Spirituality · Serving
The heart of a servant
Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve. Three passages, one for each stretch of the road: what he did, what a Samaritan did in a ditch, and what God asked of his people in a foreign city.
Logos · Madrid
There is a question almost no one asks aloud, and it decides how we live: what am I for? Not “what am I worth”, which is the question of vanity, but whom I serve, with whose hands, at what hours of the day. Jesus answered it himself in a single short sentence and left it as the measure for his followers. Today we read it alongside three passages: one says who he is, another teaches how to serve, and the third says where.
The disciples had just been arguing over the places of honour. Jesus did not scold them; he changed the scale. “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—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” (Matthew 20:26-28). Greatness was not abolished; it was redefined. The great one is the one who serves, and the model is not an idea but a person. He washed feet, fed the crowds, stopped for the man shouting at the roadside, and ended by giving his life. For a Christian, serving is not a weekend activity: it is becoming like Christ.
