Daily Meditation: In Service

Daily Reflection for Thursday June 26, 2014

Matthew 20:20-28

Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked a favor of him. And he said to her, "What do you want?" She said to him, "Declare that these two sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom." But Jesus answered, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?" They said to him, "We are able." He said to them, "You will indeed drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left, this is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father." When the ten heard it, they were angry with the two brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many."

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In the wildly popular television show Downton Abbey, the domestic staff always refer to their profession as being "in service."  There are different ranks in the profession of being in service.  There is the upper staff ranking from butler to ladies' maid, and the lower staff, from first footman to gatekeeper.  While there is some occasional in-fighting and conniving among the household staff, one comes away with the sense that their service to the masters and mistresses of the family is their number one concern.  They are, after all, members of a noble profession.

What greater profession could there be than profession of Jesus as Lord?  And, the number one profession of those who profess him is being in service for and to Him and others.  No matter what the rank of the professing Christian is, whether in terms of influence, power or socio-economic location, Jesus, in response to mother of the sons of Zebedee makes one thing perfectly clear:  "whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave."  As Mahatma Gandhi grasped, the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

How important is service in Jesus' eyes?  When Jesus talks about the final judgement, the metaphorical separation of the sheep and the goats, he has very strict criteria:

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

Our motivation to serve should never be out of fear of punishment though.  We serve out of love, the overflowing love of God that dwells in us. 

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“Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”   -Martin Luther King, Jr.