Step #16-Serve

“Whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:26-28

Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent (March 11, 2009)

As we continue on our journey, we realize that to follow Jesus we must go against what the world is teaching us. The world teaches us about power, about being number one, about moving up… whether is at work or society in general. Jesus, on the other hand, is telling us that “whoever wishes to be great must serve, whoever wishes to be first must become a slave.” That is quite a contradiction.

Is it bad to be at the top in our work? No it is not, as long as we don’t use our position of power to boss everyone around and as long as we don’t think that our position makes us better than everybody else. Is it wrong to be amongst the rich and wealthy? No it is not, as long as we don’t think that our wealth gives us power over the rest of the world, as long as our ranking in society does not make us feel superior over everyone else.

If we have the privilege to be at the top, whether through hard work or plain luck, we have a big responsibility. Jesus is asking us to serve. Even if we preside over a big organization or a small group of people, our responsibility is to serve, not to command. If we have wealth, our responsibility is to share it with those in need. This does not mean that we need to run and give away everything we own, but Jesus is asking us to soften our hearts and open our eyes to the need around us.

The problem is that most of the time we forget our long-term goal. We forget that we are in this world only for a short time, so we put all our energy in acquiring glory and possessions here on earth. We don’t realize that we need to spend more time working for our long-term goal, and that is the Kingdom of God. What do we gain if we have a lot of material goods here on earth but we lose our soul in the process? What do we gain by having a lot of power if all the power makes us lose heaven?

We need to put our energy and resources into acquiring treasures for the Kingdom of God and there is no better place to start than by serving Jesus here on earth.