How is Your Service?

“I’m A Slave For You”- Brittney Spears

Got your attention with a lyric from that awful song. Really, it’s just terrible, musically, lyrically, and morally. All around that song was a disgusting example of what has become of popular music over the past twenty years. But hey, even something as worldly as that song can be used for good. It directed your attention to this, didn’t it?

Servant hood was in Jesus’ very nature. Philippians 2:6-7 tells us “being in very nature God, [Jesus] did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in humans likeness.” We should humbly view ourselves as servants. That's a very Biblical attitude. I somehow doubt Brittney Spears had washing feet in mind when she sang that song, so lets move on and examine what God's Word tells us about serving others.

I want to focus on the contrast between Luke 22:24-27 and John 13:13-17. In the first passages we see the disciples arguing which of them will be the greatest, trying to exalt themselves and hoping to gain prestige and authority (they, like many ancient Jews, had an expectation that the Messiah would save them from oppression and have political power.) In the passages from John, we see Jesus serving his disciples by washing their feet. Culturally, this was something that a servant would have done as guests entered their master’s home. People walked on dirt roads in sandals, so I imagine that by the end of the day they had dirty, nasty feet. Jesus was setting an example for each of us to follow.

I want to dig a little deeper into the context of foot washing. Nearly every home would have had a pot of water and towel available at the entrance so that guests could have their feet washed. If the home had a servant, it was their responsibility to see to it that guests would have their tired, dirty feet cleaned before they entered the home. If the home did not have a servant, generally the host would wash the feet as a gesture of hospitality. If the host was busy, many times one of the guest s would volunteer to be the foot washer. We see that none of the disciples volunteered for this duty, but Jesus was more than willing to humble himself.

Jesus was God and Jesus was willing to sacrifice and serve. Jesus is our perfect example of love. He spent his life healing, delivering , and caring for the needs of people. Jesus’ most significant act of sacrifice came when he offered himself as a once-and-for-all payment for our sins. There is no greater love, no bigger sacrifice than laying down your life for another. From beginning to end, the life of Christ exemplifies how we ought to live.

In America, the harder we work and the more we work our way up the social ladder, the less we expect to do. Jesus tells us in Matthew 20:25:27 that if we want to be great in the Kingdom of God, we must serve others. Serving strengthens relationship, and Jesus knew this. If you question that, I challenge you to test it. Do the laundry and dishes for your wife and see how she reacts. Yeah, you’ll thank me for that one later. Even if our acts of service go unnoticed, and often times they do, they are still blessings for those we do them for.

It’s easy to look at the disciples and think they were silly for their actions (which, at times they sure were) but I think more often than not we behave like them without even realizing it. Sometimes Jesus is right in front of us and we miss him.We see in Matthew 25:31-46 that sometimes God appears to us in the form of the needy, and we are expected to have the love of God flow out from us and help them. Often times we miss chances to serve our Savior because we’re caught up in what we have on our own agenda. Sometimes we’re busy thinking about all that God can do for us, when God is calling us to get our hands dirty, humble ourselves, and love like he loved. God puts people and circumstances in our lives for a reason. God provides us with resources in order that we can show his love. I want to challenge you to pay closer attention for chances to be an example of God’s love by being a servant. Start in your own home and expand outwards. Find some needs in your community and start a ministry at your church that meets them. Do service projects with your small group once or twice a month. Let Christ become greater in your life so that you can become less- I bet you’ll find opportunities daily to drop your plans and meet somebody’s needs. Maybe you’ll spend that $5.00 in your purse to help somebody instead of doing with it what you had planned. Perhaps you’ll find somebody in need of a ride and forget about your schedule to get them where they need to be. Maybe you’ll buy less snack food and spend the difference on groceries for a hungry family. Maybe instead of judging the guy holding the "I'm stranded and hungry" sign you'll buy him some food and show through your actions that you truly believe that God loves and cares for him just as much as he loves and cares for you. Open your eyes. I promise you’ll find dirty feet in need of washing all around you. If you don't find yourself intentionally serving God and his kingdom each day, take a deep look into your heart, evaluate your life and priorities, and start the habit of asking God every morning for opportunities to shine his light into a dark and hurting world.