Amen, amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master
nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him.
If Jesus did not see himself as entitled to a life of ease and comfort than neither could his disciples. If, as was the case, he saw his entire life as defined by service to others, epitomized by washing his disciples feet, then so too must his disciples live as servants of others. The temptation would be for disciples to put themselves first while the master seemed to be absent.
But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites (see Matthew 24:48-51).
The risk was not necessarily that disciples would suddenly and violently abuse those in their charge. It was more that as time passed and the disciples endured misfortunate and suffering they would come to see themselves as entitled or deserving. They would then begin to slip into taking advantage of their followers as small ways because, after all, their own lives were so difficult, and surely they had earned it.
It is not only the clergy in our own day who are at risk of slipping into a complacency stemming from a sense of deserving and entitlement. It is a risk for all of us. It tends to begin with self-pity, with a woe is me attitude, which itself already reveals a lack of thanksgiving. When such attitudes are allowed to persist we find ourselves more and more able to justify little excesses. My life is so hard, we think, surely God won't hold this against me. This is a dangerous path because, although it might be fairly harmless and innocuous at the beginning, there are no limits to what it can justify. This is why we desperately need to internalize the truth that, "We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty" (see Luke 17:10), and this not as a statement of self-pity, but of simple truth. Our only claim to receive should be based on the generosity of the master himself and not on what we imagine to be wages that are our due.
I know those whom I have chosen.
But so that the Scripture might be fulfilled,
The one who ate my food has raised his heel against me.
From now on I am telling you before it happens,
so that when it happens you may believe that I AM.
It was not unexpected for Jesus that he encountered opposition and betrayal. We are not greater than our master. If our walk with Jesus has difficulties we should remember that he told us before it happened. Just as he wanted his disciples to be able to believe that he was "I AM" even in spite of his passion and death so too does he want to build a faith in us that can persist even when battle tested in the real world, even when we ourselves are called to follow the path of Calvary.
Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send
receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.
Only after firmly establishing his disciples must be servants did he speak to them about the authority of their teaching. Had he begun thus the disciples could perhaps have become prideful, thinking of their own superiority as the emissaries of Jesus and the Father, expecting and demanding that others accept them as Jesus and as the Father, but without imitating the heart of service and love that characterized the Triune God. Here things were properly ordered. The authority of teaching must be in the service of those who were taught, every bit as much as the washing of the feet was for those whose feet were washed.
Paul understood the servant leadership Jesus intended to teach. He endured much in order to make the message of the Gospel available free of charge, never making full use of what might be called his rights in proclaiming the Gospel (see First Corinthians 9:15). His concern was not to lord it over those who heard him, but to make the offer of salvation as clearly as he could.
From this man’s descendants God, according to his promise,
has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus.
Let us ask for sufficient thanksgiving to overcome self-pity, sufficient gratitude for the gift of grace that we not begin to live with a sense of entitlement. Let us ask Jesus to make our hearts like his own so that we can not only provide others with the truth, but do it genuinely for their sakes.
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