Godly ambition
“Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant.” (Mark 10:43)
Have you ever considered what your ambition in life is? Take a step up to the next level in your area of employment? Find a better paying job? Change careers? Retire early?
I’m guessing that none of us has on our list of ambitions the idea of being a servant.
In our verse for this week, Jesus is not telling us that we should aspire to climb down the career ladder or seek a demotion. He is rather getting us to address our attitude.
Whether you are just entering the work force, have been entrusted with a high level of responsibility and leadership, are nearing retirement or are somewhere in between, Jesus’ words are something each of us needs to prayerfully ponder and pay attention to.
Maybe you have heard of the concept of servant leadership. This model seeks to encourage people to not focus on how much power and authority they have or can wield, but instead how can they model for others what it means and looks like to seek to serve everyone possible in their sphere of influence.
Some of the ways this is borne out are:
1) not acting or speaking in such a way that you convey to people that there are certain tasks which are beneath you
2) purposefully looking for opportunities to go out of your way to help someone that you might not normally come in contact with
3) speaking and acting in such a way that you put yourself at the same level as others and seek to come alongside them and help and encourage them in their daily walk.
The greatest example of this is Jesus himself in the days before he took on his ultimate servant task of innocently dying for my sins, your sins and the sins of every human being. As he wrapped up his time on earth with his disciples and sought to equip them to carry on his work after he was gone. Before he instituted the Lord’s Supper, Jesus did something which must have blown the minds of his disciples. As they gathered, Jesus got a basin of water and a towel and got down on the floor and washed the feet of each one of his disciples. You have to remember that in Palestine they usually walked from place to place over dusty trails and roads and so when you entered someone’s house, a sign of hospitality was to have someone wash the guest’s feet. This was a task which was usually reserved for the lowliest servant in the house. It was often thought of as a very lowly and even humiliating task.
Jesus speaks the way he does in our verse for this week because some of the disciples had just been talking about who was the greatest and which of them should have the most prominent place. Jesus has to first of all teach them about the kind of attitude they should have and that instead of thinking who is the greatest, they should think about how they can have the attitude and actions of a servant.
So it’s time for an attitude check for each of us. As you look at some of the things which you might be asked to do or have the opportunity to do in the course of your day, do you ever think or even say “Well, that’s rather humiliating” or do you see opportunities to think and act like a servant and demonstrate true servant leadership?
Such servant-like thinking and acting will certainly not always be popular. People may even make fun of us for thinking and acting in such a way. But when you get right down to it, the true Godly ambition of a Christian is not to be popular or well-liked, but rather to imitate the ultimate servant leader, our Savior, Jesus.