A love borne out in service

Service which is rendered without joy helps neither the servant nor the served. But all other pleasures and possessions pale into nothingness before service which is rendered in a spirit of joy.  --Mahandas K. Gandhi

I will confess that pride is one of the sins with which I struggle the most.  At any point of comparison with another that I feel superior, I will boast in it.  In any position in which I am placed, I instantly find others in lower positions to whom I may compare myself favorably. Had I gone into medicine, I would have been the doctor with the god complex, the one the nurses all hate to work with.  Had I gone into the military, I would have been the captain with the complex, the second lieutenant with "small man syndrome" at whose orders the sergeants would all roll their eyes.

When I got my first job in my current career, I would boast that I had a master's degree.  Most people didn't care.  The ones who were willing to engage me in conversation about it would ask where I received it from, or what my field of study was.  When I would tell them that my degree was from a Baptist seminary, in Religious Education, the conversation would suddenly stop.  No one could think of any way a seminary degree in religious education could help me in the business world, much less in the field of insurance.  So those kind people would either walk away, or would change the subject.  God bless those who would forebear my obnoxiousness.  They had more of a servant mentality than I.

That servant mentality is what I'd like to spend a few minutes discussing.  When Paul said, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves," (Philippians 2:3), he probably had Jesus in mind.  Jesus personified servant leadership.  But the way that Jesus served was not just to show us how to serve one another; it was done out of complete and utter love.  Follow me in John chapter 13.

It was just before the Passover Feast.  Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. --John 13:1a

Jesus had every right to lord it over his disciples, because he was, in fact, Lord of all.  We who are limited in human nature can barely grasp the concept of what Jesus was feeling at that moment.  He knew that he would suffer death withing 24 hours of that time.  If you or I had that knowledge, that we were condemned to die in a day, what would we be thinking?  Get away from me.  I need to be alone.  None of this matters now.  There is no tomorrow.  We would be bitter, selfish, and rude, wouldn't we.  Yet Jesus knew that he would awaken in the presence of his Father, the almighty God of Heaven.

If I was a prince, and I found myself in chains in a prison, I would be petulant.  If I were told that tomorrow I would be reunited with my father the king, and would be restored to the castle where I grew up, with all of the rights and privileges of royalty bestowed up me, I would probably be plotting revenge against my captors.  In a way, this was where Jesus found himself.  But he was not feeling any of those emotions that we would feel.

Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love. --John 13:1b

How did he show them he loved them? Did he embrace each one and tell them all personally how much they meant to him? No. Did he promise them prominent positions in his kingdom? No.  Did he lavish them with gifts? Not really.

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 around 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 around him. --John 13:3-5

With the knowledge that he was all-powerful, and with a sense of his history and his destiny, he showed them the full extent of his love by stripping off his clothes and kneeling before each one of them.  He didn't even demand that they bring him a basin or that they fill it with water.  He likely picked up his own basin and drew the water out himself.  And as he washed the filth off their feet, it was transferred to him--he used his own hands to wash, and the towel that was wrapped around himself to dry them off.  Not only was this a foreshadowing of his sacrificial death, in which he took all the sins of the world upon himself; it was a picture of what true love is.

If we are truly committed to living the way Jesus wants us to live, and to glorify him in our actions, we will do more of this kind of work ourselves.  We will hold the hand of the sick, even those with contagious diseases; even, I daresay, those with diseases that were contracted out of sinful conduct (venereal disease, pregnancy out of wedlock, AIDS, etc.)  We will feed the hungry around us without judging--without the attitude of "get a job, and make better decisions in life and you won't be in this situation."

A famous German theologian once wrote, “By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship. This same man wrote what is now called the Serenity Prayer, which is repeated at the end of every AA meeting. Most Christians in the pews on Sunday would not think of spending Saturdays at AA meetings, or soup kitchens, or hospice.  And why not? Because we do not all have the servant-spirit of Jesus.  We would rather compare ourselves favorably to those in need than to help them.  We have succumbed to the sin of pride, and take no joy in service.

The second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as you love yourself.  This is true even if your neighbor is poor and in need.