Monday, October 21, 2019

THE HUMBLING TASK OF SERVANTHOOD





As I was reading a passage in the Gospel of Mark, I was struck by His disciples’ pride, sense of entitlement, and their lack of humility. Nor did they seem to detect this problem. They were like fish unaware of their surrounding watery home. For the disciples, their home was pride.

Their blindness seems to have permeated everything they did and thought. Since they were lowly fishermen, they should have excelled at humility, right? Just to give you a few examples of their pride:

  • Each wanted to be the greatest (Mark 9:33-37).
  • They were convinced that they were entitled to salvation, since they left everything to follow Jesus (Mark 10:26-28).
  • They were convinced that children weren’t (10:13-15).

Even after Jesus reprimanded their attitudes, it seems that they just didn’t get it. The two sons of Zebedee privately approached Jesus to request that they would reign alongside of Him. Of course, Jesus denied their request.

When the other ten heard about their power-play, they were indignant. Therefore, Jesus intervened:

  • "You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10:42-45)

Jesus informed them that He was to be their model. He came to serve and to sacrifice Himself on the cross. He didn’t come to glorify Himself; nor should they, but this is what they craved. I was struck by several things:

·       Attitudes of self- and group-entitlement was the air that they breathed, and they were continually looking for ways to glorify themselves further.
·       They were blind to their addiction and how it dominated them.
·       And we are the same way.

We are so desperate to glorify ourselves that we will even kill to achieve it. On December 8, 1980, Mark David Chapman, a zealous fan of the Beatle, John Lennon, first obtained his idol’s autograph and then gunned him down. He explained

·       “I was an acute nobody. I had to usurp someone else’s importance, someone else’s success. I was ‘Mr. Nobody’ until I killed the biggest Somebody on earth.” At his 2006 parole hearing, he stated: “The result would be that I would be famous, the result would be that my life would change and I would receive a tremendous amount of attention, which I did receive… I was looking for reasons to vent all that anger and confusion and low self-esteem.” (George Weaver, The Significant Life, 47)

Chapman’s life highlights the fact that we are programmed with the need to feel that we are a “Somebody.” This drive is so compelling that we spend our lives trying to prove ourselves by our attainments, friends, and the even groups to which we belong.

How did Jesus deal with the attitude of entitlement of His own people? He entered the synagogue at His home town of Nazareth. After He spoke, they were amazed at His “gracious words,” but that would quickly change as He spoke of God’s grace to the Gentiles:

·       And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a [Gentile] woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian [Gentile].” When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. (Luke 4:24-29)

Jesus sought to humble them by showing them what would happen when their pride was pricked just a little. After James and John had requested that they’d reign alongside of Jesus and all of the others became angry, Jesus humbled them in a different way. He taught them that if they wanted to be the greatest, they would have to become the least, a servant to all.

Just try living as a servant instead of the master. That’s humbling. It’s like a hungry man who is required to give his morsels to another. It’s also like someone craving love and attention who must applaud others getting the things that he craves. However, this is what Jesus did for us. He died for us while we were still His enemies (Romans 5:8-10).

Are you humbled by this teaching, which requires us to be the least? I certainly am! Does it make you feel uncomfortable? I certainly feel uncomfortable and humbled. However, there is a good reason to feel humbled. Jesus repeatedly taught that we need to be humbled. He used the example of a sinner crying out to God for His mercy:

·       I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:14; 14:11; Matthew 23:12)

Most importantly, we have to rid ourselves of any trust in our own virtue  (Philippians 3:3-9) and rely upon God’s mercy alone. Regarding ourselves as “the least” is humbling painful and requires God’s help. It makes us feel like spiritual failures as we confront our overwhelming life-controlling desires for recognition. Here are some suggestions:


1.    Ask God to reveal to you the depths of your problem.
2.    Be assured that when we confess our sins, He not only forgives us but cleanses us, giving us a fresh start.
3.    Know that we require such humbling for God to exalt us.
4.    Know that He will exalt you in due time (Psalm 23)
5.    Commit ourselves daily to being a loving servant.

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