September 28: The Servant of All

I love this passage because of its sheer humanity. James and John ask to be big shots in the Kingdom of God, and all the other disciples are indignant at their nerve, jealous that they didn’t think to ask first. Every one of them is jockeying for position. Their self-love is on full display. And Jesus sees the incurvature of their souls.

Jesus calls His disciples to a new kind of greatness. It’s not the greatness that seeks to lord over others or wield authority. It’s not a greatness driven by ego and ambition. It’s the greatness of self-giving love and sacrificial service. It’s the greatness of Heaven itself.

Jesus set aside His glory to come rescue us in His love. He came humbly and low. He came to be the servant of all. He came to wash His disciples’ feet. He came to wash away our sin. He came to give Himself away in love and service to bring many sons and daughters to glory. He came in self-giving, sacrificial love. He came for us.

When we realize the extent to which Jesus was willing to empty Himself, the cost He was willing to bear, the service He was willing to render that we might be welcomed home to God, it simply melts us out. Jesus, the rightful King, made Himself a servant of all, so that we might become royal sons and daughters of God. In self-giving

love, Jesus gave up His life, so that self-loving, self-absorbed people like us might be brought home into the love of God. To be so loved, in the midst of our self-absorption, changes us. To open our hearts to the self-giving love of God is to be wrecked, undone, and reformed. As the hymnwriter puts it, “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.” To be lavished with the self-donating love of God is to be changed on the inside. We begin to love in return. We love because God first loved us (1 John 4:19). God is loving us into loveliness.