The Honor Of Serving

[Jesus said,] “Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, 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 10:42-45

Have you noticed how draining it is to always be in competition with others? These days we can watch in real time as the drive to be biggest and best diminishes and ravages the soul. Ask anyone who has ever been at the top of the heap. No one can stay there.

In this world, the measure of a person’s worth is ever changing. Yesterday’s mogul is broke and humiliated today. The rising star, fawned over and envied today, will be a punch line for comedians tomorrow. People fight and struggle to reach success, only to find it a demanding taskmaster impossible to satisfy.

Because you know your worth in Christ, you are free to be a servant: “Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. So he 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). Because he knew the highest place was his, he could take the lowest place.

Here is the paradox: seeking to be served wears you down. Serving others fills you up. How freeing it is to know that in Christ your identity is settled and you can serve without restraint.

Father, thank you for your promise that I don’t have to be tyrannized by the need to be noticed. Give me the privilege today of serving others and so serve you. Master, whose feet may I wash today?

Immortal meek! who take the earth

By flinging all away!

Who die—and death is but their birth,

Who lose—and win the day.

Hewn down and stripped and scorned and slain,

As earth’s true kings they live and reign.

Hannah Hurnard(1905–1990), English poet and author