By: Michelle C Tull
After reading the passage of scripture recorded at St Matthew's Gospel chapter twenty (verses twenty to twenty-eight) I came to the conclusion that there are two types of people in the world, helpers and non-helpers. I understood also that God purposes that all His followers be helpers. Christ called us and commanded us to serve; and serve with a community spirit! We do not as Believers get any real fulfillment in the Christian journey until we are serving others. And, once we do serve, we obtain so many mental, physical and spiritual blessings that the half has never yet been told.
Jesus' disciples had a hard time understanding the message that "we are created to serve". If we are going to fulfill God's purpose for our lives, then we must be willing to check ourselves and our motives for serving. We must also look at the Great Teacher or in other words we must model Jesus Christ, and expect some level of emotional discomfort in doing so.
The disciples left everything to follow Jesus. They were called to be leaders in the future church, and so Jesus taught them to preach and care for people. But somehow, the motive with which they began became a bit distorted. We see the mother of James and John coming to Jesus with a request for honour and power on behalf of her sons. But the lesson Jesus gave showed that the motive of serving people naturally comes from loving God. It's all about doing the kinds of things that He (Jesus) would do and not about seeking benefits for ourselves.
Another principle to improving our service to God is to model our behavior after Jesus Christ. This world's system is one of authority, power, glory and honor. In every day life, it is expected that we spend as much energy as we possibly can to get to the top whether academically, socially, professionally or otherwise. In the Kingdom of God however, a different value system is at work; we are called to be people who serve. Verse 26 of Matthew twenty states:"Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must become your slave." (This text has been paraphrased for emphasis.)
When the mother of James and John expressed her desire to Jesus, He said, "You don't know what you are asking... Can you drink of the cup that I am going to drink?" The cup that Jesus was going to drink was His death on the cross. Thus, what Jesus was saying was that the attitude and action of serving will not always be easy. Neither will It always be the cause of joy in our lives. It costs something great to become obedient even until death. We will serve someone, and they won't appreciate it. Instead, they will push us away and try to take advantage of us. But we must remember that someone else's gratitude or growth cannot be our motivation for doing good. If that is the case, there will be many times of rather severe disappointment and rejection in our servant-hood, but, we MUST serve anyway; because who knows, we might just be serving angels at unawares.
Here is a closing thought now... We are a people blessed by God; a people blessed enough that God will give us opportunities to serve and bless others. Let us consider as we go, what benefit would there be to serving only those we love? At the end of the day, our service to others will be based on living out God's will for our lives and being good stewards!
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