By J.R. Miller
"I am among you as one who serves." Luke 22:27
Serving is not an easy lesson to learn. But it is a lesson we must learn--if ever we would become like our Master. He did not come to be served--but to serve. He served to the uttermost, just as He loved to the uttermost. Anything that needed to be done for another, He did as naturally and as simply as He breathed. He loved people, and was interested in them, and was ready always to be helpful to them. It never mattered what the service was, whether it was the saving of a soul, the curing of a grievous sickness, or the giving of a cup of water--He did the least as graciously and as divinely, as the greatest.
The washing of feet was the lowliest service any man could do for another. It was the work of the lowliest slave. Yet Jesus without hesitation, did this service for His own disciples. Thus He taught them that nothing anyone may ever need to have done by another, is unfit for the whitest hands. We begin to be like Christ--only when we begin to love others enough to serve them, without asking whether the service is something that we may do without the loss of dignity.
One day a stranger entered an artist's studio in Milan. The artist was busy within. He was working at the head of a statue of Christ and appeared to take no notice of the stranger. At last he broke the silence, and said, "What do you think, sir, is it like Christ--or not?"
There is no surer test of the genuineness of Christian life, than in this matter of serving others. "Is it like Christ--is it ever so little like the Master's serving?" We are too careful of our dignity. When we see the Son of God washing His disciples' feet, we should be ashamed ever to ask whether anything another may need to have done, is too menial for us to do. A king may do the lowliest kindness to the poorest peasant in his realm, and his honor will only be enhanced by it.
"Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet." John 13:14
"O blessed Jesus, when I see You bending,
Girt as a servant at Your servants' feet,
Love, lowliness, might--in zeal all blending,
To wash their dust away and make them meet
To share Your feast. I know not to adore,
Whether Your humbleness or glory more."
