Upside Down Glory – October 29, 2021

[Jesus said] “Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 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.”
Mark 10:43-45

Upside Down Glory

Martin Luther King Jr. once observed, “We all want to be important, to surpass others, to achieve distinction. This quest for recognition is the basic impulse of human life. Our first cry as a baby was a bid for attention. Children are a little bundle of ego. Now in adult life, we still have it, and we really never get by it.” (The Drum Major Instinct, 4 February 1968)

But Jesus tells us, “That is not the way it is to be among you.” Instead, we are to put others before ourselves—just like Jesus did.

Jesus is true God, but he didn’t hang on to living like God. He came to serve. He came to save. It took him to the depths of hell. He walked through the jaws of death. He was humbled to the point of death for one reason: he loved us. He wanted to set free all who have sinned, suffered, been separated from the love of God. And, by rising from the dead, he became the source of eternal salvation and the promise of a new world for everyone who believes in him.

You might feel like a speck of sand on the shore, a nameless face in a sea of people, vapor in the wind. You are, in fact, great to God. In Jesus, you have all the rights of sons. You have a place in his family, a piece of his future, and a purpose for your present.

You are free to serve your neighbor. You are free to love your neighbor. And there’s great glory in that. They get to see Jesus in you.

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, like you, help me not so much seek to be served as to serve. For it is in serving that you are glorified. Amen.