Serve

It is 30th December 2021, Thursday morning, the year 2021 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

“…he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the One who serves.“

Luke 22:26-27

You and I have been called by the Lord Jesus Christ to be a band of feet-washers, that’s right! Now, in the world’s economy, it is a case of, “I am alright Jack.” - It is a case of survival of the fittest but not in the Kingdom of God. The Son of God was serving His disciples, remember? He fed them, He gave them wine to drink and He also washed their feet. We must always put the younger or the weaker in the front. We must let them set the pace. Okay?

I remember like it was yesterday, many, many years ago, I took a group of young boys, maybe 16 years old (12, 13, 16), we went up the Mighty Drakensberg Mountains and we camped on the top of Champagne Castle. It is very high. We went up via Gray’s Pass, I will never forget it and these young boys were so brave. We slept up there for a couple of days and then we came down again. When we were halfway up, going up those big contour paths, they were very steep, especially when you get to the top ( No trees up there, too high for that), we came around a corner and we saw a very disillusioned, sad hiker sitting on a rock all by himself. We stopped and we said, “Is there something wrong, can we help you?”

He said, “No, I am going to try and make my way back to the car park because my team has left me behind. They said that I couldn’t keep up with them and they have deserted me.” We said, “Don’t worry, we’ll take you with us, come with us!” Then we put that hiker in the front, not in the back and he set the pace. Do you know something, he worked right the way to the very top. I can tell you when his friends saw him at the top, they were extremely embarrassed and very red-faced. We really need to serve, and to serve means we need to prefer others.

You know, when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night that He was praying before He was crucified. When the High Priests’ soldiers came to arrest Him, Jesus didn’t hide behind the disciples. He didn’t let them try to fight the soldiers off, no - He said, “Here I am. I am the one you are looking for”, and let all the disciples go.

We need to be an example to the world. We need to be a band of feet-washers. Go out today and wash somebody’s feet.

Jesus bless you.
Goodbye.