The Servant of Sinners

“I am among you as he that serveth.” — Luke xxii. 27.

We find in these words a double reference; first to the character, and secondly to the office, of the Son of man; to his character as the lowly one, to his office as the servant. For the purpose of bringing both these things before his disciples, he makes use of those marvellous words,” I am among you

as THE SERVING ONE.

The dispute among the disciples respecting pre-eminence must have grieved and wounded him; more especially because of the time when this jealous strife arose. Scarcely had they finished the first solemn supper, the newly-instituted memorial of the body and blood of the Lord; scarcely had the Master ceased warning them of the traitor, and the treachery that was among them; scarcely had their own searching inquiry ended, “Is it I?’’ when there arose “a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest.” How strange and sad, how almost incredible, the scene! Rising from the table of love to contend for the mastery, the one over the other; to wound the ear and heart of the Master with their angry words and selfish arguments; to turn the holy quiet of that upper chamber into a stir of strife, and ambition, and jealous wrangling, in the very presence of the Lord, — how unbecoming, how unkind, how inconceivably selfish and hateful!

To calm this tumult, to allay this strife, to stop the mouths of the disputants, the Lord interposes; and he does so in a way so pointed, yet so mild and loving, as must have overwhelmed the contenders, and covered their faces with shame.

The burden of his rebuke is just this, — “Look at me; am I striving for pre-eminence? Am I coveting honour, or power, or greatness? Am I even exercising superiority over you? Am I not foregoing even my rightful claim of service, and acting as your servant? Instead of demanding service at your hands, I am among you as he that serveth.” He admits that this is not man’s principle of acting, or estimate of service. He shews that this is not the scale on which earthly distinctions are graduated. Among the nations of the earth each one strives to be uppermost, and covets the titles which rank confers. But with his disciples this order was to be wholly reversed. Man’s idea of greatness was that of pre-eminence over his fellow-man, in virtue of which all should be his servants; God’s idea of greatness was that of lowly love, in virtue of which a man should be willing to be the servant of all.

To this life of lowly love, this posture of willing service, this place of subjection, and self-denial, and dependence, it was, that he, the Son of God,

JB

C)6 THE SERVANT OF SINNERS.

had stooped from the highest heaven: and was it possible for a man, a sinner, to cherish ambitious thoughts of supremacy or earthly honour? The Son of man had come, not to be ministered unto,, but to minister; and, in the fulfilment of that ministry (that service), to give his life a ransom for many. And did not this shew the true law of the kingdom, the principle on which God was acting, and on which he was calling us to act; did it not tell us that our aim should be, not to soar, but to stoop; that greatness lies, not in ascending above others, but in descending beneath them; and that the highest seat of honour is, in truth, the lowest place of service, — service that counts no office mean, no labour great, no sacrifice costly, — service that is willing to go down even to the tomb itself in the performance of its offices of love?

Shall we not then covet this honour; this peculiar honour, so unlike all that is human, so truly divine; the honour of lowly service; the honour of resembling Him who took upon him the form of a servant, who girded himself with the towel, that he might wash his disciples’ feet, and who has left us this precept for our daily practice, “If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another’s feet; for I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done unto you?” When we hear him saying, I am among you as he that serveth, shall we not be ashamed of our pride, and ambition, and love of ease, and fastidiousness, and self-pleasing? When we see him serving, shall we not also serve? When we see him stretching out his hands to all, however unworthy and unloveable, shall we ever turn away, in weariness or in disgust, from any soul on earth, even the unworthiest and most unloveable of all?

But our object at present is not to dwell upon Christ’s lowliness and obedience; nor to set forth these as our example; nor to shew the law of the kingdom, that service is the true nobility. We wish to exhibit the service itself of which He speaks; to bring before you Christ the servant; not merely Christ the Fathers servant, doing the Father’s will, but Christ a servant to us and for us; Christ fulfilling this lowly office, in order to meet the case of the neediest.

Let us consider these three things in reference to this service, — first, its history; secondly, its nature; and thirdly, the ends and objects which it is intended to meet.

I. Its history. — It is not with His birth in Bethlehem that Christ’s service begins. His visit to our first father in Paradise was its true commencement. After that we find him, age after age, visiting the children of men, and always in the character of one ministering to their wants. His intercourse with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, was that of one offering, not ashing, service. In his dealings with Israel, we find the same unwearied, ever-watchful ministry; for the pillar-cloud that led them, that sheltered them, that guarded them by night and day, was the dwelling of the Son of God, the visible exhibition of his presence and service. It was he who ministered to them in the desert. He fought their battles. He selected their encamp-, ments. He shaded them from the scorching sun. He drew water for them out of the rock, and brought food out of the storehouses of heaven. In Canaan, too, he ministered to them, generation after generation; and the long record of Israel is the history of his manifold service.

At his birth, his life of service visibly began. It was to serve that he descended to Bethlehem. And his life at Nazareth for thirty years was a life of service. In the three years and a half of his jjuhlic ministry, he shewed how skilful he was in serving, how willing to undertake it in all its parts. At the well of Jacob we find him serving a needy sinner; in the house of Simon the Pharisee we find him doing the same. In the house of Lazarus we find him ministering to saints. Wherever he goes, we find him still exercising the same lowly vocation; ministering alike to soul and body, to Pharisee and publican, to child or to man, to Jew, or to Samaritan, or to Gentile. The upper chamber, Gethsemane, Pilate’s hall, the cross, the grave, — these were all places of service. After his resurrection, on the way to Emmaus, on the shore of the lake, we find him still the same.

At his ascension He onlv entered on a new department of service; and as the Advocate with the Father, the Intercessor, the Forerunner, we see him still serving. As the priests under the law were, in all things relating to the tabernacle, the people’s servants, ever standing ready to do the required work to any Israelite, so is our Intercessor. He stands ready to take up any case that may be put into his hands. He wearies not; he is not provoked; he turns not away; as willing and prompt to serve, even the most unworthy, as in the days of his flesh. For the glory that surrounds him above has not altered his love or his meekness of spirit, nor made him ashamed of the lowly office which he exercised here, as the servant of the needy and the evil.

Nor, when he comes again in strength and majesty, as King of kings and Lord of lords, does he lose sight of his character as the ministering one. Hence in that passage in which he refers to this day of glory (Luke xii. 37), he makes reference to this same gracious office as not even then laid aside, — “Blessed are those servants,” says He, “whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them;” as if, even in that day of triumph and happy festival, there would be something omitted, something incomplete, something incongruous, something not like himself, if he did not then find scope for his old office of condescending love, and appear, even at his own marriage supper, as the servant of his ransomed ones.