“Whoever wants to become your great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be a slave to all. For even the son of man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life – a ransom for many.”
This well-known passage from Mark’s gospel serves to remind us that being a Christian is not about us. Christianity is not a faith of self. We are here to serve others, from our brothers and sisters in the church to our “neighbours”, whoever and wherever they may be, from people of long-standing Christian commitment to people in our world who have not yet heard about Jesus and who are yet to learn about God’s salvation for them. Jesus speaks these words and was the supreme example of servanthood – the “Servant King” as we so often like to sing. How well are we willing to follow our Saviour’s example and be willing servants to people we come into contact with? One well-known Christian author has put it like this:
“The first word of the Lord’s Prayer – “Our” – determines the very nature of the Christian faith. Suppose it had been “my”. Instead of faith being “our” centred, it would have been “my” centred – and that would have been all wrong! The word “our” involves a shifting of emphasis from me to the Father and to my brothers and sisters in the kingdom. It implies a renunciation – a renunciation of myself. We find an implied demand that we adopt an attitude of self-surrender to the Father and to His interests and to the interests of others in His kingdom. This “our” must stretch beyond our fellowship, local church or denomination, to include the whole family of God – everywhere.”