Becoming a Great Servant
by Dr. Graham Standish
Mark 10:35-45
James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, ‘Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.’ And he said to them, ‘What is it you want me to do for you?’ And they said to him, ‘Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.’ But Jesus said to them, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?’ They replied, ‘We are able.’ Then Jesus said to them, ‘The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.’
When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. So Jesus called them and said to them, ‘You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.’
There’s a television show that I love. I don’t watch it all the time, but it is one of the default shows I turn to if I can’t find a good movie or show on television. I love it not only because of its subject matter, but because of what it has taught me about life. The show is The Dog Whisperer, and it is on the National Geographic channel. I’m not sure what night it’s on, but the channel shows reruns constantly, which is how I catch it.
The gist of the show is this. Do you have a problem dog? Call the Dog Whisperer, and he’ll have the dog straightened out in 24 hours. The Dog Whisperer is a man named Cesar Milan, and he’s from Southern California. He gets called in to help with all sorts of problems: dogs who tinkle of on the floor when a stranger comes in the room; dogs that bark and growl and threaten little children; dogs that attack other dogs when they are taken on walks; and dogs that bite when people try to pet them.
What the Dog Whisperer teaches is that the basic problem with virtually every problem dog is the owner. Often the owner has not shown the dog that she or he is the alpha dog, which then confuses the dog and causes behavior problems. Milan says that healthy, happy dogs know their place and are happy to be part of a pack—human or canine—but the problem dogs tend to act out when they don’t know their place. When that happens they try to take charge in doglike ways, which means becoming violent towards anyone whom they sense is a threat to their dominance. Milan teaches that dogs are obsessed with one basic dynamic—dominance and submission.
His answer is to teach the owners to gently, but assertively, take charge. He teaches the owners how to take charge by showing them how to properly take dogs on a walk, how to show the dogs that they are safe, and that we humans are in charge. Ultimately with dogs, we either take charge, or they will try to take charge. They don’t understand life without dominance.
Watching The Dog Whisperer I’ve come to realize that there’s a lot of dog in us humans. Just like dogs we have a need for dominance. We have an ingrained need to be in control and in charge. We have a need to have others do our bidding, even if our bidding is to let us be in charge of the kitchen, the television remote, or our bedrooms. We’re like dogs. We need to know our place, and we love it if we can be “top dog.”
It shouldn’t surprise you that we’re like dogs, or any other animal for that matter, since we are animals. We have the same instinctual drives and urges that all animals do. But there’s one difference between animals and us. We are also spirit. We can rise above being merely animal. In fact, my definition of sin is not so much that sin is bad behavior as much as it is living life cut off from our spirit and God’s Spirit, resulting in our living like animals. Think about all those behaviors that we normally think of as sinful: lust, greed, gluttony, anger, or any of the other deadly sins. They are sins of our becoming more like animals, becoming consumed with animalistic obsessions—food, possessions, what other animals have and we don’t. The more our lives are lived in animalistic pursuits, the more sinful we become because we become cut off from God’s Spirit, who leads us to transcend our animal natures—to transcend the need for dominance.
This all goes into our passage for today because Jesus is teaching us to not be like dogs looking for dominance, but to be like Spirit looking to serve others. You see, to be truly spiritual means to be servants, not masters.
Paul Bailey discovered how spiritual servants can make all the difference in life because a servant changed his life. He stood on a stage in the hall of St. Ignatius Church in New York City, among 177 people who were graduating from the Ready, Willing, and Able program. Eighteen months earlier he was homeless, sleeping on a grate on 84th street, when George McDonald walked up to him. McDonald asked him if he would like a job and a place to live. Bailey skeptically said, “yes.” McDonald told him that he was part of a program that could help Bailey, if Bailey was serious. All Bailey had to do was to show up and be serious about changing his life.
McDonald had made it his life commitment to help people like Paul Bailey change their lives. Perhaps he was sensitive to the plight of the homeless because of his own home life. His parents divorced before he was one-year-old. He never really knew his father. Then his mother died when he was thirteen, meaning that he was left mostly under the care of a local Roman Catholic school and orphanage. It was there that he learned values that would guide his life, such as caring about the poor and the homeless.
Despite the influence of the church, he graduated from high school with a desire to mainly look after himself. After one year of college, he dropped out to work for McGregor Sportswear. He quickly rose up the ranks and became wealthy, eating out most nights in very expensive restaurants, partying at Club 21, and counting Joe Namath as one of his friends. Then something happened to spark a change in his thinking. Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated, and his whole perspective changed. McDonald kept thinking about how the world’s priorities were skewed. The change wasn’t immediately apparent, but he increasingly thought more about the poor and the disadvantaged. He noticed the disparity when he would go out to dinner and spend $200, only to have to step around a homeless man lying on the sidewalk as he left the restaurant. It gnawed at him.
Trying to do something about the problem, he ran for Congress three times and lost all three times. Still, he had made valuable connections that would come in handy as he looked for ways to help the poor. Wanting to make a difference, he spent 700 straight nights handing out sandwiches to the poor, but still realized he needed to do more. Eventually he developed a vision. He would create a program to train the homeless to work, and to give them lives off the street. That’s how he came up with the idea for the Ready, Willing, and Able program. It’s also how he decided to start a charitable fund, the Doe Fund, that would reach out to the homeless. It got its name from a homeless woman, Mama Doe, who was locked out of Grand Central Station by police one night, a place she regularly slept in, and thus froze to death. McDonald. He recognized her from her picture in the paper, wearing a scarf he had given her three weeks before, while realizing that he had regularly given sandwiches to her.
Sparked by her death he found the drive to do something or the homeless. Since then he has committed his life to getting people off the streets and back into a responsible life. He found his life work as a servant, serving the poor, the hungry, and the homeless. He lived out our passage for today, not seeking greatness, but seeking to be a servant.
Unfortunately, too man people thing that to be a servant means being weak. What they don’t realize is that to become a servant like George McDonald requires tremendous courage. Becoming a servant doesn’t mean that you can’t be in charge. McDonald was in charge of his charity. The difference is that to be a servant means to be a master who cares about the welfare of those around her or him. It’s the CEO, president, vice president, office manager, sales manager, or store owner who cares as much about co-workers as she or he does about customers. It’s the coach, teacher, or scoutmaster who cares as much about the struggling kid as he or she does about the star kid. It’s the Christian who cares as much about the poor, the hungry, the homeless, the hurting, as she or he does about her or himself. It’s the Christian who listens to God and is willing to look for opportunities to serve at any moment in life. And you never know when the opportunity to serve will strike.
Joey learned about servanthood one day in class. He was in the third grade, and as he sat in class he realized that he had to go to the bathroom. But he was shy. He didn’t want to raise his hand and ask. So he held it. Then catastrophe hit. He couldn’t hold it any longer. Looking down he noticed wet pants and a puddle. He prayed: “God, please don’t let anyone see me. Please don’t let anyone see me.”
The teacher started walking toward him. If she noticed, she’d make a big deal about it, and the other kids would never let him forget. She moved closer. She was about to look at him. Then Suzie stood up, grabbed the fishbowl, and said to the teacher, “Can I feed the fish? Can I feed the fish?” As she moved the bowl toward the teacher, she tripped, and spilled the whole bowl onto Joey’s lap. He was drenched.
Everyone rushed to help Joey, and laughed at Suzie’s clumsiness. As the kids cleaned up the mess, the teacher took Joey to the gym to get him dry clothes. Later that day Joey saw Suzie on the bus, and timidly asked, “Did you do that on purpose?” Suzie smiled and said, “I peed in my pants once, too. I knew you needed me to help you.”
There are a lot of ways we can serve in life. We can do serve in big ways, and we can serve in small ways. I want you to reflect on your own life. Are you a servant in your life? In what ways? And in what ways may God be calling you to serve even more?
Amen.
