How Can We Possibly Serve Other People?

What we see in Mark 10 is so unfathomable, so transformative, and so scandalous, that it actually seems to be wrong. You’d think that God exists so that we would be his servants and serve Him constantly. He’s the powerful one, he’s the one with the plan, he’s the one who is all knowing and created us, so we’re just here to serve him, right? And he’s just here to tell us how to serve him…right? No. Absolutely wrong. I mean, all that stuff is true about God being all powerful, having a plan, being all-knowing and creating us, but he did something incredible with all that power, knowledge, and planning.

Check out Mark 10:45, “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.” No other religious leader has ever said anything like this. Only Jesus says that he didn’t come so that we could serve him, but he came so that HE could serve US. Jesus didn’t come to recruit the disciples to meet his needs or to work for him. He came to serve people; to equip them with everything they need to live this life. Jesus lived to meet our needs. Jesus died to meet our needs. He rose to meet our needs. He reigns right now to meet our needs. Jesus serves us, and he serves us ultimately by suffering for us. 

Having been served by Jesus, we’re now called to serve him. BUT, we don’t serve him as if he were needy. God doesn’t have any needs. He’s not weak. He doesn’t need us to enact his plan or purpose in this world. He is supremely self-sufficient. Luke writes about that in Acts 17: “The God who made the world and everything in it  —  he is Lord of heaven and earth—does not live in shrines made by hands. Neither is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives everyone life and breath and all things.” God doesn’t need us to serve him and meet his needs, but still in the Bible we’re called to serve God. 

So how’s that work? Here’s how: 

To be a disciple of Jesus is to be served BY Jesus SO THAT, having been served by Jesus, we THEN can serve others.

So Jesus invites us to be overwhelmed with his goodness, love, kindness, and grace. And once we’re overwhelmed with how Jesus has served us, that fully enables us to serve each other. We can sacrifice and suffer serving others because Jesus sacrificed and suffered serving us. 

The problem is, EVEN AFTER being served by Jesus, we’re typically very, very consumed with ourselves. Like James and John were just before this passage (bros were trying to get the authority and power of Jesus without sharing in the suffering of Jesus). We believe that we’re entitled to have other people serve us. We tend to believe that we’re entitled to a comfortable life without suffering. We tend to believe that we have to protect our own personal convenience. We tend to believe that we’re not obligated to serve anyone who hasn’t already served us first. 

So how do we grow in this? How do we become better disciples of Jesus who are served by him, so that we can serve each other well?

We need to…

SEE
We need to truly see Mark 10:33-34, “See, we’re going up to Jerusalem. The Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death. Then they will hand him over to the Gentiles, and they will mock him, spit on him, flog him, and kill him, and he will rise after three days.” Do you see that this is what Jesus did, for you? Do you see that this is how he served you?

He was betrayed for you.
Mocked for you.
Spit on for you.
Flogged for you.
Killed for you.
He rose again for you.

This was God’s plan from the beginning for his own glory and your good. We need to continually see and hear this message. We need to remind ourselves. We need to sing this, teach this, and celebrate this.

But MORE than just seeing it, we need to…

BELIEVE
We need to believe Mark 10:45, “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.” We need to experience being served by Jesus. We need to actually give him our lives, follow him, and be transformed by him. When it says that he gave his life a ransom for many, it means that he paid the price for our sin that we should have paid. And when we experience Jesus paying what we couldn’t pay, we’re overwhelmed by his love and grace so that our love compels us, drives us forward to join Jesus in serving others. 

Which means, thirdly, that we’ll… 

DO
We will do Mark 10:43-44, “But it is not so among you. On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you will be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you will be a slave to all.” Serve each other. Suffer for each other. We need to become great servants, because our King is the greatest servant. Seeing and believing what Jesus has done for each of us is what will enable and empower you to serve and suffer for others.

And it will image Jesus beautifully.  

Who is God calling you to serve? Who is God calling you to suffer for? Show them the beauty of Jesus by serving them as Jesus has served you.