Jesus: your servant

Jesus: your servant

 
Background: The disciples had been contesting their place in their (expected) “pecking order”. Jesus gives them (us) a rebuke and gave a weighty explanation of his role in the flesh.

Jesus called them over and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions act as tyrants over them. It must not be like that among you. On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,  and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave*;  just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:25-28, CSB). Do you think "lording it" seems to come naturally to us? Do you see it happening?

"but to serve": The disciples’ struggle for position there seems grotesque, given the then menacing situation as we know it, and they suspected. (At least they were honest about their ambitions.)

"give his life": Not only taking the role of servant to us, but giving his life to ransom us (many).

Jesus had worked at doing his serving and it was not over. He was spending himself. His was not merely a formal or ceremonial role. His work was not under compulsion.

In this post I am surveying the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) background to, and contemporary New Testament echo of, Jesus as self-giving servant and the ransom means he said he was, and we see he was.

John recounted, from the last precious hours, Jesus demonstrating his readiness to serve, by washing the feet of his disciples. Then he said: You call me your teacher and Lord, and you should, because that is who I am. And if your Lord and teacher has washed your feet, you should do the same for each other. I have set the example, and you should do for each other exactly what I have done for you (John 13:13-15, CEV). This was his concrete lesson in voluntary servanthood. Servanthood. No mere formality or religious exercise. Jesus served them. The Bible has many mentions of dusty feet, and of people washing dusty feet, or of water being provided for feet (eg in Luke 7), though not of slaves performing the service. Perhaps they did in contemporary times? I do not doubt but that, if the owner of the feet was having them washed by another, the person washing would be a servant/slave. (The notion that the job of feet washing belonged to the slave seems well-entrenched. I hear of ceremonial re-enactments. Such events hardly meet Jesus’ instructions. Think about it.)

The disciples could easily call Jesus their teacher and Lord. Not so easy to think him servant. Peter’s response ("never") to the above event demonstrated how impossible it seemed - it just did not, could not, fit their ideas of status. Nor does it fit modern ideas of status.

Jesus had done so incredibly much more than washing feet. The Apostle knew what Jesus had said and done. He puts the matter this way: but (Jesus) emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,[a] being born in the likeness of men (Philippians 2:7, ESV). Jesus embraced the lowest place.* This not of compulsion but to do his servant work to save.

In like manner we find the Apostolic writer saying to recently minted followers of Jesus:
In their case, the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.  For we are not proclaiming ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’s sake (2 Corinthians 4:4,5; CSB). The recipients were part of a new “unblinded” people of God, who know the glory of Christ. The Apostles saw themselves as, and acted as, their servants. That was how the Teacher and Lord had lived. Jesus was the example.

As a result of Jesus’ humbling himself, all the riches of truly and confidently knowing God had become the reality for the followers: For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9, NIV). I doubt that the Nazareth Carpenter or his family lived in luxury, but that is not the point. What Jesus had done by coming to suffer for all could truly be described as entering poverty.

The concept of the suffering Servant of God, who is made an offering, is in the pages of the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible). The early Apostles and disciples knew it, even if the application of the first part to Jesus was difficult for them.
But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him
    and cause him grief.
Yet when his life is made an offering for sin,
    he will have many descendants.
He will enjoy a long life,
    and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands (Isaiah 53:10, NLT). The servant is made an offering for sin. The original hearers knew well about sin offerings. They did not know about the life of the Lord’s Servant being the offering.

Jesus had used another (faithful shepherd) image to describe his self-sacrificing servanthood for all who believe in him.
 “I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep (John 10:14-15, CSB). He and the Father are one. He and his own are one. He does all that is necessary. Not one falls through any gap. Not one is ignored. He serves totally.

A long with the account of the final murderous plotting, John includes an explanatory note (plotting which evidently was not easy to settle). Don't you know it is better for one person to die for the people than for the whole nation to be destroyed?” Caiaphas did not say this on his own. As high priest that year, he was prophesying that Jesus would die for the nation. Yet Jesus would not die just for the Jewish nation. He would die to bring together all of God's scattered people (John 11:50-52, CEV). Difficult and risky as it was, the powerful had to decide final action, Caiphas said, for their nation. They could not risk disturbance to public order, nor the threat to the ruling class. As we know, the advice of the High Priest was accepted and acted upon. And so they were part of how Jesus gave his life.

In what may have been the earliest writings, over and over we see the early followers stating and re-stating this central truth. Jesus had included in that central truth the fact that he would rise on the third day (previous post: Jesus told of his betrayal).  So Paul would write to the believers in Rome: who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification (Romans 4:25, ESV). He allowed himself to be betrayed into the hands of those with power, and he met the just demands of God’s Law - for us. He was raised, that through trusting him we could be put right with God.

The action Jesus took was him giving himself. who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father (Gal 1:4, NIV) The action Jesus took was 100% in tune with God’s goodness to us.
Put another way, it was Christ, the Son of God, loving you n me, and giving himself. This changes everything.Thus the Apostle wrote further:  My old self has been crucified with Christ.[a] It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Galatians 2:20, NLT). We do not have to suffer the punishment of the law-breaker. We may be identified with Christ in his serving and enter a new life, the new life...

Remember the words of Jesus to his friends in those final hours of his flesh: for this is my blood of the[a] covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 26:28, ESV). Forgiveness comes from the shedding of Jesus’ blood. Forgiveness for many.

That Jesus gave himself as ransom is taken up in these words. For
there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all
—this was attested at the right time (1 Timothy 2:5-6, NRSVUE). 

Note that Jesus said his ransom was for “many”; the writer above has “all”. All is a very wide term. Surely the benefits of his death are available to all who will; many, many, many.

Another writer reminds us of the futility of religion and religious custom, or any suggestion of earning merit with God. You were rescued[a] from the useless way of life you learned from your ancestors. But you know you were not rescued by such things as silver or gold that don't last forever. You were rescued by the precious blood of Christ, that spotless and innocent lamb (1 Peter 1: 18-19, CEV). The rescue has been successful because of the majestic goodness of the rescuer.

The early believers could refer further on to the striking words from their Hebrew Bible:
After he has suffered, he will see the light of life[a] and be satisfied[b];

by his knowledge[c] my righteous servant will justify many,

and he will bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,[d]

and he will divide the spoils with the strong,[e]

because he poured out his life unto death,

and was numbered with the transgressors.

For he bore the sin of many,

and made intercession for the transgressors.
(Isaiah 53:11-12, NIV)

How well the followers knew that Jesus, Suffering Servant of God and of his people, had poured out his life as though he was the rebel against God. Rather, this Jesus was bearing sin on behalf of many. The many - who are the transgressors - the rebels.

The Apostle Paul made a comparison and contrast between the first man in the Biblical account, and the “one man Jesus Christ”. But the gift is not like the trespass. For if by the one man’s trespass the many died, how much more have the grace of God and the gift which comes through the grace of the one man Jesus Christ overflowed to the many (Romans 5:15, CSB). The mercy of God overflows to many.

We find another writer making the same assertion of benefit to “many”: God, for whom and through whom everything was made, chose to bring many children into glory. And it was only right that he should make Jesus, through his suffering, a perfect leader, fit to bring them into their salvation (Hebrews 2:10, NLT).
And, furthermore, 
so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him (Hebrews 9:28, NRSVUE). Jesus’ work is for the salvation of his people and he will save them. His second appearing will bring in the completion of his work by gathering his own to himself.

The writer of the final document (book) in our Bible wants us to imagine a heavenly choir singing a song to end all songs; a song of celebration of “the many”:
Then they sang a new song,
“You are worthy

to receive the scroll

and open its seals,

because you were killed.

And with your own blood

you bought for God

people from every tribe

language, nation, and race (Revelation 5:9, CEV). So it is that there are grounds for rejoicing over each and every individual who comes under the benefits of Christ’s death. Each and every. And so the “many” become a reality.

The priceless ransom Jesus paid puts the believer freely right with God, despite what that believer deserves from God. Consequently, my life now is to be different.
He gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for himself a people for his own possession, eager to do good works (Titus 2:14, ESV). It is about being set free from slavery to ungodly ways and being given real purpose. Purpose for living.

Maybe we know someone who speaks the language of “servant-leadership” but whom actually slips subtly into “Lord of the Manor” mode? Or High Priest(ess) mode? (The trouble is, when I point to such defaulters, four fingers point back at myself!) Jesus was speaking to the group but the application is to the individual. “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions act as tyrants over them. It must not be like that among you. On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,  and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave*;  just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Be a servant, like me, Jesus said. Beware of subtly or softly taking the role of the “great”. Work at serving, not self-promotion, or making use of another. Watch your ambitions.

(For the avoidance of uncertainty here: I see this message as applying to posters-of-blogs(!), preachers, pastors, priests, prelates, and all Jesus’ people.)

Of servants, and even more especially of slaves, we know they could not take their daily grind lightly.
*"slaves” occupied the lowest possible place. Their owners might chain them (probably not like the Pixabay image!). Owners could sell them.

“servants” had work to do, but they had entitlements and a choice.

Both words are applied to Jesus, though not always rendered that way (the marginal notes explain). See subsequent post, Jesus: Friend !

God bless you!

Allen Hampton

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