The Servant Spirit
Scripture Readings: Mark 8:34; Mark 10:42-45; Luke 17:7-10; John13:12-17
Reflection
There is hardly a page in the Gospels where we don’t come across either direct teaching from Jesus, or an example of His life, about the servant spirit which should be at the core of our discipleship.
This was extremely important to Jesus and without it we cannot be His followers. This is emphasised in the words of Mark 9:35 “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”
Jesus speaks often of God in His parables of the kingdom as a master and of human beings as His servants. In teaching about the servant spirit, He tells us that we are to be humble and obedient servants of God, asking no reward but to do the Father’s will, which was how Jesus Himself lived. But He asks us to go further than that, and extend the attitude of the servant spirit towards each other, humbly accepting the lowest place and the most menial tasks.
Not only will doing this make our homes and communities loving and harmonious, it will also protect our faith. It is so easy, particularly in current times, to turn away from God because of adversity, disappointment or tragedy in our lives, seeing God as a resource or commodity, there to ensure our personal happiness: the centre of our lives is thus ourselves, not God.
It is important for us to get things the right way round – only with God as master, and ourselves as humble servants, can we ever find contentment and peace.
Think about yourself today – how can you find contentment and peace in being God’s humble servant without leaving your home?
Prayer
Lord God,
How can we thank you enough for Jesus our Master and Lord, who came among us as a humble servant to set us free from sin and show us how to live in peace with one another? By your grace at work in our hearts, may we find the strength of spirit to humble ourselves as He did, and live as your faithful servants, kindly and cheerfully serving each other. We ask this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.