Jan 22 2008
doulos / diakonos 2
This Saturday, the small group team at mountain is hosting a worship event. We hope to explore the nature of Christian leadership as service. Our central text is John 13.
In this text John describes the Passover feast that Jesus and his disciples held on the week of Jesus death. Before the meal, Jesus washes the feet of the disciples and calls them to a similar life of service.
We will also be reading from Luke 22. This is Luke’s description of the same event. Luke records a dispute about who is the greatest that occurred after the meal.
Both of these texts show the whole reality of Christian service. We are a part of a kingdom, and we demonstrate that by letting the king serve us. We are also given a kingdom, and we exercise our domain by serving others.
I urge you to read that again. Do you see how counter-intuitive this is. We demonstrate our position as subjects of Christ by letting Christ serve us. If you don’t believe, look at the texts again.
Then we are given a kingdom that works the same way, and we demonstrate our position as the leader of this kingdom by serving others.
Could this truth be any more counter-cultural? This isn’t just counter our culture, this refutes the entire premise on which all human authority is structured.
I am excited about this service this weekend, and I am even more excited about the possibility that I and many others might be inspired by Christ’s vision for leadership that is service.
on the walk
-Ethan
