Jesus Is My Servant

Rebecca Sheridan
Sunday, October 20, 2024
Hebrews 5:1-10

    Quite some time ago, I was traveling by myself to Chicago, and as I was boarding, I was struggling to get my carry-on suitcase into the overhead bin.  A tall gentleman behind me said, “Here, let me help you with that.” As I turned around to thank him, I realized it was the governor of Nebraska.  He was flying coach, on my plane, going to see a Cubs game with his family.  That’s the most powerful politician I’ve ever met, face to face! And I definitely never expected to meet him on a plane flying coach!
    Have you ever been surprised to have someone you thought was a “higher up” do something humble and unexpected, perhaps something “beneath” them?  Well, as they say, we all put our pants on one leg at a time, whether you’re the president of the United States or a public-school janitor.  In our gospel for this morning, Jesus does something more surprising than the governor of Nebraska stooping down to help a lowly pastor from Omaha with her luggage:  he tells the disciples (and us) that the Son of Man has come “not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  This is a great reversal of what people expect of the Son of God and King of the Universe – aren’t we created by God to serve God and give God glory and praise? Isn’t this our primary purpose?  We’re supposed to serve God and others – now Jesus is saying he came to serve us?  This idea would have been shocking to people who believed that the Messiah had come to conquer the kings of this world and save the oppressed, maybe even through physical violence.  People were prepared to serve this Messiah King Jesus; they were not prepared to have him serve them.  And I wonder, how do we allow Jesus to serve us today?
    When we think of the different titles we can call Jesus – Lord, Master, Redeemer, Son of God and Son of Man – most of us probably do not think, “Servant” right away.  But of course, that is what Christ comes to do.  He feeds the hungry, heals the sick, and shows compassion on the outcasts.  He takes a towel and washes the disciples’ feet, which was what the servant of the house, not the host, was supposed to do.  Our first reading is one of four “servant songs” in Isaiah.  As Christians, we believe this passage is foretelling what Christ as our Messiah and Savior comes to do – to bear our infirmities and carry our diseases, to be wounded for our transgressions.  And then our reading from Hebrews describes Jesus as THE High Priest, above any human priest including Aaron, Moses’ brother.  We’ll look more closely at this description of Jesus as High Priest next week.  Here in chapter 5 we hear that Jesus didn’t choose himself to be high priest to glorify himself, but God appointed him to serve God and us by becoming our source of salvation.  Jesus our High Priest comes to serve the people and God, not to gain power for himself.  Jesus is our servant, and then calls us to serve alongside him in his name.  Imagine if you put this bumper sticker on your car: “Jesus Is My Servant.”  How would that change how people think of Jesus, and how does it change how YOU think of Jesus and yourself as a Jesus follower?
    When I was studying to be a high school English teacher, we had a “teaching lab” room that was set up like a typical classroom, except there was a long mirror on one wall.  It was a two-way mirror, so in the classroom you could see your reflection, but it served as a window for a small room on the other side for your peers and professor to observe your lesson and give you feedback on your teaching style.  It was a good way to practice before going into the real classroom with actual live (sometimes terrifying) high school students!  Yes, it was like one of those two-way windows you see in shows like Law and Order for interrogation rooms, but the function of this window was supportive, to help you and others evaluate yourself as a teacher.
    I’d encourage you this week to go back and read our passage from Hebrews chapter 5 thinking of Jesus as that two-way mirror.  Jesus comes to serve us – so that we can look to him as if through a window to see what we are called to do – how we can live like Christ in our communities, where we might be called to serve and grow as Christ-followers.  In observing Christ, we learn what it means to serve and to be servant leaders.  At the same time, Jesus as our High Priest and Servant reflects the very image of who God is back to us, as if we are looking into a mirror.  We are called to see Christ living in ourselves and in others.  Since the time of Aaron, the first appointed priest, this was the function of the priestly class for the people of Israel:  to represent God to the people, and to represent the people to God.  As Hebrews tells us, Christ becomes the only high priest we need to reveal most fully who God is for us, and to become fully one of us to give his life as a ransom for many.  Jesus as our High Priest serves as both a window to how we are to live in the world and as a mirror to reflect God’s glory and humble service to our neighbor.
    There are so many ways especially in this election season we are led to believe that to be the greatest we need to sit closest to the highest seat of power – as James and John vie for the right and left hand sides of Jesus in heaven.  Those who are rulers lord it over the rest of us.  “To the victor go the spoils.”  Jesus flips the script and says, “whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.”  These are difficult lessons that Jesus is teaching us in the gospel of Mark this month:  to be greatest you must be least.  We are called not to be served but to serve.  We are called not to accumulate wealth for ourselves but to give it away generously to those in need.  Winning in Christian terms is different than winning in the eyes of the world.  The mystery of faith is to accept Christ as Lord AND Servant at the same time and to believe that it is in this way of humble service, even unto death on a cross, that is what truly is the source of our eternal salvation.  Amen.