The Heart to Servant

why is Jesus a servant? why does Jesus come to serve?

Today we continue in the series of messages for Lent which focus on the servant nature of Jesus. So far we have looked at the call to serve and the commitment to serve. Today we push a bit further into our consideration of what it means that Jesus came to be a servant. It is time to ask the question of why. Why is Jesus a servant? Why does Jesus come to serve? Many of us know the Sunday school answer to that question. Jesus came to serve so that he could save us from our sins by dying on the cross. That is certainly true; none of that statement is wrong. Yet there is so much more we can say about it. The Bible gives us clues towards a fuller meaning of why Jesus serves. And it is in this deeper meaning that you and I can gain a more complete picture of why it is that we are also called by God to be servants.

what is your reason for serving? what is your motivation for service?

Back up just for a minute and consider that same question as it applies to your own life. Why do you serve others? I trust most of us—perhaps all of us—have had opportunities to serve at some point. Why do you do it? What is your reason for serving? What is your motivation for service? This is worth our attention because it exposes in our lives some of the motivations we have for serving. Perhaps our motivations for serving are good and correct; and perhaps at times we hold motivations for serving that are incorrect and counterproductive.

When I was young I had a list of assigned chores around the house which I was given to do. This was back in the 1970s when very few houses had dishwashers installed in the kitchen. When I was young, our family washed the dishes by hand after every meal. One of the occasional jobs I was given as a kid was to be on the dishwashing rotation. It was an act of serving as part of my family. But when I was a kid, I did not care for it. I would rather not have been serving by washing dishes. Likewise, my family did not have a snowblower when I was young. My dad had more than one snow shovel in the garage so that I could go out and help clear the driveway after it snowed. Again, this was not an act of service I willingly chose to do as a child; it was a chore to which I was assigned. These were acts of service that felt more like obligations. I wasn’t a rebellious kid who disobeyed and refused to do these things. But that does not mean I happily agreed to these things either, and I certainly was never going to volunteer myself to these jobs when I was young.

I wonder about the degree to which we carry these kinds of motivations for service into our adult years. Are there still examples of service which I might do begrudgingly because it feels more like an obligation or expectation than anything else? That doesn’t feel like a very healthy motivation to serve. Or sometimes my acts of service fit into a mafia-style paradigm like in the the movie The Godfather. That’s not to say my service falls into the category of organized crime. In the movie, The Godfather, Marlon Brando’s character, Vito Corleone, uses his position of power and influence to do favors for otters people—he helps people out with acts of service. But Vito Corleone does these things with an expectation that the favor will be returned one day. It is service given with an eye towards what will be gained in response. It is a what’s-in-it-for-me kind of attitude that only serves for what is gained in return. I suppose there are those who work this way, even if it is not organized crime. There are those who are willing to serve if there is something in it for them in return. Again, it shows a motivation for service that falls short of the ideal for servanthood we see in Jesus.

So, let’s dig bit deeper into the servant heart of God to see if we can discover some features which show us the heart of a servant. As in past weeks we will look at both a passage from the Old Testament and from the New Testament.

Isaiah 55:1–9 (NIV)

Isaiah 55:1–9 NIV

1 “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. 2 Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare. 3 Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David. 4 See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a ruler and commander of the peoples. 5 Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations you do not know will come running to you, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor.” 6 Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. 8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Luke 13:1–9 (NIV)

Luke 13:1–9 NIV

1 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4 Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” 6 Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. 7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ 8 “ ‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’ ”

On Tuesday evenings we host the Life Skills program here in this building for people in our surrounding community. These are people who—for various reasons—need some help to get back on their feet again. There is quite a bit of service that goes on here on Tuesday nights. We serve a meal; we serve by providing childcare; we serve by supplementing weekly groceries; we serve by teaching budgeting classes; we serve by being mentors who provide peer support. There is a combination of reasons why we do these things. We serve because we love our surrounding community. We serve because we have been blessed in abundance and are able to use the overflow of our blessings for the benefit of others. 

we serve because we long to see a desired outcome in the lives of the people we are serving

service moves in the wrong direction when it is motivated by what’s in it for me; but that changes when my service becomes motivated by what’s in it for them

But here is something else which forms a major motivation for our service in Life Skills. We serve because we long to see a desired outcome in the lives of the people we are serving. We serve because we want the lives of the people we are serving to be better. We serve because we long for others to be able to flourish and thrive. We serve because we see glimpses of the God-given potential in others, and we want to see them take steps closer to that potential. I mentioned earlier that my service moves in the wrong direction when it is motivated by what’s in it for me. But that changes when my service becomes motivated by what’s in it for them. Our acts of service can rightfully carry an expected outcome. There is something we would like to see as a result of our service—and it can be a good motivation which is not self-serving or warped.

These passages today show us something of God’s servant heart. And it is a heart that reveals God has an expected outcome for his acts of service. It shows us a glimpse of the reason why Jesus serves.

God will uphold his covenant promise by his own faithfulness and generosity

Isaiah 55 begins with a section about God’s provision for his people. Water for those who are thirsty; milk and wine for those who have no money. God makes reference in this passage to his covenant promise which he will uphold by his own faithfulness and generosity. God will serve his people in order to provide for them. And then further down in that passage there is an indiction of God’s desired outcome.

Isaiah 55:6–7 (NIV)

Isaiah 55:6–7 NIV

6 Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

God has a desired outcome

Hebrew shuwb “turn” = repent, turn around, return again

What does God long to see as the outcome of his service on behalf of his people? The simple answer here in this passage is repentance. That needs a little explanation, because our culture has lost sight of what the Bible means by repentance. It is the Hebrew word shuwb, which the Old Testament translates as repent. But it is also the same Hebrew word which elsewhere is translated as turn back, or return again. In our world today we might think of repentance as being a sentiment; it is feeling sorry for some wrong that we have done. The Hebrew idea carries it further. Repentance is more than the feeling of regret, it also involves an action. To repent is to literally change direction, turn around. Repentance is not only what we turn away from, but also what we turn to move towards.

God longs for his actions of service to produce this result: that his people would turn away from the sinful brokenness of their lives, and move towards the shalom flourishing of God’s creation

repentance is not only a step away from the sinful and destructive habits that tear down our world, it is also a step towards the loving productive habits that provide for the wellbeing of our world

The commitment God gives to serve his people in his covenant love carries an expected outcome. God longs for his actions of service to produce this result: that his people would turn away from the sinful brokenness of their lives, and move towards the shalom flourishing of God’s creation. Repentance is not only a step away from the sinful and destructive habits that tear down our world, it is also a step towards the loving productive habits that provide for the wellbeing of our world. Repentance is moving away from the corrupted person into which sin has pulled you, and moving towards the redeemed person that God has restored you to be. Absolutely everything that God does in service to his people within his covenant love is pushing towards this result.

gardener commits himself to doing the work that is necessary for this fig tree to bear fruit that is intended

God has a desired outcome

The parable that Jesus tells in Luke 13 points us to the same thing. In this story Jesus talks about a fig tree which was not bearing any fruit. The owner of the vineyard instructs the gardener to cut it down. But the gardener pleads to leave the tree so that he can tend to it. He tills the soil surrounding the tree and puts fertilizer into the soil. He commits himself to doing the work that is necessary for this fig tree to bear fruit that is intended. This entire story is introduced by Jesus saying this line in verse 5.

Luke 13:5 (NIV)

Luke 13:5 NIV

5 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

There it is again; repentance. And this time Jesus uses this story to illustrate what repentance looks like. It is not unusual for the Bible to use this farming language of fruit and crops as a metaphor for the wellbeing and shalom flourishing God desires for his people. The Apostle Paul speaks of these things as spiritual fruit. He names a sampling of these things in Galatians 5.

Galatians 5:22–23 (NIV)

Galatians 5:22–23 NIV

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

the tree seems unable on its own to produce this fruit

salvation in Christ is not just what we are saved from, it is also what we are saved for

In the parable Jesus tells in Luke 13, these are the “figs” which the gardener is expecting to see on the fruit tree. A life of repentance moves in this direction. But the way Jesus tells the story, the tree seems unable on its own to produce this fruit. And here is where the gardener steps in and dedicates himself to care for and tend the tree. In this respect, the service Jesus gives to the ones he loves is a more expansive view of what salvation means. Salvation in Christ is not just what we are saved from, it is also what we are saved for. In Christ, we are given salvation from our sin. At the cross, Jesus takes all the guilt of all our sin upon himself. But also in Christ, we are given salvation to a new life in Christ. At the cross, Jesus places upon us his own perfect righteousness. The apostle Paul says in Ephesians 1 that this perfect righteousness of Christ is sealed upon us by the Holy Spirit. In other words, it is through the ongoing work of the Holy Sprit that this righteousness of Christ takes effect within our lives—not later on in some afterlife, but right now.

we cannot bear spiritual fruit without the presence and work of the Holy Spirit in our lives

We can see this work of salvation guaranteed in Christ and sealed by the Holy Spirit as the metaphorical comparison Jesus makes in this parable. Or simply put another way, we cannot bear spiritual fruit without the presence and work of the Spirit in our lives. In this way, we see the servant heart of Jesus and the ongoing servant heart of the Holy Spirit. God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—serves the people he loves yet today. And God’s servant heart looks towards an expected result. The Spirit bears fruit, and we have been saved in Christ Jesus for that purpose. Again, back to the way Paul states it in Ephesians.

Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)

Ephesians 2:10 NIV

10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

starts with acknowledging and allowing the Holy Spirit to do the work of spiritual gardening that is beneficial (faith practices!)

A fig tree is meant to produce figs. You and I are meant to produce spiritual fruit. It is what we have been saved for. It is the reason why Jesus serves the ones he loves. But a fig tree does not bear fruit just by trying harder to be a fig tree. It does not work that way. It needs the tending of the gardener. It is the same for us. If we look over the fruits of the spirit and think it is just a matter of trying harder, we miss the point. If I want to be a person who is more loving, more patient, more kind; it takes more than just trying harder to do those things. Rather, it starts with acknowledging and allowing the Holy Spirit to do the work of spiritual gardening that is beneficial.

moves us closer and closer to being the people that God has redeemed and restored us to become

We have talked about these things in the past; they are the faith practices we have examined. It is in the faith practice of reading scripture, and prayer, and worship, and the list goes on. The Holy Spirit continues to serve the church yet today in and through these faith practices. That is how the spiritual soil of our lives becomes tilled and fertilized by God. We receive the service of God because it produces a result. It moves us closer and closer to being the people that God has redeemed and restored us to become.

we serve others because we long to see the Holy Spirit bring about the same transformation in their lives that the Holy Spirit produces in our lives

Our acts of service to one another echo that same priority. We serve others because we long to see the Holy Spirit bring about the same transformation in their lives that the Holy Spirit produces in our lives. As it turns out, we serve one another for the same reason God serves us. If you need a place to begin, start with this: allow the master gardener into your heart to work the spiritual soil of your soul. Let God be the one who works through you first. Then you will be able to serve others with the same heart of service that Christ has in serving you.