Logos

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.

Who: the one who came to serve

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.

How: the one who drew near

An expert in the law asked Jesus who his neighbour was, and Jesus answered with a story (Luke 10:25-37). A man beaten and left in a ditch; a priest and a Levite who see him and walk past; and a Samaritan, a foreigner, despised by all, who “took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him.” What sets the Samaritan apart is not that he felt more, but that he drew near. He saw a concrete need and gave it what he had: his time, his oil, his donkey, his money and his tomorrow. Jesus does not close with a definition but with a command: “Go and do likewise.”

On Jesus’ lips, the neighbour ceases to be a category and becomes a verb. The question is not “who deserves my help” but “whose neighbour have I made myself this week”.

Where: the city you were taken to

The third passage is a letter. God sends it to the exiles in Babylon, far from home and with no desire to put down roots: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. … Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper” (Jeremiah 29:5-7). This is service in its most domestic form: the place where you live, even if you did not choose it, is the place where God asks you to serve. The neighbourhood, the office, the block of flats, the city that is not your own. Seeking its peace and praying for it are not two things: they are the two hands of one life.

A way of life, not a gesture

Taken together, the three passages describe a life of active service: the example is Christ, the method is to draw near to the concrete need in front of me, and the place is where I already am. No one lives it all at once. It begins with a small step: a need you already know about and have long been passing by. Draw near to it this week. Then to another. The heart of a servant is not decided in a resolution; it is formed, like everything that is of God, by doing what he did, one day after another.

Sample edition: the texts are provisional and will be replaced with real content.