Jesus Is Servant-Hearted

What does it mean to be servant-hearted?

Christians can talk about it a lot sometimes, but what does it actually mean to live out a servant-hearted life?

Fortunately, we have a perfect example of servant-heartedness in our Lord Jesus Christ, as we read in today’s verse from Mark chapter 10:

45 “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

From this, we can firstly see that being servant-hearted is clearly not about a feeling bound by a duty of service. Serving others because it is your job, or out of a sense of obligation is not the point here. The Son of Man, by whom all things were created, had no earthly business going about serving his creatures.

But yet, he washed his disciple’s feet.

This complete inversion of our expected order of things is a bit of a recurring theme with Jesus: the King of the universe born in a stable, our Holy Lord embracing the sinners rejected by society; and radical servant-heartedness is part of this Kingdom of God that is completely incongruous with the world we live in today.

Secondly, servant-heartedness is not merely a gesture of goodwill; such as popping 50p in the donation box and ticking off your good deed for the day. The key is in the name: servant-heartedness. Jesus did not just serve when he felt like it, or on his good days; he came to serve.

It’s not really an action at all really, but an attitude, a posture we hold ourselves in, which orients the way we live our lives around the needs of others, as Jesus did. This posture looks to God and reflects His glory to the world around us, like a mirror tilted up towards the sun, instead of reflecting the self.

Finally, this verse culminates by pointing us to Jesus’ ultimate act of servant-heartedness, the free giving of his life for us. Let’s answer the call to follow the example of how Jesus is servant-hearted this Advent.