Mark 10:43-45 Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
The Word became flesh in order to serve us and to die in our place. That’s why we can celebrate Christmas. We celebrate not only the arrival of the Infant-King, but the One who came to serve us and to suffer on our behalf. For His entrance into the world would have been to no avail if He hadn’t done what He came to do. But Jesus did accomplish the entirety of His mission. Hallelujah!
Jesus touched blind eyes. He blessed children. He stilled storms. He cast out demons. He walked many miles, put in many hours each day to add value and quality of life to people society had already discarded. He took time to have healing conversations with people. He fed the hungry. He lived in friendship with His disciples. There were endless lessons to teach. His work was not done until He cried out from the cross, “It is finished!” All of this, because Jesus came to serve and to die. Service and sacrifice were the path to greatness, and Jesus called His disciples yet again to follow Him down that road.
When I consider the ways Jesus served, I see three immediate characteristics of the way He gave His life even before He laid it down on the cross. I would say that Jesus served:
- Willingly
- Intentionally
- Sacrificially
Jesus willingly, voluntarily came to serve and save. While it’s true that the Father sent Jesus on this serving, search and rescue mission, Jesus also willingly laid down His life. In John 10, Jesus repeatedly spoke of laying down His life. All He did, all He accomplished, all He gave, all He sacrificed…it was all an act of His will that was in accordance with the will of the Father. The two were on the same page, but Jesus wasn’t coerced to cooperate; He volunteered for the job. Hebrews 7:27 says He offered Himself up. There was no arm-twisting. Jesus was a willing servant.
Not only was Jesus’ service done willingly, but it was also done intentionally.
Look at Mark 10:45 again: “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Jesus was on a mission to serve. He possessed a resolve to be engaged in people’s lives in a way that placed Him in the position of a servant. He didn’t sit around waiting for service calls. He went out looking for jobs to do, for needs to meet. His service was intentional. When Jesus read His job description, His life’s mission, out loud in Luke 4:18-19, He was sharing how He intended to live. He said, 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed,19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
He planned to minister to, to connect with, to reach and to love and serve all people.
And in practical ways, Jesus went about meeting needs which eased the burdens people were facing. Whether He fed them or took time to teach them a better way, through selfless service, He lifted their load.
Jesus didn’t isolate Himself from opportunities to serve people. Jesus didn’t insulate Himself from other people’s problems. He inserted Himself into them because He came for the purpose of serving all people. It didn’t matter if it was a despised tax collector, thief, prostitute or shady religious leader; His heart was open to them. He went to their homes. He walked miles and miles out of His way to teach and encourage people. He didn’t care about their reputation or limitation, their past or their present. If there was a burden to ease, He moved in.
Have you ever thought about what could have been His motivation? I mean, He could have come, lived a sinless life and still died the death on the cross that would pay the price for the sins of the world without serving. It was His sinlessness that qualified Him to be the ransom for all, right? Why all of the extra work? Why all of the tireless, on-purpose serving? Here’s the answer: Love serves. The intentional service, paired with the intentional sacrifice of laying His life down, was meant to convey the personal, individual, unconditional, sacrificial love of God to every person Jesus would encounter.
Third and finally as Jesus served, He did so sacrificially. It cost Jesus personally, every day to serve others. Word got out about the many ways Jesus served others, and He quickly became in high demand, and His life was consumed by selfless acts of mercy and grace to others. Serving others is rarely convenient. It requires a rearranging of our priorities, a restructuring of our resources, and requires physical and mental energy. It is the epitome of discipleship as it places us in the footsteps of Jesus who “emptied Himself” (Philippians 2:7) repeatedly as a servant of those He encountered. The outpouring of the love of God was demonstrated through the pouring out of the life of Jesus over and over and over again. And God the Father never failed to give Him the strength that was needed to start again with each sunrise.
When Jesus asked His followers to take up their cross and follow Him daily, He wasn’t simply inviting them to die to self and sin, but He was also asking them to live for Him, to serve the way He served which meant sacrifice.
It’s marvelous to celebrate the birth of Jesus. It’s incredible to honor His death, burial and resurrection from the dead. But Jesus isn’t calling us to simply commemorate His entrance and His exit. He is calling us to live His life. And His life was a life of willing, intentional and sacrificial service that all the world may see and know Him.
