"Whoever wants to become
great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be
slave of all" (Mark
10:43-44, NIV).
The key to the greatest,
most forceful, most impactful life that has ever been lived is servanthood —
being last, being a slave to others. Jesus wants our lives to be marked by
servanthood, too. He wants us to give our lives away.
If a neighborhood is losing
value, we say it's going downhill. If you get let go from your job, it's called
downsizing. When you aren't doing great in life, you're down and out, or
downhearted. Jesus, however,
was and is saying that down is somehow up. Down is good and perhaps down is
best.
Bill Hybel coined a phrase
many years ago, "Downward spiral to greatness". Servanthood marked the life of the person who split
history in half. Jesus' life still reverberates through every culture and every
civilization. He did it not by coming to be served, but to serve and to give
his life away. That's what gave His life force, and it is a life we can live, a
force we can experience.
Altogether too often, our
goal in life is to get, not give. We want to acquire, not release. We want to
add, not subtract. We think, "Less isn't more; it's just less". Barnabas, in
the Book of Acts, sold a piece of real estate and gave away the money—no strings
attached—for somebody else's gain. It was a time of great expectation and enthusiasm in the early
church. God was working, people were responding to the message, and there was
great growth. Barnabas also
gave a year of his life. He experienced real life force. He knew first-hand
what serving through giving could do. It changed his life, and it changed the
lives of others so, when the opportunity came to do more, the choice was
obvious. He knew serving gave force to his life. He knew that being a servant
would enable him to make the biggest difference he could possibly make. He knew
that the church was the hope of the world and that service to it was
everything. He took his skills and leadership abilities, and poured them into a
local community of faith so that the kingdom could expand.
For most people, this is a
foreign concept, an entirely new language, a radically different culture, a
whole new set of values. This world doesn't teach us to serve. By nature we
don't want to serve; we want to be served. Our goals are diametrically opposed
to the goals of Jesus. It means our lives are opposite of Jesus' in terms of
influence, impact, and significance.
Why do we trade a life of
significance for a life of selfishness? Why is it that we will do anything but
give of our resources and our time, anything but selflessly serve, even when it
costs us the life we long for? Many do not think serving will give the life they long for,
afraid that if they gave then they would lose out in the end. When it comes to
serving like Barnabas did—whether it's giving money, or investing our time—we
think it will cost us more than we will gain. We believe first is first, and
last is last; more is more and less is less, but that's not true. This is the reason that Jesus
went over this with the disciples, time and again.
"'I tell you the truth,'
Jesus said to them, 'no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or
children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as
much in this present age … and in the age to come, eternal life.'"
(Mark
10:29-30, NIV). In
effect Jesus was saying, "I
know it's a new math, a new way of thinking. It's not of this world, but it is
of heaven."
Serving often is difficult,
but our Lord was said that serving others is worth far more than it costs. What
will come about in our lives as a result is 100 times more than the results of
whatever we were doing before.
`Many people grieved last year
over the loss of 30 Navy SEALS in Afghanistan. Their helicopter was shot down
on a mission to protect other soldiers, and they were killed. Their bodies
were returned to Dover Air Force Base. It had been the deadliest day in that
ten-year conflict. It's generated a lot of talk, asking whether we should be in
Afghanistan or not? The thing that struck me more than anything else about the situation were the
responses from the families of those 30 men. The widows, mothers, father, and
loved ones of these soldiers all gave the same response. They all believed
these men died serving a greater cause.
These young men saw how
their lives fit into the larger picture, into the conflict between good and
evil, right and wrong. They knew their lives played a part in the survival of
our republic, our freedom. Because they saw the situation so clearly, they were
more than willing to give their lives.
This principle was clear
for the apostle Paul, who said,
"God is strong, and he wants you strong. So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way. This is no afternoon athletic contest that we'll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels." (Ephesians 6:10-12, The Message)
We all want a life that
makes a difference. We all want a life of significance. It comes one way: "the
Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life away".
That's the challenge set before all of us. I want to see every Christian serving somehow, somewhere, for the
cause of Christ. The cause is too great, the day is too dark, and time is too
short to have anyone on the sidelines.
It is not success,
but significance, that is the hallmark of one who loves Jesus. That's what Jesus
wants people to talk about when they think of us.
In Jesus,
Brown
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