A Life of Humble Service

Following Jesus implies a life of service, it doesn’t merely suggest it. In the kingdom of Jesus, serving is the act through which we display our love for Christ. It is impossible to exist in the kingdom of God and not participate in a practice that Jesus regularly engaged in. At the very heart of our movement is the love for God, and the love for people (Matthew 22). This is lived out through serving.

Jesus invites us to a different approach than selfish living. First, he teaches that no one is above serving. He shows us that we are not the focus, but in order to love and serve others selflessly, we need to look beyond ourselves.

We as a church are on a laser focused mission to go from casual consumers to determine disciples, and serving is at the very core of that process. You cannot be a determined disciple of Jesus and not serve. They aren’t mutually exclusive.

Jesus gave us the example, to not follow is not to follow Christ. When Jesus says to pick up your cross and follow him, his call is to something greater than yourself. Jesus gave all, his disciples gave all, anything but all isn’t determined discipleship.

Second, he shows us our worth in teaching that no one is below being served. That even the worst of people deserve the love and care that Christ has extended to us because while we were at our worst, Christ served us. In this chapter we’re reminded repeatedly about the upcoming betrayal by Judas. How many pairs of feet did Jesus wash? Twelve. Jesus even washed the feet of Judas, knowing full well what he was going to do.

For Jesus, nobody was below being served. It didn’t matter to him if someone would betray the son of man himself, who did nothing wrong to anyone. He only lived a perfect life! To Jesus, nobody was below being served. Would you have washed Judas’s feet? I’ve decided I would have washed his feet with some paint thinner and a match. Not Jesus. He carefully washes the feet of a traitor, just as he washed the feet of Peter and James and John. Is anyone going to do worse things to you than Judas did to Jesus? No. So how do we do this difficult thing?

Last, Christ empowers us to serve. Jesus does what Confucius or Ghandi could not, He goes beyond teaching what we should do and how we should live and actually gives us the power to live differently through his Holy Spirit.

Religion says, “Look inside yourself, and you will find the strength to live a life of service to others.” Jesus says, “Look to me. I will show you the path to serving others, and I will give you the strength to live selflessly.”

We cannot produce fruit with our own effort. Your white knuckled effort won’t get it done. A rousing sermon will only motivate you for so long. It is only when we lean into and depend upon the Holy Spirit and look to Christ that we can we be the people God has called us to be.

When serving gets hard, we lean on him. When it is for the Judas in our life and our flesh cries out that they don’t deserve it, we turn to the Holy Spirit for power. When our laziness and apathy bide us back to sitting on the bench again, we turn to the Holy Spirit. When we don’t feel worthy to serve or like we have nothing to offer, we turn to the Holy Spirit who reminds us of our identity: new creations in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17), made in his image (Genesis 1:26), to do good works which he prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10). Serving takes us from just hearers of the word, to the doers he has called us to be (James 1:22).