DAY TWENTY-ONE -- Jesus the Servant

I saw it again the other day -- another televangelist garbed in Armani, sporting diamonds, and extolling the blessings of belonging to Christ. To the casual observer, these kinds of claims must seem too good to be true -- a god who serves man people like a genie brought forth from a bottle by faith. Is this what Jesus meant when He said He came not to be served, but to serve? And if this isn't the way He serves us, then what is? Perhaps even more importantly, why would the infinite God, perfect in all His ways and in need of nothing, lower Himself to serve humanity?

Trying to grasp Jesus's role as Servant within the context of His exaltation is not easy. How do we reconcile His radiant beauty with a face marred by the spittle of man? How do we juxtapose His status as Supreme upon the lowly vagabond who rode into town on a donkey? And how can we possibly integrate the Godhead's glorious power with the battered convict who fell on his face, unable even to carry His own cross?

This was the struggle Peter faced as Jesus knelt to wash the disciples’ feet in His final hours. The brash fisherman recoiled at the notion of his Master serving him in such a menial manner, insisting this could never be. But Scripture tells us that Jesus did this knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God, and was going back to God (John 13:3). There is a wondrous mystery here, for when Jesus took up the towel and girded Himself to serve, not only was He fully aware of His power, glory and divine nature, but chose to wash their feet precisely because of it.

Why? Because He wanted to write a message on their hearts and ours, to paint a picture that could never be forgotten concerning His relationship with fallen creatures. In short, Jesus set out to demonstrate that the Son of man came not to be served, but to serve, for we would always be in need of Him, not the other way around. In serving humanity, the glory of His power to save would beam brightly against the canopy of our sin.

This was driven home for me one day recently as I performed a pedicure for a crippled homeless woman. Though I tried to elicit conversation while massaging her feet in the warm water, she continually looked the other way, clearly embarrassed by the situation. As I prayed silently over the suffering that permeated her life, I began to sense why this was so difficult for her. For her to place herself in such a position before me only magnified my strength and health, making her more painfully aware of her own condition.

In the same way, when Jesus came to us as a Servant, the filth of our fallen flesh served to magnify the beauty of His perfection, making it clear that we are always the ones in desperate need. If I do not wash you, you have no part with me, He told Peter, reminding us that without the cleansing of His blood, we could not come to Him at all.

To have a part in Jesus requires Him to serve us, for we simply have nothing to bring to the table. He serves us at salvation by cleansing us from our sins, and then throughout our life by filling us with His Spirit. He pours out His gifts upon us, that we might serve others, becoming stewards of His manifold grace. Peter reminds us that we are always dependent upon God, even in our most zealous moments. Whoever speaks, he writes, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God. Whoever serves, he emphasizes, is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies. Day by day, moment by moment, Jesus comes to wash our feet by giving us abundant grace, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen (1 Peter 4:11).

This makes it very clear that in serving us, Jesus is actually serving Himself and His glorious cause to raise up worshippers from every tongue and tribe. It isn't enough, God said long ago, for my Servant to save the Jews only. I will make Him a light of the nations so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth (Isaiah 49:6). When Jesus gave Himself as a ransom for many, it was so that the multiplied magnificence of His saving power might shine like a million points of light across this globe and back to the heart of the Father, filling Him with pleasure.

The glory of God through the salvation of souls is Jesus's ultimate purpose in serving humankind. This is why, though fully God, He became fully man, a bondservant to the point of death on a cross. This too is why the Father has now highly exalted Him and given Him the name before which one day every knee will bow and proclaim His Lordship, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:6-11). Let us fall before our Servant King and receive from Him once again that we might glorify His name forever.

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