Discipleship: Serving God And Serving Others

August 2010

When a man knocking on heaven’s gate speaks, I listen. That man is John Stott, who has written his final words in a gem of a book called The Radical Disciple. Stott is close to 90 years old. He has lived the life abundant and full, flourishing and thriving in obedience to God’s commands as promised in Psalm 1. His main point in Radical Disciple is that we are closest to Jesus and participate in Jesus’ life and work when we have the same mind and do the same things he did. Only Holy Spirit enabled people could do it.

Last month I wrote about the first likeness to Christ we exhibit: living the life of humility as Christ did when he came to live among us. This month I address another Christ-like trait: serving God and serving others. The primary Christian calling is to live and do what Christ would do were he in our place.  a few random thoughts on serving God and others follow.

Jesus served Constantly. Day in and day out the Gospels describe Jesus combing the countryside of his beloved country healing, teaching, preaching and serving. One act of service bumps into another in rapid succession. Here’s the condensed version of the theme of service in Jesus’ life that John never could forget: On the night he was betrayed, Jesus pulled out all the stops to illustrate the Christian life. He took a basin, tipped the big jar in the corner of the room and filled it with clean water. He took a clean towel and wrapped himself with it. One disciple at a time got a much-needed footbath. Then the memorable words came: “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you” (John 13:14-15). That Jesus meant for us to imitate his attitude and actions is clear. A servant serves. The Christian truth is this: The greatest among you are those who serve in the way of Christ.

Now I’m not advocating we make foot washing a Baptist doctrine and practice (some do and that’s fine by me). But the importance of what Jesus showed us in serving others by washing their feet should never be lost. We would not hesitate to wash his feet if his needed washing as the woman of ill repute did. We too must serve him by serving others for they are his “least of these”.

In Jesus’ culture and time the work of washing feet was the work of slaves, the least in society’s pecking order of importance. Serving others was not a glamorous job. It can be described as degrading or menial. A dirty job the person at the bottom of the importance totem poll must do. When the householder assigned that job he picked the least of all his servants to do it. It’s one of those forget your ego kinds of jobs. Some uninformed Jews thought that they could earn God’s favor by serving (The Prodigal Sons). Serving for earning has a very low satisfaction rate and no eternal outcome. Serving gets its importance from the One who calls us to serve.

Serving our higher ups has its rewards. But true blessing belongs to those who serve without any expectations. They serve those of lesser means than they. They find the poorest of the poor, those who cannot repay (though they do repay with a smile, an appreciative look or a word of thanks, or not). O be careful little hands whom you serve! And for what reason!

Like mother like son. When Mary first heard she was picked for mothering God’s Son, she proclaimed: I am the Lord’s servant. She knew suffering would come for both of them. The angel made sure she knew. That Jesus grew up willing to be the Suffering Servant should come as no surprise. Servanthood is more caught than taught. We teach it best when we model it most.

Serving others and God is not optional. It’s time to shed the false notion that only those who are especially called to preach or to be missionaries are servants of God. Serving is part and parcel of becoming conformed to the image of Christ, the calling of every Christian. It is letting the mind of Christ become our mind. It’s participating in the work Christ is doing among the poor, needy, prisoners, or widows. Washing one another’s feet is not for the chosen few.

The other false notion is that serving our fellow Christians in the local churches where we are is the extent of our service. Clearly it is a part of our service but not the whole of it. The truth of the matter is that washing feet has no limits in terms of place or time. Jesus not only served his own people but also the “strangers” (Phoenicians and Greek). The basin and the towel belong to every Christian everywhere there is a need. All Christians are servants and servants simply serve.

I attended an On Mission Celebration a few years ago in Louisiana (A gathering of churches and missionaries to tell of the works of God). Our church hosts honored all the missionaries with a gift: a towel with the inscription: Servants of Christ. The truth is that we, the missionaries, could have done the same thing to our hosts. The towel and basin must become our daily reminders that a large part of our relationship with one another and the world, missionary or not, is to serve people a la Christ.

Those who walk with the Master must also walk with towel and basin in hand ready to serve in all seasons.

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