The son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as ransom for many.
Matthew 20:28
I arrived early for my spa appointment, in an attempt to play the cool and to hide my excitement. An afternoon in a robe and slippers, shuffling between the sauna, a massage appointment and the container with chocolate-covered almonds was exactly what I had hoped for in a day of ultimate relaxation. When the spa technician greeted me and started to show me, I took mental notes of every small facility. We ended the tour in the dressing room, where a flurry of women switched from one luxury to the other, when a woman stopped the spa -tech with a frown.
“Tell me how to set up my locker again,” she barked, although she had just heard the technology sharing the instructions with me.
While the technician calmly started repeating the instructions, the woman raised her hand. “No!” She shifted to a strict, growling voice. “I don’t really care. This is terrible. Forget it.”
An uncomfortable silence hung over the dressing room while lotioned faces looked up to see what was going on. All eyes had found the Spa technician, who was blushing there and stunned after the decades of old guest “put her in her place.”
Moments like these raise me. I worked in the service industry. I have sat, waited and brought tables, to find and buy women helped, worked in houses as a babysitter that has carried out several responsibilities in -house, I have been a teacher who served students and I helped
Tenants at an apartment management company. In all those jobs I lived at the same time that I saw that the Spa technician is suffering from it – dissatisfied people “put me in my place” and treated me unnecessarily coarseness. Some people even seemed to enjoy the use of their wealth, power and authority as an excuse to demand their way. If you want to know what someone thinks about weakness, see how they treat people they have paid to serve them.
Are you in a position of serving? Perhaps you are working as a caretaker, finding exactly the right fit for the needs of your guests, or you are a nurse who takes care of the medical and hygienic needs of your patients. You may manage a customer service line and you relate to hostile questions about invoicing and damaged
Products. Or maybe you are a mother who spends a lot of your day changing diapers, scrubbing stains out of pants, wiping counters and eating people. While you serve others, you may have been treated as ‘less than’, you have felt ‘less than’, or you have wondered if your work even goes out.1.1
Those of us who struggle with the weakness of serving can find shelter in Jesus. Time and time again in the gospels, Jesus sees the positionally weak (the low, servants and the cultural unimportant) with dignity and care deliberately. And although He is Lord, able to demand obedience, even from the wind and the waves, he does not use his strength and position for selfish profit. Instead, he gives us the win, which comes to serve in a way that reveals his kingdom and offers citizenship through salvation in his name (Marcus 10:25). In the letter of Paul to the Philippians we get a profound description of the Spirit of Christ when we learn that he “did not have any equality with God to be understood, but emptied himself by taking on the shape of a servant” (Philippians 2: 6-7). Jesus does not only understand serving; He chose it.
Because I am, Jesus could have inhabited every part of society or keep an unparalleled earthly authority (John 8:58). He could have had political power or be an earthly king or high priest. He could have lived in part of the world or have held an appeal that brought him socially appreciation and earthly wealth. He could
have chosen to influence people on traditional means, to become available in the most positively powerful place until all eyes were on him and he immediately had credibility. Yet he opted for an earthly position of weakness – Living in a small village, working as a carpenter, rubbing shoulders with the Getupel and lived in the shadow of Jewish society.
While you are considering your days and may even struggle with the social shame that can come with positional weakness-because you are in rolls that are not as powerful, impressive and important if others are you remember that you now serve Christ (Colossians 3: 23-24)? Whatever you do, you do him: ‘Because I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you dressed me, I was sick and you were in prison and you came to me. 25: 35-40). Making Christ means walking in His ways, and while you serve Jesus, remember that your ‘place’ is always safe in His Kingdom (John 14: 2).
Just as Jesus says: “Many who are first will be the last, and the last first,” we can be sure that our Lord sees our earthly position and ultimately rewards every service or sacrifice in his name (Matthew 19: 29-30). In your daily work you can be sure that service is good and glorifies God. Serve with joy because you serve the Lord – whoever keeps, honors and rewards even the lowest work that did him.
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- We do not have to be subject to the abuse of others of authority, and we must take action to report it and prevent others from harming. If you experience bullying or abuse in your service track, contact the right superior at work, a trusted friend or law enforcement.
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We all sometimes feel weak.
He is strongby bestseller author Emily A. JensenEncourages you to rest in God’s help and strength for all your shortcomings. Filled with devotionals who contain honest stories about her own feelings of weakness, Emily will bring you back to the gospel for wisdom, hope and comfort. As the well -known hymn says, “They are weak, but he is strong.”
Read more about He is strong here.