by Bonita Jewel Hele
“Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased” (Matthew 12:18).
When my younger brother, the youngest of six children, was two or three years old, we would sometimes play a game where he was the prince and my sisters and I were his servants. We’d dress him in a robe (a bathrobe) and set him on a throne (a bright red stool) and bring him everything he asked for.
A short time later, my brother would be surrounded by toys, crackers, and watered-down juice. We would tire of serving him and rush off to amuse ourselves with something more exciting. That is probably why we played the game so rarely. None of us were eager to take on the role of servant, answering someone’s every wish.
The most basic definition of a servant is “one who serves.” Honestly, who wants a role like that? I like being pampered. I prefer the ease and comfort that comes with being served . . . not serving.
While growing up, my siblings and I would sometimes ask our mom to do something we could have easily done ourselves. Her answer often was “Your arms and legs aren’t broken.”
Now a mother of three, I have caught myself telling my children, “Don’t ask me to do something you can do yourself.” I must ask myself, was it to teach them responsibility or to get off the hook of having to serve them?
One saying asks, “What is a mother but a slave to her children?” I tend to balk at that rhetorical question. Who wants to be a slave, even to her own children (and sometimes especially to her children)?
It’s not part of human nature to serve. I would rather be the one sitting on the throne, wearing the robe (even if it is a bathrobe), regal and lofty. If given the choice, who wouldn’t prefer the title of master rather than servant and the option of receiving silver-platter treatment throughout life? Let someone else make my tea or mow my lawn and take out the trash.
The Son of God had the choice. The holy and righteous One spoke, and time stretched out like a rippling river. His rightful place is to rule over all of time and space from heaven’s throne. But the rightful Heir chose instead to be a servant.
He also called His friends to the same unassuming state. He reminded them of worldly rulers who “lord” over the people. “It shall not be so among you,” Jesus said, “but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. . . . . the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve” (Matthew 20:26, 28, NKJV).
It couldn’t be clearer than that. But in case anyone still didn’t understand, Jesus took it a step further.
One evening, Jesus knelt to wash His friends’ feet, cleansing the grime and sweat of a wearying day. He had laid aside His clothes and wrapped a towel around Himself, a towel He used to dry their dripping feet after cleansing them. “I have given you an example,” He said, “that ye should do as I have done to you. . . . The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him” (John 13:15, 16).
As He knelt in humility before them, Jesus relayed what the Son of God had done in coming to earth. The Servant King set aside royal robes of light and dressed in the sullied tatters of mortality.
Jesus embraced the form of a servant (Philippians 2:7). The rightful Master knelt at the feet of humanity. He became a servant so that He might cleanse not only the feet, not only the head and hands, but also the heart. Especially the heart.
*Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version, unless otherwise noted.
