passage? Jesus absolutely is. (There is a really good Why? question coming and I hope you'll see it before we get there.) Who is on the receiving end of the serving? Those who have been walking with Jesus. The disciples. (Again, another really good Why? questions pops into my head. But we'll get there.) Who were they then supposed to go serve or show the same love to that Jesus had just shown them? Jesus says in verse 14 that it start with "each other". Right there in the circle, around the table. Jesus showed them love. He washed their feet. He takes on the role of the lowliest servant and encourages those who follow Him to do the same.

What? What does it mean to serve? (There's a good question and I'll put the answer on YOU.) I'm sure someone here this morning can answer for us what it means to serve others. Just for the sake of this sermon you are reading in this blog, I'm going to try and ask Google a question and see what kind of answer we get. We get a really good definition supplied by Oxford Languages.

People who know me know that I'm a Merriam Webster person. Kind of biased there. But this definition is splendid. In a house in Jesus' time there might have been a whole group of servants. If it was a large family or a wealthy owner, there might be several people meeting the needs of strangers or for parties and dignitaries. A common practice was to wash the feet of those gathered in a setting just like what we are witnessing in John 13. A supper. This job fell to the lowest servant in the house. Maybe you're familiar with the Totem Pole in many jungle tribes. It looks like several faces stacked up on top of one another. The face at the top represented the person at the top of that tribe. Even in circle of servants in a household, such as this, there would be a mentality of seniority and tenure. "You've been here the shortest amount of time. It's your job." And, out that servant goes with a towel and basin to wash the dusty, dirty feet of total strangers. 

When? When did all this happen? Literally, the night before our Lord and Savior gives his life for all of mankind. It will be matter of hours, really. The discourse that begins in John 13 extends itself through John 14, 15 and 16 as they walk to the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus will eventually meet the authorities that will arrest Him and take Him away. When did Jesus want his disciples to be servants and follow his example? Well, I think he was hoping they would see the need to follow and serve their own Lord and Master in the very moment. But, if we back up for a moment, we are confronted with another good What? question. What did the disciples wind up doing? They all wound up running away. It wouldn't be until some time later that they would look down at their own feet and realized the lesson Jesus was teaching them in that moment. 

Where? "Where" isn't always a dynamic question. The basic answer for Where? is pretty obvious. The Upper Room. It was a special place designated for just such a Passover style feast. Another basic answer for Where? is "Jerusalem". That's where they are when this all goes down. It is in Jerusalem that Jesus gives his life on the cross and it is here that he will rise from the dead showing that God has all power. But, can we take the "where" question a step deeper? Working with the matter of Jesus being a servant his desire for us to follow his example, is there anything more profound we can work our way into? Maybe we should ask, :Where does Jesus intended for us to be servants? Again, the answer is simple but still troubling because we don't necessarily want to see ourselves in this role all the time and everywhere. Yes, everywhere we go. Jesus would bring it home for us when he gives his great explanation of discipleship in Matthew 25. 

Again, the answer is easy. The application is profound and troubling. Everywhere. All the time. In front of everyone. In front of the person needing a cold cup of water. To the person in prison. To the mean natured boss and the negative co-worker. With Uncle Fred, who is weird and nobody likes to talk to because its uncomfortable. Toward the mother with three kids who stumbled into the back door of your church and the loud mouth guy at the grocery store who is yelling at the check-out lady because he think he is right about everything. Everywhere. All the time. 

Why? Oh boy. Here it comes. The all time favorite question from every kid in the back seat or at the supper table. The question that has made dads and moms want to scream at the top of their lungs. Why?
Well, ladies and gents, this is a particularly excellent piece of scripture to pull out the "why". I hope many of you have some good Why? questions when we meet Sunday morning. Here are some that roll through my mind. 

Why did Jesus wash their feet? He wants them to know that they are forgiven, long before they even realize they need forgiveness. It wouldn't be until sometime later that they would look down at those feet, realize they had left their Savior behind, running away from the mess and the arrest and the cross. It would be much later that they would look down at those feet and realize what he had done in that Upper Room for them. "You don't understand now what I am doing" Later, they would. And it would be exactly the moment they need, right when they need it. 
Why was Jesus not so concerned with whether they 'got it' right then, in the moment? For years I read and re-read the devotional My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. Much of it I did not "get" until some time later. It chocked full of holiness truth. One of Oswald favorite subjects was to speak about how we need to "unlearn" things before we could learn what God wants us to learn. I think that was a major point for the disciples here. For many who were waiting for the Messiah to come, they saw a military leader who would free them from the grip of Rome. They did not see a servant who would go to a cross and give His life for the sins of all people. They needed to unlearn this first in order to understand the servant hood and the following and the discipleship Jesus was calling them into. God is patient. The word will work itself out in our hearts and minds in time. My best friend, Matt Holcomb has a father who loves old hymns. Mike Holcomb used to sing with all his heart these words.

"In His Time, In His Time,
He'll make all things beautiful
In His time.
Lord, please show me every day
How you're teaching me your way
That you do just what you say.
In Your time."

Why was it so important to follow Jesus' example of serving others? This is how the world will see and know the truth and validity of Jesus' message. This is the cross we are to pick up. Serving others and laying our own wants and desires aside. Jesus says later in chapter 13 of John that "this is how they [the world] will know that we his disciples, if we love one another". If we are to take this as seriously as it, then we need to do this just like Jesus did it. With the same heart and passion that our Lord did. Serving people the same way he did. 

How? My mentor and life coach, the Rev Douglas Lynn, gave me a book some time back called "How Then Shall We Live?" It is a challenging message from many different angles and sermons while bringing forth the same initiative in every aspect. It is an interesting notion to drive forward as we close this message up. We should live as Jesus did. How can we do that? It is a brave and soul bearing thing to want to walk as Jesus did. Can we allow the world to treat us as Jesus did? Can we put ourselves in the shoes of the Savior and actually do this? As we wrap this up today, let us spend some time in prayer today and ask God to lead an guide us into ways we can spend ourselves in the currency of love and compassion in the Kingdom. May God be able to take our hearts into His hands and do as He wants with our lives. May he shape us and mold us into servants who will give of themselves in honor and devotion to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. 

Blessings Pleasant View

Jeremy