Learning From Our Servant God
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 20:28, NIV
Have you ever missed a moment with God because you were expecting Him to show up one way but He came in another?
Maybe you were listening for a big, booming voice, but He was speaking through flowers. Or you were watching for waves to part, but He was touching your face through the hands of a baby you held.
Are You Missing Your Moments with God?
The Jews were waiting for their Messiah. God had sent the prophets, the foreshadowing figures of Jesus, the Scriptures. The priests studied and prepared for the coming of the Lord. And yet when He came, most of the Jewish leaders completely missed Him because He wasn’t what they were looking for. They let their own preconceived ideas and expectations rob them of recognizing their Messiah. They had interpreted the Scriptures and the words of the prophets to create an image of the kind of Messiah they wanted, a war hero. Someone to free them from their oppression in the earthly world. A leader to wipe out their physical enemy and give them freedom through a military victory.
They certainly weren’t looking for a baby, or a God who acted like a servant.
What kind of God am I looking for? Which aspects of God am I missing because of the box I’ve put Him in?
The Messiah’s unexpected form didn’t start and stop with the hectic circumstances of His entrance into the world. Instead of a warrior, He came as a defenseless child who was at risk of being assassinated, and the pattern continued as He broke out of the box of what people expected of their Messiah. He flipped tables in the temple, condemned the practices of the religious leaders, healed (“worked”) on the Sabbath, raised the dead, interacted with women and children, and taught that God was interested in Gentiles (the enemy) not just Jews (the chosen people). And piled on top of all that, this Messiah came “not to be served but to serve” (Matthew 20:28). Jesus wasn’t just a radical king interrupting culture and religion, but a servant king.
The Last Shall Be First
The concept of loving and serving to an unusual degree continues to set Christians apart today in a “What can you do for me?” society. It is the backward math of the kingdom—where love looks like sacrifice, someone else paid our debt but we receive His reward, and leadership looks like going low and serving. Peter’s refusal to let Jesus wash his feet gives us a clue of just how radical Jesus’ actions and teachings were.
“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” Matthew 20:16
Does the concept of God as a servant sit well with me? Do I know Jesus, the King who washes feet?
Jesus’ parables, like choosing a lower seat at a banquet table (Luke 14:8–11), repeatedly gave more insight into the importance of going low instead of reaching higher in the kingdom. These parables teach us all to go low and put others before ourselves out of honor, not low self-esteem.
Not an Act
Jesus didn’t merely give the image of being a servant king. He knelt and took the position of the lowest slave in a household, serving his friends, who rightfully should have been serving Him, while during the meal the disciples fought over which of them was the greatest.
“A dispute also arose among them, which of them was to be regarded as the greatest.”
Luke 22:24
Jesus’ act of washing feet was a real-life parable. He wasn’t exchanging the form of God for one of a servant—He was revealing the true form of God. A Servant King.
In His Word
Read John 13. Take special note of verse 14-15 and what Jesus says to his disciples. Be inspired by the word.
In Your Life
Jesus calls us to this ministry of washing feet too, and it’s time for a foot washing revival. We are not “greater than our master” (cf. John 13:16), we are also called to humbly serve and love people like our Servant King.
We Recommend
We recommend the book A King Washes Feet by Jessica Bond. She reveals the profound meaning behind this timeless message of serving and loving others, challenging us to reconsider the overlooked, shunned, and marginalized in order to model the humility and love of our King.
Let’s Connect
Jessica Bond is founder of Salt & Gold Collection, creator of the viral Footwashing Series artwork and communicator of the radical gospel through speaking, social media, and ministry. She has ministered in prisons, schools, nightclubs, underground churches, and crocodile-infested mangroves. Jessica is a graduate of the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry in California and calls the Catholic Church home. Find her online at SaltAndGoldStore.com and on Instagram at @SaltAndGoldCollection.