Jesus said to his disciples,"For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves" (Luke 22:27)
When banquets are held for special people - people who have done work worthy of honor - you'll usually find them seated in the front at the reserved table, waiting to be served. Guests may even find it appropriate to approach the table and greet the honoree. We make sure the person it served first, gets the first chance to speak and maybe even has others speak on his behalf. When it comes to honoring people, we're pretty good at it.
For just a moment this morning, reflect on the fact that at the dinner table of life, it is Jesus who is serving us. Oh, and what a main course He's prepared. Imagine Jesus, after all He has done, after all you've done to Him, serving you the best meal of your life and then just to take things a little further begins to wash your feet. Is your response like Peter, who felt entirely unworthy to let Jesus do this? I'm not sayiing thats the right or wrong response but I imagine my response would be similar. So as Christ followers, or better yet Christ imitators, should it be us who serves others unconditionally? who considers others as better than ourselves? (Philippians 2:3....again). The best servers are the ones who can serve you suffieciently, recognize what you need and cater to that need quickly, be polite, be genuine, pay attention, and do all of this without hardly being noticed. Are we willing to take no credit, humble ourselves & serve other people (especially non-believers)?
We must lose the attitude that we're here to always receive something. We go to church to receive a blessing but how often do we go to be a blessing? Some have been convinced to focus their energy on the fact that "this is their season" or "this is their breakthrough" and I don't know, maybe it is, but see where the focus is?
The world is at the dinner table and we've been delivered the Main Course, now we just have to serve it to them.
