A few months ago, my daughter learned how to operate our Keurig coffee maker. It’s an easy machine to operate, so it makes sense that my 5 year old would be able to brew a perfect cup of coffee. The fantastic part of this newly acquired skill is that she loves bringing me coffee in the morning. If I stay in bed longer than she does, she wakes me up with a cup of coffee. I’ll confess, coffee in bed is one of my favorite things in life. My little girl understands that and, because she loves me, she does this thing for me. She knows it makes me happy, so she is happy to do it. I’m sure she won’t keep it up until she goes to college, but I can always hope. For the time being she is demonstrating one of the great lessons that Jesus taught his followers.
Both Matthew and Mark recount times when Jesus’ followers were arguing about which one of them would be the greatest in God’s kingdom. Jesus corrected by explaining that the greatest in God’s kingdom was anyone who serves the folks around them. The word he uses to explain service was the greek word that literally meant “waiting on tables”, which would be the job of a servant. The whole teaching can be boiled down to the idea that folks who are following Jesus and his teachings are supposed to take care of the needs of those around them.
Elsewhere, Jesus demonstrates this servant attitude by washing his disciples feet. In our culture this sounds weird. In the ancient world, this was a necessity. Folks wore sandals, walked dirt roads in a very hot climate, and they lived amongst animals. Daily foot washing was a must. However, it was considered to be a humiliating job, reserved for the lowest person in the household. Jesus did this job and directed his disciples to do the same thing. He called them to service and an attitude of humility in their serving.
Jesus pushed this teaching to a whole other level in the sermon on the mount, when he told his followers to serve their enemies and those who mistreated them. He taught them to go above and beyond what folks asked them to do if they forced them to work or sued them. He topped it off with the direction to love enemies and pray for persecutors. Really, at the heart of Jesus’ ethical teachings is the mandate that we love God and our neighbors.
My daughter likes serving me because she loves me. It’s an easy thing to do good for folks you love. This is often lost in our modern world, where “might makes right” and “an eye for an eye” tend to guide our thinking. Applying the teachings of Jesus and living above reproach is radical and hard. However, becoming like Jesus is the key to being in right relationship with God and to becoming great in God’s kingdom.
