If you are going to follow Jesus, you have to be prepared to live like Jesus.
If you are going to live like Jesus, you are going to have to change the way you see the world…
drastically.
When I say ‘drastically’, I don’t mean a little theological truth sprinkled here or there.
It is a radical and fundamental change to the way you see the world and your place in it.
This morning, in my reading plan, I came across a familiar verse that always stops me in my tracks. I can never read Luke 22:27 without considering the magnitude of what Jesus is saying to His disciples.
27 For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves. Luke 22:27 (ESV)
Jesus did not come to be the one who was served, He came to serve.
That is completely against the grain of everything that the world tells you about value in this world.
Everything in the world is screaming at you that you need to get your ‘piece of the pie’.
You need status, you need to be valued, and you need to be served…
by others…
In this world, you are given a standard of value based on your importance or your net worth.
Those who lead, those who have great value, those who make a lot of money should be served.
In other words, when the most ‘important’ person walks into the room, everyone else should jump to serve them, give them their chair, and find out what the ‘important’ person wants them to do.
This could totally have been Jesus…but that wasn’t His way.
Jesus was the Son of God, the vehicle by which all was created, the conqueror of sin, death, and hopelessness.
He could turn water into wine, heal the deaf or the blind, walk on water, and calm the most ferocious storm…
and yet He came to serve.
Paul described Jesus like this…
4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Philippians 2:4–8 (ESV)
It is not insignificant that one of the marks of true followers of Christ are servants, not the ones who are clamoring to be served.
Service is an act of humility and an act of love.
When I read these verses, a single thought pierces my heart…am I living my life to serve others?
That is the way of Jesus.
If we are going to live like Jesus, we also have to serve like Jesus…even when no one notices…even when no one cares.
The beauty of living like Jesus is the truth that we will also be made in His likeness. We will emulate the risen Savior in our own lives.
Rather than getting everything our way, we look for opportunities to give to others.
Rather than hoping to be served, we look for opportunities to serve others (which naturally raises the questions, why do wait staff hate to work on Sundays after church lets out?)
How is God calling you to serve right now?
Who is God calling you to serve?
The world is doing everything that it can to force you into a “consumer” mold but don’t do it.
Live like Jesus by serving like Jesus.
Mark Love
Lead Pastor