Matthew 20:20-28
Servanthood

Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him [Jesus] with her sons, kneeling and asking a certain thing of him. He said to her, "What do you want?"

She said to him, "Command that these, my two sons, may sit, one on your right hand, and one on your left hand, in your Kingdom."

But Jesus answered, "You don't know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?"

They said to him, "We are able."

He said to them, "You will indeed drink my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with, but to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give; but it is for whom it has been prepared by my Father."

When the ten heard it, they were indignant with the two brothers.

But Jesus summoned them, and said, "You know that the rulers of the nations lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you, but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. Whoever desires to be first among you shall be your bondservant, even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

World English Bible

One of the basics of the Christian Walk is that we are to be servants of others. This truth is prominent throughout the New Testament and in modern Christianity. The terms we use inside our churches talk of "servant evangelism" and "ministry". Even the title for one category of church leader is "deacon", coming directly from the Greek work diakonos, the word in verse 26 that is translated as "servant".

Just because we are closely familiar with the concept and use the terms correctly and frequently does not mean we don't need to be reminded often of the concept. Most people expect their church deacons to exercise authority over the church, making it tempting for deacons to act as rulers rather than servants and contradict the very scripture that is the source of their title.

Human society is dumbfounded at our commission to servanthood instead of leadership. To some extent, the commission Jesus gave to James and John, the sons of Zebedee, also to the rest of the twelve disciples, and clearly to all us who read these words, was intended to shock us. By now, Christians have worn away the surprise from the words "serve" and "servant", and if we read through quickly enough, we can skip the words "bondservant" and "ransom". We are smart enough to see that if we carry this servanthood to an extreme, we become the willing victims of those who do seek power, and the church would never survive if we abdicate its operation to those who violate its principles. So, we appoint our leaders and challenge them to a God-led balance between leadership, authority, compassion, and servanthood.

There are mighty forces in society and in our human nature that emphasize leadership and authority, but there are no similar earthly forces encouraging compassion and servanthood. The Word must be strong in reinforcing these two concepts, and I firmly believe Jesus intended us to be startled and challenged every time we remember this precept. We know we must give ourselves daily to God as a living sacrifice. In the same way, we need to challenge ourselves to give ourselves as a "bondservant"—more accurately translated as "slave"—to others, just as Jesus willingly succumbed and paid the ransom for the kidnapping of humanity that Sin had perpetrated.

Of course we should fight slavery and kidnapping so that no one must be a slave or pay a ransom. Even though we have been more successful opposing these evils in our era than societies were two millennia ago, Jesus still used those detestable dramatic images to show how no evil and no personal limits should stop us from obediently following Love.

This, then, is why the exercise of Christian leadership should be noticeably different from secular leadership styles. Earthly leadership seeks to encourage followers to accept the leader's vision of what is best. A benevolent leader seeks what is best for the group rather than for himself. A wise leader encourages the group to have a voice in the leader's vision so they have a sense of ownership of the direction. A Christian leader must do both, but even more. A Christian leader must be eager to willingly and graciously lay down his authority and vision, just as Jesus laid aside his garments to wear a slave's towel and wash the disciples' feet.

This commission affects more than positions of church leadership. Every day in every action we are to follow the example of Christ and show grace and love to others, with no conditions to our submission. It is easy to defer to another when you anticipate that they would do the same to you. But to those who show us disrespect or hostility, our human nature insists we respond in kind. We don't want to allow the aggressive driver to cut in front of us, because his actions are not safe, not legal, and certainly not right! We want to compete for that promotion as earnestly and effectively as our coworkers, and we don't want the disadvantage of having to be supportive and gracious towards them as they take the financial rewards we might have gained. We know when we are doing something important, and we don't want to be interrupted by family members who are dealing with much more trivial matters.

We all long to be recognized by others as proficient, confident, and valuable. However, pursuing this normal, healthy self-image comes at the spiritual expense of others and ourselves unless our primary pursuit is being the servant of others.