Every Wednesday
Servant of All
By David Guzik in Enduring Word
And He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.” (Mark 9:35)
Mark was careful to record that Jesus said this after He sat down. This was important because by sitting down, Jesus showed that he was going to teach. It was the custom in those days that a Rabbi, when teaching – especially teaching something important – would sit down while His listeners stood. This was a way to say, “This is important.”
The question at hand (Mark 9:34) was, “Who would be the greatest?” This seemed to be one of the favorite topics of conversation among the disciples. Jesus could have answered the question, “Hey everybody – don’t forget that I’m the greatest.” But Jesus did not put the focus on Himself. For an example of greatness, Jesus put forth the last and the servant.
Of course, Jesus is the greatest in the kingdom – no one is greater than He is! So, when He said last and servant, He was really describing Himself, and He accurately toldus about His nature. Christ was truly first in all the universe, yet Jesus made Himself last of all and servant of all for our sake.
In this, Jesus challenged His followers to be last of all. The desire to be praised and to gain recognition should be foreign to a follower of Jesus. Jesus wants us to embrace last as a choice, allowing others to be preferred before us, and not only because we are forced to be last.
Jesus also challenged us to be the servant of all. In the worldly idea of power, a great man is distinguished by how many people serve him. In ancient China, it was sometimes fashionable for wealthy men to grow their fingernails so long that their hands were unusable for basic tasks. This demonstrated that they did not need to do anything for themselves; a servant was always there to wait on them. The world may think of this as greatness, but God does not. Jesus declared that true greatness is shown not by how many serve you, but by how many you serve.
In the following verses, Jesus used a child as an example of kingdom greatness. In that day, children were regarded more as property than individuals. It was understood that they were to be seen and not heard. Jesus said that the way we receive people regarded like children shows how we would receive Him.
Because Jesus is last of all and servant of all and in some sense like a child, when we honor and receive a child – or someone who is a servant like Jesus – we honor and receive Jesus Himself.
Do you want to be great? It’s not bad to have ambition, but we should be ambitious to serve others – not to have them serve us. That is the way of Jesus, who was truly the greatest in the kingdom.