Extreme Service

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, November 8, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 20:20-28.

            When you think of the word “great”, what do you think of?

            Most of us would think of something happening that’s really, really good.  Something incredible, really.  Something awesome.  “Boy, that was great!”  Or, maybe you think of a person who’s at the top of their profession, somebody who’s better than anybody else at what they do.  “That person is one of the all-time greats.”  Or maybe you think of an individual performance that was super.  “That team played a great game!”

            That’s how the dictionary defines greatness.  But that’s not how Jesus defined it.  Jesus said, “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant.”

            Serving is not something we think of in connection to greatness.  But Jesus says we should.  In fact, it sounds like Jesus is saying serving should be the first thing we think of in connection to greatness.

            This is another case--and there are a lot of them--where being a Christian means we really need to adjust our thinking.  We need to not think the way the world thinks, and not value what the world values.  We need to think the way the Lord thinks, at least to the extent that’s possible for a human being.  We need to value what the Lord values.  It reminds me of what it says in Proverbs, Chapter Three, Verse Five:  “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.”  We need to give up our own understanding, and look at things the way God looks at them.

            Jesus says that “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant.”  And in talking about this, I need to be careful.  Because we have a lot of servants who are sitting here in our congregation today.  Almost everyone--in fact, it may be literally everyone--who is here does a lot of serving.  You serve your church.  You serve your community.  You serve your family and friends.  You serve in other ways, too.  You’ve been doing that for quite a long time now.  And in doing that, you serve the Lord.

            And so, I don’t want anyone here to think I am criticizing you for not serving enough.  I’m not.  This church would not be here without the service that you have given it, again for many years for some of you.  I’m sure I don’t even know a lot of the things you’ve done.  But know that I deeply appreciate it, and I’m sure God does, too.

            But as I thought about this, I started thinking about who Jesus was originally talking to.  The disciples.  I wonder what they thought when they heard this.

            You know, the disciples gave up a lot, at least in human terms, to follow Jesus.  They left family behind.  They left homes behind.  They left businesses behind.  They left everything behind to follow Jesus.  They did it because Jesus had called them, and they agreed to follow him.  They did that because they understood, at least to some extent, who Jesus was, and they wanted to serve Him.

            And now here’s Jesus, essentially telling them that it’s not enough.  Because Jesus did not stop at saying whoever wants to be great needs to be a servant.  He went on to say that they needed to serve “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

            Jesus was not calling the disciples, or us, to ordinary service.  He was not even calling the disciples, or us, to above average service.  Jesus was calling the disciples, and us, to extreme service.  Jesus was calling us to serve as much as Jesus himself served.  And that means to serve at the cost of everything, even life on earth itself.

            Now, let’s be clear about something.  Jesus did not say that we need to engage in this sort of extreme service to be saved.  He did not say our eternal life depends on this.  Again, as we’ve said many times, we cannot earn our way into heaven by doing good works, not even good works of extreme service.  Our salvation and eternal life depend on our faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.  Nothing else.

            Jesus did not say our salvation and eternal life depend on extreme service.  What he did say, though, is that extreme service is what we’re called to do if we want to be great.  So, that’s the question:  Do you, and do I, want to be great?

            Not everybody does, you know.  I mean, we might want to in theory.  But in practice, a lot of us don’t really want to be great.  And I’m not just talking about greatness in service.  I’m talking about all kinds of things. 

            Becoming great at anything is not easy.  That’s true whether we’re talking about being a great athlete or a great musician or a great farmer or a great plumber or a great electrician or a great anything.  Becoming great at anything takes a lot of work.  It takes a lot of sacrifice.  It takes a lot of dedication.  And a lot of us simply don’t want to put in that kind of work.  We don’t want to make that kind of sacrifice.  We don’t have that kind of dedication.  What it boils down to, really, is that we don’t want to pay the price.  A lot of us simply don’t want to pay the price to become great.

            But here’s the difference between becoming great in God’s terms and becoming great at those human things I mentioned.  Becoming great at those human things carries a tangible reward.  It might be money.  It might be fame.  It might be the praise of human beings.  But whatever it is, it’s a real and tangible reward.  There’s a price to be paid to become great, but there are substantial benefits, too.

            But becoming great in extreme service does not bring those rewards.  It does not even bring the reward of salvation and eternal life, because again, our salvation does not depend on our deeds.  I suppose it’s possible that a life of extreme service might gain one an exalted place in heaven, but that’s certainly not the point of it.  In fact, service done in exchange for something else would not really be service, would it?  It would be a business transaction--I do this so I can get that. 

            Service, true service, is done with no expectation of getting anything in exchange.  Maybe a good feeling inside, knowing that we’ve done what God wants us to do.  But nothing else. 

            That’s what makes extreme service so hard.  Extreme service involves sacrifice, and what we’re really sacrificing, when you come right down to it, is ourselves.  Maybe not in the way Jesus did, sacrificing our earthly lives.  But in a way, we are.  We’re sacrificing our time, and what is life made up of if not time?  We’re sacrificing the time to do things we enjoy.  We’re sacrificing our ego.  We’re sacrificing our material possessions, either by giving them away or by forgoing the chance to gain more.  We’re sacrificing the chance to relax and take it easy.  Sometimes we may be sacrificing sleep, or even our health.  We sacrifice all kinds of things when we live a life of extreme service.

            But think of how lives like that can change the world.  What would a world like that be like, with everyone sacrificing themselves in lives of extreme service?  What would a world be like if only ten percent of people did that?  Or even five percent?  Or even one percent?  One percent of the world’s population is seventy-eight million people.  Can you imagine a world in which seventy-eight million people lived a life of extreme service?

            But how does that start?  It starts with one.  It starts with you.  Or, it starts with me.  Just as a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, seventy-eight million people living a life of extreme service starts with a single person.  It starts with you.  Or, it starts with me.

            We’re not told how the disciples reacted to Jesus’ statements.  Matthew drops the subject at the end of our reading for today and goes on to tell the story of Jesus entering Jerusalem in triumph, riding a donkey.  And maybe Matthew drops it there because how the disciples reacted is not the point.  The point is, how will you react?  How will I react?  Will any of us be willing to be that one with whom this all starts?

            This is a hard thing Jesus is asking us to do.  If it was easy, everyone would do it.  But let’s take this seriously.  Think about it.  Pray about it.  Really consider whether God is calling you to a life of extreme service.

            Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant.”  Jesus gave us a call to greatness.  Let’s answer the call.