During the Last Supper, Jesus carried out His most humiliating and final act of servitude in His human life: the washing of the disciples’ feet. After this night, Jesus would go face-to-face with His enemies and surrender His life to them. Then, upon His resurrection, Jesus was no longer the “passive servant” that some had made Him out to be, but the royal King making His final rounds before ascending. Yes, He would serve a couple of meals, but after the Resurrection, Jesus was no longer the lamb. He was now the lion. Here at the Last Supper, Jesus gave the final example of what true leadership looks like: taking the lowest spot and doing the things that were often reserved for the lowest menial labor. It is this moment, along with Philippians 2:5-11, that gives rise to the phrase, the Servant King. That title is nowhere found in Scripture directly, but there is truth to it. Jesus was and is the King, and He is a king who did serve. But understand that Jesus looked down on no one, and while He served and supported, He absolutely did not bow to anyone’s command.
Multiple ministers and missionaries I have encountered knew precisely what to do with anyone who wanted to come serve with them. When they asked if they could preach or evangelize, they would hand over the toilet brush. Because if they were not willing to do the work behind the spotlight, they were undeserving of the spotlight. Too many people think ministry in the Kingdom is a glorious spotlight of fame and TV/YouTube spots. But it’s not. It’s often a dirty job. The pastoral position is like being the father of a family. It gets messy when you deal with people day in and day out. The people who don’t want to do that only see the speaking part, the celebrity part, and the “get taken out for lunch” part, and then they can leave and leave the dirty work for someone else. Jesus never promoted any such notion.
Jesus’ final act of service was to wash His disciples’ feet, including those of Judas, whom Jesus knew would betray Him within a few hours. Peter realized what Jesus was doing, and good old foot-in-the-mouth Peter insisted that Jesus should not bring Himself down to such a position. He would rather do it himself. Then, when Jesus corrected him, Peter asked for a whole-body washing. Oh, how many of us sound just like Peter, if not more bone-headed?
One thing Jesus made clear was that His kingdom was not of this world. It works completely backwards from how mankind would plot it or plan it. All the Jews and even the disciples thought Jesus was going to rescue them from Rome and be who they thought David would be. But David was just a picture of defeating physical enemies, and Jesus would defeat far more powerful enemies. The Jews wanted to rule with force, but Jesus would rule with love and authority. The kingdom of God would spread by preaching and loving each other. When Pilate questioned Jesus, he was afraid of a Jewish revolt – not that it would succeed, but that it would be a headache for him to deal with. But Jesus said His kingdom was not of this world, and Jesus’ final act of service was just that – an action that is not of this world.
Jesus’ model for ministry was to genuinely help people and to lift them up, at first with ONE round of physical needs, and then with spiritual needs. He was the antithesis of the “social justice” movement that has usurped His name. The social justice movement has never been about actually helping people, but a Marxist ideology to remove individual wealth and distribute it “among the poor.” The pretense is to help the poor, but the actual agenda is to keep the poor poor and make the middle class subject to the state, so the state controls the resources. It’s Communism pretending to be generous to the poor. That’s not what Jesus was about. Jesus was about the individuals helping the poor as they saw need and as they had ability. If Jesus saw a wagon that was broken down, He’d get under it and fix it. He didn’t just say “go the extra mile” to carry a Roman soldier’s gear, but would actually do it. Jesus was about going above and beyond helping true needs, but Jesus also had limits. Jesus fed the 5000, but when they came to get seconds and treat Jesus as a welfare system, Jesus didn’t give them another bite. Jesus was a servant, the servant king, the King who served, but He was going to be nobody’s call boy.
Jesus is not a genie. He does not serve upon command. He serves by choice, and He will draw a line at what He does. He never demanded that anyone follow Him with any threats or even bribes, but He certainly warned and called out those who deliberately refused to even consider Him. He wept at those who loved their sin too much to let it go, but He held nothing back at those who would hold back His sheep from the truth and from Him. Yet Jesus treats His sheep with tender love and care, and sometimes that means taking them through some brutal areas so that they can graze and eat their fill and rest by very good waters. This model is how we are to handle others. We are not to be doormats, but we are to serve those whom we can, and sometimes that includes our enemies. We are not to lord anything over others. This is part of why I don’t like apologists who have to boast their credentials as though they mean much. I especially have no respect for those who think their credentials make them deserve some kind of respect or attention. That’s what the Pharisees did. We don’t need to show our credentials; that’s worldly thinking. Our credentials are our love for each other and our love for others as we deal with their actual needs, physical and spiritual.
Let us take Jesus’ example and serve one another, even doing the menial tasks without complaint, even if it means taking a step back in our professional career, and build up those who are around us. Yes, even those pagan administrators and managers who don’t know a thing about the real world or what we actually have to do. Because if God told Israel to support Babylon because they would be blessed if they blessed Babylon, so will we. If we make our bosses, our managers, and our leaders proper, so shall we. We serve a higher authority, and if we serve Him, He will honor us.
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