As we begin today, let me ask you this: DO YOU HAVE A SERVANT’S HEART? If we are growing in our discipleship—as followers of Jesus Christ, we will be growing in this area of our lives… Howard Snyder says in his work called Decoding the Church,
“The purpose of the church is not to help people be religious; it is to help them live like Jesus Christ seven days a week.” — Howard Snyder, Decoding the Church
And, folks, quite frankly … that’s exactly what Jesus was trying his best to do with his disciples, too—to get their ‘family resemblance’ in place … in their everyday lives… Listen to our Bible story for today:
“Then the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus with her sons. She knelt respectfully to ask a favor. 21 ‘What is your request?’ he asked. She replied, ‘In your Kingdom, please let my two sons sit in places of honor next to you, one on your right and the other on your left.’ 22 But Jesus answered by saying to them, ‘You don’t know what you are asking! Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering I am about to drink?’ ‘Oh yes,’ they replied, ‘we are able!’ 23 Jesus told them, ‘You will indeed drink from my bitter cup. But I have no right to say who will sit on my right or my left. My Father has prepared those places for the ones he has chosen.’ 24 When the ten other disciples heard what James and John had asked, they were indignant. 25 But Jesus called them together and said, ‘You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. 26 But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. 28 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.’” – Matthew 20:20-28
I’m not sure that the disciples got it—this thing called servanthood! Folks, today’s message is still all about our ‘spiritual genetic code’; what we’re talking about is still our spiritual DNA … as cells in (or parts of) the living Body of Christ!
- What kind of cells are we going to develop into … and will there be a family resemblance?
- Beyond that (referring to last week’s message about us being ‘stem cells for the Kingdom of God), what kind of cells are we going to reproduce in the Body of Christ … right here?
To recap that past couple of weeks, we began by asking the question: Do churches have DNA? And the answer was a resounding ‘YES!’ We’re not just an institution! What we are together is … THE LIVING BODY OF CHRIST! And, if we’re a living Body, we have to have DNA—at least ‘spiritual DNA’ in the case of the Church…
We’d talked about the general DNA of Christ’s Body (p.880, UMH—the Nicene Creed)—characteristics that all churches should have in common. Then, last week, we began to talk about our specific DNA as the Body of Christ right here in Southwest Wisconsin. Who is God calling us to be … specifically?
- We are to be a people who LOVES GOD … like Jesus taught us to in Matthew 22:37-38 … with ALL OF OURSELVES!
- We are to be a people who LOVES OTHERS … like Jesus taught us to in Matthew 22:39 … JUST AS WE LOVE OURSELVES!
Finally, today, we add the last piece of our specific DNA—who God is calling us to be as Jesus’ disciples … right here in Southwest Wisconsin! And, we turn to our Bible story for today for that final piece. And I want to begin here:
TO BE THE GREATEST OF ALL… Verse 20 says, “Then the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus with her sons. She knelt respectfully to ask a favor.” Sometimes, even when we worship, we need to check our motives!
So, what kind of an attitude do we come to worship with? Here, we see the mother of James & John—possibly Mary the mother of Jesus’ sister (according to a recent scholar I read)—coming to her nephew (if that’s the case) and asking a personal ‘family’ favor of him… How many times have we tried to promote our children, only to have the situation turn out worse because of our meddling? Well, we just wanted our kids to get ahead … didn’t we? WE WANT OUR KIDS TO BE GREAT!
I don’t know if it’s about parents trying to relive their childhood through their children or what, but this happens so often—where parents will push their kids in an area that they see some potential, not even realizing that our kid may not even like doing what we’re pushing them to do. WE JUST WANT OUR KIDS TO BE GREAT, DON’T WE? That’s what James’ and John’s mom wanted to, I’m sure! She wanted greatness for her boys! That’s the gift that she wanted to give them … but, what she found out was that … IT WASN’T HER GIFT TO GIVE!
She came before Jesus … and “She knelt respectfully [a posture of worship] to ask a favor.” She got a part of it right. But, instead of just worshipping because the One we worship is worthy … she really wanted to know: ‘What can I get out of this?’ It was a very selfish act, indeed! And the conversation continued in verse 21: “‘What is your request?’ he asked. She replied, ‘In your Kingdom, please let my two sons sit in places of honor next to you, one on your right and the other on your left.’”
In verse 22 Jesus then responds: “But Jesus answered by saying to them, ‘You don’t know what you are asking! Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering I am about to drink?’ ‘Oh yes,’ they replied, ‘we are able!’” (It’s pretty easy to say that we’re willing to be martyrs … until we’re actually face-to-face with martyrdom!) Getting back to the mother of these disciples, the truth is … sometimes we don’t really know what we’re asking for …even when asking for our kids! And we really do need to check our motives at all times…
If you take notice of how Jesus responded here, what you will see is a response of love… He didn’t chastise them (v. 23) when they readily responded in the affirmative; instead, he simply stated the fact they would eventually share in the persecution that he was about to face… But, even more than letting them know that they were just a bit off base here … Jesus needed to teach them what it meant to be a servant in His kingdom… TO BE THE GREATEST OF ALL…
… IS TO BE THE SERVANT OF ALL! Verses 26-27 remind us of Jesus’ teaching here: “But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave.” “But among you”—three words that changed the world!
- But among you … there will be love—both for God and for each other…
- But among you … there will be love … that begins with God—loving with all we have and all we are…
- But among you … there will be love … for your neighbor—equally as strong as your love for yourself…
- But among you … the greatest of all … will be motivated by those relationships of love … to SERVE…
Let’s check our motivation here: WHY IS IT THAT WE SERVE THE CHURCH—THE LIVING BODY OF CHRIST? Is it because we belong to a really cool club … and we have a need to fulfill a sense of duty? Is it more about self-preservation (i.e. our place in the club) … than advancing God’s kingdom? Or do we serve … simply because we love God that much? Our greatness in serving … has to come directly from our personal relationship with God—we love him so much that we can’t help ourselves: WE HAVE TO SERVE HIM! I’m going to use an extremely simple illustration here, as I close, but first let me say this: If God is calling us to be a people who: LOVE GOD, LOVE PEOPLE, and SERVE GOD by SERVING OTHERS … then all of these aspects of our ‘spiritual genetic code’—our DNA as a congregation—need to go together; they cannot be separated…
One of the great joys of my life … is making my wife, Jane, a cup of tea! Now, I know what some of you are thinking. How in the world can making someone else a cup of tea … over and over and over again … bring anyone JOY? Think about it:
- Is trying to figure out what kind of tea she’s going to want next (at whatever time of the day it is) really all that fun? (Fellas, does it really bring you JOY trying to read your wife’s mind?) This, quite frankly, is the hardest part for me…
- Or, think about the mechanics of it: Is it really all that fun … cleaning up the hot water pot every week, making sure there’s water in there for the next time it’s used, and then turning on the hot water pot the next time you think she’s going to want tea?
Could any of this really bring a person JOY? Yes. It does to me. Why? Because it’s not just a job done out of a sense of duty … because I belong to this club called ‘marriage’ … or because making tea is a really fun thing to do! IT BRINGS ME JOY … BECAUSE OF THE INCREDIBLE LOVE I HAVE FOR JANE! I LOVE HER SO MUCH … THAT I CAN’T HELP MYSELF! I HAVE TO SERVE HER … because it’s done out of a relationship of love … and it brings me great JOY!
Folks, that may be a simple illustration, but it points to what I want to get across to you today. Our service, in the Living Body of Christ—the Church, needs to come from our … incredible love for God! Because we love God so much … we can’t help ourselves; we have to serve him…
The Greatest DNA we can have is that of SERVANTHOOD! We need to be ‘stem cells for the Kingdom of God’ that are developed into parts of his Body that love … like crazy! And, the order is so important … because your life won’t begin to change, until you first…
- LOVE GOD … with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your mind (all of YOU)! When we learn to do that, then we’re ready to…
- LOVE PEOPLE … just as we love ourselves—which in most cases is more than anyone else in the world. (We’re very good at looking after ourselves, aren’t we?) When we learn to truly love our neighbor as we love ourselves, then we’ll be ready to…
- SERVE GOD BY SERVING OTHERS … because we just can’t help ourselves! We love God so stinkin’ much … that we just have to serve him! That will bring the greatest JOY to our lives that we’ve ever known (and those who’ve gone on past mission trips have experienced at least some of this)…
Folks, what Jesus was telling his disciples in today’s lesson—in no uncertain terms—was that the greatest DNA … has within its core—at the very center of its existence … servanthood! And, that’s servanthood … Jesus’ way!