Lesson 24: How Does God Operate Through People? Part 2

Last week I noted that just about every major character who acts for God in the Old Testament is called “God’s Servant”. I suggested Isaiah’s four servant hymns offer the best definition of what that means: God’s servant works for justice, cares for the weak, uses only words not weapons, and suffers for God.

This same prevalence appears in the New Testament. Again just about every character who acts for God is labeled “servant” from Jesus (Matthew 12: 17- 21, Acts 3: 13-26) to us (I Corinthians 4: 1-5).

Numerous parables use servant, steward, or slave for those who are supposed to act for God. It is interesting to note these characterize the servant as following the owner’s instructions, working diligently in his absence, conveying accurately his message, caring for the other servants by passing out their share of the food, pay, or harvest and using the gifts that the owner has given them.
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I wonder if we do not intentionally ignore how much Jesus makes this a central teaching. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, he repeats in various ways that the greatest among us must be servant of all. (e.g. Matthew 20: 24-28, 23: 11; Mark 9: 33- 37,10:41-45)

This is even more evident in John where the writer builds to the Last Supper where Jesus plays the role of servant by washing his followers’ feet. He tells them to do the same, and just in case they did not get it, he gives them the one commandment that appears in his book, “Love one another as I have loved you”. (John 13: 1-15, 34-35)

Many scholars believe Philippians 2: 1-11 summarizes Paul’s teaching. This famous passage calls on us to follow Jesus example who, though God, emptied himself into the form of a servant. Paul, also, always qualifies the freedom Jesus grants us by saying we should use it to become servants to each other. (Galatians 5: 13-15, I Corinthians 9:19)

I believe the New Testament writers consciously use Isaiah’s definition to describe Jesus and his followers. Bob is, of course, right that we can “cherry pick” almost anything out of the Bible to support our ideas of who acts for God. However, the overwhelming prevalence of “servant” as defined by Isaiah and acted out by Jesus forces us to acknowledge this must be a primary standard. Again I agree with Bob that the first two items (working for justice, caring for the weak) are appropriate and the second two (using only words not weapons, suffering for God) are attractive but more problematic. Still we have to acknowledge that only in the most primitive Old Testament passages does God call his servants to war. That is not to say the military can not serve God, but it certainly says that we have to be very, very, very careful before claiming God calls us to arms. And again we might not suffer like the martyrs, but we can still acknowledge that self-denial and willingness to sacrifice for God and justice still are marks of God’s people.

I have two questions: 1) How come we are so slow to acknowledge God calls us to be servants? and 2) Surrounded by so many people who embarrass us when they claim to act for God, what might be marks by which we can identify who are true and who false?

Tags: empty self, foot washing, God's servant, parables, servant of all