Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant;
whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.
To serve others mostly seems like work. It is something which we know we ought to do. But we really doubt there is fulfillment to be found there. The saints seem to be special cases who can lose themselves in serving others and find true joy. But this joy is meant for all of us.
We are not created to be self-enclosed fulfillment machines. We only discover greatness and true life when we give ourselves away. We only receive in the measure in which we give.
If he gives his life as an offering for sin,
he shall see his descendants in a long life,
and the will of the LORD shall be accomplished through him.
The enemy wants us to think of serving others as a form of self-hatred or an absence of self-care. He doesn't want us to discover the genuine joy that can be found there. He is desperate that we keep our eyes on ourselves so that we don't discover the secret. Those who do discover it become great threats to the devil's power over humanity.
through his suffering, my servant shall justify many,
and their guilt he shall bear.
We cannot succeed on our own. We are too protective of ourselves. Our grip on our own lives is much too tight without help. If we truly want to be able to experience the joy that comes from loving and serving others we must rely on grace. We see the example of the one whose whole very self is for the Father and whose life on earth was love for us. We receive his own grace in order not be be served but to serve. And as we receive it we receive his joy in doing the Father's will
May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us
who have put our hope in you.
No comments:
Post a Comment