THE SERVANT KING

         Our society loves stories about people who rise from obscurity to achieve greatness.  We all love a good, from rags to riches tale.  Countless movies in Hollywood have been made using some variation of that theme.  There’s a movie that came out recently called the Soloist.  It’s about this Julliard student who ends up dropping out of school and he ends up homeless and then this News reporter finds him living out on the streets and its about his re-emergence.  We love that kind of thing.

       Now here’s what’s incredible about the gospel.  The gospel isn’t a from rags to riches tale.  It’s a, from riches to rags tale.  Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, ‘For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.’ {2^nd Corinthians 8:9} 

       He who sat enthroned in the glories of heaven, surrounded by throngs of angels who worshipped at His feet and lived to accomplish His will, ‘made Himself of no reputation and took upon Himself the form of a servant.’  This is perhaps, the most incomprehensible truth in the entire bible.  God became a man!  As Paul writes in 1^st Timothy, ‘And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh.’   [1^st Timothy 3:16] 

       But He didn’t stop there!  ‘He took upon Himself the form of a servant coming in the likeness of men.’  Not only did He become a man, even more, He took upon Himself the form of a servant.  The creator of all that exists, came to this earth as a servant!  I mean, just think about that statement for a moment or two.

      Then, on the night before He was to be crucified, Jesus stooped down even further by getting on His hands and knees and washing the disciples feet!  Think of that!  Jesus washed the disciples dirty, stinky feet! In Middle Eastern countries, it was the slaves who washed the feet of guests; but Christ took the place of a slave. He makes this clear to His disciples: if their Lord and Teacher has washed their feet, then they should wash one another’s feet, that is, serve each other in humility. This must have been a striking rebuke to the Twelve, for just that evening they had been debating who was to be the greatest!

      Now let’s take all of that and personalize it.  How can we take Christ’s example and follow it?  I mean, should we start washing one another’s feet?  No.  I don’t think so.  But I do know that as husbands, we are called to wash our wives in the water of the word.  Guys, when’s the last time you encouraged your wife, or served her in any way?  Maybe for you this means, tomorrow evening, after dinner, you get up and instead of slipping into a coma on the couch, you clear the table and do the dishes.  Maybe it means, instead of complaining about something you don’t like about the church, you get involved and start helping.  Maybe it means you volunteer to lead a home group… or bring dinner to someone who you know is sick… or maybe it means you see someone stacking chairs and you help them…  I don't know exactly what this looks like for you.  But the big idea is this.  Jesus came to this earth as the servant king, and it is our privilege to get to serve Him by serving those He puts in front of us. 

-Daniel