A Compelling Testimony: Maintaining a Disciplined Walk, Christlike Character, and Godly Relationships as God's Servant

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A Compe l l i ng Tes t imony

who is the greatest, there is trouble over who is the least. That is the crux of the matter for us, isn’t it? Most of us know we will never be the greatest; just don’t let us be the least. Gathered at the Passover feast, the disciples were keenly aware that someone needed to wash the others’ feet. The problem was that the only people who washed feet were the least. So there they sat, feet caked with dirt. It was such a sore point that they were not even going to talk about it. No one wanted to be considered the least. Then Jesus took a towel and a basin and redefined greatness. Having lived out servanthood before them, he called them to the way of service: “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you” (John 13.14, 15).

~ Foster. Celebration of Discipline . p. 126.

A. The biblical witness

1. Definition: “Expressing our devotion to the Lord and love for others in deliberate lifestyle and acts of service”

2. It was radical for Jesus to define greatness in terms of servanthood; despite Jewish rules requiring that slaves be well treated, Jewish free persons, like their Gentile counterparts, considered slaves socially inferior. By calling himself a “servant” and defining his mission as “giving his life a ransom for the many,” Jesus identifies himself with the suffering servant of Isaiah 53:10–12 (despite the contrary view of some interpreters today). Although the servant’s mission had been given to Israel as a whole (Isa. 41.8; 43.10; 44.2, 21; 49.3), Israel through disobedience could not fulfill it (42.19), so that the one who would fulfill it had to restore Israel as well as bring light to the Gentiles (49.5–7; 52.13–53.12). Because hardly anyone else had yet applied this passage to the Messiah, Jesus is trying to redefine their expecta tion about his messianic mission (Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament . [Mark 10.43-45] (electronic ed.). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993).