My Thoughts On Matthew 20:26-28

Matthew 20:26-28 “It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”

Being honored above your peers, catered to, and having followers are something we all want. We want to be great, and so did James and John, but Jesus’ response to them was “It shall not be so among you.” 

If I am being honest I am really good at telling people what to do. I am outgoing and task-oriented and I like to tell everyone what to do and how to do it to get a job done fast. How many times have I listened to someone else’s opinion or method of doing something? Not very many. I think my way is the highway and I don’t stop to be the servant. I don’t stop to be the slave. I don’t stop to give my life to the one who gave His life for me. 

In highschool we took a trip our Junior and Senior years to a camp in the beginning of the school year to spend some time getting to know each other, have fun, and learn more about Jesus. One of the key words we always talked about was ‘servant-leadership.’ These trips were always so good for me because this is something I am not skilled in. Now I am in Guatemala in the Pottersfield Ignite program and God is putting me in places where I have to serve. I often separate the words and think that right now I am going to lead and then when we are doing this I am going to serve, but Jesus makes it clear in this passage that being a servant is something we will do our whole lives, and if we can be good servants we will be good leaders while we serve. It always stuck out to me in soccer practice when my coach did the sprints with us. I notice when Austin washes the dishes. I take note when my pastor shows us to service projects. We notice these things because they are so foreign from the world’s view of leadership. God, teach me how to be a servant-leader.

Application: I will not schedule skit practices this week for my team. I will let someone else run with the skit practices.