The Servant Son

Dear Friends,

“Behold My Servant whom I uphold, My chosen one in whom my soul delights.” With these words in Isaiah Chapter 42 God proclaims a prophetic vision of His Son Jesus.  These are not words of a disappointed father over a lowly servant son. In this verse, the Father is shouting words of satisfaction and pleasure over His son. Being a servant did not lessen the Father’s joy; He delighted in His son’s occupation.

Jesus was both Son and servant. However, he did not live the life of a privileged son. He lived and died as a servant. In Luke Chapter 4 Jesus faces three temptations. Two of these temptations directly taunt Jesus to prove His sonship and the third asks Jesus to serve another.  Jesus refuses. He is committed to being a servant even if He starves to death. He has adamantly laid down the garment of His authority and privilege as God’s son and has taken up the humble garment of a servant. The apostle Paul says this about Jesus’ decision to be a servant in Philippians Chapter 2 Verses 5-9.

5Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,

 6who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,

 7but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men.

 8Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

 9For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name…

 

We too are to take up the very nature of a servant. If we have asked Jesus into our hearts, He would have us be servants. Now, by His Spirit, we are asked to lay aside our robes as adopted children of God and take up the garment of a servant. This is to be our identification as God’s children. As we travel along this servant’s path it will become very clear that being a servant is eschatological. Being a servant is both now and future. We are being readied for our new heavenly home. The path of a servant will take our hearts to a place of humility, truth, compassion, and courage. As we journey, we will reap the everlasting rewards of faith, hope, and love.

 

Your Brother in Christ,

 

DFCutler