What is servant leadership?

How easy it was, and is, for the disciples of Jesus to accept and adopt the standards and customs of the world that surrounds them, to take for granted that, because everybody seems to be doing it, it is the right thing to do. Again and again our Lord would say to us, "But so shall it not be among you." The nations have their great men, who exercise their authority in a lordly way. Amongst disciples of the Lord greatness is manifested in an entirely different way. There true greatness is displayed in taking the lowly place of service to others — serving the Lord in serving them.

The Son of Man Himself is the shining example of service of this kind. Who so great as He in His original estate? Then "thousand thousands ministered to Him" (Dan. 7:10). Who took so lowly a place, ministering to others? Who carried service to such a length as "to give His life a ransom for many"? For this reason alone, apart from other considerations, the place of pre-eminence must be His. They, who follow Him most closely in lowly service in this day, will be chiefest in that day.

"But Jesus called them unto Him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them; and they that are great exercise authority upon them" (ver. 25). He put His finger upon that very love of greatness in themselves. They were loud in condemning it in James and John; but their feeling betrayed the same thing in their own hearts. "It shall not be so among you," says the Lord, "but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant." There is a difference between the two words. The word translated "minister" means a servant. But in verse 27 it is a bondman or slave. Do you want to be really great according to the principles of My kingdom? Go down as low as you can. Do you want to be the greatest? Go down the lowest of all. Whoever has least of self is greatest in the Lord's eyes. For "the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many" (ver. 28). He took the lowest place of all, and gave His life a ransom for many. Blessed for ever be His name!

But the indignation of the ten at the two brethren shows their kinship with them morally. And now the Lord lets them see their common error, and the true glory of that Kingdom which they had been thinking of as if it were but like a kingdom of the nations. What! did they imagine that in His Kingdom there would be the gratification of ambition, of the desire for lordship? or that the places of rule with Him could be such as this would imply? No: for service was the road to rule, and this could only be because rule itself would be but more ample service. Whosoever would be great among them would be their minister, and the chief among them by that very fact be but bound to serve them. Must it not be plain that the Son of man; the King, "came not to be ministered unto but to minister"? Glory might change the character of this service ― not the spirit nor the fact of it. The Cross might be lowest humiliation for Him, but it was His glory too. Could they cease to remember it? Could the love shown there be measured by aught else? Could it change or be exhausted? Would He be upon the Throne to be ministered unto or to minister? What must the places of rule be in the Kingdom of which He would be the King!

Furthermore, the flesh betrays itself in the ten whose indignation with James and John proved that jealousy was at work in their own hearts. One has said, "It is not alone by the fault of one or another that the flesh becomes apparent, but how do we behave ourselves in the presence of the displayed faults of others? The indignation that broke out in the ten shewed the pride of their own hearts, just as much as the two desiring the best place."

Jesus calls them to Himself and corrects the fleshly thoughts of the two disciples and the ten, by setting before them the path of true greatness. If He cannot give them the chief place in glory, He can shew them the path that leads there. The One who takes the lowest place on earth as the bondman of all, will have the highest place in glory. Of such a path the Son of Man was the perfect pattern.

In each of the first three Gospels the Lord's entry into Jerusalem, and the miracle by which sight is given to the blind man, introduces the closing events that lead to His death and resurrection. His life upon earth as the Son of Man who came to minister in lowly grace is finished. Now He presents Himself to Jerusalem as the Son of David — the promised Messiah. His rejection as the perfect Servant of Jehovah is followed by His rejection as the Son of David, and both prepare the way for His yet greater service of giving His life as a ransom for many as the Son of Man.

True greatness consists in being servant of all, the power for which is in the Lord Jesus Himself, who as in all else was the perfect example of it in a life of service to others. "Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, but it shall not be so among you, but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your servant. Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to minister, to give His life a ransom for many," Matthew 20:25-28.

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 apostles by grace were enabled to make His bondman character their own. O what a contrast with His servants too soon, and ever since, especially with such as claimed to have the succession, though by no means confined to them! It is no doubt a hollow name of pride where taken up in word only; but what is comparable with it when in power? To be somebody is the desire of fallen man, the world's spirit; to give up all in love and obedience is Christ's, who alone really had all things. It is our pattern now. Greatness according to Him is to be a true servant; and to be chief is to be a slave, as He became, who not only served every need, but gave His life a ransom for many, His peculiar glory.

271 In the world this kind of greatness was doubtless met with everywhere; but this was not Christianity. He who seeks to be great, and to take the lead among Christians, has entirely falsified the Christian character. He will be the last of all; and the true way of having the highest place is to serve, considering oneself as the slave of the wants of other disciples. It was so that Jesus had done; He was not come to be ministered to in this world but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many. A lesson simple and clear indeed, but of all importance! The seeking for personal exaltation is only the selfishness of the flesh, the spirit of the world which is enmity against God. Love delights to serve - this is what Christ did; pride and selfishness love to be served, and to take precedence of others.

What a contrast to turn from all this to the spirit of our blessed Lord, who said when here on earth, “I am among you as He that serves” (Luke 22:27); who declared, “I am meek and lowly in heart” (Matt. 11:29); who stooped in lowly grace to wash the feet of His disciples (John 13:3-10). When the disciples of our Lord quarrelled among themselves as to who should be the greatest, our Lord rebuked them, and showed them where true greatness was to be found. “It shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant. Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered to, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:26-28). The Scriptural way to be divinely great is to be little in one’s own eyes, and to have the grace of humility. “Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:4).

His answer appears to be two-fold. First, the only way that leads to real greatness is one that goes to the bottom as servant to all. This being so, we can see how the Lord Jesus is pre-eminent even apart from His Deity. In manhood He has taken the lowest place, and become Servant to all in a way that is infinitely beyond the service of all others. The one most like Him is likely to be first.