A leading servant Mark 10:35-45

Don't act like them. If you want to be great, you must be the servant of all the others. Mark 10:43 (CEV)

There is much lip service paid to the servanthood of those in power. Kings are said to ‘serve their country’, politicians ‘serve their constituents’, officials ‘serve the public’, and so on. In reality, those who have power tend to lord it over those who don’t have it. There are some, no doubt, who do truly serve others in their high positions; but experience has shown that those in power often end up viewing their position as a privilege to be exploited rather than as a means of serving others.

This tendency has, unfortunately, been evident in the history of the church; it is a constant danger facing the church even now. When human institutions gained power within the church, those running them set themselves up as the judges of people and the keepers and dispensers, rather than as the servants of the gospel. Such human institutions as councils, committees, presidents, chairmen, treasurers, and the like, are seemingly indispensable to the orderly life of denominations and congregations. But those who are involved in them dare never lose sight of the fact that their positions entitle them only to serve, never to lord it over the rest.

Martin Luther in his day saw that, when the church leadership ceased to serve only the Word — and that means only Jesus Christ, it began to enslave rather than to free people. He believed that, since all people were equally in need of forgiveness, without exception they stood on an equal footing before God. Within the church all were servants of Christ and of one another, and no one could earn any special rights or privileges from God.

There is, however, one right and privilege open to all who have received free forgiveness and whose lives have been reformed by the love of God in Christ: they are free to serve one another. As Paul says: ‘let love make you serve one another’ (Gal. 5:13 GNT). Real leadership in the church belongs to those who, like Jesus, walk the humble road of love, expecting ‘not to be served but to serve’.

Make us your willing servants, Father. Give us the heart and mind of your Son, Jesus Christ, that we may serve others as he served us. Amen.

(adapted by Pastor R.J. Mau from a devotion by Pastor A.G. Breglec.)