On the second Sunday in January, I got to share the following message with some of our families and staff at Sunshine. This is the first part of the message...
Jesus Part 2: Servant & Savior
Matthew 20:18 ...the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.
I.Jesus came to Serve
(1) Children
Background:
-Children were people of no social status. In other words, they were socially powerless and dependent.
-There was a high infant mortality rate. One scholar recorded that only half of all children lived beyond the age of 8. Poorer Gentile families often discarded babies if they felt that they couldn’t afford them. They would simply place them out with the trash to be taken to the dump. It was not uncommon for such children to be taken home by the worst kind of people, who molested the children, sold them into prostitution, or forced them into slavery.
But Jesus...
-Jesus treated children differently. He valued them. He welcomed them.
-Even Jesus’ birth was significant in this. He came as a child. He was born into poverty to a young mother. He was seen by many children in tragic circumstances as giving them both dignity and hope. As Marc Driscoll states, “By coming as a child, Jesus honored childhood.”
-Children were the recipients of Jesus’ miracles – Matthew 9:23-25; Matthew 14:21; Matthew 17:14-18.
-Jesus spoke of the importance of both having the humility and faith of a child in Matthew 7:11; Matthew 11:25;Matthew 18:1-4.
Luke 18:15-16 Now they were bringing even infants to Him that He might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to Him saying, "Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God."
(2) Lepers
Background:
-Lepers were those who suffered from various skin diseases.
-They were not only sick and dying, but they were the outcasts of society.
-Leprosy made a person ceremonially unclean and thus excluding him from communal life (Lev. 13:46).
-They were looked down upon, abandoned, and socially isolated.
But Jesus…
“Jesus not only met their need for physical healing, but reached out His hand and touched them, giving them their first human contact in years.” - Tim Keller in Generous Justice
-In other accounts throughout the gospels Jesus can be seen eating in the home of a Leper, in fact is even mentions that he touched lepers, something that you just didn’t do because touching a leper made a person ceremonially unclean (Lev. 15:7).
-In Luke 7 and Matthew 11:4-6 – Cleansing lepers is noted as part of Jesus’ ministry
-In Matthew 8, Mark 1, and Luke 5 – Jesus heals a man with leprosy and touches him.
-In Matthew 10:7-9 – when he sent His disciples out, He told them to heal/cleanse lepers.
(3) Tax Collectors
Background...
-Tax collectors were employees of the Roman Government. The Roman government was brutally oppressive and known for corruption and excessive greed and injustice.
-Tax collectors were bitterly hated by their own countrymen and regarded as little more than traitors.
-They taxed people excessively and kept many people living impoverished while they lived well and passed part of their profits back to the Roman government.
But Jesus…
-Jesus chose a tax collector, Matthew to be one of His disciples. Jesus visited the tax collector Zacchaeus in Luke 19 and ate with him in his home.
-Jesus was criticized by the religious leaders of His day because He ate with tax collectors and sinners - Matthew 9:10-12.
The “Table Fellowship” of Jesus: Jesus intentionally reached out broadly to all He encountered, inviting them to participate in the life of his “congregation” of followers. This is most apparent in what scholars have called his “table fellowship.” Table fellowship symbolized those you found to be worthy of inclusion in your social circle. Whom you ate with made a statement about who where your friends. The Pharisees were considered a “table fellowship sect.” They used table fellowship to maintain the purity of their nation as well as to model what they believed should be the exclusive ethnocentric identity of Israel. Jesus disturbed and disrupted religious leaders of his time because he used table fellowship to model what he believed was the future of God’s people (and who were included in that group). -United By Faith pg 16
(4) Women
Background...
-In many ancient cultures women were essentially regarded as property of their husband.
-Women were generally omitted from theological instruction.
-Women’s testimony in court was not accepted/admissible.
-Women were not to be spoken to in public.
-Jewish men had a practice of praying and thanking God that they weren’t a Gentile and that they weren’t a woman.
But Jesus…
-He often challenged social taboos regarding women and in so doing honored them.
-Some of Jesus followers and supporters were women - Luke 8:1-3
-Jesus allowed Himself to be anointed by a sinful woman – Luke 7:36-50
-He used women as examples of persistent faith and radical generosity (Luke 18:1-5; Luke 21:1-4).
-He visited the home of Mary and Martha and spent time with them – Luke 10:38-42.
-Jesus appeared to women first after His resurrection – John 20:11-18.
In John 4:4-26 Jesus intentionally had a conversation with a Samaritan woman who was caught up in an immoral lifestyle.
(5) Samaritans
Background:
-Jews often avoided Samaria by crossing the Jordan and travelling on it’s eastern side.
-Jews did not associate with Samaritans, they despised Samaritans.
-The normal prejudices of the day prohibited public conversation between Jews and Samaritans.
-The Jews held that Samaritan women were unclean from birth.
But Jesus…
-He approached the Samaritan woman in John 4 in humility, spoke with her, and told her of the living water that He had to offer her.
-In the Parable of the Good Samaritan found in Luke chapter 10, Jesus made the Samaritan the "hero" of the story, and exhorted others to follow his example (Go and do likewise!).
As followers of Christ, we need to really think about the example of Jesus in how He loved and served others (1 John 2:6 on em!).
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