The Youngest Servant - Humility and Service

What is the difference between contemporary and biblical leadership? What is humility? What is service? Jesus shows us through his life.

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Transcript

The Youngest Servant

Good morning. One of the intimate moments in the life of Jesus was the night before he died. He gathered his disciples together and had an intimate dinner with them called "the last supper".  we see this in John chapter 13 and following.  during this time he washed his disciples feet. Since we all have heard about the story, let me ask a question that gets down to the crux of the story: what is it that we should do?

We know that Jesus washed the disciples feet and he told them to do the same to each other. Obviously doesn't mean to wash each other's feet, literally. So it is a symbolic meaning.  what symbolic act, behind the literal act, did Jesus do that he wants us, his disciples to do to each other.   while we think about this question, let's look at the context of the story.

The context of the story was that a question was raised by the disciples as to which one of them was the greatest.  let's turn to that passage in Luke  22:24 - 26, Luke  22: 24 - 26. I hope to stay in this passage for most of the sermon. Let me read it for us. 

A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. And he said to them, the Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them. And those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you. Rather let the greatest among you become as the youngest and the leader, as one who serves. 

In a sermon entitled the youngest servant, I want to show the difference that Jesus draws between worldly lifestyle and leadership and spiritual lifestyle and leadership.

I've divided the sermon into three parts. In the first part we will look at the  grasp for power. In the second part, we will look at the gift of person and the third part, we will look at two examples of a spiritual leadership and lifestyle.

First let's look at the grasp for power: worldly, lifestyle and leadership.

Let me come back to that verse in Luke chapter 22, verse 25. And he said to them, The Kings of the  Gentiles exercise Lordship over them. And those in authority over them are called benefactors. Now, the Jews were very familiar with the Gentile model of leadership. The Kings and emperors at that time thought that they were gods and they ruled with  tyrannical force and they use their positions of power to give out gifts and therefore, they were ironically also called as benefactors. 

a. A desire for power [00:03:06]

So first let's look at the desire for power 

in their classic song from 1986, the British pop duo tears for fears sings, these words all for freedom and for pleasure, nothing ever lasts forever. Everybody wants to rule the world. 

The disciples were talking about who would be the greatest among them or who is the greatest among them.

 the interesting thing is every time they had this conversation and you go back and see all the times that they had this conversation and you look back at the context, the context is that Jesus had just spoken about his death. And then these people are having these conversations about one of them is among the greatest.

 that's very interesting because it was as if, if Jesus was going to die, who is going to take his place among that group of men. In fact, in acts chapter one, verse six, they  asked Jesus, when will you come to establish the kingdom? Because in their minds, they always thought that Jesus was going to establish an earthly Jewish kingdom.

 so they were always trying to get the right position when that earthly kingdom happened. There is an innate desire in humans to be the greatest. Some people based on their temperament, don't want to be the greatest, but at least they want their kids to be greater than somebody else's kids.

So  we as humans want to be the greatest either personally or vicariously. This is seen more in the secular world. So, we want to be the greatest architect or the best engineer or the best surgeon. It's not usually seen in the Christian spiritual realm where we're not trying to be the best author in the world, or the best evangelist in the world, or the best preacher in the world. Yet that comparative mindset can creep into the church. The desire to be the greatest is likely the oldest sin. Satan had that problem. He was a great angel. He was one of the great angels at that time, but he wanted to be greater than God.

so he was pushed down. Obviously we are not trying to be greater than God, but yet the desire is there to be number one. Wanting to be great is commendable. But wanting to be greater has the element of pride because it is comparative.

CS Lewis, in his book, mere Christianity, writes this about pride:

pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having it more than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich or clever or good looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer or cleverer or better looking than others. If everyone else became equally rich or clever or good-looking, there will be nothing to be proud about.

It is a comparison that makes you proud. The pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone. The desire to be great is good, but the desire to be greater, like the sin of the devil, reeks of pride. 

b. the basis of power [00:06:41]

Secondly, let's look at the basis of power. When we say that someone is better or someone is greater, or we are greater, what are the parameters by which we are judging that. Usually it is economics or possessions or money or status or education or job type, or even maybe personal morality. We may say somebody is better based on personal morality.  culture perpetuates this desire for power.  that's why you see a countdown for everything. The top 20 or the top 10 or the top three. But success

and greatness are so ephemeral. Does anybody remember who won the super bowl five years ago or who won the champions league five years ago, or who won anything major five years ago? Because it's so fleeting and like a whisp of smoke.

What was great yesterday is gone and forgotten.  yet we constantly try to be the greatest. This mindset to be the greatest can creep into the church. So inadvertently we can think  of success in the church in worldly terms -  a person who has the biggest church or who's a great preacher or very charismatic, or has the most number of gifts, or the most prominent ministry or the most accepted by culture.

But there is no countdown in the Christian Church. There is no countdown, there is no number one. There is just different roles and individual progress. In first Corinthians chapter 12, it talks of the church as being a body. Obviously there are some organs in the body that are more important than others, just like the heart is more important than your big toe. But the idea is that everybody is important in the church. Just like everything in the body is important to make a completely functioning body. Having shown the disciples, the commonly accepted features of a worldly lifestyle, jesus now contrasts a spiritual lifestyle and leadership.

2. Gift of Person [00:09:07]

First, we looked at the grasp for power. Next let's look at the gift of person. Let's come back to that verse, Luke chapter 22, verse 26, following 25 and 26. And he said to them, the Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them and those in authority over them call benefactors, but not so with you rather let the greatest among you become as the youngest and the leader, as one who serves. This is absolutely unheard of. Which leader thinks of leadership this way?

He mentions two things here. Jesus mentions two things.  the first one is becoming the youngest, becoming the youngest. What does it mean that we need to become like the youngest in terms of greatness and leadership? When the disciples were clamoring to be the comparative greatest Jesus cautioned them and told them that they need to be the comparative youngest.

there are many verses in scripture that talk about pride and humility, and we know that pride is bad. Humility is good. God detests the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Pride goes before a fall.  then there are other verses that talk about  our  trying to be humble. We need to be humble. So let's read one of them. 

 First, Peter chapter five, verse six, it says humble yourselves therefore under God's mighty hand that he may lift you up in due time. 

Humble yourself. We know that humility is good. We know that God can humble us, which he does all the time, but this verse says humble yourself. Let me ask you a question? How. How do we humble ourselves?

Do we wear ragged clouds or walk with our head down or eat something simple for dinner or talk in a soft voice? How do we humble ourselves? There may be many ways, but I think this verse has one of the ways. It says here, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, let the greatest among you become as the youngest. In Eastern cultures and in ancient cultures, like the one Jesus was in, age determined rank.

Age determined rank. So you could be older, not necessarily smarter, but because you were older, you had more rank. You had more authority simply because of your age. In my parent's house, in my dad's house and mom's house, they have eight and nine siblings. The oldest sibling holds that position of authority.

While the youngest sibling has no position of authority. there is a huge difference between them. So in a large family get together, if you were the youngest kid of the youngest sibling, you had nothing going on for you because the youngest person had no respect, no rights, no status. And that is how it was in that culture.

The youngest had no respect, rights or status. So bringing or thinking yourself, even though you are great in terms of the world's eyes, thinking  of yourself as a youngest is thinking in terms of having no respect, rights or status. 

What does this look like? What does this look like for a person to give up his respect, his rights and his status.

We don't need to look too far because we can look at Jesus and see how he gave it up.  

in max Lucado's book, when God whispers your name, he writes, I think it's note worthy that the almighty didn't act high and mighty. The Holy one wasn't holier than thou. The one who knew it all wasn't a know it all. The one who made the stars didn't keep his head in them. The one who owns all the stuff of earth never strutted it. His purpose was not to show off, but to show up. He went to great pains to be as human as the guy down the street. He did not need to study, but he still went to the synagogue. He had no need for income, but still worked in the workshop. He had known the fellowship of angels and had heard the harps of heaven,

yet. It still went to parties thrown by tax collectors and upon his shoulders rested the challenge of redeeming creation, but he still took time to walk 90 miles from Jericho to cana to attend a wedding. They called him a blasphemer, but they never called him a braggart. They accused him of heresy, but never arrogance. He was branded as a radical, but never called unapproachable. 

Jesus became like the youngest without respect, rights or status. 

What would it look for us to become like the youngest. Obviously depends on our temperaments, but let me give you some ideas just to start the process for us to think like the youngest, no matter what our status is, no matter what our rank is, no matter what our respect is, to think like the youngest. 

If we were thinking like the youngest, we would not give our opinion for everything.

if we are thinking like the youngest, when another person's spiritual trajectory looks different than mine, I would not try to change it. If we are thinking like the youngest, if somebody else has experience is different than mine, I would not judge it. If I'm thinking like the youngest, then on all matters, including spiritual matters, I can afford to be ignorant, which is I don't have to be an expert in everything. Sometimes we try to be experts. Even in fields that we are supposed to be experts it. But if I'm like the youngest, I can allow for ignorance. I don't need to pretend like I know the whole Bible. I don't need to pretend like I'm the most experienced.

And we can remind ourselves that we are not owed anything by anybody.

Essentially by humbling ourselves, we are acknowledging that human opinion doesn't matter. Human opinion, including my own opinion about myself, doesn't matter. Human opinion is fickle. It is not comprehensive. It is not accurate and it can at any time.  So we are acknowledging that the only opinion that really matters about us is the opinion of God.

Nobody knows about a fickle human opinion more than Jesus. And he will tell you that the people who celebrate you today may ask for your crucifixion before the week is done.

b. Becoming a Servant [00:17:01]

Being like the youngest is just the first part.  so we come to the second part, becoming a servant. Let's read that verse again, Luke chapter 22, verse 26, but not so with you rather let the greatest among you become as the youngest and the leader. As one who serves

after Jesus said that we have to give up our respect, our rights and our status, he drops another bombshell. He says, now leaders need to be like servants. This is completely unheard of  in the leadership world and would have seemed ludicrous to the disciples. The modern era of servant leadership began with a paper written in 1970 by Robert Greenleaf, the servant as leader, who said that a servant leader is a servant first and not a leader first.

In the April, 2013 Washington post article written by Edward Hess, professor of business administration at the university of Virginia Darden school of business. He wrote this paper called servant leadership, a path to high performance. He researched well run organizations, such as Chick-Filet, home Depot, us Marine Corps, best buy ups, Ritz, Carlton room and board, whole foods, starbucks, Southwest airlines, Levi restaurants, and the San Antonio spurs.  the one common thread that ran through all of them is that they had servant leadership.

But we know the concept already -  for the last 2000 years it's been sitting in our Bibles. Mark chapter 10 verse 45 says for even the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. That is how the founder of the Christian faith is. And that is how he wants us, even those in Christian leadership to be. So in first, Peter chapter five, verse two, it reads be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care watching over them.

Not because you must, but because you are willing as God wants you to be not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve. 

We have heard that we need to serve, that we need to serve God. We need to serve people. We need to be a servant and so on. Let me ask you a question. What does it mean to be a servant?

What does it mean to serve?  Does it simply mean that we need to do menial tasks, like washing feet?

So I looked as a starting point for a definition for service and serving. The definition for service is a job that a servant does. A definition for servant is the person who serves. So you see how it went in circles. So I made my own definition. This is my own loose definition of service. Service is sacrificial submission to fulfill a need or a purpose. Service is sacrificial submission to fulfill a need or a purpose.

There is an element of sacrifice in it. When Jesus was watching the people put money in the money  boxes, he saw the rich people put money, and then he saw this old widow put 2 cents and he made the comment that the old widow, even though she put only 2 cents put more than the rich people.

 the reason for that is the sacrifice to her was more than for the rich people that have plenty more. So for example, when bill Gates contributes millions of dollars for social activity, it's great because it's helping a lot of people, but that is not sacrificial because he has billions more

service and giving always has an element of sacrifice. So Jesus is asking for humility on one side being like the youngest and sacrificial service on the other, and both are necessary. If you have humility without service, you have self flagellation. If you have service without humility, you have self righteousness, therefore, both are necessary.

In fact, in the example of Paul, you see how he lets go of his rights as an apostle and sacrificially serves to fulfill a need.

 first Corinthians chapter 9:19-23  let me read a few verses. Paul says this though. I am free and belong to no one. I have made myself a slave to everyone to win as many as possible.

I have become all things to all people, so that by all possible means I might save some 

first. We looked at the grasp for power. Then we looked at the gift of person and 

3. Examples [00:22:33]

thirdly, let's look at a couple of examples of being the youngest and the servant. Both examples from Jesus Christ because we have no better example than that of Jesus Christ.

a. Emptying of the self [00:22:48]

First let's look at the emptying of the self. Emptying of the self.  Philippians chapter two, verses five through eight. This is a  profoundly theological passage. I'm just gonna mention two sentences from it.  Philippians chapter two. Verses five through eight in your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ.

Jesus, who being in the very nature. God did not consider equality with God, something to be used to his, own advantage. You see, he did not hold onto his position. He let go of his respect, his rights and his status as he became as the youngest. Verse seven. Rather he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. He became as a servant and sacrificially fulfill the need for our salvation.

In the book chicken soup for the soul, there was this story that was submitted by a person who had seen this happen. She said that there was this little girl called Lisa that had a rare and serious disease that she probably would not survive. Her five year old brother also had the disease, but he overcame it.

And because he overcame it, he had the antibodies for the disease. So the doctor came to him and said, if you donate your blood to your sister, Lisa, she will get better. The little boy hesitated for only a moment before he agreed, and said, if it will make Lisa live again, I will do it. So the day came and he donated his blood and Lisa started to get his blood.

The initial smiles slowly faded from the boy's face and his lip trembled and his face became pale.  he asked the doctor, will I start to die right away? You see the little boy misunderstood the doctor, he thought that he had to donate all his blood so that his sister could live. When the plan of salvation was made to save future sinning humans, Jesus knew that every last drop of his blood would have to be shed so that we could get salvation and reconciliation back to the father. 

b. Washing of the feet [00:25:44]

The second example that I want to point at is what we started off with in John chapter 13. We all know the story.  They all came together for supper.

Jesus Rose up during supper  and he washed the feet of his disciples. At that time, there were two hand washings. The first hand washing was done by the head of the table.  this was done earlier on in the ceremony. In a later part of the ceremony, just before the main meal, all the people involved in the ceremony would get up and wash their hands.

But in the first hand washing only the head of the table would wash their hands, so when Jesus got up, there was no surprise because they thought that he was just going to go and wash his hands. But he got up, took off his upper garment, wrapped himself with a towel, poured water in a basin and started to wash the feet of the disciples. Now, the way they sat around the table was that they reclined at the table.  the way they reclined was: there was a table and there were no chairs. There was only cushions or divans that were around the table.  they reclined with their left hand and their feet were back so that they could eat with their right hand.

 to see how this is in an example, let's look at Luke chapter seven. This is an account, when more than a year before this incident, Jesus was invited to a Pharisees house. Luke chapter seven, verse 36 following when one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him. He went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table.

Who reclines at a table? Well, you recline at the table when there are no chairs. And that's how you sit. 

A woman in that town who lived a sinful life, learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisees house. So she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping. So the feet of the person was behind and that's why the woman stood behind them. 

Verse 44, then Jesus turned toward the woman and said to Simon, do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet. That was almost like a basic thing. As they walk on the dusty Jewish roads, they come back with dust on their feet.

The pharisee did not give water to wash their feet. As they came for the last supper, all their feet were dirty. So rather than doing hand washing, like the head of the table would, Jesus got up and like the slave in the room, he washed the feet of his disciples. In fact, this job was not for any slave.

This job would not be done by a Jewish slave. Only a non Jewish slave would wash the feet of somebody. It was such a demeaning job. It was such a humiliating thing. So I tried to think of some parallel or an equivalent for today that would be equally humiliating. And I could not think of anything quickly.

But I thought of something that is more disgusting than humiliating. What if somebody threw up and you had to clean it up? What if Jesus went around the room and cleaned up each disciples vomit.

Nobody wants to clean up somebody else's vomit. I mean, you have to pay me to clean up somebody else's vomit. Unless it's your kid. And even then, you know, you're gonna make them pay for it later on. but nobody wants to clean up somebody else's wallet. Imagine that next Sunday, when you went to church, you said right next to a person who has been causing you heartache for the last six months, for whatever reason. Has been causing you heartache for the last six months and you sat next to the person and that person did not come with his family. He came by himself and in the middle of the service, he throws up and passes out.

Now, what? What are you going to do?

I mean, you're not going to make him clean up. He passed out. He has no family members to clean up. Are you going to clean it up? You see, nobody wants to do it. It's a task that nobody wants to do.

foot washing was a humiliating task that even a Jewish slave wouldn't do.  Jesus started with Peter.  it was a  table with three sides occupied, one side, not occupied so that the food could come onto the table. So there were three sides that were occupied.

Peter sat in one corner and Jesus started with him. We think Jesus started with him because if Jesus ended with him. He would not have put up that much of a resistance, but Jesus started with him and so he gave this resistance as he was trying to defend the honor of Jesus. Opposite peter was John and there was nobody else in between. Opposite peter was John. How do we know this? Because at some point in the last supper, Peter asks John who was going to betray Jesus and nobody else heard it. Next to John on the left side of John was Jesus. How do we know this? At some point in the conversation, John asks Jesus secretly who was going to betray him.

 the Bible says that John leaned back into Jesus, and that can happen only when he sat on the right side and they were all using their left hand to recline. So on the left side of John was Jesus. On the left side of Jesus was Judas. How do we know this? Because at some point in the last supper, Jesus and Judas had a personal conversation.

When Jesus mentioned that somebody was going to betray him and all the disciples started talking amongst each other, Judas turned to him and asked, is it me master? And Jesus told him, yes. But therein lies the problem. According to Jewish law, if there are more than two people in a Passover, the center seat should be taken by the head of the table.

 in a group of 13 people on one side of the table, there are five seats. The center seat should have been reserved for the head of the table and that seat was taken by Judas.

And so  Jesus gave him the first dip Of  the bread and the herbs dipped in the wine. That first bite should have been taken by the head of the table. Instead, Jesus dipped it and as a sign that he was going to be the betrayer Jesus gave it to Judas. You see Judas had usurped the seat at the head of the table that belong to Jesus. And it was probably that incident that set in series, the motion of events and the dispute about who was going to be the greatest.

 as Jesus washed the feet of the disciples, he starts with Peter comes around the table, the last person to have their feet washed is John, but just before John, Jesus washes the feet of Judas, the one that who would betray him shortly.

 it would have been surprising if a Jewish slave washed the feet of everybody, but that's not what happened.

It is not that the disciples washed one another's feet. That's not what happened. It's not that the disciples washed the rabbi's feet. That's not what happened. It is that the Lord of the universe, the creator of the universe, the Lord and master himself washed the dirty feet of the disciples. And not only any disciple, he also washed the feet of the one who was about to betray him to death a few hours later. That is unthinkable.

once he was done, he wore his upper garment again, sat at the table and for the very first time accepted their terms of leadership for him as master and Lord,  as teacher and Lord, if the master humbled himself. How much more should his disciples. 

As the youngest person, Jesus did not hold on to his titles of teacher and Lord.

And as a servant, he fulfilled the need by washing the feet of everybody in the room. The feet needed to be washed because they were dirty and there was no slave there to wash it. And none of the disciples offered to wash it. So Jesus did. The interesting thing is that nobody washed the feet of Jesus.

The next time any fluid would touch the feet of Jesus would be when his own blood would bathe his feet as the nail pierced through it at his crucifixion.

Let me end with a story: 

On September five, 1986, pan am flight 73 left Mumbai international airport on its way to New York. But first it had to stop at Karachi, Pakistan, and then Frankfurt, Germany On this flight  were  380 passengers and 30 crew members. One of the crew members was a young lady by the name of Neerja Bhanot, who was a senior flight pursor.

After this incident, she was awarded India's highest peace time, gallantry award, the Ashak chakra. And she was also given awards by the United States government and the Pakistani government.

You see, when they landed at the Jinnah international airport in Karachi four Palestinian terrorists stormed the plane and took the plane hostage . As soon as they took the plane hostage, Neerja did something very crucial. She called the cockpit and asked them to escape. There were three people in the cockpit, the pilot, the copilot, and the flight engineer.

As soon as they got Neerja's message, they opened the overhead hatch and escaped the cockpit. These terrorists were members of the Abu Nidal organization and they were backed by Libya. And this organization was  targeting America and American interests. The goal was to hijack this plane, take it to Cyprus, and to use this as a hostage situation to freeze some Palestinian prisoners in Cyprus. But as soon as the pilots escaped the plane, when the terrorists  came to the cockpit, they found the cockpit empty.  so the plane could not take off and that by itself, saved hundreds of lives that day. But now Neerja was the senior most cabin crew member. So she had to take charge.

The terrorists, held her at gunpoint and asked her to announce that the flight was hijacked. They found an Indian American in one of the seats, and they brought them to the front, to come to the door, shot him and pushed his body out the exit. Then they asked Ninja to collect all the passports of all the passengers.

There were 380 passengers. She recognized that these terrorists were targeting American passengers.  so as she was collecting the passports, she told her attendance as she was collecting the passports, whenever they saw an American passport, she hid it.  There were 43 Americans on that plane.

She hid American passports and stuffed it underneath the seat secretly so that the terrorists wouldn't see and stuff, the rest of it down the garbage chute.  so the terrorists were not able to differentiate who was American and who was not American. After 17 hours at 9:00 PM, the fuel on the plane ran out and the plane was plunged into darkness.

At this point, the terrorists assumed that commandos would come into the plane and capture the plane.  so they started to fire their automatic weapons, indiscriminately, and they set off explosions inside the plane. When this happened Neerja quickly opened the exits.  she could have escaped first.

But she did not. She enabled people to escape. One by one people were deboarding through the exits, as there was shooting going on inside the plane. At the end, she was protecting three unaccompanied minors, one of them, a seven year old boy. she was protecting them and trying to help them deboard, the plane, when the terrorists came to her side, grabbed her by her hair and shot AK 47 bullets into her.

She was two weeks short of her 23rd birthday.

Ladies and gentlemen, to what extent would we go to serve? To what extent would we go to serve. A Christian is a person whose life is characterized by the surrender of respect rights and status and in the submission for the sacrificial service of God first and the sacrificial service of one another.

Amen.