Available for Service
by Billy Strother
As a military veteran, it touches my heart when someone simply says, “Thank you for your service.” I hear the phrase excessively often at the local Bass Pro Shop cash register, where I buy too much sporting gear. I prove my veteran’s status and they give me a generous 10% discount. But I know better than most that I really do not deserve the gratitude as much as others. I only served four years and went back on active duty for a summer while attending Bible college. The ones who deserve the encouraging words: military retirees who spent more than twenty years in service, those purple heart recipients wounded or disabled in combat, and all those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
But now that I live out the remainder of my days closer to the grave than to the cradle, I hope to hear Jesus one days speak these words to me at the gates of Heaven: Well done, thou good and faithful servant ... enter thou into the joy of thy lord (Matthew 25:21,23, KJV). That is the King James way of saying, “Thank you for your service.”
Based on John 13, in 1989, Max Greiner first created his life-size bronze statue titled “Divine Servant,” depicting Jesus washing the feet of Peter at the Last Supper. A congregation gifted me a 1/12 size bronze version of the same statue upon the completion of a year-long interim preaching ministry. For years now, my desktop bronze version of the “Divine Servant” has been placed strategically in my differing offices, to be both the first and last thing I see when entering or leaving my office. As a visual person, seeing the “Divine Servant” bronze statue reminds me in 3D to serve not only in my office, but that my service must extend out into the world in my daily life, in every place and with every person with whom I have an encounter ... every person. Dirty feet become the metaphor for the needs of others.
The moment Jesus took up that towel and basin, and began washing the feet of the Apostles, even those of Judas, just because they were dirty, he defined service as more than talk—service requires action. The washing of feet before a formal meal was both practical (the result of walking dusty, even garbage and slop and manure filled streets) and ceremonial (the showing of honor to guests and ceremonial cleansing of the same). Normally, it was the task assigned to the servants (most often slaves) of a wealthy homeowner. When Jesus knelt with towel around his waist and a basin of water and began washing the Apostle’s dirty feet (because no one else had done so), the Apostles must have been shocked—Jesus was taking on the role of a slave to them. In John 13:8, Peter protested, “No! You will never wash my feet!” But still, Jesus did wash Peter’s feet.
Jesus interpreted the meaning of the object lesson in John 13:14-15.
And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you.
At the Last Supper, we see Jesus live out his earlier challenge to the Apostles in Mark 10:43-45.
But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. 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. (NLT, emphases added)
Service resides as one of the four outward spiritual disciplines, a discipline we are called to celebrate in living out our lifetime journey with Jesus. As foundational as service is, we too often think of it in just one dimension—practical service to others. Service as a spiritual discipline is more meaningfully to be thought of and practiced as triadic discipline in three dimensions.
In its first dimension, service as a spiritual discipline clearly engages in service to others. We encounter persons in need and we, like the Good Samaritan, step into the ditches in which people find themselves bleeding out spiritually, emotionally, economically, socially, even physically. Sometimes service takes place in loving enemies, or in embracing unfair insults without returning evil for evil, in forgiving, or in sacrifice to our own detriment and to the benefit of another person.
In its second dimension, service as a spiritual discipline calls us to testify and praise the service of others. Telling and celebrating the stories of the sacrificial service of others inspires action by ourselves and others. Acknowledging the service of others strengthens our sense of Christian community and offers hope to those in need that there will be someone who will, in the name of and for the sake of Jesus, serve them in their own need or crisis. Testifying to the service of others encourages those who serve others. We all need encouragement.
In the third dimension, service as a spiritual discipline requires us to allow other persons to serve us. It is in this third dimension of practicing spiritual discipline most of us severely fall short. We like to think of ourselves as caregivers, not the cared for. We like to project strength; accepting service from others feels like admitting weakness, which it is. When we need help from others, our pride too often undermines our willingness to allow others to serve us. Someone wisely told me once, when someone asked to help me with a need I had neither the strength nor the resources to remedy, and I declined that help, that I was cheating that person out of their own blessing from Jesus in serving. And it was true. I find my greatest struggle in celebrating the spiritual discipline of service is in allowing others to serve me in my own need—I guess I am much more like Peter than I care to admit. But, as I grow older, I am more aware of my need to say “yes” when others offer service to me, rather than allowing my pride to short-circuit their own practice of the spiritual discipline of service and the blessing to them which comes from Jesus in their serving.
Professional sports broadcasters have a saying: The best ability is availability. Embracing service as a spiritual discipline is all about availability. Do we make ourselves available to serve others, in one of the thousands of ways their metaphorical feet may be dirty and in need of washing, in Jesus’ name? Do we give frequent testimony to the service of others? Do we allow others to serve ourselves?
If we find ourselves giving affirmation to all three of those questions, then we are celebrating the fullness of spiritual service. The best ability in practicing the spiritual discipline of service is availability to serve in all three dimensions.
