Saturday, May 26,
2012, 6:30 a.m. – The Lord woke me this morning with the song “Your Servant Witness” playing in my
mind. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Matthew 20 (quoting Vv. 16-28 NIV 1984):
“So the last will be
first, and the first will be last.”
Now as Jesus was going
up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and said to them, “We are
going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests
and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him
over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day
he will be raised to life!”
Then the mother of
Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of
him.
“What is it you want?”
he asked.
She said, “Grant that
one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left
in your kingdom.”
“You don’t know what
you are asking,” Jesus said to them. “Can you drink the cup I am going to
drink?”
“We can,” they
answered.
Jesus said to them,
“You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for
me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by
my Father.”
When the ten heard
about this, they were indignant with the two brothers. Jesus called them
together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them,
and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you.
Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and
whoever wants to be first must be your slave— 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.”
My Understanding: In
this first scenario (Vv. 1-15 not quoted) Jesus said the kingdom of heaven was
like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his
vineyard. He agreed to pay them each a denarius for a day’s work and then he
sent them to work. The landowner also went out the third, sixth, ninth and
eleventh hours of the day, and did the same. At the end of the day the owner
paid the workers their wages, beginning with those he hired last. When those
who had been hired first saw that he paid those hired last a denarius each,
they assumed they would get more since they had worked longer.
So, when he paid them also a denarius each, they grumbled
and complained against the landowner. They thought he was being unfair. Yet the
landowner brought the matter into perspective. He was not being unfair at all, as
he was being accused, for the workers he had hired first agreed to work for a
denarius, so a denarius is what they received. It was none of their business
what the landowner chose to pay the other workers, for it was his right to pay
whatever he chose. He then asked them if they were envious because he was
generous. Thus the moral of the story is (v. 16) “So the last will be first,
and the first will be last.”
First and Last
This is not just a nice story for us to read. This is an
illustrative story to show us something about the kingdom of heaven. It does not
matter if we have been believers in Jesus Christ for fifty years or for five
minutes. We all receive the same reward – eternity with God – Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. The point is not how long we have worked or even how hard we have
labored, but the point is that we agreed to work. The point is also that the
end reward depends not on us earning the final reward but on the giver of the
reward. In other words, we don’t earn our salvation. Those who work longer and
harder are no better off in the end than those who work only a short time. It
is not by our works that we are saved, but by God’s grace. Yet, we must still
receive the invitation to work, and we must go and work in God’s vineyard (his
harvest field). If we refuse to work, then we receive no reward.
So, basically there are four matters at work here. The first
is that we must receive the invitation to work in God’s vineyard, i.e. God must
first call us. Secondly, we must accept the invitation, for truly that is what
it means when we invite Jesus Christ to be our Lord (master; owner) and Savior.
We now work for God. Thirdly, we must work, i.e. we must be about doing what
God has called us to do, as we are instructed in his word, for that is what we
are called to do. And lastly we must humble ourselves, not compare ourselves to
others, and not get puffed up thinking we are superior because of what we do
for the Lord, but we must realize that we are all working for God, and it is he
who determines the work and the pay.
The “first” I believe refers to those who view themselves as
superior or more privileged because of length of time of service or the type of
work done for the Lord. God will humble them. The “last” refers to those who
have no such visions of grandeur but are thankful that God rescued them out of
the pit of hell and that he called them into his vineyard.
“For whoever exalts
himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” ~
Matt. 23:12 (NIV ’84).
Our Example
Jesus told his disciples that he was going to be betrayed to
the religious leaders of his day. They would condemn him to death and they
would turn him over to the Gentiles (non-Jews and/or to the Romans) so they
would mock him, flog him and crucify him. Yet, on the third day he would rise
again.
Think with me for a moment what this means. Jesus Christ was
(is) God the Son. He was in the beginning with God and he was (is) God. All
things were made by him and he holds everything together. He was and is supreme
over all creation. Yet, he willingly left his throne in heaven, humbled himself
and took on the nature of a servant, was made in human likeness, i.e. he took
on human flesh, and he willingly and obediently went to the cross to die for
our sins so we could go free. Not only that, but while he was in human flesh, yet
still fully God, too, he suffered just like we suffer, and was tempted to sin just
as we are tempted, and in all the ways we are tempted, too. Yet he did not sin,
in order that he might become our perfect sacrifice for our sins, and so that
he could be our faithful, compassionate and merciful high priest who
sympathizes with us in our weaknesses. Therefore God exalted him to the highest
place (see Philippians 2).
So, when we think about what all God did for us and how he
humbled himself, though he was God, how can we, mere mortals, exalt ourselves
over other people thinking ourselves to be superior? Jesus said that unless we
humble ourselves and become like little children, i.e. like them in their
openness, transparency, trust (holding nothing back), honesty and teachability,
we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. We must be so thankful to receive
anything from the Lord, thankful that he chose us, thankful that he chose to
rescue us from the pit of hell, and willing to obey him in all ways.
Drink the Cup
The mother of two of Jesus’ disciples made a request that
her sons receive special treatment in God’s eternal kingdom. Jesus told them
they did not realize what they were asking. Then, he asked them if they could
drink the cup he was going to drink. They said, “We can,” but they truly had no
idea what they were saying, because they still did not understand nor accept
what was going to happen to Jesus. How could they really?
The “cup” Jesus was going to drink was both his physical
suffering and his physical death on the cross for our sins, but greater than
that was the suffering of taking upon himself all the sins of the entire world.
We share in that suffering when, by faith, we come to Jesus Christ in humility,
repentance (turning from sin), and we choose to follow (obey) him completely.
We die to our old way of living in sin, and we choose to walk in God’s way of
righteousness and holiness in the power, strength and wisdom of the Holy Spirit
now at work within us. We choose to lay down our lives, i.e. to give up our own
selfish desires so that we can walk humbly before God, doing what Christ now
desires and requires for our lives. When we truly choose this life, and we step
out in obedience to Christ, we become his witnesses, we make disciples of all
nations, we teach others to obey Christ’s commands, and we leave our lives of
sin behind us, etc., we will be hated, ostracized, rejected, persecuted,
abandoned, betrayed, mistreated and perhaps even ultimately killed for our
faith in Christ Jesus. So, Jesus was correct when he told them that they would
indeed drink from his cup.
This situation with these disciples wanting to have
privileged positions stirred resentment in the other disciples, so Jesus called
them together to set things straight. Jesus told them that if they want to be
great, they must be a servant, and whoever wants to be first must be the other’s
slave. This does not mean we become the servants and slaves of men to please
man over and above our servitude to our Lord, i.e. we don’t follow the ways of
men and become slaves of depravity just because man may want us to be that way.
God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit must always be in first place in our lives,
and our service to him must, as well, always be first, but we must understand,
too, what all that service entails.
We don’t “work” for God out of our own accord, i.e. this
does not entail hours on end in church work, thinking that will make us more
righteous or that God will be pleased. The work we do for God is what he
requires of us, what he has called us to do, and what his word teaches us that
we must all do. Sometimes this will require us to have godly wisdom and
discernment in knowing the correct balance of work, as we may be called to more
than one thing. For instance, I am a wife, a mother and a grandmother. The Lord
has also called me to write for him what he gives me to write each day, i.e.
what he teaches me through my times alone with him. As well, I am a sister in
Christ to fellow believers, and I have other family members, too. I need to
allow for some interruptions, and I need to be sensitive to divine appointments
and opportunities. Yet, if I allow myself to be way distracted from God’s work,
then I am failing to do what God has called me to do. Serving God means serving
and loving others, yet we each have a calling as to how God would want us to
serve, and we must do what God has called us to do. And, this may mean to
literally give of our lives in death, or it may mean much self-sacrifice in
order to serve others in the way Christ would have us serve. The main thing is
to obey God in all we do.
Your Servant Witness
/ An Original Work / March 13, 2012
Humbly I bow, Lord,
before You,
Bringing my requests
to You.
May I listen; hear You
speaking.
May I follow You in
truth.
Gently lead me in Your
service.
Guide my steps and
strengthen me.
Fill me with Your love
and mercy.
May I live for Thee!
Let me be Your servant
witness,
Telling others of Your
grace.
May I always share the
gospel
With those I meet face
to face.
May I show the love of
Jesus,
Caring for the needs
of men;
Be Your servant witness
always
For my Lord, Amen!
My desire to be like
Jesus,
Living for Him ev’ry
day.
May I obey all His
teachings
Given me, so I’ll not
stray.
Love You, Jesus, Lord,
my master.
You are the King of my
heart;
Follow You where’er
You lead me;
Not from You depart!
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