Lead by Serving

Then he said, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You address me as ‘Teacher’ and ‘Master,’ and rightly so. That is what I am. So if I, the Master and Teacher, washed your feet, you must now wash each other’s feet. I’ve laid down a pattern for you. What I’ve done, you do. I’m only pointing out the obvious. A servant is not ranked above his master; an employee doesn’t give orders to the employer. If you understand what I’m telling you, act like it—and live a blessed life.
(John’s Gospel Account 13:12b-17 MSG)

In this case, I like the Message Bible translation because it correctly uses the word “Master.” The King James Version does also, but I like this passage in modern English even though it is heavily paraphrased. The English Standard Version translation for John 13:12-17 uses the word “Lord.” I think a lot of the significance of what Jesus was saying is lost if we fail to use the word “Master.”

[SIDENOTE] At this point, I would like to invite you to experiment with different Bible translations—simply to see the differences for yourself. I often switch from one Bible translation to another simply to see what a different translator thought of a particular passage. Sometimes there’s discrepancies, but other times the verses read almost identical. Pray for discernment to understand what the author was trying to say in the original language to the original audience he was writing to at the time it was written.

Who was Jesus Talking to?

He was talking to his disciples—who were his students—since he was their teacher. But he was also their Lord and Master—so couldn’t his disciples also be called his subjects? With respect to Jesus’ title of Lord and Master—in addition to being their Teacher—these disciples were also servants, and can also be known as willing bond-servants or voluntary slaves with whom Jesus had authority over as their Messiah, their Master, and their Teacher.

[SIDENOTE] The position of Messiah was prophesied in Isaiah 42:1; 61:1-3 to be anointed by the Spirit of God for the combined positions of prophet, priest, and king—although this is not specified and likely confused a lot of people later. This expected deliverer is God’s chosen one—and probably where “The Chosen” series got its name. The positions of prophet, priest, and king are usually held by separate people in the Old Testament. The word “servant” is used in Isaiah 42:1 and is NOT taken to also mean bond-servant like it does in John 13:16. When Jesus is called God’s servant, this is a humble position of honor, signifying nobility.

Jesus was not asking us to wash everyone’s feet. He was asking us to wash the feet of our fellow disciples, our fellow believers in Christ. He was not asking us to seek authority over one another through the attainment of some leadership position. He was asking us to serve our brothers submissively. Authority through servitude, not fiat. The highest station in life we should aim to hold should be at the feet of our brothers in willing servitude. The church would work very well if we all did this—but it is a system that can fall apart when some brothers pridefully refuse to wash the feet of another brother. It takes practice to become humble. Each of us can only focus on doing our own part—let other disciples use the examples we set as a guide for how they can serve. If we all responsibly did our parts to serve one another, it would certainly be beautiful.

“The highest station in life we should aim to hold should be at the feet of our brothers in willing servitude.“

Every Master Needs a Slave

I think I need to understand Jesus’ role as being Master over me in order to understand my role as willful slave to him. When I think of Master in this translation, it clarifies for me something that the ESV version seems to lose. ESV uses the word Lord, which is a great word if you understand what it means. But we don’t have Lords in America today—and a Master is found typically in martial arts or something else designating the highest level of specialization (such as a Master tradesman). So even this translation can lose some of its meaning for certain readers, because those who carry the title master today—at least in America—use that title to signify mastery over a skill set, not people. If you were trying to learn a skill set from a person, you would definitely do well to mimic a master at that skill. That’s how we learn. So this first understanding of the word master is only grasped after knowing WHAT they are a master of.

Another meaning for the word master is someone who is in charge of another person absolutely. That other person is called a servant, bond-servant, or slave. Their master owns them and expects them to do all that they command. It does not matter whether that person wants to do what is commanded of them. They can not pick and choose which commands they would like to follow—for example, follow only orders that please them while ignoring the orders they do not like. Bond-servants need to do whatever a master commands them to do or there will be consequences—usually severe. Their master received this control over them because a debt was owed or they were bought. A person can willfully choose to be a bond-servant to pay off a debt or to remain loyal to a household they revered. When those types of bond-servants were done paying off their debt, they could go free. Other bond-servants were actually just slaves who were either bought or born into subservience. Those slaves had no rights and served at the will of their master, likely until death. Thus, this second understanding of the word master is fully grasped only after knowing WHO they are a master of.

Master of Serving God & Master of Me

I think Jesus is our Master in both usages of that word. First, he has mastered the skill of serving God, since he is God incarnate—and his service to God is far beyond anything the world has ever seen or will ever see again. If we want to mimic his mastery, we need to follow him because he knows something that we should earnestly desire to learn. Second, Jesus has also paid for us by dying on the cross after commanding us to wash each other’s feet. We owe him allegiance through unwavering servitude because the love he showed us came before the love we now reciprocate to him. He loves us while we are still sinners, and he paid for us. He paid dearly with his life. We are bought by Jesus and he is our bondholder. We owe him everything, but he’s not forcing us to pay—even though it is his right to do so as our Master. He’s allowing each of us to choose eternal life or eternal damnation. Jesus is our Master in every sense of the word. We are his students.

“We are bought by Jesus and he is our bondholder.“

Modern Westerners may not comprehend—or at least truly accept—what it means to serve someone else absolutely. When we think of a servant, we may think of a butler in a rich person’s home—someone who voluntarily serves at the behest of another. They keep the house in order, greet visitors at the door, and fetch things like the newspaper or a beverage whenever the master beckons them. But since many of us are not that wealthy, even this understanding of servant is distant to us. Maybe we can look at the service industry to figure out what a servant is. A waiter is someone who takes an order, brings coffee, brings out the food, and then processes the payment. They are employed by the restaurant establishment to be a servant to their patrons. Both of these servants—the butler and the waiter—are getting paid to do a job. They could quit—and often do quit—if they don’t like the job.

A Closer Look at Bond-Servant

Let us revisit the word bond-servant. What is that? Instead of simply using it synonymously with slave, it should be reviewed on its own merit. It sounds like someone who serves another to repay a debt. After the debt has been paid, then they are free from serving them. What happens today when a person cannot pay back what is owed? In America, people declare bankruptcy to absolve themselves of paying back debt—often paying back much less than what is owed or nothing at all. That is nothing like how debts were handled in the 1st century—but we’ll get to that. In America today, a bank who holds the title to a person’s house (until the mortgage is paid off) would be the bondholder. The debt would be paid down until the bank was satisfied and then they would release the title, essentially releasing the mortgager from serving them. How did the mortgager serve them? In any way and by any means necessary. Many people will do whatever it takes and do whatever job they could find to pay off that debt. The jobs done to pay off this tremendous debt may even be undesirable jobs—things no one would choose to do. Simply put, a person with a big mortgage will work their butt off because they have to or they would be homeless.

Now let us pretend we live in the 1st century AD. There were no bankruptcy courts or foreclosure laws back then. If we owed someone a debt, the only way we could be free from it would be to pay them off with our labor. We willingly enslaved ourselves to another person with the hope that eventually we would absolve ourself of the debt that was owed and eventually be free to do as we please. If we tried to run from our debt, we would be hunted down and killed. Many times it was understood the debt would never be paid off, so the willing enslavement was simply a nuance.

What It Meant To Be A Slave

A slave was property, often bought and would never receive freedom from their master. They would live and die as a slave. They could be treated very well depending on who their master was and what skills they had to offer—like writing or teaching or cooking. Often though, the life of a slave was grueling labor with non-stop, back-breaking work. If a slave tried to escape, they would be hunted down and killed. There are slight differences to being a slave versus being a bond-servant. Willful subservience versus forced servitude could probably sum it up.

So, if we are to be slaves to Christ we should be bond-servants. He paid a debt we owed to God our Father, so now we owe Jesus a debt of gratitude—one that we feel we owe, but in actuality Jesus paid everything for us and we owe nothing. How can you pay back someone’s love for you? But this was not unconditional love. This was love exampled for us by Christ in his death and resurrection to show us how we should love God—with an obedient willingness to die for him. This also shows us how we should love one another as we love ourselves by serving one another. Jesus exampled one way to do this by washing the feet of his disciples. Our master was not giving a suggestion—he was giving his bond-servants a command. We are bond-servants because we choose to serve Jesus due to the debt he paid for us. If we stop serving him, we won’t be hunted down and killed, but when we do eventually die, we will be judged.

“How can you pay back someone’s love for you?“

The Chosen Chose Us

We are all slaves to sin whether we choose to be or not. We serve a different master through the sinful things we do. We are not all slaves to Jesus Christ. We can choose to be slaves to Christ by doing what is righteous in his eyes—and if you want to get technical, we could actually be described as willful bond-servants. We are not slaves to Christ because he forces us to serve him. Jesus does not do this. We have the choice to either serve him or reject him. Jesus led by example. He wants us to lead others the way that he has led us: through serving one another. I choose to wash the feet of my fellow bond servants. What does that mean? I think it means that my role towards other Christians should be to serve and not expect to be served. That is how we are to lead.

“He wants us to lead others the way that he has led us: through serving one another.“