Opening Prayer
Lord, we pray You again today: give us meekness and love. Amen.
Text: Matthew 20:25-28
But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave – just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
Devotion
God, help us to understand and do what we hear in this lesson! It is a heavenly lesson, impossible for the carnal mind to comprehend, but it is wisdom’s speaking to the spirit. In the world the great are great, the mighty are mighty, and the rulers rule. But in Christ’s kingdom the least is the greatest, the weakest the most powerful, and all servants are the freest lords. That is the mystery of meekness, as foreign to the natural man as a sealed book, but revealed to God’s saints. If you are a disciple of Christ, then you have begun to comprehend and carry out this lesson, but you have only begun and shall eagerly look for the revelation of the mystery. The Lord said nothing more often than this: “Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, but whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.” If you want to become great, try to become least, not in pretended lowliness, but in your heart, inwardly and truly. Outwardly, in your earthly station, be what God has made you, whether honored or forgotten.
But in what you are, you should not want to become great, but you should want to be servant of all and really be such. This is the true dignity of love, as far above passing greatness, as heaven is above earth. If you shall be the greatest, then you must not ask to sit at the Lord’s right and left hand in His glory, like the sons of Zebedee (Mar 10:37), or want to be the most prominent like Diotrephes (3Jo 9), but you must become “servant” to your brethren, bound and constrained to serve them all. What dignity and what a royal state of freedom: to be “servant of all” in no way prevented from practicing love! “Free from all I have made myself a servant of all, for the love of Christ constrains us,” Paul says. What shall I say? O I am still so very far from the rank of “the highest”! But strive for it, my soul! Jesus wants you to become like Him. In the distress caused by your pride and selfishness you learn to take to heart the comfort of these justifying words: “Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.” And the more you learn this, the more the exhortation of these words will become true in your life and your behavior, so that you descend to deeper humility and ascend to higher rank in the kingdom of God.
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, grant us Your mind, and pour out Your love in our hearts. Let us come near to You, so that the proud spirit may vanish far from us. Give us light to understand Your life of service on earth, so that we live in the power of Your redemption, establish love and peace, and do nothing else but serve one another. O precious Lord and Savior, give us this favor. Amen.
Hymn
Our sighing You know secretly;
Lord God, we pray, now hear it.
Jesus, as You would have us be,
Make us by Your good Spirit!
Grant that we ne’er to ill consent,
Your Passion ne’er despising,
But e’er prizing;
Truly may we repent
Until our final rising.
Landstad: O Jesus, Herlighedens Haab L 553:2 tr. DeGarmeaux;
tune: Ich ruf zu dir (ELH 255); alternate hymn: Love divine, all love excelling ELH 407