The beginnings of servant ministry

In Jesus' day, the role of servant had as its central feature the setting aside of autonomy. In most cases the loss of personal autonomy was not a voluntary thing - a person was born into it or forced into it. Regardless of how the servant became a servant, the servant's first duty and the first thought of the day was about himself but about her master. The servant's well-being did not exist apart from that of his master. This situation differs greatly from our dominant cultural understanding where individualism is the norm. 

On the other hand, we often enter relationships in which we yield out individualistic desires. Marriage is one; and so is parenthood. In these relationships, we perform many tasks and live out attitudes we would do for many others we encounter. We do them out of love. When individualism infects these relationships (selfishness, self-centeredness) they begin to disintegrate. In short, love makes us servants of those we love. Almost everyone experiences this kind of living in a spirit of joy. 

There is something in most people that wants the barriers involved with self-interest to fall away-at least in limited form. If this kind of love leads to a form of servanthood rooted in Christ, how joyful we might become as we extend ourselves not only to our immediate family, but the members of our faith family and eventually to the world!