From Spectator to Servant

October 21, 2015 Year B

John 13:1-17

The hardest part of the Christian life is obedience. It is easy to hear what we should do. It is harder to do it.

If one looks at the Christian life as a set of rules, then it would be easy to see why obedience is hard. However, Christianity is a relationship, and that relationship is based upon trust. Trust leads me to serve the one I trust out of love.

This is why Jesus gave us the example of washing the feet. He did not do this as an ordinance to be obeyed, but as an example of the attitude one should have in hearing and dong God’s Word.

We serve because we have listened to God’s command to serve. We serve because Jesus served us first. Jesus said that He came to serve and not be served. That same example He has passed on to us.

The is a difference between being served and served. It is the difference between hearing God’s Word and doing God’s Word. When I am being served, all I have to do is listen. I become a spectator.  I hear the person who is serving me. I give that servant instructions and I am served.

When I hear and obey God’s Word, I have to go from spectator to servant. I have to listen and then do what I am told. This is why James says that obedience is to be “doers of the Word” (James 1:22).

Prayer: God, please help me to be not just a hearer of the Word, but a doer as well. Help me go from being a spectator to a servant.