Jesus as the Servant
I once lived in a culture where domestic servant were common - even expected. In fact if you were close to middle class and didn’t have a maid, at least part-time, to wash your dishes and do the laundry, you we’re seen as selfish or stingy because everyone knew people who needed work and you had work they could do, but weren’t giving them a job. There was no shame in being a servant. If fact, servants took pride in the “quality” of their employers. I remember overhearing two servants talking. One was bragging to the other that she got to eat at the table with the family while all of the other maids she knew had to eat alone in the kitchen.
While there is no shame (or at least should be no shame) associated with being a servant, there is no doubt about the social hierarchy. Even when one friend cleans house or cuts grass for the other for money, the person paying defines the extent of the job and sets the standards.
On two occasions in the book of Isaiah, Jesus is prophetically referred to a God’s servant. This may be surprising to us at first, but we quickly come to understand that while Jesus as the Servant of God introduces an element of hierarchy, Jesus is still of the same essence as God. He never surrendered His divinity, even when He was born as a human baby. However, Jesus wasn’t just a servant in the sense of being one who did the will of His Heavenly Father. John 13 records both an incident and some teaching which is truly startling.
I won’t take time to read the full account, just enough to show you the degree to which Jesus became a servant. We’ll start with verse 3: “Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel round his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped round him... When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. ‘Do you understand what I have done for you?’ he asked them. ‘You call me “Teacher” and “Lord,” and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.’” [John 13:3-15]
Here we see the Lord Jesus Christ voluntarily taking the servant’s place - not just in His relationship within the Godhead, but within his human relationships with His disciples. The teacher was serving the students in the most humble way. The leader was serving the followers at the level of their most basic physical needs - washing their dirty feet. The mentor was on his knees serving his proteges.
This is one situation in which the application is clear and unmistakable. Christians are to serve one another. Sometimes, this might be in the humblest of ways. When I think of Jesus as the Servant, excuses flee. How can I refuse to serve others when the Creator and Lord of the Universe set the example of serving His disciples by washing their feet and serving God by dying for His creation to reconnect humanity to the source of life.”
Ron Hughes
© July 2006
