To Serve? ... To be Served?

Jesus said, "I come not to be served but to serve." It took the disciples a long while to realize how different is Jesus' way of serving. Yet Jesus called them to serve in the same way: to carry their cross and follow him.

Jesus served until he was crucified on the cross. He died on the cross with these as his last words, "It is finsihed". On the cross, the best he was served with was vinegar, and in his death, he was served with a rich man's tomb.

This way of Jesus: serve and not to be served gave him the place of honour that he once emptied in incarnation is not merely restored, but exceeded in splendour, in authority, and excellence.

What do we expect "to be served" with?
Jesus brought his disciples with him walking from village to village and town to town towards Jerusalem. His followers were, all along the way, looking eagerly for the Moment to come: the enthronement of Jesus as Israel's saviour-king. When he entered Jerusalem's gateway, throngs of residents and pilgrims hailed him as the promised royal redeemer of Israel who would return to make his rightful claim to the throne of David.

But it did not turn out that way.

Hence, Peter's disappointment, "Lord, I have forsaken all and followed you..." Left unspoken, Peter uttered his broken dreams: What do I have now for all my commitment to follow you? So, too, for Salome, James' and John's mother. She wanted to see her sons obtain the best reward of following Israel's expected Redeemer. Putting aside all common courtesy and grace, she asked from Jesus point blank, "When you have the kingdom, let my two sons sit enthroned with you, one on your right and the other on your left."

But it did not turn out so. Jesus was put to death.

What about the other disciples? At the dinner table as they sat down for what came to be known as the Last Supper, they debated among themselves the topic "who is the greatest among us". This argument still rages on today. Like Haman, we mobilize and organize men and fill their hearts with hope to the end that we, and we alone, shall obtain the chief honour. We succeed. Then we are asked how should such a personage (for thus we have become, a person of importance) be rewarded, Haman's answer may well be ours, "For the man whom the king desires to honour, let the bring a royal robe which the king has worn, and the horse on which the king has ridden, and on whose head a royal crown has been placed..." Esther 6:8-9. Haman did not get it, instead he was sentenced to death.

How did Jesus Serve?
It appears then, whether one follows the path of Jesus or Haman, the end is the same: disappointment at the eventual end of the one whom we followed.

Yes, but Jesus rose again and was raised up to heaven in the sight of all his followers. Haman remained dead, his family fortunes confiscated by the king.

Jesus asked Peter three times at one occasion after he rose from the dead and before he was taken up to heaven visibly,"Simon bar-Jonah, do you love me more than these?" Jesus did not offer a seat of honour and glory either to the two brothers but he told them that they had to drink the cup that he was drinking.

Peter did come to drink Jesus' cup. He let go of his earthly way of service as a means "to be served". He was not bothered any more with what others were getting, or what glory he was winning. When he lived in that manner of serving, he witnessed the glory of the risen Jesus Christ, to whom is given all power and authority and dominion. He was then able to say to the man lame from birth, "Gold and silver I have none, but what I have I give to you, 'In the name of Jesus, get up and walk.'"

How am I serving?
Desire Mercier says, "We give not only with what we have, we must give what we are."

It is not a matter of how much money or time or effort that I use in my serving, nor even how well I do any of my works of service.

It is, Will I give all of me first to God and then to the brothers and sisters and all who are my neighbours? Just as crucial, Will I give the Jesus who lives in me and all he is to me to other men to serve them?

-Rev Khoo Cheng Hoot