What does Jesus say about community?

"But Jesus, having called them to Him, said, Ye know that the rulers of the nations exercise lordship over them, and the great exercise authority over them. It shall not be thus amongst you, but whosoever will be great among you shall be your servant; and whosoever will be first among you, let him be your bondman; as, indeed, the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many" (verses 25-28).

The mistake the disputing disciples had made was to think of His Kingdom, like the kingdoms of the nations. He dispels this conception; it would be the very opposite from what it is in the kingdoms of the nations. The greatest in His Kingdom are those who are servants and the bondman is the first. He Himself, the Son of Man, came to serve. Blessed words are these indeed, lowering all that is of self, dethroning pride and ambition, teaching us to let this mind be in us which was in Christ Jesus.

He set Himself before them; they were not to be like the Gentiles but like Him; they were not to exercise lordship over one another, but to follow His example and serve one another in love. Let us incline our ears to hear His words. He said to them, “ I am among you as he that serveth .” Consider what these words meant. When they awoke in the morning He had been awake before them and prepared their breakfast; they never needed a servant if He was near; His love made Him watch for opportunities to labour on their behalf, and if there was one task more menial than another that was the task He undertook. He, the Lord of glory, was the servant of those rude, unlettered fishermen; His love bound Him with unbreakable fetters to a life of service. He is our pattern, and our witnessing for Him must be after that pattern. He who loves most serves most, and He who would be most like his Lord must take the lowest place amongst his brethren, that he might serve all.

We are to serve one another by love. This service is the service of a bondman, just as the Lord Jesus Christ served, and what an example this is for us! You remember in Philippians 2 it says clearly that He took a bondsman's form, served in that way, serving the will of God. Now here as bondsmen we are to serve each other, and we have the example that the Lord Jesus Christ set as He served His God, as He did His Father's will. It is not a case of setting my will against your will or you setting your will against my will, but together we are to submit to each other in the fear of the Lord and seek to love each other in this way. Now I know that we say, 'We cannot do this, there are all sorts of problems and difficulties and trials', but I think we will see in a few moments, thank God, there is power to do this.

While we learn the inner significance of this loving service of the Lord, do not let us lose that which lies clearly on the surface — the gracious humility of the service. If it was the act of a host who desired to specially distinguish a guest, it was also the service of a slave, and as we view our Lord at the feet of His disciples, we are reminded of His words, "I am among you as be that serves." And His words come home to us with special force. "Ye call Me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet: ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you."

Now, the Lord Jesus did feel the traitor's heartless ways (and we may learn it yet more from Psalm 109.) Surely also we ought to feel it, instead of merely treating it as a thing, that must be, and which Scripture prepares us for, or which God's goodness turns to gracious ends. All true enough; but are these the platitudes that content us before His troubled spirit? Or is not the sense of His sorrow to fill the heart in presence of this ineffable love, which endured all things for the elect's sake? Yea, it was from all: our Lord has to meet shame in those He loved best. "They began to enquire among themselves which of them it was that should do this thing." (Ver. 23.) There was honesty in these hearts; but what ignorance! what unbrokenness of self! "There was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted greatest." Other evangelists, as well as Luke, mention that, when He was in the midst of His miracles and teaching, they were full of their unseemly rivalry; Luke mentions it where it was beyond comparison most painful and humiliating — in presence of the communion of His body and His blood, and when they had just heard of the presence of the traitor in their midst, who was offering to sell their Master for thirty pieces of silver! "And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth." What grace! what a pattern! But forget not the warning. The patronizing, of the lordly benefactor has no place in Christ's mind for His followers. To serve was the Lord's place: may we prize it! (Verses 24-27.)

But this was not to be so among the followers of the Lord Jesus. If one would be great, he must take the lowly place of ministering, not of ruling. The one who would be first would be servant of all. They had seen this in the Lord Jesus Himself, though they had not really taken it to heart. He, the Son of Man (showing His relationship to all mankind) had come, not to receive service and honor from others, but to minister to them and to give His life a ransom for many. Marvellous service indeed What an example to subdue every believing heart in desire to follow Him in a path of self-sacrificing service to His glory and for the blessing of others

The Lesson. — Now resuming His garments and His seat, He is once more the Master in the midst of His disciples. As that He addresses them all. "Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call Me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say to you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither is he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them" (12-17). Care for each other, and interest in each other, could be manifested by washing the feet — i.e. bringing the Word of God to bear on the other, if occasion call for it. Much wisdom and grace is surely needed for such a service to be rightly performed. Love, unchanging love, for His own moves the Lord to do it. Real love for another, and a true desire for his welfare, are needful for any of us to undertake such a work. And we do well to remember, that beside the washing there is the wiping. The service, when done, should be reckoned a service of the past; and the failure, which called for it, should then be buried, so as not to be cast up against the individual in the future. A lowly service it might seem; yet it was to be viewed as beneath none of them. If the Lord and Master would do it, the disciple, the Apostle, must not be above it.

In closing we should remember the words of the Lord Jesus in the latter part of the chapter. Peter asked: ‘Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? until seven times?’Jesus says to him, ‘I say not to thee until seven times, but until seventy times seven.’ As has been remarked by others, this really shows that there is no limit to the number of times we are to forgive one another. The Lord’s closing words also show the importance of forgiving from the heart (Matt. 18:35). Where this is done the matter ceases to occupy the mind and mutual fellowship can again be enjoyed.

IT is worthy of note, that the testimony of the disciples in the world was to be love - love one to another. Having told them that He was about to be glorified, Jesus gave them a new commandment, "That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." Each one was to become to the other, and to all, the expression of Christ's own heart; and in this way their hearts, knit to Christ, would be bound together in the living unity of divine affections. And the mutual display of this love would be the unmistakable sign for all men that they were the disciples of Christ.

Unity is moreover the express desire and prayer of the Lord Jesus in regard to His own. His words were, "Neither pray I for these [the Apostles] alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word; that they all may be one." (John 17:20-21.) How can it fail then to be the strong desire and longing of every heart that loves Him, and that which we earnestly pursue with all our powers?