Three Big Bad Reasons Not To Serve
Aug 29, 2010 Matt. 20:20-28
Intro:
This summer we’ve been looking at the fundamentals of Christian living. For the past couple weeks, as preparation for the fall kick off of our ministries and especially our new ministry taking place on Wednesday night, we’ve been talking about the fundamental posture that Christians should have towards our world: the posture of service. We’ve looked at God the Father’s example of service towards Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:21, where God makes proper clothing; and last week we looked at the example of Jesus in washing the disciple’s feet in John 13, where Jesus very bluntly says “if I’m God and I’m glad to serve, you better go serve also”.
Today I want to continue that same theme but from a different point of view. We have the example, we have the command, we have the promise of the Holy Spirit to empower, so the question for today is quite simply: they why don’t we? What stops us? What keeps us from serving? To start us thinking about this, why don’t you call out some reasons that come to mind and I’ll write them on the flip chart here.
I was driving home the other day, and driving is generally my time of quiet where my mind is free to wander around the issues, problems, ideas, and significant things going on in my life, and I was just thinking further about an email after last week’s sermon further engaging the ideas, and I suddenly had an entire sermon outline pop into mind. That isn’t normal for me… so I processed it and decided maybe it was the Holy Spirit. The thought in my mind was this: there are three big bad reasons we don’t serve, which are undercurrents in the reasons we’ve mentioned already: pride, fear, and shame. Let’s hear some stories.
Pride:
The first reason not to serve is found in a story from the book of Matthew. “17 As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside privately and told them what was going to happen to him. 18 “Listen,” he said, “we’re going up to Jerusalem, where the Son of Man will be betrayed to the leading priests and the teachers of religious law. They will sentence him to die. 19 Then they will hand him over to the Romans to be mocked, flogged with a whip, and crucified. But on the third day he will be raised from the dead.”
20 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.”
It is a familiar story with a well-remembered conclusion: “even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others.” It is the same theme we saw last week when Jesus served by washing the disciple’s feet. The story starts really heavy – mocking, whipping, crucifixion, all as soon as we get to Jerusalem. The next scene, and please don’t miss the irony: James and John and their mommy, looking for extra special privilege. It is so ludicrous that it is humorous, James and John don’t ask directly, that might be too presumptuous, but mom can ask on their behalf…but they are right there, right in the middle of it, caught right up in the worldly ideas of power and kingdom and authority. “sure Jesus, whatever we have to do to get those positions of power that we deserve because of what great disciples we are…”
Do you see pride? The other disciples did, and they were indignant because why should James and John get the seats of privilege instead of them? And they display the same heart. Jesus, however, sees right through it in all of them, and then flips it all on its head. “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.” Jesus’ Kingdom flips earthly ideas and priorities on their head, and lifts service – “become your slave” even – into the foremost place in Kingdom priority.
I believe Jesus still sees through our pride, and our self-importance, and still prescribes exactly the same thing - service. Our pride can keep us from being willing to humble ourselves and serve, it is easy for us to think that we are too good, too important, too valuable for that kind of menial work. Jesus says the opposite: “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.”
Fear:
So pride can be a big bad reason not to serve, so can fear. The second story addresses the second reason, fear, and it is Norma’s story not mine so I’m going to ask her to tell it.
“While you were asking us to think about our actions, I was thinking about the reasons that we wouldn't get on our hands and knees and wash the feet of others. The first thing that came to mind was fear and out of my own experience I realized how our fear can prevent us from really blessing others and in turn be fully blessed ourselves.
When we started at the Casa in Bolivia and also when we went to the baby-wash I had a real fear of catching lice from the kids. These were children who were dirty and not always smelling so fresh. I caught myself holding back not wanting to get to close physically because of my fear of lice but that also affected my heart as well. I held the kids back at a distance literally and emotionally. I realized (luckily fairly quickly) that I was just gonna have to suck it up and get over the fear and once I began to physically be myself with the kids through hugs and having kids sit on my knee or whatever that I truly showed them love. Our relationships changed because I no longer held back.
At the baby wash it was the same thing. The first time we went I sat and combed out the young girls long hair after it had been washed at the previous station. What I didn't realize that this was safe for me. The second time we went Brian and I were placed in front of a large Rubbermade bucket full of water and we washed the hair of 20 or more elementary kids, youth and even adults hair. I was immediately faced with my fear of bugs and lice but once again realized it was my fear and not Jesus' way. I had to deliberately lay aside my fear and get my hands in and begin washing without hesitation. I was so blessed by this day I will never forget it. My fear would have prevented me from loving with the compassion of Jesus if I had let it. If I had carried out the task continuing in fear. It wouldn't have been that act of worship but an act of religious duty. I would have not engaged the same way and shared Jesus through my actions. I wouldn't have been blessed through it all. I probably would have left disgusted and negative and full of pity.
Jesus wasn't afraid to touch the disciples dirty, smelly and maybe even open wounded feet!!! Fear may be a stumbling block to the attitude of the servant as we move forward this fall. Tangible fears like mine.”
Norma’s testimony is quite simply this – fight through the fear, and discover incredible blessing. Even if your circumstances are different, I bet many of us can relate to the feeling of fear and how that stops us from obeying what God has commanded us to do. And if the testimony of blessing for fighting through fear and obeying isn’t enough, then hear this, from Romans 8: “If God is for us, who can ever be against us? 32 Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? 33 Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. 34 Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us. 35 Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? 36 (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) 37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.”
Shame:
So Pride and Fear can stop us from serving, there is one more, and it is in this last story. I have mostly good childhood memories, but this one isn’t good. It was grade five, I was nine years old, and it was shortly before the end of the school day. I think I was upset at some homework assignment that I didn’t want to do, but I really have no recollection of the specifics, I just remember feeling angry at my teacher for whatever it was, so when her back was turned away, I made a crude and completely inappropriate gesture at her. One that nine-year-old boys shouldn’t make. One that, if I were caught, would certainly land me in a boat-load of trouble. And not just a little tiny boat, but a larger-sized boat.
This was somewhat out of character for me, which is worse because if I were a badly behaved child and such gestures were commonplace the rest of the story might not have happened. But as it was out of character for me, it drew the rather unwelcome attention of another classmate. Now, the honest truth is that I no longer have any idea who it was. I think I repressed that. But he noticed both the gesture and that it was out of character for me, and quickly decided he could use this to his advantage. He decided to blackmail me.
I don’t remember his exact words, but they were something like, “I saw that, and if you don’t bring me money tomorrow at lunch time, I’m going to tell the teacher what you did.” What I do remember is the sheer terror I felt. I had been wrong, and I knew it. And this classmate knew what I had done, and could tell I was an easy target for manipulation.
It was the first time I understood the devastating power of a secret – I knew the devastation and he had all the power. I was terrified. I went home and raided my piggy bank, literally. I had very little, but I took some and the next day he told me to meet him just at the beginning of lunch time and pay up. And I did. And he said, “good, now you better do the same tomorrow or I’m gonna tell.” And so that night again I took some more out of my piggy bank, and the same thing happened. And again. And again. It got to be a habit, and I felt like if I could just keep bringing him money my secret would be safe and I would be ok. I remember trying to ration out the coins, make them last as long as possible, and I remember when I ran out of money in my piggy bank, frantically trying to figure out how I would pay up, and making up lies to tell my mom about something or other I needed money for at school, and I remember getting mad when she said “no” one day and I knew that was going to be it, I had nothing left to give to the grade 5 extortioner.
I don’t know if you can relate to the specifics, but we can all relate to the root feeling: it was shame. I had been wrong, and I knew it, and was ashamed of it, and felt I had to hide it. So ashamed that another person could take advantage of me, even though we were both only children. We saw the same root in the story we looked at two weeks ago of Adam and Eve feeling shame, the shame of sin. Let me refresh your memory: “7 At that moment [the moment of sin] their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves… 21 And the Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife.” Adam and Eve felt shame, and tried to fix the problem, but it took an intervention from God Himself to provide for their need, and then it took the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and His resurrection from the dead, and our acceptance of forgiveness and a new identity as children of God, in order to finally remedy this root problem, so that now we know “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death” (Rom 8:1-2).
What does this have to do with why we don’t serve others as Jesus modeled and commanded? Quite simply, and quite directly this: shame sucks the life out of us. It literally leads into death, it focuses us on ourselves, on how bad we are, on what will happen if we get caught, on what others will think of us if they find out we had an abortion, we had an affair, we lied to our best friend, we cheated, we got ourselves stuck in pornography, we swore at a grade 5 teacher. Ahhh! If only the people around you knew who you really were, they would recoil, run in disgust, reject you outright – wouldn’t they? Certainly, because of how bad we are. I mean, after all, isn’t that what God does…? HA! There is the lie, can you see it? Shame causes us to run and hide because we expect to get what we deserve, when the truth sets us free. Others profit from keeping us in misery, God delights in this thing we call grace. Underserved, unmerited, grace. There is no condemnation, there is freedom. And when we find that, we are free to live, we are free to serve, our eyes move off of ourselves because the terror of being exposed for what we really are holds no power over us, we’ve been exposed before God and found love and not condemnation.
Is there something holding you back that relates to this area of shame? My friends, I was a terrified nine year old bankrupted by guilt and shame, living in fear, and manipulated and abused by a peer, when I didn’t have to live like that. You don’t have to live another moment like that. I could have told my mom, as a parent now I have a pretty good idea how she would react and it would not be with harshness or punishment, she would have come to my defense against this other student – yes, made me admit and apologize for what I did that was wrong but also make him take responsibility for his blackmail. And you can do the same with your heavenly parent. And if you need an earthly voice of pardon, let me go for coffee and be the voice of God to you that says, “1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death”.
Conclusion:
Shame. Fear. Pride. There might be other reasons not to serve, but these three are big ones, and these three are all dealt with – powerfully, forcefully, and finally at the cross and the empty tomb. None of these are good ways to live, and the way of Jesus is a way of freedom from all of these. Freedom from pride, feeling like we are so important or busy or consumed with our own interests that we miss the greatest joys in life that come from serving others. Freedom from the fear of getting dirty, getting sick, getting injured, or even getting inconvenienced, and finding the great joy in life that comes from serving others. And freedom from shame, that locks us in our sin, crushes us under a weight of guilt that in the light of the empty tomb is ludicrous because it is forgiven and there is no condemnation.
And then we are free to live, free to serve others, and free to hear the delight in Jesus’ voice, saying “I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!” (Matt 25:40). That is worth living for.
