Carlene Nisley

Matthew 20:26-28 (NLT)

26 But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. 28 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

We hear a lot about influencers in the world today. Influencers are those who have anywhere from dozens to over a million followers on social media. Some are celebrities and some are not. Put simply, an influencer offers a level of expertise about a specific topic, which draws the interest of groups of people. In turn, this affords them a degree of authority over those who follow them because people model themselves after influencers.

Jesus was an influencer. He proclaimed it when he said that he had come not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many. The “giving his life as a ransom for many,” of course, is the standout proclamation in this statement. Yet, in the same breath he teaches us again about the importance of being a servant. Jesus’ influence came through his heart of service. We read of servanthood and sacrifice repeatedly in Jesus’ teachings.

Indeed, Jesus was an influencer. He still is. Our call is to model ourselves after Jesus. This means that our focus is on how we can serve, not on how we are being served. As those living in the Western world, we have opportunities almost daily to be served, whether at a restaurant, a grocery store, the cleaners or the bank. We are enticed by a consuming desire to acquire material goods and obtain services without noticing the people with whom we are engaging, sometimes failing to remember Jesus’ instructions to serve. We walk daily in the tension of being in the world, but not of the world.

Jesus clearly stated in John 5:19 that he only did what he saw the Father doing. I recently heard a speaker refer to the Holy Spirit as “God who lives on earth with us.” This statement proclaims that the Holy Spirit doesn’t just live in our hearts, but is actively living among us in this same world. This conveys a spectacular image of the greatest Influencer of all time continuing to mingle with all of humanity all of the time. This means that the Holy Spirit is both within us and walking with us. This explains why Jesus told us that we would do even greater things than he had done.

In Matthew 20:28, when Jesus says he came to serve, it translates from the Greek word diakonos meaning minister. In this context, it implies action that includes caring for others, comforting the grieving, befriending the lonely, offering aid and support to those in need, healing the sick, restoring the lost, being loving and caring towards everyone we meet. As we pray daily throughout this season of prayer, let’s ask the Holy Spirit to empower us to be like Jesus, finding those opportunities not to be served, but to serve.

TIME FOR REFLECTION:

• Ask God to give you an attitude of a servant in your interactions with others.
• Practice responding where you see the Holy Spirit working, with a willingness to serve where and as needed.

• Seek God during the 40-days of prayer for the churches in the Oregon Conference of the FMC, to experience the fruit that will come through serving one another as the Body of Christ, as well as serving to be influencers for Jesus in the world.