Dear Church,
If I asked everyone reading this letter to complete the sentence ‘Jesus is ________,’ we’d all probably fill in that blank differently:
Lord, Savior, Son of God, Friend, Brother, Shepherd, King, Way-maker, miracle worker, promise-keeper, light in the darkness, God-with-us, Name above all names, Wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, Merciful, Grace, Hope, Love, Life, God…
There are a million different glorious truth-filled ways to fill in that blank–and I hope you have first-hand knowledge of many of them.
But there is a word that belongs with all the others that we often overlook. And really, it’s the key to understanding how and why Jesus is all those other things. But we ignore it because it doesn’t seem glorious or holy like the rest. It doesn’t seem like something God could be–or should be.
That word is servant. Jesus was and is a servant. Jesus is the One who serves. This is an unexpected thing for the One who is all those other things to be–it almost feels shameful. It is hard to understand how the one who is everything on that list could also be a servant. And really, it’s even more strange than we imagine. Jesus isn’t just anyone’s servant. Jesus serves us.
The fact that we struggle to accept this shows that we deeply misunderstand both Jesus and the sacredness of serving.
So for the next month we are going to lean in and seek understanding in a new worship series called, ‘The Life of a Servant’. Because friends, if Jesus is a servant, then we who claim to follow him are servants also. If you are too good to be a servant–then you are too good for the narrow way of Jesus (Philippians 2:1-11). I hope you’ll join me as we deepen our understanding of the holiness of this servant life we share with Christ.
Peace,
Pastor Kate
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